A new generation “flagship smartphone killer” with ultra-fast charging has been released. Survey.

Today we choose the best chinese smartphone 2016. Despite the fact that only six months have passed, the top five have already clearly been determined.

Let us immediately note that for comparison we take devices with top technical characteristics that can compete with the Samsung Galaxy S7, however, the price range can be quite large.

After all, this is China, where you can buy a smartphone with flagship parameters for just 200-300 dollars. However, if you pay another 100-200 dollars on top, you can get something completely technically advanced.

Another selection criterion is that the smartphone manufacturer must be a purely Chinese company, no Hong Kong or, especially, Taiwan.

So let's get started!

Place number 5. Meizu Pro 6: the most balanced

We already wrote about this device at one time, but it wouldn’t hurt to repeat it. After last year's very successful Meizu Pro 5, fans expected the new Pro 6 to become an absolute flagship killer, but the manufacturer took a completely different path.

Of course, Meizu Pro 6 is a flagship-level device, but the bet was placed on the ideal combination of price and capabilities. It should be noted that Meizu almost succeeded. “Almost” is that very soon other manufacturers presented similar devices. However, it was the Pro 6 that won the greatest success among them.

From a technical point of view, Meizu Pro 6 is very close to ideal: a ten-core Helio X25 processor, a Mali-T880 graphics accelerator (like the Galaxy S7 based on Exynos 8890), 4 Gb of RAM and 32/64 Gb of built-in flash memory, an excellent 21.16 MP camera (6 lens with optical image stabilization, f/2.2 aperture, laser and PDAF autofocus, 10-element circular flash), USB Type-C.

However, the device also has its disadvantages. The screen of Meizu Pro 6 is inferior even to last year’s flagship Pro 5: only FullHD 1920x1080 with a diagonal of 5.2 inches. The battery is also rather weak - only 2560 mAh.

And the main drawback these days is the lack of a MicroSD slot. Almost all smartphone manufacturers, who last year inadvertently deprived users of the ability to expand memory, have corrected their mistakes this year. But this does not apply to Meizu Pro 6.

The cost of the smartphone is about 400 US dollars, and for this it is not at all necessary to order it from China. For example, in the popular and reliable online store Pleer.ru you can buy Meizu Pro 6 for only 27,199 rubles. And at the same time, you don’t have to wait for the device to arrive from China.

Place number 4. OnePlus 3: a potential leader

The Chinese company OnePlus presented its flagship this year later than all the others, but in terms of its characteristics, the new “troika” is not inferior to branded flagships, and in general it is “packed” with the latest technology. What is only 6 Gb worth? random access memory!

And the rest of the characteristics of OnePlus 3 are “on the level”: Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820 chipset, built-in 64 Gb storage, support for all kinds of future-proof 4G LTE versions, USB Type-C, NFC, Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow.

The main camera has a resolution of 16 MP, f/2.0 aperture, phase detection autofocus, optical image stabilization and dual LED flash. The front camera of the new product will definitely appeal to selfie lovers: 8 MP resolution, f/2.0 aperture, very large 1/3.2″ sensor for a secondary camera, 1.4 µm pixel size.

OnePlus 3 also has its downsides. Like Meizu Pro 6, it lacks a MicroSD slot and has a screen with FullHD resolution (in general, this is typical for Chinese flagships). However, OnePlus did not skimp on the durable protective glass Corning Gorilla Glass 4.

Overall, OnePlus is, of course, not the best Chinese smartphone of 2016, but it’s definitely worth a closer look.

Unlike Meizu Pro 6, which has been on the Russian market for several months now, it is better to order OnePlus 3 from China - it is still very rare in Russia, and where it is available, they charge an unrealistic price for it (from 39,000 rubles).

Place number 3. LeEco (LeTV) Le 2 PRO: the most inexpensive flagship

This smartphone can rightfully bear the title of the cheapest flagship. Because for its $229 (that’s how much it can be ordered for with free shipping from China), it offers so many features that no other smartphone can offer. Even Chinese.

The exception is, perhaps, Vernee Apollo Lite, but the latter has been released in a rather limited edition and is not so easy to buy (but you can try), and it has a weaker processor (Helio X20).

However, let's return to LeEco (LeTV) Le 2 PRO. The processor here is the same (Helio X25) as the Meizu Pro 6, which we wrote about at the beginning: 10 cores and ARM Mali-T880 graphics.

The volume of RAM is 4 Gb, the built-in flash memory is 32 Gb. Unfortunately, there is no slot for a memory card, but there is support for 4G LTE, which will allow you to quickly send your data to the cloud or download it from there.

The main camera is no worse than that of Meizu Pro 6: 21 MP resolution, f/2.0 aperture (even better), dual flash, fairly large 1/2.4″ sensor.

Le 2 PRO pleasantly stands out from the rest of the Chinese “mainstream” with its thin metal body. For its sake, the manufacturer even abandoned the standard 3.5 mm headset jack.

However, you don’t have to worry about its absence: the smartphone comes with an adapter that will allow you to connect headphones or a headset directly to the USB Type-C connector. Moreover, the quality of audio playback in this case will be even higher.

Despite enough slim body(only 7.5 mm) LeEco equipped the Le 2 PRO with a fairly capacious 3000 mAh battery.

Place number 2. Huawei P9 Plus: the most technically advanced

If we talk about the most technically advanced Chinese smartphone, it is definitely Huawei P9 Plus! I want to write a lot about him at once, but we will try to do it in order.

Unlike other manufacturers from the Middle Kingdom, Huawei fundamentally uses processors of its own design. So the Huawei P9 Plus is based on the HiSilicon Kirin 955 “stone”. This eight-core processor operates at a frequency of up to 2.5 GHz and has a powerful Mali-T880 MP4 graphics core.

As for the rest of the hardware, the Huawei P9 Plus is also great: 4 Gb of RAM, 64 Gb of built-in flash memory, the ability to install a MicroSD memory card up to 256 GB, NFC, infrared port for control household appliances, USB Type-C, a very capacious 3400 mAh battery and support for two SIM cards.

But the main feature of Huawei P9 Plus is the presence dual camera with lenses from the legendary Leica! Pictures from two sensors are taken simultaneously, then the image processing processor analyzes them and generates the final image High Quality.

Thanks to this, Huawei P9 Plus shoots in low light conditions, perhaps even better than Samsung Galaxy S7. At the same time, the noise level is noticeably lower.

Also, the new product from Huawei allows you to take HDR pictures of fast moving objects, which is an almost impossible task for other smartphones even in bright light.

In general, if a smartphone can be a photographer’s dream, then its real embodiment is the Huawei P9 Plus! Yes, it is very expensive (from 45,000 rubles), but even among “brands” it is almost impossible to find something similar.

Place #1. Xiaomi Mi5: the best Chinese smartphone of 2016

Xiaomi Mi5, which was introduced almost simultaneously with the Samsung Galaxy S7, is without a doubt the most successful Chinese smartphone of 2016. What are the sales of this device alone worth!

Only in the first hours of pre-order, and only in China, were so many applications submitted that Xiaomi barely had time to ensure the required production volumes.

Xiaomi Mi5 officially reached Russia only in June; before that, the device was sold exclusively in “gray” form and without a manufacturer’s warranty, but this did not stop the flow of people interested. Many also ordered Mi5 from China, where it was quite inexpensive.

Xiaomi Mi5 is based on the fastest chipset available to a wide range of smartphone manufacturers: Snapdragon 820. The RAM capacity is 3-4 GB depending on the modification, and the built-in storage has a capacity of 32/64/128 GB. The ability to expand with a MicroSD memory card is present (but not in all versions).

In general, so much has been written about this smartphone, including by us, that I don’t want to repeat it again. Judging by the pace of sales and demand in general, Xiaomi Mi5 is definitely the best Chinese smartphone of 2016.

The exclusive version of Mi5 in a ceramic case stands out. It’s quite difficult to find it on sale even in China, but if you want to stand out from other smartphone owners, then this is definitely your choice!

If you suffer for a long time, something will work out. After the labor-intensive launch of the first model and a bunch of technical problems in OnePlus 2, the controversial brand has finally built a truly powerful alternative to purebred models. We are looking for pitfalls in the new flagship killer and comparing it with competitors in the Russian and Chinese markets.

In a simple recipe, “cool hardware for next to nothing” is the very raison d’être of third-tier brands. And the prophets of this movement are constantly changing: yesterday Eten, i-Mate and BenQ, today Xiaomi, Meizu and ASUS, and tomorrow we will have to remember even more outlandish brands. Will OnePlus be there - BBK's child, Oppo's brother?

Over the course of a couple of years of selling smartphones, the new brand not only did not “sink”, but even “promoted” a little, and the third generation of the flagship almost entirely consists of overseas components at a still Chinese price. Let’s see if OnePlus 3 could become something more than a pile of hardware for enthusiasts, and whether it’s worth buying as a replacement for “thoroughbred” premium smartphones.

Characteristics

operating system- Android 6.0 Marshmallow

Screen - 5.5”, 1920x1080, AMOLED, 401 ppi

Processor - Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996, 4 cores (2x Kryo 2.15 GHz + 2x Kryo 1.6 GHz)

Graphics - Adreno 530

RAM - 6 GB

Permanent memory - 64

Communications - 4G (LTE Cat.6), 3G, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 b/g/n/ac), Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, GLONASS, NFC

Cameras - main: 16 MP, with autofocus, video recording 3840x2160, front: 8 MP

Battery - 3000 mAh, non-removable

Dimensions - 152.7x74.7x7.4 mm

Weight - 158 g

Price at the time of publication - 34,000 rubles

Design and management

In comparison with the old-timers of the smartphone market, OnePlus is almost a week old, so the Chinese do not hesitate to change the design of their models every year more sharply than Samsung does in five years. From plastic “but inexpensive” in OnePlus One, engineers switched to edging made of magnesium alloy and metal and rough matte soft-touch plastic.

A little later, they released a glass smartphone for the fashionable public, and now they have rolled out a faceted metal flagship - a labor of love between Huawei and HTC, judging by its appearance. No more Kevlar or bamboo cover, no more elongated block with a camera and flash.

And the devil is with them, with traditions and imitations - the main thing is that the smartphone turned out to be very beautiful. Angular, not thick (unlike the HTC 10), with noticeably higher quality and smoother metal than in Huawei/Honor smartphones, but still not slippery. From the front, however, it looks like another Meizu, but another “shovel” with a fingerprint scanner on the rear panel would look much worse.

The keys and “like keys” in OnePlus 3 get on my nerves out of habit. The fingerprint scanner is located in place of the “Home” key, works similarly to this key and is designed in the manner of hardware “buttons” from Meizu and Samsung, but it cannot be pressed. But the scanner itself is fast and very accurate.

Using the switch on the left side of the smartphone, as in the iPhone, you can turn on silent mode- it helps a lot in moments when you feel like an idiot because of a call in complete silence and want to correct a mistake. But I would like to be able to reprogram the key for other tasks - use it to turn on speakerphone/record conversations/something else... But it’s not possible, at least not in standard firmware.

Flaws? The camera protruding above the back cover will very soon collect a lot of scratches on the glass, which will worsen the quality of night photography. There is no slot for memory cards, which is bad, but there is also no idiocy like 16 GB without expandability in the basic iPhone 6s.

Screen and sound

It’s time to come to terms with the fact that only Samsung can perfectly configure AMOLED matrices (“I gave birth to you - I’ll calibrate you!”). All other manufacturers are trying to reach a compromise between colorfulness and color fidelity. OnePlus, of course, bowed to the wishes of customers, who are given thermonuclear colors, but otherwise the display of our hero is very good.

OnePlus 3 display specifications

Maximum brightness level (max./min.) - 420/1 cd/m2

Contrast - ∞

Color gamut (sRGB) >100%

Gamma - 2.4

Color temperature - 8200K

Firstly, it is very bright - honestly bright in manual mode adjustments (and not like in the Galaxy S6/S7, where the maximum brightness is set by automatic adjustment and only under the rays of the sun) and remains “readable” outdoors. Secondly, the viewing angles are excellent, as is the oleophobic coating, and you can’t just leave scratches on the glass.

PenTile (“castrated” pixels) are also here, but Full HD at 5.5 inches still looks sharp enough not to bother with this matter.

The speakerphone on the OnePlus 3 is of average quality. It’s very loud and sonorous, and as long as it voices chatter in videos and slow-burns with just a guitar, it seems to be quite good. But in more sophisticated songs you realize that a metallic tint is noticeable in the sound (as if a smartphone is playing from the inside of a good-quality galvanized bucket).

And if the chorus contains percussion instruments or several motives, the sound turns into “mush” and hurts the ear with shrill sounds. high frequencies. The last drawback, however, completely disappears if you press the volume down key twice. But no one will intentionally mute ringtones, and at maximum volume they sound so-so.

The Chinese did not interfere with the standard sound path of the Snapdragon 820, so OnePlus sounds very good - there is plenty of volume reserve, low frequencies do not excite the mind, that is, they fade into the background. In general, the sound is spacious, with a slightly “elongated” part of the mid and, to a greater extent, high frequencies.

Simply put, the sound is a little clearer than it should be (after half an hour your ears begin to ring), the vocals are also “let down”, like the eyes of a fashion model, which is why sometimes it seems that the vocalist is yelling directly into your ear, like into a microphone. And somewhere below they make low frequencies and produce a slight “boom.”

Not bad, although between these extremes there is a lack of detail in the mid-range - those that are found in smartphones with a dedicated DAC (ZTE Axon 7, Meizu Pro 6, Highscreen Boost 3) and provoke a second of chills when the sound “touches the soul.” Vacuum “plug” headphones already have enough low frequencies + loud vocals = quite a “people’s choice”, falling under the definition of “Dolbit Normal’no”.

By and large, the OnePlus 3 sounds a little better than the Nexus 6P or LG G5, much higher quality than the Huawei Mate 8 and give or take the same as the Samsung Galaxy S7 (the electronic “enhancers” in the S7 are a matter of taste).

Iron

The OnePlus 3 has flagship hardware, without any discounts. Even if the once luxurious processor for Android mobile phones, Snapdragon 820, has ceased to be the very best (Apple A10 in iPhone 7 is more powerful).

However, it is still good, it tears the iPhone 6s hardware to pieces, handles games better than the Exynos 8890 in the Samsung Galaxy S7 and, with its quad-core, works faster than the MediaTek Helio X20/X25 with ten cores.

The Chinese, however, cheated with the RAM - yes, the OnePlus 3 really has 6 gigabytes. But no more than four of them are used, because it is relatively easy to implement a NAND module into a smartphone chip, but modifying power consumption with a huge number of open applications is another matter.

Representatives of OnePlus officially reported, saying, “yes, we installed a 6 gigabyte smartphone just for the sake of beauty and use only 4 of them so that the battery does not drain too quickly. But you can root, tinker with the firmware, and change the multitasking settings to your liking so that the memory is used to its fullest.”

Enthusiasts have already done such tricks, after which OnePlus 3 was able to keep 5 more applications in the background than the Galaxy S7, for example, can do. A nice nuance, but why an ordinary user might need immediate access to more than five running games is a mystery.

All this, of course, does not negate the fact that due to the powerful hardware and only Full HD display resolution, OnePlus 3 is ahead of all Android flagships of 2016. Special thanks for the minimal level of body heating and the almost complete absence of throttling (power loss due to overheating) - nowadays such features in mobile phones are worth a lot.

Software

The very first OnePlus was born with Cyanogen OS on board, but such friendship did not last long. Apparently, the Cyanogen developers themselves are to blame for the poor relationship with the creators of smartphones. However, we are not very interested in reality - what is more important is that since then OnePlus has been developing its own Oxygen OS firmware with the same big amount improvements and similarities with “empty” Android.

And, I must say, the shell turned out to be successful - beginners will not randomly stumble upon functions they don’t need, and experienced smartphone users will find something to configure. For example, the design of labels, the arrangement of icons, or the Google search widget option (it’s nice that it is not nailed down and can be removed altogether).

Several clever gestures to access search and a panel stylized as a bookshelf quick launch with vertical scrolling will also appeal to some. Hardware keys can be reassigned (swap “back” and “recent” running applications") or turn it off.

There is a minimum of pre-installed software, but a separate gallery, file manager and there is a music player - that's nice. And there is also black theme design (let me remind you that AMOLED does not consume battery power to display black), which Samsung has not been smart enough to do since the Koreans abolished the dark design with TouchWiz based on 4.4 KitKat and higher. The notification shade, again, is customizable... A very cozy and well-thought-out system!

Cameras

Despite the fact that OnePlus is one of the “most Chinese” brands, its camera sensors are exclusively Japanese - Sony IMX298 (as in Xiaomi Mi5, ASUS ZenFone 3 and Nubia Z11) on the rear panel and IMX179 (this is what works in the rear camera of Nexus 5) for selfies.

In its price category, OnePlus 3 is very good and in some ways it takes pictures even better than the Samsung Galaxy S6 and sometimes lags behind the LG G5 in detail (the noise reduction sometimes smooths out details more intensively than required). Optical stabilization in a digital camera is very helpful (Meizu, for example, still lacks the ability to implement this “technology from the future” in its smartphones), reduces shaking when shooting video and allows you to take clear pictures on the go.

The camera interface is close to the standard Google Camera, except that it is supplemented with an HQ switch (for shooting with a minimum of digital noise in low light) and support for saving images in RAW. Shooting in JPG occurs instantly; in terms of photo quality, within 40 thousand rubles, our hero can only compete with Xiaomi Mi5. It’s also surprising how well the OnePlus 3 copes with shooting at night.

Photos on OnePlus 3 are, of course, not the peak of quality, post-processing and detail (and God knows where the 1080p 60 fps shooting mode went), but already impressive progress. In just a couple of years of the brand's existence, OnePlus has created a cooler flagship than any of the “top models” of Alcatel or Lumia for the entire time of their release.

Autonomy

OnePlus 3 does not set autonomy records - 3000 mAh for a 5.5-inch AMOLED matrix is not God knows what value. Although the firmware does not consume extra resources, so ZTE Axon 7, Alcatel Idol 4S and Meizu MX6, for example, drain their 3000/3250 mAh battery capacity a little earlier.

Video from memory card - 12 hours 15 minutes

Games - 5 hours 30 minutes

Reading - 10 hours 30 minutes

In everyday use, a smartphone is enough for a day of work, and using two SIM cards and playing games is even less. True, with Dash fast charging (5V, 4A), our hero charges very quickly - from zero to 100% in just over an hour. It’s a pity that you won’t find a Power Bank with such technology during the day, but Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 is designed differently and will not help matters.

Competitors

ASUS ZenFone 3 Deluxe

With the change of generations, only the basic ASUS ZenFone 3 remained at “popular” prices - the Deluxe version is more expensive than, for example, Samsung Galaxy Note 5. This difference in price, in addition to the solid ASUS nameplate, was formed due to hardware and software bells and whistles.

For example, an expensive case with invisible antenna inserts, a new Sony IMX318 sensor in the rear camera (the Taiwanese promise unprecedentedly fast focusing) and audiophile ZenAir headphones included. This model also comes with a Snapdragon 821 processor, but the basic version is content with the mediocre Snapdragon 820.

In any case, paying an amount comparable to that for the iPhone 6s 64 GB for the flagship ASUS will not be psychologically difficult. We hope that the Taiwanese manufacturer will revise the price tags downward.

ZTE Axon 7

While OnePlus is earning a reputation from scratch, ZTE, on the contrary, is trying to break out into prestigious manufacturers after many years of producing “state products.” For the flagship Axon, the Chinese developed a beautiful metal case, introduced an excellent audio chip and cool speakers into the design, installed quality camera(although they didn’t set it up properly) and an ultra-clear Quad HD display. The operating system is also designed with soul and is very nice.

In other aspects, the smartphone was not at all ideal - shooting video with the rear camera is lame on both legs, the Axon 7’s autonomy does not shine either, and with Russian pricing everything is still vague. There is a chance that for the sake of market share, ZTE will even resort to dumping, but in 2016, neither Huawei, nor ASUS, nor other once “national” manufacturers are shy with price tags. Wait and see.

Xiaomi Mi5

Let's not pretend that OnePlus 3 and Xiaomi Mi5 are not competing with each other - even with a noticeable difference between display sizes, choosing between OnePlus 3 and Mi5 remains the main dilemma of Chinese smartphone lovers. Moreover, Xiaomi takes photographs no worse and is almost as good as OnePlus 3 in terms of performance.

Selecting the correct and up-to-date firmware for Mi5, however, requires time and effort; to unlock the bootloader you need to go and bow at the feet of the Chinese (in OnePlus, you only need a computer for the procedure), and the case in the “half-price flagship” is also much less quality.

But in terms of the ratio of hardware per ruble spent, the Mi5 has almost no competitors (no one is really promoting the ZUK Z2 yet), and therefore throughout the post-USSR territory it is customary to pray to God for it, and certainly in the comments to a review of another smartphone.

conclusions

There is a lot to dislike about OnePlus. For the notorious invitation-only sales, due to which OnePlus One was snapped up and sold at an inflated price by speculators. Because the intrigue with the “new and independent” brand was a cheap trick by BBK and the Oppo sub-brand in particular. For Oppo's disregard for Russian market(they came and went, leaving customers without support and new firmware).

For OnePlus 2 with its throttling, heating and poor battery life. Finally, the brand still exudes the spirit of adventurism to this day - Xiaomi and Meizu have proven many times their ability to maintain reasonable prices for years, and with OnePlus every time is like the first time, because no one knows how profitable, and therefore durable, this brand is .

With such a background, it would be logical to give up on OnePlus 3 even before/instead of writing a review. But the smartphone turned out to be surprisingly good - with a high-quality body, a good display, an excellent camera for the money and competitive sound in the headphones.

It, of course, cannot boast of excellent autonomy, but its closest competitors do not have this either. And this smartphone is definitely worth the money (32 thousand in China, 34 thousand in Russia). Still not a flagship killer, but perhaps the best “Chinese phone under 40 thousand rubles.” For which it receives the “Editor's Choice” award.

Advantages:

Bright and clear display

Quality cameras

High performance

Convenient and fast operating system

Flaws

No memory card slot

6 gigabytes of RAM are not fully used

Speakerphone could be better

Average autonomy, outlandish fast charging standard

A typical review of a gadget is a long and often boring for most readers sheet of words, not always clear numbers and graphs, as well as pictures, telling in detail about all the components of the device. It turns out to be too many letters, and the key advantages and disadvantages are smeared throughout the text and are not stored in the head.

We decided to discard everything unnecessary, leaving the most important. Exclusively helpful information, which you can quickly familiarize yourself with and learn everything about the gadget. Only the pros, cons and controversial features of a device with much less water content.

What kind of killer is he if he costs 30 thousand rubles?

Comparing OnePlus 3 with budget Xiaomi or Meizu for a little over 100 dollars is the same as putting Lada and BMW on the same level.

OnePlus 3 is a smartphone that was created as a counterweight to expensive top brands from well-known brands and is equipped with the most powerful hardware and the best materials.

In terms of performance and execution, the flagship killer is equal to the Galaxy S7 Edge, LG G5 and others, but at the same time it costs significantly less.

pros

Performance with reserve

Someone says that a modern Android smartphone lacks 2 GB of RAM. For some, 3 GB is not enough. The new OnePlus is equipped with an honest SIX GIGABYTES of LPDDR4 RAM. So large volume memory is certainly excessive, but not even the most demanding Android enthusiast will accuse the smartphone of a lack of RAM. Again, you can shake the number in front of the faces of Samsung owners, feeling your own superiority. In general, gigahertz and gigabyte competitions are widely practiced among power users, and OnePlus 3 was created specifically for them.

In combination with the most powerful Snapdragon 820 and Adreno 530 graphics, the smartphone becomes a real monster that can easily handle ANY most demanding game on ultra-graphics, keeping three more heavy applications and a couple of dozen ordinary ones in memory.

Flexible Android without tinsel

OnePlus 3 runs OxygenOS based on the current . This assembly, on the one hand, is similar to the reference, pure Android from Google, but on the other hand, it hides a very large potential for customization. Suffice it to say that the user can add custom actions even to system buttons and change the position of the Back button, placing it either on the left or on the right depending on the habit.

The assignments of the three-position physical notification mode switch have not yet been configured, but the next update will probably add such a function, or one of the third-party developers will do it.

The absence of heavy graphics kits makes the system nimble and stable. There is no unnecessary software, which often duplicates Google applications, creates additional confusion and slows down the entire system. OxygenOS is almost perfect in terms of simplicity and functionality.

Balanced Design

If you wish, you can get to the bottom of any case, but in the case of OnePlus 3 it is difficult to do so. Aluminum, capital, with impeccable fit of parts.

Moderately weighty, not too thin, at the same time strict, but streamlined thanks to rounded corners and 2.5D glass.

Without the stupid glass back that collects tons of oil from your fingers. OnePlus 3 is very comfortable and looks great in both rough male paws and beautiful female hands.

Science-Based Night Mode

Health-safe night mode is not only about reduced brightness and a dark theme. The blue light from the screen is a wake-up signal for our brain. For this reason, we cannot fall asleep when we look at our smartphone before bed. Night mode in OnePlus 3 turns off blue light and doesn't cause untimely hormonal surges.

A fast fingerprint scanner that is positioned correctly

In terms of response speed, the OnePlus 3 fingerprint scanner is not inferior to that of the Galaxy S7 and iPhone 6s, but the most important thing is its location.

We don’t know what motivated the engineers who came up with the idea of placing the sensor at the REAR. Perhaps these people hold their phone in their hands 100% of the time. An ordinary person very often has situations when he needs to do something on a smartphone lying on the table. In this case, the front scanner does not interfere in any way, but with the rear location you have to first take the device in your hand, then feel for the sensor, remove the lock and return the device to the table surface. This is terribly inconvenient and infuriating. Don't buy smartphones that have a scanner on the back: you will regret your choice.

The scanner not only removes the lock, but also plays the role of a “Home” button. Unlike the iPhone, the button here is touch-sensitive and not mechanical.

Great cameras from Sony

A modern smartphone is unthinkable without good cameras, and OnePlus 3 offers two cool sensors at once: the main 16-megapixel Sony IMX298 with PDAF autofocus, HDR and dynamic noise filter, as well as the front 8-megapixel IMX179, also from Sony.

Naturally, these cameras take very good pictures, as you can see by looking at the image below. It was made without any presets, literally on the go.

OnePlus records video up to 4K at 30 fps. Standard 1080p is recorded at 60 frames, and for 720p slow motion is available at 120 frames.

Those who love selfies will really like the auto-selfie mode, in which the smartphone automatically focuses on the face, then starts a countdown and takes a photo. An extremely convenient feature.

Has NFC

Those who have discovered the delights of contactless payment with using NFC they rarely take cash into their hands and bank card. Despite the aluminum body, OnePlus 3 engineers miraculously squeezed smartphone NFC. And everything works without any complaints.

Normal procedure for buying a smartphone without invites

Previous OnePlus models could not be purchased without an invite. Artificially making it difficult to purchase through an invitation system is a working, but rather nasty way to create additional noise and an aura of “elitism” around your products. Luckily, OnePlus has stopped dealing with nonsense and is now selling smartphones without unnecessary complications. Paid - waited - received.

Minuses

No choice

Only one configuration. No options. Don’t want to overpay for frankly extra 6 GB of RAM? Sorry. I would like to save money at the expense of size internal memory, because you are unlikely to take up 64 GB? Sorry again.

We are sure that if OnePlus had released a younger version of the smartphone with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage, sales would have been even stronger.

No moisture protection

This is where the OnePlus 3 frankly falls short of Samsung, whose latest flagships are rated IP68 for water and dust resistance. We hope that water resistance will appear in the next generation of these wonderful smartphones.

5.5 inches is not for everyone

Have you ever held an iPhone 6 Plus? Not everyone likes this shovel. It seems to us that a 5-inch diagonal is optimal for a modern smartphone.

By releasing a phablet, OnePlus is deliberately narrowing the circle of potential buyers.

Sad battery that leaks at night

A 3,000 mAh battery with such an energy-hungry filling is not enough, very little. To make matters worse, if you leave your smartphone overnight at, say, 80% charge, you may wake up in the morning and find it only has 65-70% charge. There were no guaranteed nightly downloads of large amounts of information. Updates were also not installed. We hope that the next update will solve this problem, but for now OnePlus 3 is not at all autonomous. To hold such power in your hands and not use it to its full potential, for fear of being left without any connection at all, is a shame.

Two SIM cards, but no microSD - dammit!

Any Chinese now offers a hybrid slot in which you can put either two SIM cards, or replace one SIM with a card microSD memory. Hey OnePlus, you really haven't heard of this convenient solution or did they deliberately give in to Samsung, whose smartphone has microSD?

Difficulties with the service

OnePlus 3 is only sold online. There are no services, especially in Russia, where the smartphone has not officially appeared yet. If something happens, you will have to send it by mail to another country. Long and expensive.

Controversial issues

Optic AMOLED display and unnecessary marketing

The advantages and disadvantages of AMOLED displays have long been known. The OnePlus 3 screen is very bright, rich, rich. True black color thanks to independent power supply for each pixel, Full HD 1,920 × 1,080, density around 400 ppi per inch, Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection. All this is cool.

You have to pay with realism and accuracy of color rendering. The colors are so crazy they don't seem real. Sometimes they are downright poisonous. Those accustomed to AMOLED will not notice anything, but those who switched to OnePlus from IPS screens will be surprised.

Another unpleasant point concerns marketing terms. Do you know what Optic AMOLED is and how it is better than regular AMOLED? Nothing. This is the same display from Samsung, which they tried to tighten up in order to improve color fidelity. It didn’t turn out very well, but for a person unfamiliar with the topic and too lazy to Google, such marketing can be misleading.

USB-C DASH Charge - exclusive and expensive

OnePlus 3's proprietary fast charging technology allows you to charge your smartphone by 60% in 30 minutes. True, it only works with the original adapter and only with the original wire.

If you don’t have any at hand, you will have to be content with the standard battery filling characteristics.

By the way, when buying a phone with USB-C, you need to be prepared for the fact that all your friends and colleagues, who shared their cable and charger in difficult times, will no longer be able to help you. USB-C is still a rarity, and quite expensive.

A replacement USB-C cable with DASH Charge support from OnePlus will cost 15 euros. Fork - 20 euros. Expensive!

OnePlus 3 Specifications

Dimensions:	152.7 × 74.7 × 7.35 mm
Weight:	158 g
Case material:	anodized aluminum
Colors:	graphite/soft gold
Operating system:	OxygenOS on Android based Marshmallow
CPU:	Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, Quad Core, Kryo: 2x 2.2 GHz, 2x 1.6 GHz
Graphic arts:	Adreno 530
RAM:	6 GB LPDDR4
Inner memory:	64 GB UFS 2.0
Fingerprint's scanner:	There is
Ports:	USB-C, dual nanoSIM, 3.5 mm
Battery:	non-removable 3,000 mAh, DASH Charge (5 V, 4 A)
Communication (European model):	GSM: 850, 900, 1 800, 1 900 WCDMA: 1/2/5/8 FDD-LTE: 1/3/5/7/8/20 TDD-LTE: 38/40 Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Bluetooth 4.2 NFC GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou
Screen:	Optic AMOLED 1080p Full HD (1,920 × 1,080), 401 ppi, Corning Gorilla Glass 4
Main camera:	Sony IMX298 16 MP, f/2.0, HDR, PDAF, 4K@30fps, 720p@120fps
Front-camera:	Sony IMX179 8 MP, f/2.0, 1080p@30fps, selfie

Total

No matter how much we try to criticize the OnePlus 3, it is still gorgeous. Samsung Galaxy S7 costs 50,000 rubles. OnePlus 3 - 30,000 rubles. Do you feel the difference? It's still a flagship killer, the best in the business.

The life hacker thanks the GearBest online store for providing the device for testing.

Introduction

OnePlus needs no introduction to our readers and subscribers, since everyone who is interested in the latest Chinese electronics knows perfectly well how brightly the star of this sensational Chinese startup shone in 2014.

The first smartphone of this young brand, called “One,” simply blew up the market of Chinese smartphones (and not only Chinese ones) thanks to the almost ideal ratio of top-end hardware and price at that time. It was OnePlus One that largely destroyed the stereotype of the supposedly low quality of Chinese electronic gadgets, raising the bar high for other manufacturers from the Middle Kingdom and rightfully receiving the title of “flagship killer”.

Continuing its offensive against the dominance of the world's leading brands (Samsung, Apple, Huawei, etc.) in the smartphone market, next year OnePlus released 2 new devices at once - a flagship and a more affordable one. And although both of them turned out to be quite successful, neither of them was able to repeat the success of the debut smartphone and earn as many compliments and admiration in their address. Needless to say, the OnePlus product was not destined to receive the title of “flagship killer” again.

And so, quite recently, a young but already seasoned Chinese manufacturer made another attempt to regain such a high-profile title by releasing the third generation of its flagship to the market. This time, the smartphone seems to have all the trump cards to achieve the desired goal - advanced hardware, excellent design and a reasonable price tag. But whether this premium Chinese smartphone will once again become a “flagship killer”, or whether the manufacturer has again made insufficient efforts to achieve this - we will try to find out by examining the new product from all possible angles during our testing. We will announce our conclusions on this issue at the end of this review.

Packaging and delivery

Traditionally, we begin our first acquaintance with a new device by examining its packaging and delivery set.

The OnePlus 3 smartphone comes in a branded cardboard box made of matte white cardboard. Here, only a small company logo, applied to a rectangular red stripe at the top of the lid, imitating a seal-sticker, indicates that it belongs to a brand. And the number “3” made by embossing and the inscription with the name of the gadget on the sides of the lid tell us what kind of device is inside. The bottom of the box is made of red cardboard, and on the back you will also find information about the device itself.

Under the cover you will find a tray in which the smartphone itself is located on top, and inside there are instructions in English and Chinese, as well as a paperclip for removing the SIM card tray. Under this tray, in the main compartment of the box, you will find a branded USB cable- USB Type-C red and Charger with parameters 5V/4A.

In general, the smartphone package can be called standard, but the quality of the materials used and the quality in general, both for the packaging itself and for accessories, is very poor. high level. The manufacturer has never saved on all this, but still we cannot hide our admiration for such attention to seemingly not the most important things. Is it worth repeating that when you pick up the box of the OnePlus 3 smartphone, you immediately realize that there is a real flagship inside.

Appearance and Design

The body of the OnePlus 3 smartphone is made almost entirely of metal. At the top and bottom of the metal cover there are seams filled with plastic. As you know, they serve for normal operation built-in antennas for signal transmission mobile networks and GPS. And they also made it possible to do without plastic end inserts, keeping the body design monolithic.

The front panel of the OnePlus 3 case is covered protective glass Gorilla Glass 4 with 2.5D curved edges. And although there is a plastic edging between the glass itself and the metal body of the gadget, the surface of the front panel protrudes above the body and is not protected by any side. Thus, if the smartphone falls face down or even if you simply place the gadget on the screen on any surface, you will only have to rely on the strength of the glass itself from Corning.

There is a slot at the top of the front panel of the OnePlus 3 smartphone conversational dynamics, covered with a mesh, a window for light and proximity sensors to the left of it, as well as a peephole for the front camera even further to the left. Almost in the very corner on the left there is an event indicator LED. At the bottom of the bezel, you'll find an oval touch-sensitive Home button with a fingerprint scanner built into it, and two touch-sensitive navigation buttons to the left and right of it. The Home button is not mechanical, as in Meizu smartphones, for example, is slightly recessed and covered with ceramic, as a result of which it has a grayer color and stands out against the background of the black front panel. The navigation touch buttons are made in the form of dots and have a white backlight.

Let's return to the smartphone body. We came across a gray device, which the manufacturer calls “graphite,” although at the time of writing this review, the start of sales of OnePlus 3 in gold color was announced.

On the right side of the smartphone there is a power button and a tray for two Nano SIM cards. On the left side of the case there is a volume rocker and a button for switching notification modes (standard, priority and silent).

The top end of the OnePlus 3 smartphone is empty, since the USB Type-C connector, the holes for the external speaker, the call microphone and the headphone audio jack are located at the bottom end of the device.

On the back surface of the device's body you will find a microphone hole for noise reduction, a rear camera eyepiece protruding a good millimeter above the body, a single-section LED flash and the company logo.

All the buttons sit in the grooves confidently and are pressed with a pleasant force, and the mode switching button has a notch and is very convenient to use. The fact that the power and volume buttons are located on different ends will not seem like the most pleasant moment to many of you, but those who have used Apple smartphones will appreciate this placement option. We also liked that the audio jack is located at the bottom of the case, rather than at the top. It's really convenient.

Among the minuses here, we can note the strongly protruding rear camera, although its glass is protected by a metal frame, and the absence of an IR port, which has already gained popularity, and the usefulness of which is no longer even discussed. Also among the disadvantages are the excessively narrow side edges of the case, which is why it is not so easy to take the device in your hand when it is lying on the table, especially if it is turned with the screen down.

In general, we have no complaints about the ergonomics of OnePlus 3; holding the smartphone in your hand is quite comfortable. But when using the device with only one hand, it feels like the smartphone might slip out of the palm.

As for the design of the gadget as a whole, although there is a sense of borrowing ideas from Huawei and Meizu, the smartphone still looks quite stylish and fresh. At the same time, giving a specific assessment of this aspect is a rather thankless task.

Speaking in the dry language of numbers, let's say that the dimensions of the OnePlus 3 smartphone are 152.2x74.7x7.35 mm, and the weight of the device is 158 grams.

Display

The OnePlus 3 smartphone has a 5.5-inch Full HD display made using Optic AMOLED technology. This technology was first used by OnePlus engineers, and it can be called a kind of upgrade for Super AMOLED, which brought more fine tuning contrast, color temperature and performance profile, and added a second polarization layer. For you and me, as ordinary users, this should have brought brighter and more realistic display colors, as well as improved picture readability in direct sunlight.

So, the OnePlus 3 display diagonal is 5.5 inches and the resolution is 1080x1920 pixels (1080p, Full HD). Thus, the pixel density here is 401 ppi, and in our opinion, this is quite enough for comfortable work with a smartphone at this screen size.

The smartphone display is covered with 4th generation Gorilla Glass, which has rounded edges. Between the glass and the body of the smartphone there is a black plastic edging, which makes the frames on the sides of the display seem slightly larger than stated by the manufacturer (0.755 mm), although they still remain quite narrow.

As for the picture on the OnePlus 3 screen, it is indeed very bright and juicy, but not excessively. The maximum brightness is sufficient for comfortable work in direct sunlight, and the image on the display remains perfectly readable.

The color rendition of the OnePlus display is close to ideal, although when looking at the smartphone screen at angles, White color takes on a cold tint. Once again, we note the depth of black color that the AMOLED display of the OnePlus 3 smartphone displays. This is especially noticeable if you activate the so-called “Dark mode” in the settings, which will set dark theme throughout the entire system.

If necessary, you can adjust the color balance to suit yourself in the screen settings. There, in the settings, you can also activate the night mode, which will be useful for those who like to read before bed.

In general, our impressions of the display of the OnePlus 3 smartphone were positive. Let's add that the display here supports up to 10 simultaneous touches. In addition, we note that a high-quality oleophobic coating is applied to the display glass - fingerprints are barely noticeable on it, are easily erased, and a finger glides across the glass very easily.

Software

We had a OnePlus 3 smartphone model for the Chinese market (A3000) for testing in our studio. Therefore, the device initially had a HydrogenOS shell with English and Chinese languages. Google services were not available in this firmware version. But since most of our readers prefer to use firmware that contains Russian and Ukrainian languages, we installed firmware with the OxygenOS shell on the smartphone. It is with this that the international version of OnePlus 3 (model A3003) will be supplied. In our case, we used shell version 3.2.0 based on Android 6.0.1, which we subsequently updated to 3.2.2. Of course Google services are also preinstalled here.

So, the OxygenOS shell in the OnePlus 3 smartphone has 3 desktops. The first displays the weather, calendar, reminder, and shortcuts to frequently used applications and contacts by default. On other desktops everything is organized as standard Android versions 6.0, from the status bar to the button to go to the application menu. The same situation occurs in the smartphone settings menu.

Separately, it is worth noting the “Customization” item, in which you can activate that same “Dark Mode”, customize the color of the event indicator and choose which icons should be displayed in the status bar. In the “Buttons” menu, you can activate on-screen navigation buttons, change the functionality of capacitive navigation buttons or turn off their backlight, and also configure the functionality touch button"Home".

Also pay attention to the Gestures menu, where you can activate the double-tap to turn on the screen and other smart functions. By the way, you can quickly launch the “Camera” application when the screen is off not only by drawing the letter “O” on it, but also by double pressing the power button. To do this, in the “Screen” menu item, you need to activate the corresponding slider.

To transfer data, the OnePlus 3 smartphone has a function Bluetooth version 4.2, NFC function, which you will find in the "More" item of the wireless networks menu, and the Wi-Fi Direct function, which you will find in the additional functions of the Wi-Fi activation menu.

Fans of customization will love the ability to change the appearance of the battery indicator (standard indicator, circle indicator and remaining charge percentage) in the corresponding settings menu. There you will also find the ability to enable energy saving and battery saving modes (the ability to fine-tune the selection of applications that should save battery).

To configure the operation of the same mode switch, which is located on the left side of the smartphone, you need to go to the “Signal Switch” menu. Here you can fine-tune the priority mode by selecting the functions whose signals you will hear in this mode, as well as contacts, messages and calls from which you will also hear in priority mode. And here you can configure silent mode, when using which you can only hear the sounds of the alarm clock and sounds from multimedia applications (music, videos, games, etc.).

And finally, for a snack, we left for you the “Security and Fingerprint” menu item, in which, as you may have guessed, you can set up a smartphone lock and save a fingerprint (or several) for unlocking using the fingerprint scanner. It must be said that the fingerprint scanner in the OnePlus 3 smartphone works very quickly and accurately, even if you have only saved one fingerprint in the device’s memory. Unlocking your smartphone occurs almost instantly, you just need to put your finger on the sensor in the Home button. In this case, there is no need to wake up the smartphone screen first.

Overall, we liked the interface of the OnePlus 3 smartphone. It turned out to be functional, but there is nothing superfluous in it. We had no complaints about the operation of the interface during testing of the smartphone - everything happened quickly and without any lags.

Hardware platform and performance

Let's move on to a review of the technical part of the tested smartphone. Many of you already know that the OnePlus 3 smartphone is powered by a 4-core processor (MSM8996) from Qualcomm, which operates at a frequency of up to 2.15 GHz. The Adreno 530 (624 MHz) video accelerator is responsible for the graphics in this subsystem. The amount of RAM on board OnePlus 3 is 6 GB (LPDDR4, 1866 MHz), and the built-in memory is 64 GB (UFS 2.0).

To evaluate the full power of the hardware installed in the smartphone, we turned to benchmarks. In the AnTuTu v6.2.0 program test, the OnePlus 3 smartphone scored a record number of points - 142706. No one has ever been able to show a higher result among the smartphones tested in our studio.

As for the GeekBench 3 benchmark, our “experimental” showed 2431 points in single-core mode and 5448 in multi-core mode. Next, we tested the OnePlus 3 in the 3D Mark application, where the smartphone showed the maximum result in Ice Storm Extreme mode, and 29638 points in Ice Storm Unlimited mode. All these results are impressive, but they hardly surprise us, since this is not the first smartphone we tested that is powered by the Snapdragon 820 processor, and we knew what to expect from it.

We were more interested in whether the OnePlus 3 smartphone is susceptible to throttling when the device is used for a long time under heavy loads on the processor and video accelerator. To do this, we ran our gadget for about half an hour in the games “Asphalt 8” and “World of Tanks” at ultra-high settings, after which we immediately ran the GeekBench 3 test on it again. Surprisingly, the OnePlus 3 demonstrated an almost complete absence of any throttling. And this is a truly amazing result, as well as one of the most important trump cards of the combination of the Snapdragon 820 processor and the Adreno 530 video accelerator. In other words, OnePlus 3 can cope with any everyday tasks or mobile games without any problems, which is what it demonstrated.

As for the heating of OnePlus 3 in such operating modes, it occurs, as expected. While playing WOT, the smartphone body heated up to 45 degrees Celsius in the area of the rear camera, but this did not cause us any discomfort in use. Besides, back cover The OnePlus 3 dissipates heat well and the smartphone cools down quickly after exiting heavy applications.

Built-in sensors and GPS operation

There are a whole host of different sensors and sensors on board the OnePlus 3 smartphone. By using special applications we found out that the device we tested has: an accelerometer, a sensor magnetic field, gyroscope, proximity sensor, light sensor, gravity sensor, linear acceleration and vector rotation sensors, pedometer and orientation sensor.

We also did not have any questions regarding the operation of GPS in the OnePlus 3 smartphone. During a cold start and without connection Wi-Fi device finds satellites and connects to them almost instantly, even indoors. The OnePlus 3 smartphone also works well with GLONASS satellites.

Thus, when using this gadget as a GPS navigator, you will not encounter any problems, which we personally verified during field tests.

Camera testing

Next, we will look at one of the most important questions that interests a modern user when choosing a smartphone, especially when it comes to the flagship of a brand. We will talk about the camera capabilities of OnePlus 3 and whether this gadget can be called a camera phone.

In addition, OnePlus 3 boasts electronic (EIS) and optical (OIS) stabilization systems, phase detection focusing (PDAF), Auto-HDR functions to improve images in difficult lighting conditions and Dynamic De-noise to reduce noise.

And finally, professional amateur photographers will be pleased to have a wide range of settings in the OnePlus 3 smartphone when shooting in manual mode, as well as the ability to take photographs in RAW format for subsequent processing of images in graphic editors.

As for the front camera, there is an 8 megapixel module with an IMX179 Exmor R sensor and optics with an aperture of F/2.0. In recent years, this sensor has been actively used in the main cameras of many smartphones in the budget and mid-range segments, and its celebrated debut took place in the Nexus 5 smartphone from LG.

Let’s move on to the settings of the “Camera” application of the OnePlus 3 smartphone. You will find the menu for selecting shooting modes in the lower left corner of the application window, and you can also access it by swiping to the right on the screen after launching the application. The following modes are present here: interval shooting, slow motion (120 fps with a resolution of 720p), photo ( auto mode), video (you can access it by swiping from bottom to top), manual mode and panorama mode. In the menu in the lower right corner of the application, you can select the aspect ratio, activate the shutter timer and the grid for a more correct composition of objects in the frame. We can activate the HDR, HQ and flash photography functions by clicking the corresponding icon in the upper left corner of the application, and in the upper right corner there is an icon that switches you to front camera. You can also go to the photo gallery directly from the Camera application by swiping left on the screen.

There is no point in talking in detail about each shooting mode, but we would like to note that in manual mode you can independently control the focus, choose the shutter speed, white balance and ISO. From the shooting mode selection menu, you can go to additional settings by clicking on the icon in the upper left corner (gear). Here you will find the function of setting geotags on a photo, the function of turning off the shutter sound, as well as the function of recording photos in RAW format. The volume button on a OnePlus smartphone can be used as a shutter button.

Now it’s time to look at examples of photos taken with the main and rear cameras of the OnePlus 3 smartphone. Let us remind you that in terms of photo and video quality, this flagship took second place in our comparison 4 top smartphones, losing quite a bit to the Nubia Z11 smartphone. The quality of photographs taken in the daytime and in good lighting for both Chinese flagships turned out to be almost equally high. OnePlus 3 demonstrates high detail and sharpness, correct color reproduction and minimal noise. I liked the depth of field when shooting objects at close range, which makes the photos look three-dimensional and realistic. However, at night, noise becomes noticeable and sharpness at the edges of objects is slightly lost.

We liked the front camera of the OnePlus 3 smartphone less, and most likely the fault here lies with the rather crude software. There were no complaints about the clarity and detail of selfie shots in the daytime, which cannot be said about the choice of exposure and white balance. The portraits turned out a little darkened, and the skin color acquired a reddish tint. At night, another problem appeared - noise and a significant decrease in clarity. In other words, night selfies turned out to be unforgivably soapy for a smartphone costing about $400.

As for video recording, it is worth noting separately that OnePlus 3 records video content with a resolution of 4K at 30 fps (from the main camera). Automatic focusing is present when shooting video, but it does not yet work as quickly and accurately as we would like. The work of electronic and optical image stabilization systems when shooting video from the main camera deserves special praise. According to this criterion, OnePlus 3 has noticeably surpassed almost all its rivals from Chinese manufacturers in this price segment. But the sound quality when recording video could be better. You can download video from OnePlus 3 smartphone cameras.

In general, we were pleased with the cameras of the OnePlus 3 smartphone, and with the release of subsequent software improvements, this gadget may well enter the top 10 best camera phones at the end of the year. In any case, he has the potential for this. However, expect the OnePlus 3 to shoot as great as the HTC 10, Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, Sony Xperia X Performance / Z5 or LG G5, definitely not worth it.

You will find source photos from OnePlus 3 cameras. We recommend using them if you want to form your own objective opinion about the cameras of this smartphone.

Autonomy

Another question that interests a potential buyer when choosing a smartphone in the first place is battery life. After all, not every one of you is ready to carry a charger or power bank with you in order to, if necessary, extend the life of your favorite gadget. And although charging your smartphone every night before going to bed is already considered the norm, the pursuit of a thin body and high performance often lead to the fact that the device does not survive without additional recharging and until the end of the working day with average or moderately active use.

The OnePlus 3 smartphone has a non-removable lithium polymer battery with a capacity of 3000 mAh. The manufacturer considered that this capacity is quite enough for most users, and if there is a need to recharge the gadget, then the proprietary “Dash charge” fast charging function should come to the rescue. However, do not forget that it will only work if you use the original included accessories - charger and cable.

In the battery test using the AnTuTu Battery Test program with a discharge of 80%, the OnePlus 3 smartphone scored 5770 points, while in the Epic Citadel program in Guided Tour mode and at maximum screen brightness, our gadget was discharged from 100% to zero in about 4.5 hours. We have provided these data so that you can compare them with those shown by other flagships that we tested.

If we translate all these numbers into user-friendly language, it turns out that the OnePlus 3 can last one day before recharging, subject to moderate use: a little music on the way to and from work, no more than an hour mobile internet(surfing in a browser), a couple of dozen calls of short duration, several photos and communication in instant messengers (Whatsapp, Viber - approximately 5 thousand characters per day). With this mode of use, by late evening the charge level remained at approximately 5%. If you use your smartphone more actively, then immediately prepare to carry a charger with you and look for an outlet, or stock up on a power bank (external battery). We can also advise you to safely use the energy-saving modes available in the smartphone settings.

As for the proprietary fast charging Dash Charge, we cannot but give it credit in this review, since with its help the OnePlus 3 smartphone can be charged from 0% to 100% in about 40 minutes.

Sound from external speaker and headphones

Few doubted that the modern flagship “plays” well both from an external speaker and through headphones. Moreover, if we are talking about a product from such a highly positioned company as OnePlus. But we still carefully tested the sound of the “troika” both here and there.

We liked the sound from the external speaker of the OnePlus 3 smartphone. It's clean, crisp and balanced. The speaker handles low frequencies well and without wheezing, although if you like to listen to music in this way, then it is better to purchase an external Bluetooth speaker, which is much better suited for such purposes. Regarding the volume reserve from the external speaker, let’s say that it is quite enough not to miss an important call even in a noisy place.

We checked, according to tradition, how your favorite melodies from the OnePlus 3 smartphone sound in headphones, using Xiaomi Mi Headphones Hi-Fi Edition. To do this, we downloaded our favorite track to the smartphone memory in flac format with a high bitrate and listened to it in the AIMP player. And we have to note that the OnePlus 3 smartphone again disappointed us somewhat. The sound seems to be good, but while listening to music you can’t get rid of the feeling that something is missing. Whether it’s a brighter soundstage, or richer and clearer bass, or it would be worth slightly adjusting the mids to make the sound more balanced - it’s hard to say. One thing is for sure, we didn’t feel even close to the usual delight, emotional outburst and goosebump sensation when listening to our loved ones with OnePlus 3. For comparison, Xiaomi Mi 5 and Nubia Z11 are capable of this, but the “troika” is not. So, if you consider yourself a music lover, then the OnePlus 3 is not for you.

Work in cellular networks and wireless connections

During our testing, the OnePlus 3 smartphone showed itself to be very good as a regular gadget for making calls. the best side. The device received the signal stably cellular network even in semi-basements and has never let us down. We also liked the sound quality from the speaker in the tested sample, and the maximum volume was enough for comfortable communication even on a noisy street. We also had no complaints about the conversational microphone, since the interlocutors heard us clearly, loudly and intelligibly. However, the noise reduction microphone could have been configured better, since the interlocutors would like to hear less extraneous (ambient) sounds.

A list of supported frequencies for versions of the OnePlus 3 smartphone for the Chinese and European markets can be found in the chapter “ Specifications" our review.

Regarding the operation of OnePlus 3 in wireless networks Wi-Fi data transfer, here too the device left only positive emotions. The smartphone supports 802.11a/b/g/n/ac standards and provides high speed when downloading files big size (mobile games) without interruptions or disconnections. At the same time, the data transfer speed did not decrease even at some distance from the access point.

conclusions

Here we come to the most important point of our review of the OnePlus 3 smartphone, where we have to answer the question asked at the very beginning, and also highlight all the advantages and disadvantages of this Chinese flagship.

Let's start with the advantages of the OnePlus 3 smartphone:

1) Top chipset and maximum performance level (at the time of writing the review). The first line in AnTuTu is further proof of this.

2) 6 GB of RAM (a solid foundation for the future) and 64 GB of memory for games and applications (a little more than 50 are actually available, but even this is quite enough for most users).

3) Appearance smartphone. OnePlus 3 looks not only like a flagship from a reputable brand, but also like a real premium gadget.

4) Excellent performance of the fingerprint scanner.

5) Really fast battery charging.

6) NFC support.

We also list the disadvantages of OnePlus 3 that we identified during testing:

1) Poor autonomy. Despite all the assurances about the reduced power consumption of the Snapdragon 820 processor (MSM8996) compared to its predecessors and the lower power consumption of the AMOLED display compared to IPS matrices, the level of autonomy of OnePlus 3 turned out to be lower than that of Xiaomi Mi 5 with the same battery capacity. It would be better if they increased the thickness of the OnePlus 3 case by at least 1 mm and installed a battery with a capacity of 3600-4000 mAh, which would allow the device to be more likely to survive until late in the evening with an average level of use.

2) Still quite “raw” software at the time of writing this review. At the same time, the next update not only does not yet bring the long-awaited improvement in any area (camera, display color rendering, battery life), but also often worsens the performance of the device to one degree or another (see the relevant news on our portal website).

3) Lack of built-in radio. Yes, it is still useful for many, and there is absolutely no point in saving on it.

We specifically did not classify the presence of an AMOLED display in the OnePlus 3 smartphone as its advantages or disadvantages, since the two camps of supporters and haters of this technology are still heatedly debating among themselves. Some people like the rich colors and deep blacks of AMOLED displays, while others prefer more realistic color reproduction and true white color (iPhone 6s) without distortions into warm or cool shades. Don’t forget also about the flickering of AMOLED displays, which is not always noticeable, but leads to eye fatigue when reading or watching videos for a long time.

The lack of a memory card slot could also be attributed to the disadvantages of OnePlus 3. Moreover, the smartphone supports 2 SIM cards! Was it really so difficult to make one of the slots a combination slot, as almost everyone does now? Although we note once again that the existing amount of internal memory in the OnePlus 3 smartphone is enough for us personally, which was the reason to leave this point neutral.

And another important point that will turn a number of potential buyers away from purchasing the OnePlus 3 (at least its Chinese version A3000) is the lack of support for the B20 band LTE networks. For such customers, we recommend purchasing the European version of the smartphone (A3003) from the official OnePlus store.

Now it's time to answer the question of whether the OnePlus 3 smartphone deserves the title of "Flagship Killer" in 2016. And, having weighed all the pros and cons after a short debate, our editorial team came to the conclusion: “No, it doesn’t deserve it.” And the arguments in favor of this are as follows: at the time of writing this review, the cost of the OnePlus 3 smartphone from Chinese retailers is about $410 (free standard shipping), while in the official OnePlus store the international version of this flagship can be purchased for $399.99 (excluding shipping). Add here the possible costs of delivery by DHL (recommended) and payment of duties and fees (in countries where this occurs), and the price will rise to $450-460.

And here the buyer will have a choice - to take for about the same amount one of last year’s flagships from the world’s alpha brands (Samsung, LG, HTC, Huawei, etc.), or to give preference to the stylish frameless Nubia Z11. You shouldn’t rule out the option of paying extra for flagships from the same leading manufacturers, but now modern ones. In the end, you can give preference to other Chinese brands.

The last option seems to us the most optimal, because you can take Xiaomi Mi 5, or LeEco, or with the same chipset much cheaper. Those who do not need such exorbitant performance may well pay attention to the Meizu Pro 6, or even the still current Pro 5. In general, there are options, and in our opinion, the fact that most buyers are not yet ready to pay is pushing them to look for them for a Chinese smartphone about $500.

But there is a scenario where OnePlus 3 could still become the Flagship Killer. If the manufacturer releases a version of the smartphone with 4 GB of RAM and reduces the price, say to $330, while fixing all the weak points in the software, then the demand for OnePlus 3 may well reach the same level as for OnePlus One. We hope the marketers at OnePlus will hear us. Otherwise, the “three ruble” may repeat the fate of its predecessor (OnePlus 2) and will soon be forgotten under the influence of severe competition in the Chinese smartphone market.

Where to buy at a low price

You can buy the OnePlus 3 smartphone at a low price here:

Aliexpress, RTDC store https://goo.gl/u2np0w - $408.77 in gray, $411.77 (low price indicated at the time of writing the review, it may change in the future) in gold (OxygenOS, OTA support). And with the help of the cashback service (you can register for it here http://letyshops.ru/Andronews-1) you can save 5% (6.5% when connecting a premium account) on the purchase of OnePlus 3 on Aliexpress from the above amount (about $20 ,5). Shipping in this store is standard free from Aliexpress or DHL (+$34.79).

Video review

Specifications

Housing materials: anodized aluminum;
Color: graphite/gold;
Operating system: OxygenOS (A3003)/HydrogenOS (A3000) based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow;
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 (MSM8996), 4 Kryo cores (2x2.15 GHz, 2x1.6 GHz), 14 nm;
Video accelerator: Adreno 530, 624 MHz;
RAM: 6 GB, LPDDR4, 1866 MHz;
Built-in storage: 64 GB, UFS 2.0;
Display: 5.5 inches, 1080x1920 (1080p, Full HD), 401 ppi, Optic AMOLED, 430 nits, 2.5D Coring Gorilla Glass 4;
Built-in cameras:
- main - 16 MP, IMX298 Sony Exmor RS, 6 lenses + sapphire glass, F/2.0, PDAF, OIS, EIS, RAW support, 4K/30fps video,
- front - 8 MP, IMX179 Sony Exmor R, F/2.0;
Battery: 3000 mAh, Li-Pol, non-removable, Dash Charge (5V 4A);
Frequencies of supported networks:
- GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz;
- WCDMA: 850/900/1900/2100 MHz (bands 5/8/2/1);
- FDD-LTE: 800/850/900/1800/2100/2600 MHz (bands 20/5/8/3/1/7) version for Europe (model A3003), 1800/2100/2600 MHz (bands 3/1/ 7) version for China (model A3000);
- TDD-LTE: 2300/2600 MHz (bands 40/38) - version for Europe (model A3003), 1900/2300/2500/2600 MHz (bands 39/40/41/38) - version for China (model A3000);
Interfaces: USB 2.0 (Type-C), 3.5 mm audio jack, Dual nano-Sim slot;
Communications: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou;
Dimensions and weight: 152.7x74.7x7.35 mm, 158 grams.

06/16/2016, Thu, 12:02, Moscow time, Text: Sergey Popsulin

Oneplus has officially announced its new generation flagship - Oneplus 3. The device has been improved on almost all fronts compared to Oneplus 2. It has a unibody metal body with improved ergonomics and fast charging technology (60% in half an hour).

New “flagship killer”

The Chinese company Oneplus introduced its new flagship smartphone, the third in a row, is Oneplus 3. The vendor calls its devices “flagship killers”, since they either surpass their competitors (first of all, Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S) in terms of characteristics, or offer the same characteristics, but at the same time cost hundreds of dollars less.

If you compare the new device with Oneplus 2, it brings two fundamental innovations. Firstly, the designers tried to improve ergonomics and increase ease of use in the hand. Secondly, the company has equipped the device with fast charging technology, which works similar to Qualcomm Quickcharge, but has its own advantages and disadvantages.

New design

Oneplus 3 is made in a unibody case made of anodized aluminum, that is, it is entirely made of one plate of metal, without separate parts or connections. The front of the case is covered with protective glass. In Oneplus 2, only the frame is made of metal, and rear end plastic (with support for replaceable panels). In turn, the body of the very first flagship, Oneplus One, is made entirely of plastic.

The designers made the end of the Oneplus 3 more rounded. They significantly reduced the thickness of the device - from almost 10 mm to 7.3 mm. In addition, its weight has decreased. If Oneplus 2 weighs 175 g, then Oneplus 3 weighs 158 g. All this led to the fact that new smartphone It has become more comfortable to hold in your hand and more convenient to use, the company claims.

The weight reduction of the device was achieved in part by reducing the size of the battery. Its capacity was reduced from 3300 to 3000 mAh. Do it without reducing time battery life Replacing the LCD screen with an AMOLED screen helped.

Display

The company did not follow the trend of increasing display resolution and left the “gold standard” of 1920 x 1080 pixels and the previous 5.5-inch diagonal. According to Oneplus representatives, this combination is optimal in terms of performance and heating of the device. The display resolution is 401 pixels per inch. If you continue to increase this value, the human eye will not notice it. Therefore, the manufacturer does not see the point.

Oneplus 3 turned out to be one of the most thin smartphones On the market

As mentioned above, the display is made using AMOLED technology (the company calls it Optic AMOLED). Until now, Oneplus has always used IPS screens. The vendor noted that color customization display has been given Special attention, so color distortion will be minimal or completely unnoticeable compared to IPS matrices.

Processor and memory

Oneplus 3 received a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. It only has four cores, but it is one of the most powerful solutions on the market. Other modern flagships either have the same powerful solutions, or less powerful ones. In the Snapdragon 820, the cores are divided into pairs. The first pair operates at a frequency of 2.2 GHz, the second - 1.6 GHz. Graphics accelerator - Adreno 530.

The cost of the device with 64 GB of memory is $399

The amount of RAM is 6 GB, permanent memory is 64 GB. The device supports two SIM cards and LTE. It is impossible to install a memory card in it - it is also not supported by any previous flagship of the company. The manufacturer believes that 64 GB of internal memory, which is included in all its flagships starting from the first generation, is enough for most tasks.

Fast charging

The new device features proprietary Dash Charge technology. It allows you to charge the battery by 60% in half an hour. According to the manufacturer, 60% charge is enough for one day of operation in medium-intensity operating mode.

There are many similar technologies on the market, such as Quickcharge from Qualcomm and mCharge from Meizu. In Dash Charge, voltage control is carried out in the power adapter, and not in the smartphone itself, unlike its analogues. Thanks to this, the device remains cool enough during intensive charging, writes The Verge.

On the other hand, no other charger will provide the same charging speed as the branded adapter with Dash Charge. That is, the owner will have to use only branded chargers for this. Any others can be used, but the charging speed will be standard.

Camera

Oneplus 3 is equipped with a 16 MP main camera and an 8 MP front camera. The resolution of the first has increased by 3 MP compared to Oneplus 2, the second has doubled. In both cases, Sony photo matrices are used - some of the best on the market.

The Oneplus 3 description doesn't say anything about laser autofocus. On Oneplus 2, it delivers a focusing time of 0.2s as per official data. In the case of the new flagship, nothing is said about focusing time. But the presence of optical and electronic stabilization is noted (Oneplus 2 has only optical stabilization).

operating system

The smartphone runs proprietary OxygenOS firmware, which is based on Android Marshmallow (the most latest version). OxygenOS was released simultaneously with Oneplus 2 after Oneplus had a misunderstanding with the developers of Cyanogen OS (this firmware is used in the first Oneplus smartphone).

OxygenOS is in many ways similar to Cyanogen OS - in terms of additional functions (such as support for screen gestures, the MaxxAudio equalizer), as well as in terms of extensive personalization (the ability to customize buttons, assign additional actions to them, etc.).

Cost and Availability

Oneplus 3 costs $399. The device will be available for purchase through Oneplus partners. The company also offers a car charger ($30) and a spare regular charger ($20). Both support Dash Charge.