OnePlus3: Now swift and soft in gold

When OnePlus, makers of the ‘Never Settle’ phone, gave me the OnePlus 3 for a second look because it was now in ‘soft gold’ I was not sure what I could now say about a phone launched back in June. They sent the device nonetheless and once I began using it I was glad of the experience and a reminder of what that device is like.

The OnePlus was originally positioned as the indomitable flagship killer that gave you much of what the cream-of-the-crust smartphones did at half the cost. It did not manage on all counts, but it did on enough to build up a cult following, mostly of ‘geeks’ who were tech savvy enough to know what to do with this phone. But the device had its own niggling problems and in any case action shifted to the budget section of the market when the Chinese brigade began to bring in phones half the price of the OnePlus until one did not have to settle for that either.

Recently, there has been another little shift with the ₹20,000 to ₹30,000 segment waking up after being near-dormant. Really nice looking phones, like the Honor 8, have just begun to be available and they compete for attention with the OnePlus 3. There are others: the Moto X Force and X Style and Turbo, the Zenfone 3 from Asus, Samsung’s A9 Pro and A7, LeEco LeMax2 (yes, what a name) and several older models that now have a price drop. The OnePlus 3 is giving many of these a run for their money — and with good reason.

Gold or not and soft or not, the colour on the newly available version of the OnePlus 3 does little to move my needle, as it were. It is nice enough though the graphite in which it has been available until now suits the phone’s brand personality more. But the phone’s performance certainly does impress.

Let us revisit the mammoth amount of RAM this device has. A whole 6GB. Raw RAM, poorly managed, is not enough to make a smartphone perform well. OnePlus has managed to fine tune this specification to make sure that combined with the Snapdragon 820 chipset, works very snappily indeed. It has 64GB of storage space – though no memory card expansion – and runs on the frequently updated Oxygen OS 3.2.7 on top of Android 6.0.1. The package works so well it beats many of the most expensive phones at benchmark scores. In real life usage too, Its smooth snappiness is evident. The interface used does not get in the way and slow it down, despite the customisations added. It is mercifully not loaded with ridiculous apps that no one asked for.

The OnePlus 3 has one of the fastest fingerprint sensors in town. And speedy navigation across the device. The camera is pretty good where most non-flagships struggle, at least until recently. While other phones in the same price often beat it in design and even battery life, the OnePlus 3 is almost futureproof because of its performance. For the next several months, buying the OnePlus 3 is not going to feel like picking up an older phone which is why I find myself recommending it quite frequently to those asking for a phone in the ₹20,000 to ₹30,000 category.

The one problem OnePlus phones have had is stocks, leading to that invitation buying system that has truly frustrated those looking to pick up the phone. Meanwhile there are rumours that the OnePlus 3 has a 3S version coming up which moves up to Snapdragon 821 and adds Google’s Daydream capability, making it VR ready. Now that would make it really future proof.

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