OnePlus held their VR launch for the One Plus 3 overnight, and overall the OnePlus 3 looks from a design and specs perspective to be a decent performer, with a 5.5″ FHD AMOLED display, Snapdragon 820, 6GB ( yes 6) of RAM and 64GB of storage. The OnePlus is getting closer to the promise of no compromises that it originally launched with.
Rounding out the specs is a 3000 mAh battery, USB C, a proprietary fast charging solution dubbed “Dash Charge”, 16 MP 1.12 micron f/2.0 rear camera and an 8 MP 1.4 micron f/2.0 front shooter, Bluetooth 4.2 and all the Wi-Fi you want. At launch, there are 3 SKUs covering the USA, China, and international markets, and unfortunately, international in this case seems to mean Asia and Europe, as not all Australia LTE bands have made it into any SKU.
What’s missing? LTE Band 28, the 700 MHz spectrum reclaimed from the old analogy TV network and now used as an essential component of Telstra’s and Optus’s next generation LTE networks.
| Oneplus 3 LTE spectrum | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Band | Telstra | Optus | Vodafone |
| 1 | Used | Used | not used |
| 3 | Used | Used | Used |
| 5 | Not used | Not Used | Used |
| 7 | Used | Used | Not used |
| 28 | Missing | Missing | Not used |
| 40 | Not used | Used | Not Used |
As you can see if you’re a Vodafone customer, or you know you don’t access a Band 28 network, then the OnePlus 3 may be suitable for you.
The charging platform for the ‘3 is interesting. OnePlus have taken advantage of the higher power capacity of USB C and supplied a 5V 4 amp charger, in comparison the Nexus 6P has a 5V 3 Amp rating. From watching OnePlu’s marketing material however you’ll be restricted to using their chargers to achieve these speeds.
Unlike standards like Quick Charge, or the more typical 5V 3 Amp implementation OnePlus have put part of the charging smarts into the brick and unless they open up those standards and people actually build to them, welcome to accessory lock in. That said it will charge from any USB charger if you have the right cables, you just won’t get the faster speeds.
One feature we are fond of is the Alert Slider. OnePlus has kept their hardware notification slider for selecting between All, silent (hooray) and priority modes. I miss easy access to a silent mode and would almost, almost, switch to a OnePlus to get it back.From a software perspective, Oxygen OS is making a return and looks to be a clean and minimal implementation of Android Marshmallow. The key will be how often OnePlus pushes security updates to its users.
Check out the OnePlus 3 announcement video below.
So you want to order one? Ok, there’s not silly pre-ordering system this year, now you have a silly VR ordering system. For the initial time at least the only way to order a 3 is to watch the interactive ‘VR Loop’ experience’, found here, get to the end and interact with their VR marketplace to buy the phone. At present only the Graphite model is available for 399 pounds or about $800 AUD 399 Euro or about $610 AUD before shipping or other importing costs.
We have reached out to OnePlus to ask about direct marketing in Australia, however, based on previous years if you want one start looking off shore or to local importers.
How does the OnePlus 3 look to you? Weight in below.
