Cons
- Inconsistent battery life doesn't impress day-to-day
- Innaccurate display colours
Key Features
- 5.5-inch 1080p Super AMOLED screen
- 6GB dual-channel DDR4 RAM
- 64GB storage
- Android 6.0.1
- OxygenUI
- Snadragon 820 CPU
- Manufacturer: OnePlus
- Review Price: £329.00
I`ve been using the OnePlus 3 as my
main phone for three months now, and while the original review below
discusses some of the finer points of the OnePlus, my thoughts here
reflect long-term, daily use.
The first thing I did with the OnePlus 3 was stick it in a case: I didn’t want a repeat of the mess I made of the metal-backed HTC One M8, which ended its life on eBay as a scratched-up mess with a cracked secondary camera lens. The OnePlus-made carbon-fibre-style case was my preferred choice, since it looks superb and adds hardly any weight or bulk.
The first thing I did with the OnePlus 3 was stick it in a case: I didn’t want a repeat of the mess I made of the metal-backed HTC One M8, which ended its life on eBay as a scratched-up mess with a cracked secondary camera lens. The OnePlus-made carbon-fibre-style case was my preferred choice, since it looks superb and adds hardly any weight or bulk.
The best thing about the OnePlus, for
me, is the camera. It’s fast and takes lovely photos both of faces and
panoramas. After my primary camera broke on the first day of a two-week
holiday, the OnePlus became my go-to snapper and took some truly
excellent shots, particularly in HDR mode.
It was on holiday where I also discovered some serious problems with battery life management. Since the majority of my holiday was spent away from Wi-Fi networks, and I didn’t have any need to use mobile data, I set the OnePlus to Airplane Mode. For whatever reason, this set in motion a serious system resources problem that caused the phone to heat up and the battery to drain at a ridiculous rate.
I never got to the bottom of the issue, but what I do know is that isn’t something that’s unique to my device. There were some reports of a similar problem with the OnePlus 2. It didn’t happen every time the phone went into Airplane Mode, but it was frequent enough to be a serious problem.
When not burning itself out, I’ve found the OnePlus 3’s battery to be a little disappointing. If I use it for my hour-long commute, I’ll definitely need to charge it at work – or risk it running flat before the end of the day. If I use it more lightly, checking it only periodically throughout the workday and using it more heavily at home, it is possible to get to the end of the day without issue. Either way, this is a phone I have to charge at least once per day. This is somewhat made up for by the fact that it charges super-fast.
Elsewhere, I’ve been impressed by the phone’s overall performance, and while its 6GB of RAM never seems to be full, I did find I could keep more apps open at a time without them being killed by Android.
The OnePlus 3 is the best phone I’ve used in years, especially if you consider the price. My biggest bugbear is battery life, but I can just about live with it.
It was on holiday where I also discovered some serious problems with battery life management. Since the majority of my holiday was spent away from Wi-Fi networks, and I didn’t have any need to use mobile data, I set the OnePlus to Airplane Mode. For whatever reason, this set in motion a serious system resources problem that caused the phone to heat up and the battery to drain at a ridiculous rate.
I never got to the bottom of the issue, but what I do know is that isn’t something that’s unique to my device. There were some reports of a similar problem with the OnePlus 2. It didn’t happen every time the phone went into Airplane Mode, but it was frequent enough to be a serious problem.
When not burning itself out, I’ve found the OnePlus 3’s battery to be a little disappointing. If I use it for my hour-long commute, I’ll definitely need to charge it at work – or risk it running flat before the end of the day. If I use it more lightly, checking it only periodically throughout the workday and using it more heavily at home, it is possible to get to the end of the day without issue. Either way, this is a phone I have to charge at least once per day. This is somewhat made up for by the fact that it charges super-fast.
Elsewhere, I’ve been impressed by the phone’s overall performance, and while its 6GB of RAM never seems to be full, I did find I could keep more apps open at a time without them being killed by Android.
The OnePlus 3 is the best phone I’ve used in years, especially if you consider the price. My biggest bugbear is battery life, but I can just about live with it.