To be honest, there was nothing unique in OnePlus 2 (Review) but with OnePlus 3 the company ended this disappointment. We really liked this phone during our review and in our view it comes first in our list of phones priced under Rs 30,000. OnePlus’ decision to upgrade a successful smartphone that was just five months old was surprising. The sale of OnePlus 3T has started on Amazon for Rs 29,999. There is not much difference in specifications and features between the old and new phones. And when we held the new phone in our hands for the first time, it felt the same as the old phone. We already know that this phone is good, but should the new upgraded variant be given more importance than the previous phone while buying it? Let us know.
OnePlus 3T design and build
It’s amazing to talk about how far smartphone design has come, and the OnePlus 3T is another great example of this. Its body is made from a single block of aluminium, giving this phone the feel of a flagship phone made by Samsung, HTC or Apple. The curved edges make the device comfortable to hold in the hand. The buttons on the phone are also easy to operate. An alert slider on the left lets you toggle silent and do-not-disturb modes, each of which is customizable. But because of this physical slider, DNAD cannot be scheduled to turn on automatically, which we did not like a bit.
The 5.5-inch AMOLED display has the same Full HD resolution as the OnePlus 3 and Corning Gorilla Glass 4. Pixel density is high due to which text and icons are clearly visible. And the colors of the photos also appear clearly. We noticed that the dark theme of neon green color looks best on this type of panel. The color temperature in the phone is fine like the old variant but it can be fixed by going to the screen calibration setting.
The display on the 3T is brighter than before and this can be seen when both phones are placed side by side. Apart from color calibration, touch is one department we found a little strange. This makes it more frustrating while typing and makes the keyboard feel sticky. The phone also sometimes misrecognizes some swipe gestures, and several times we opened Google Search while opening the notification shade. OnePlus has acknowledged this issue and it is expected to be resolved with the arrival of the Android Nougat update.
The fingerprint sensor detects fingers quickly and can also lock the app. It also has a capacitive home button. And it has two buttons on either side which are backlit. The functions of these buttons can be swapped and onscreen buttons can be enabled for navigation as per your convenience. There is a speaker at the bottom. The phone has a Type-C port and 3.5 mm headphone socket at the bottom.
The gunmetal colored rear of the phone enhances the beauty of the phone. The camera is protruding towards the front but due to the sapphire crystal glass, there is no need to worry about scratches. In the box, you will get a 20-watt power adapter, a Type-C cable, a SIM-ejector, and an instruction manual. The packaging and quality of the accessory is fantastic and we have no complaints about it. The dimensions of OnePlus 3T are the same as the older OnePlus 3.
OnePlus 3T specification and feature
This phone has a better processor than the previous smartphone. Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 821 chipset has been given in OnePlus 3T. This increases the phone’s processing power, battery saving and user experience by up to 10 percent. This phone has 6 GB LPDDR4 RAM and 128 GB inbuilt storage. The unit we are reviewing today is a premium variant and is priced at Rs 34,999 but the 64GB variant of OnePlus 3T is priced at Rs 29,999.
Talking about other specifications, this phone has features like Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, Bluetooth 4.2, USB OTG, NFC and GPS. There is no FM in the phone. This phone supports 4G with VoLTE. OnePlus 3T runs on OxygenOS (3.5.3) which is based on Android Marshmallow 6.0.1. These features are the same as the previous OnePlus 3 and have just been redesigned. The ‘Shelf’ can be accessed by swiping right on the home screen. This is a customizable screen that creates visits for quick access. By swiping down and up on the homescreen, the notification shade and Google Search can be accessed respectively.
Three types of work can be done with capacitive buttons. For their regular function, they have to be pressed for a long time and pressed twice. All shortcuts can be played from the ‘Gesture’ menu. Talking about apps, OnePlus Community App, Amazon, Kindle, Google Suite and basic apps like file manager and voice recorder come pre-installed in the phone.
oneplus 3t performance
General app and system performance is definitely great and the credit for this goes to the 4GB RAM. Apart from this, due to the storage provided in the phone, you never face any problem of space. With the new Qualcomm processor, you can run anything without any problem. Heavy games like Asphalt 8 run well. The phone never gets too hot even during intense usage, which is very tempting.
OnePlus 3T also achieved great figures in benchmarking tests. Watching videos on the phone is great due to the excellent color reproduction of the display. The speaker is quite loud and the audio is not very clear over surrounding noises. The display is easily readable even in sunlight and the wide viewing angle lens is also good. 4K video also plays smoothly on the phone. But we have a complaint about the speaker grill in the phone which gets hidden by the palm while playing games or watching videos.
Compared to OnePlus 3, the second major change in the new phone has been made in the front camera. OnePlus 3T has Samsung’s 16 megapixel sensor which is equipped with aperture F/2.0 and fixed focus. Pictures taken with the camera come out with detail in good lighting. And the quality of photos remains fine even in low light. There is some noise visible in the pictures but there is no color noise so the pictures remain usable.
OnePlus 3T has a 16-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization, PDAF and aperture F/2.0, just like the old phone. Landscape and macro photos come with detailing and color reproduction is also good. The Auto HDR mode works well and the phone will also have an HQ mode which reduces noise by combining multiple photos of the same frame.
We liked the pictures taken by the camera in low light. The pictures are not very noisy and the detailing in them is also fine. Shooting modes include slow-motion video, timelapse, manual and panorama. Along with this, the camera can shoot video at 1080 pixels at 60 frames per second. Full HD and 4K video quality is also very good.
The third noticeable change in this phone is the 3400 mAh battery. In our HD video loop test, the phone’s battery lasted 14 hours and 3 minutes, which is fine. During standard usage, we could easily use the phone for one and a half day. Dash charging technology works brilliantly and the phone gets charged up to 45 percent in just 35 minutes and the phone gets fully charged in an hour.
our decision
Talking about the specifications, there has not been much change in OnePlus 3T and it is just an upgraded variant of its previous smartphone OnePlus 3. The main features of the phone are a better battery, a higher resolution front camera and a faster CPU. The new firmware also plays an important role in the all-round performance of the new phone compared to the previous smartphone.
Considering the current price of the phone, you should ignore the OnePlus 3 and spend the extra Rs 2,000 to buy the OnePlus 3T. However, we feel it would be worth spending Rs 5,000 more for the premium variant of the OnePlus 3T. Don’t misunderstand our point, this phone is good even for Rs 34,999 but it would have been better if the phone had a Quad HD display.
It’s hard to find fault with the OnePlus 3T, and just like the older phone, everything about it is great. And it proves to be better than OnePlus 3T. Camera performance is better in low light and we have no complaints about the lack of expandable storage in the phone. If we talk about shortcomings, some people may be disappointed by the absence of FM radio. Problems with touch while typing may bother people, although OnePlus has promised to solve it with the Nougat update.
If your budget is limited and you want to enjoy the best Android phone then OnePlus 3T is the only smartphone.