OnePlus 3: The Prodigal Son Returns

OnePlus 3 is here, and it is giving many OEMs sleepless nights

When OnePlus first landed in the market few years ago, it was a total newcomer: no prior reputation, no baggage of catering to a certain set of audience and no pressure of expectation.

They started out as a breath of fresh air with an innovative approach to marketing and consumer interaction, an intriguing distribution model, and a handset with a relatively low price combined with decent specs. Like a predator they had smartly gauged the market for weaknesses and angles of attack. Every thing was purposeful and strategic.

Now, at the launch of OnePlus 3 one can make out, it’s their first proper foray at gaining a seat at the big boys’ table. But… how does their attempt fare?

Pretty darn well.

For starters, the annoying invite system is gone: the limited number, invite-only distribution model has served it’s purpose; and OnePlus realises that it’s best not to overdo it. Now, their supply chain too, is upto speed, and OnePlus’ management has found their feet and their confidence in the ability to attract customers, despite their product’s ‘affordable’ price tags.

“The invite system has a special place in our history”, said OnePlus on its official blog. “When we first started out, our team was incredibly small. We had no idea what the demand of the OnePlus One would look like. We also weren’t fans of flash sales, where there’s a risk of everything selling out immediately, forcing fans to wait indefinitely. To address this, we designed the invite system to give customers a chance to purchase a phone as soon as we had inventory ready”.

“With the OnePlus 3” OnePlus added, “we’re officially saying goodbye to invites. It’s a big step for us as a company, our fans, and fellow tech enthusiasts. After sending out millions of invites over the past two years, it’s hard to not think back to the early days and how far we’ve come. We’re proud to have reached a point where we feel confident in making our new device available without invites from day one.”

OnePlus has also dialled up on its spec-to-price ratio offering a metal-build, premium-grade, and flagship-level spec smartphone at a mid-range price point — a mere INR 26,000!

Here are some of the specifications that the new flagship from OnePlus bears:

• 2 Ghz Snapdragon 820 processor
• 6 GB RAM
• 5-inch 1080p ‘Optic’ AMOLED screen
• 3 mm thickness
• 16 megapixel f/2.0 rear camera with optical image stabilization, 8 megapixel front camera
• Dual SIM cards
• 3,000 mAh battery with proprietary quick-charge technology (60% charge in 30 minutes)

In most departments it is comparable with the likes of HTC 10 and Samsung Galaxy S7, one might even be tempted to say in some, it is ever so slightly trumps them too!

The move from Snapdragon 810 to 820 will certainly improve performance, especially when you consider the app detection that OnePlus was doing which crippled web performance on the OnePlus 2.

The use of 6 GB RAM, while appreciable, is difficult to fathom at the same time since the device won’t be using a astronomically high number of apps at any given moment during daily usage to warrant a 6 GB resident memory usage. Bear in mind, that there is an energy cost to adding more RAM as each memory cell has to be periodically refreshed to maintain data integrity.

The 1080p display means that it is more than a few pixels short to be be cohesive with Google’s Daydream VR platform but the relevance of that is restricted at least until next year.
OnePlus 3 will run on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow-based OxygenOS out-of-the-box and comes with LTE support.

For the cameras, OnePlus has gone back to Sony sensors.

One distinctly identifiable trait that the users will find is that on the exterior design front OnePlus has moved to an aluminum unibody design. In doing so they’ve addressed pretty much all of the more vocally called out issues with the OnePlus 2. Starting with the back of the device, you no longer have the sandstone finish.
The OnePlus 3 feels like a much more premium buy, particularly because there are no longer three distinct sections of the phone that all have seams and gaps between one another.

It features a USB Type C charging port, as well as a fingerprint reader located in the physical home button on the phone’s front. The device is available in Graphite and Soft Gold colours.

The best thing (for the company that is) perhaps, is that there seems to be a back track on the hyperbole.

The device that released on 15th June last month is no longer claiming to be a ‘flagship beater’ like its sibling OnePlus 2 did. Instead its in the market to compete.

And there’s a lot to love, the price is right and the invite system finally gone for good — OnePlus might finally be that politician coming good on their promises, at least in this essay.

Originally published at Chip-Monks.