2016 Flagship Killer. That'due south the tagline that OnePlus used for the 2022 OnePlus ii, a claim that in retrospect seems ridiculous. Sure, the OnePlus two was a decent smartphone for the price, just it wasn't the best phone of last year, let alone this year. OnePlus should have reserved this tagline for this yr'due south smartphone, because the OnePlus 3 is a superb piece of hardware at a very affordable cost betoken.

Information technology'south not just the hardware that impresses: OnePlus has finally ditched their ludicrous invite arrangement, and then anyone should be able to purchase the OnePlus three with relative ease. For a phone that's sure to be popular over the adjacent twelve months, availability is primal.

Priced at $400, the OnePlus 3 does non compromise on hardware. This 5.5-inch handset is powered by a modern Snapdragon 820 SoC, and at that place's a huge 6 GB of RAM complemented by 64 GB of storage as standard. In that location's also a fingerprint scanner, USB Type-C, a 16-megapixel rear camera with OIS, and dual-SIM support.

There'southward tough contest at the high end this year – the Milky way S7 Edge, HTC 10, Huawei P9, and even last twelvemonth's Nexus phones and the iPhone 6s Plus are all fantastic devices – simply they but don't accept the cost advantage of the OnePlus 3.

This poses the question: why spend more on a device from Samsung or HTC when you tin can get similar functionality from the OnePlus 3? Or is at that place an advantage to these pricier competitors? Allow'southward notice out.

The build of the OnePlus ii was acceptable, only its successor pulls out all the stops to be one of the most beautiful designs of the year. It's slim, it'due south sleek, and it uses premium materials: all key design aspects I love to come across in high-finish smartphones. Most importantly information technology feels fantastic in the hand, and there's no doubt that OnePlus' design team has improved dramatically since their first smartphone.

The OnePlus 3 features precision and attention to detail throughout the build that is reminiscent of the iPhone, known for its high quality design. This phone uses a solid metal unibody that encompasses the entire back of the handset, and wraps comfortably around the edges. Naturally this leads to the introduction of antenna lines, which, colored black, complement the lustrous matte metal quite well.

The corners of this device take been rounded to fit comfortably in your hands, and the dorsum panel is curved slightly to assist with ergonomics and make the handset await slimmer than it is. With a v.5-inch display on the front end, the OnePlus three is a bit larger than is comfortable for i-handed use, but OnePlus has worked hard to make this phone comfy to concord and like shooting fish in a barrel to grip. The metallic dorsum has the added bonus of resisting visible fingerprints also.

I was impressed by how slender the OnePlus 3 is, both visually and technically. While the left and right edges slim down to under 5mm, the entire handset is just 7.4mm thin; more than 2mm slimmer than the OnePlus two. This profoundly improves how the handset looks and feels, although information technology does result in a 300 mAh reduction in battery capacity, which now sits at a standard 3,000 mAh.

The reduction in thickness has led to a raised camera module, which protrudes from the back by effectually 1mm. In that location is a slight rim effectually the camera glass, so I don't believe it will be damaged in general use, but when placed on a table, the OnePlus 3 does stone noticeably when y'all're tapping the touchscreen in the corners. Some people are not a fan of photographic camera bumps for this reason.

The forepart panel is Gorilla Glass, which curves beautifully around the edges to create a display without a harsh bezel edge. This improves swooshability, and without a metal rim around the drinking glass, there'southward nothing to dig into your easily during use. Not every loftier stop smartphone uses this sort of drinking glass design, but information technology's becoming more common and I love it.

The bezels effectually the display are slim, peculiarly on the left and right edges, which improves usability. The OnePlus three is smaller than the 5.v-inch iPhone 6s Plus in all dimensions bar thickness (and the OnePlus 3 is only 0.1mm thicker), though the iPhone has peculiarly massive bezels for a high-finish handset.

Below the OnePlus 3's display is a fingerprint sensor that doubles every bit a home push. Unlike with the OnePlus two, this fingerprint sensor is very fast and accurate, which makes it perfect for securing the device. I prefer to see the fingerprint sensor on the rear of the handset – it'due south more natural and comfortable – but having a sensor is better than non having one.

Around the edges of the OnePlus 3 you'll observe the ability button in a comfortable location on the right side, while the book rocker sits on the left. Also on the left is an alert slider with 3 positions, which can be used to speedily switch between receiving all notifications, just priority notifications, or none at all. This slider was seen on the OnePlus two, and I didn't end up using it all that ofttimes; it'south a similar story on the OnePlus 3.

Forth the bottom edge is where yous'll discover everything else. There'southward a USB Type-C port for charging and data transfers, and while this port only supports USB ii.0 speeds, the reversible plug is nifty for usability. There's also a 3.5mm sound jack, and the single bottom-firing speaker. No front-facing stereo speakers here, and then y'all'll demand to cup your easily to become a good sound experience while watching videos. And as you'd await, the speaker is boilerplate in quality and volume.

The OnePlus 3 has the option of using either capacitive hardware navigation buttons, or on-screen buttons. By default, the push button to the left of the fingerprint sensor is 'back', while the one on the right opens the app switcher, however the functions of these buttons can be changed in the settings. This is why OnePlus uses basic backlit dots to announce the location of the buttons, rather than icons.

In a higher place the power button on the right-paw side is a tray that houses two nano-SIMs. The OnePlus iii has dual-SIM functionality, but there is no microSD card slot, like to the OnePlus 2. Usually I'd say this is a problem, and it was for the 16 GB models of the OnePlus 2, however the OnePlus iii comes with 64 GB of storage as standard. This should be enough for most users, negating the need for a microSD card slot in most circumstances.