The Flagship Killer Review: OnePlus 3

OnePlus made a name for itself with OnePlus One. But the much hyped OnePlus 2 wasn't perfect. The company seems to have learned from the mistakes in the past and has come up with a truly flagship smartphone, OnePlus 3. Text by Nidhi Singal

In the sea of metal clad handsets moulded in unibody design, the OnePlus 3 rises above all. The company has traded its sandstone rear finish for a metal rear, which resembles HTC flagships yet feels premium. Along with the regular buttons, there is a notification toggle on the left panel, USB Type C port along with audio jack and speaker grill at the bottom. The fingerprint scanner below the display is quick to unlock the device.  It is comfortable to grip with a single hand.

OnePlus hasn't gone ahead with a 2k or 4k display. Instead, it continued with the 5.5inch full HD display (401 ppi pixel density) but with Gorilla Glass 4 protection. The display is good to look at with rich colours, crisp text, wide viewing angles and great sunlight legibility.

OnePlus 3 packs in a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor and is paired with 6GB of RAM (with hardly any use), 64GB of internal storage and Marshmallow based Oxygen OS. The much praised OnePlus One had Cyanogen Mod but the company had to replace it with its own Oxygen OS. The device feels quick with almost everything  - launching apps, switching between running apps, gaming and camera. It scored 140439 marks on AnTuTu Benchmark, which was much higher than the score of 138026 of Xiaomi Mi 5 (with 3GB RAM).

OnePlus continues to pack in a great camera. It has got a 16MP with f/2.0 aperture lens, optical image stabilization and 4K video capability. Swiping a finger toggles between the camera and video mode. The camera is quick to focus and capture images. The results are impressive as they offer great details. Even the low light images are pretty good.

The device packs in a 3000 mAh battery that lasts a day with average use.  Unlike the predecessor, this one doesn't heat up much. In the age of quick charging support, even OnePlus 3 comes with Dash charge technology which claims to charge 60 per cent of the battery in 30 minutes.

The company has done away with the invite system and OnePlus 3 is available for purchase on Amazon India. Priced at Rs 27,999, it competes against the Xiaomi Mi5 and LeEco Max 2. With the current set of specifications and performance, it also comes at half the price of the flagship from Samsung, LG and Sony.