OnePlus 3T is the successor or improved variant of OnePlus 3. This phone has got few upgrades to beat the competition and give users a better phone until the company launches OnePlus 4. OnePlus 3T is a true flagship killer phone for just Rs. 29999. We tested the 128GB variant of OnePlus 3T and here is our detailed review.
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OnePlus 3T Review
Design
The design of the phone is same as its older sibling. It has the same full metal construction with curved back and rounded edges. Even if the phone is built with metal, it is light and feels thinner. It is very comfortable to hold and looks very premium. The latest, 3T model is also available in a darker colour named ‘gunmetal’.
The phone already comes with a screen protector pre-applied. It has the home button below the display that has integrated fingerprint scanner. Two capacitive keys sit either side of the home button. back key is on the left and the Recent Apps key is on the right by default but you have the option to customize it.
There is nothing in the design that makes any wrong impression. It has the power button and SIM card tray at the right side.The volume rocker is at left edge. The buttons feel very tactile and easy to press. Just above the volume rocker, it has useful notification slider to toggle between silent, do not disturb, and full volume options.
At the bottom, it has headphone jack, USB Type C and single speaker unit. The back panel has rear camera at top center with dual LED flash below it.
Display
The display is same as in OnePlus 3. It has the 5.5-inch AMOLED display with 1080p resolution. The display offers rich and vibrant colors. The display is bright enough to give you the comfortable experience in outdoors.
You can also switch to an sRGB color mode in the Display Settings to get more natural and less saturated look.
You also get adaptive display option and night mode. Night mode is the bluelight filter feature to help you in night.
Software
The OnePlus 3T runs on latest Oxygen OS 3.5.1 based on Android 6.0. It gives close to Stock Android experience but with lots of customizations to give you useful features. The good news is that the Android 7.0 upgrade is already available for OnePlus 3T.
Now the Oxygen OS offers built-in night mode, custom accent colors, support for third party icon packs, and the screen-off gestures. The Shelf UI on the home screen now uses white cards instead of black and also includes new “manage center” widget.
OnePlus has also revamped the look of quick settings and you will also see minor differences in buttons and animations.
Oxygen OS is a solid version of Android that offers good user experience and smoother performance.
Performance
OnePlus 3T got the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor clocked at 2.35GHz that is faster than the processor we found in Google Pixel. The phone has 6GB RAM to give you good multitasking. You can have a lot of apps running in the background for the longer time. This phone offers excellent performance. Opening and closing of apps are fast and switching between apps is smooth. Touch response is also excellent.
OnePlus 3T also handles 4K video playback without a single issue. It also rocks benchmarking with high scores.
This phone comes with Adreno 530 graphics processor. I tested the phone with various high-end games and as expected, there are no frame drops. Even if you play the games for the longer time, there is no difference in performance and this phone does not heat as well.
It comes in 64 GB and 128GB storage models. As there is no option to expand storage, you need to choose the storage model wisely.
Camera
The company also upgraded the camera and added a new 16 megapixels camera sensor at front. The phone has 16 megapixels rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, optical image stabilization, and phase detection autofocus.
The default camera app is pretty similar to Google camera with similar modes. You get Manual, Timelapse, Slow motion, and Panorama modes.
The phone captures good photos. Photos are well detailed and crisp with excellent color reproduction. The Auto HDR mode works well. If you want extra sharpening, the HQ mode is also available. I tested the camera in most of the conditions and it never disappointed.
The low-light performance of the camera is also great. Images are not too noisy and give satisfactory results.
The front camera of the phone is also great and offers nice performance. You will get good quality of selfies with the front camera.
The camera can record up to 4K videos. With electronic image stabilization, video recording is fine and records without any noticeable issue.
Fingerprint scanner and other things
This phone has the fingerprint scanner on the front home button located below the display. It works fine with no issue. It quickly unlocks the phone.
Connectivity and Battery
The phone comes with dual SIM connectivity and offers most of the connectivity options you would like to have. It offers Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and USB Type-C. There is no issue in network selection or in any other connectivity option.
This phone offers excellent battery life. It is packed with 3400 mAH battery that easily gives around 36 hours of usage. Even if you are a power user, you will get around a day of battery backup.
The battery comes with Dash Charge technology that works great. It charges the phone up to 50% in just 40 minutes. It takes around 1 hour 35 minutes in charging the phone from 0 to 100% when the phone was off.
Final Words
Like its predecessor, the OnPlus 3T is an excellent phone for just Rs. 29,999. The phone comes with beautiful design, vibrant and punchy display, excellent performance and dash charge. Considering the price, there is nothing to criticize in the phone. This phone is truly flagship killer. Yesterday, the company has also pushed the Android 7.) update to make the phone even better.
OnePlus 3T remains the best Android phone you can buy in its price category and it is one of the best smartphones launched in 2016.
