OnePlus 3 Featuring 5.5-inch FHD Display, Snapdragon 820 SoC, 6GB RAM Launched at $400

Chinese startup OnePlus is only three years old, but you will be surprised with just how much importance and traction it receives from the Android community. Its well-built, high-end Android smartphones are priced fairly aggressively, allowing it to compete with the likes of Samsung, HTC, and LG among others in the cut-throat smartphone market. The company today unveiled its third flagship smartphone, the OnePlus 3. Priced at $399 (for the unlocked version), the OnePlus 3 sports a 5.5-inch AMOLED display (the company is reluctant on moving to QHD display, insisting that higher resolution will unnecessarily drain the battery faster). It is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 SoC, coupled with 6GB of RAM, a 16-megapixel rear camera with OIS, an 8-megapixel front-facing shooter, a fingerprint scanner, and 64GB of built-in storage. The dual-SIM capable smartphone houses a 3,000mAh battery, which the company says can go from 0 to 60 percent in just 30 minutes. In its review (the media received the device a week ahead of the launch), CNET finds the OnePlus 3 to be an "excellent performer", and its nearly stock Android operating system a refreshing change. The publication concludes that at $400 price point, OnePlus 3 is a great purchase.

Comments

How are they a startup?

[schwit1]

This isn't their first phone.
This isn't their second phone.

Re: What's the deal with wireless charging..

[DigitAl56K]

I used to be a fan of wireless charging, but when I last used it it out around 1A, which is a slow charge these days, and made my phones very hot, which is bad for battery life. USB-C ports seem to hold up better than older formats, so I'm less concerned about plugging in these days.

Re:"Nearly" stock Android.

[amicusNYCL]

OxygenOS was developed by OnePlus, not the Chinese government. Unless you care to cite a source which shows otherwise, of course. The OxygenOS kernel is here if you'd like to go through it:

https://github.com/OnePlusOSS/...

Re:Is this what they've determined we want?

[Ichijo]

Do we really need 6 GB of RAM on a phone?

My Nexus 5 has 2 GB, and I often run out of RAM which slows down the phone. Right now it's using all but 382M. If I force close apps or reboot, I can reclaim some of that free RAM. So it would be nice to have at least double the RAM in order to keep the phone running smoothly without requiring regular maintenance on my part.

Do I need 6GB instead of 4GB? Maybe not, but it couldn't hurt, especially when it's so cheap. Someone once said 640KB ought to be enough for anybody, and we all know how that turned out!