OnePlus had launched a smartphone last year called the OnePlus 3. It was the third iteration of the OnePlus flagship smartphone lineup, dubbed as the ‘flagship killer’. We awarded OnePlus 3 with a title of ‘smartphone of the year 2016’. I personally loved it. Been a OnePlus One user myself for two years, I had got my trust in the company and their mission to produce flagship killer smartphones. OnePlus 2 honestly couldn’t live up to its hype but OnePlus did what they could with the OnePlus 3.
OnePlus 3 was a big hit globally. With the launch of most awaited phone from Google, Pixel it was quite clear that OnePlus 3 was a perfect value of money device. But with the availability of better specifications this also made it vulnerable to a slight possibility of getting obsolete soon. This could have been an opportunity for any other smartphone manufacturer to launch a smartphone in the same price range with maybe if possible a better design and improved specification set. India being a very sensitive market, might have forgotten OnePlus 3, but OnePlus didn’t let this happen. They relaunched the handset within a period of 6 months making it even better accommodating what could have been its shortcomings in the future.
With the same awesome ergonomic design, OnePlus 3T was announced late in 2016 towards the year-end. The best thing was availability of 128GB storage variant, although I believe 64GB is nothing less but why settle, eh?
OnePlus 3T vs OnePlus 3
OnePlus 3T looks identical to the OnePlus 3 with exact same dimensions and weight. If you are struggling to find differences between the two, here is a list below:
- Snapdragon 821 vs Snapdragon 820 chipset
- 3400mAh vs 3000 mAh battery
- 16 MP vs 8MP front-camera
- Gunmetal Grey vs Graphite
Snapdragon 821 is an iteration to Snapdragon 820 which powers the OnePlus 3. You can check out the comparison here on Qualcomm’s website – https://www.qualcomm.com/products/snapdragon/processors/comparison
Not much apart from the clock speed and battery efficiency.
This was one good reason to prove an upgrade. With the same build, OnePlus stacked 400mAh more battery with the awesome Dash charging tech. It is a pleasure to use a smartphone with Dash charging tech. I charge my iPhone 6s twice a day and OnePlus 3T though needs a single charge 1 hour 31 mins in the morning to run through the entire daytime. Even if there is heavy usage at times, Dash charging makes it fairly easy for a comeback in no time. So love it.
Asking a non-selfie enthusiast, meh it won’t even matter. But for people out there who are crazy about selfies you got a better cam. The results have less noise, more details and natural colors apart from the obvious upgrade in resolution.
I personally believe, this choice of Gunmetal Grey as compared to Graphite is more subtle. Gunmetal Grey is more towards a darker shade which is less bright and looks better. What do you think?
Specifications at a glance
- 5.5-inch Full HD Optic AMOLED display | 2.5D | Corning Gorilla Glass 4
- 2.35GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 821 64-bit processor | Adreno 530 GPU
- 6GB RAM, 64GB / 128GB (UFS 2.0) internal storage
- Dual nano SIM slots | 4G LTE with VoLTE
- 16-megapixel rear camera | Sony IMX298 sensor | 1.12 micron | f/2.0 | EIS 2.0 | PDAF | OIS
- 16MP front-facing camera | Samsung 3P8SP sensor | 1.0 micron | f/2.0 | PDAF
- 3400mAh battery | Dash Charge | USB Type-C
Running on the latest Android Nougat 7.0 codebase on their homegrown Oxygen OS 4.0.3, OnePlus tries to keep it as stock as possible adding little nifty add ons which are highly appreciated.
Should you upgrade?
OnePlus created the best value for money device in 2016 and made it obsolete in 2016 itself. Probably the shortest duration for a ‘flagship killer’ device. They had to retire the OnePlus 3 because there was no point keeping the same identical product which with a marginal difference in price, unlike iPhone.
Well, for others if we may say, OnePlus 3T is an awesome buy. One of the few smartphones to have 6GB RAM and a powerful Snapdragon 821 chipset, it is a go-to recommended product fit for anyone who is looking for a high-end smartphone in this price segment. Yes, we have better cameras out there, much better than OnePlus 3T’s to be honest but they all will cost around 50k. OnePlus 3 users need not to worry because it is no way leap ahead of your beloved smartphone. You can plain ignore this if you want and can trust OnePlus for the updates and support you might need in the future until its worthy EOL.
One thing which annoys me at times is its loudspeaker. This was a problem with both OnePlus 3 and 3T that until the volume bar hits full the audio output isn’t loud enough. It’s not synchronized properly, maybe we have a bug that needs to be fixed in upcoming software updates. Although 1080p has got it right with AMOLED panel, we would love to see at least a 2k display in the next OnePlus flagship.
What makes OnePlus 3T again a value for money device is that it packs so much and still doesn’t cost a bomb. There are points to be criticised because nothing is perfect in this world, but it is worthy of what it provides.
I have been using this smartphone for the past two months and the experience has been quite satisfying. I never felt I am losing out anything with whatever new is coming around. It is clearly ahead of the competition at this price point. The 64GB variant costs ₹29,999 which clearly takes on above 25k to 30k market share and the 128GB model costs ₹34,999 which gets 30k to 35k INR price market.
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