OnePlus 3T review: Good but gone

The OnePlus 3T has been usurped by newer models, with the latest being the excellent OnePlus 5T. The company no longer stocks the OnePlus 3T, but you can still get it second-hand on Amazon. If you’re looking for a newer device, the 5T is £449 and – in the words of our reviewer Jonathan Bray – quite simply the best mid-range smartphone money can buy. If you have your heart set on a 3T, read on. 

Jonathan Bray’s original OnePlus 3T review continues below.

The OnePlus 3 set a new standard for reasonably priced smartphones when it was launched in June 2016, and for five months it has ruled the roost. Offering an incredible combination of premium specifications and a ridiculously reasonable price, it carved out a whole new category; it was so good it had no close rivals.

Now, however, the OnePlus is ending the honeymoon with the new OnePlus 3T, a new replacement flagship smartphone with a faster processor, a bigger battery and, on paper, a vastly improved front camera – but also a much higher price.

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OnePlus 3T review: Changes

So what’s new? From a physical perspective, there’s hardly anything new at all. Like the S versions of Apple’s iPhones, all the important improvements have taken place beneath the surface.

I liked the design of the OnePlus 3 when I first saw it and I’m still a fan. The OnePlus 3T is almost identical to its forebear, available in the same range of colours with an attractive anodised metal chassis with grippy, chiselled edges.

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This is an area where I feel the OnePlus 3T forges ahead of even more expensive phones such as the Google Pixel XL and the iPhone 7 Plus (although perhaps not the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge). Those chamfered sides create more friction between the skin on your palms and fingers and the phone’s aluminium shell, meaning it’s a less stressful experience wielding the phone one-handed. That’s an important consideration for anyone who’s ever dropped their phone on a hard, unforgiving surface and cracked the screen or worse.

The one external difference between the OnePlus 3T and the original is its slightly flattened out rear panel and a tougher sapphire crystal lens cover for the camera. Otherwise it’s as you were before: a dual-SIM tray resides on the right-hand side, just above the power button, on the left edge lives the phone’s three-way do-not-disturb switch and volume rocker, while adorning the bottom of the phone is a six-pinprick speaker grille, the phone’s USB Type-C port and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

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OnePlus 3T vs OnePlus 3: Key specs compared

I could editorialise about what makes the OnePlus 3T better than the OnePlus 3, at least from a specifications point of view, but I feel a table is the best place to present that sort of information, so here it is: a point-by-point comparison of the two.

	OnePlus 3T	OnePlus 3
Screen	5.5in AMOLED, 1,920 x 1,080 (401ppi), Gorilla Glass 4	5.5in AMOLED, 1,920 x 1,080 (401ppi), Gorilla Glass 4
Processor	Quad-core 2.35GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 821	Quad-core 2.15GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 820
Graphics	Adreno 530	Adreno 530
RAM	6GB	6GB
Storage	64GB/128GB	64GB
Dimensions	75 x 7.4 x 153mm	75 x 7.4 x 153mm
Weight	158g	158g
Rear camera	16MP, f/2, phase-detect autofocus, OIS, sapphire crystal glass lens cover	16MP, f/2, phase-detect autofocus, OIS
Front camera	16MP, f/2	8MP, f/2
Max 4G speed	Cat6 (300Mbits/sec download, 50Mbits/sec upload)	Cat6 (300Mbits/sec download, 50Mbits/sec upload)
Battery capacity	3,400mAh	3,000mAh
Price	£400 (64GB); £439 (128GB)	£329

That’s not an awful lot for your £70, although the new 128GB storage option is pretty tempting. Is it worth the premium? Well, no, but it will soon be a moot point. When stocks run out of the OnePlus 3, you won’t have any choice but to buy a OnePlus 3T.

And, judged on its own merits, this is still an extremely generous specification for the money. There’s no other smartphone at this price that comes close. We currently like the Motorola Moto Z Play for its superlative battery life and clever modular accessories, but it can’t match the OnePlus 3 for power and all-round appeal.

OnePlus 3T review: Performance

Let’s concentrate on performance for the moment. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know that one of the few differences between it and the OnePlus 3 is the processor. The OnePlus 3T has a 2.35GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 where the OnePlus 3 has a 2.15GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 820.

How much difference does this make? Not much. Qualcomm says by offloading more of the HDR+ processing from the CPU to its Hexagon DSP, the camera should be able to capture HDR images quicker, but that’s about it. In use, both phones feel equally responsive and can play any modern mobile game without breaking a sweat. That isn’t surprising given that each phone has precisely the same amount of RAM – 6GB – and the same Adreno 530 graphics chip.

In the benchmarks, there is a difference between the 3T and its predecessor, but it’s still a good distance overall behind the Samsung Galaxy S7 and its octa-core Exynos 8890 chip. That changes if you factor in price, of course. The following graph displaying Geekbench 4 points per pound shows just how far the OnePlus 3T’s price shifts the balance.

Here, the soon-to-be-no-more OnePlus 3 leads the pack, the OnePlus 3T is a clear second, with the Samsung Galaxy S7 a distant third.

As for graphics performance, the two OnePlus phones are almost identical, which is hardly surprising given they both use the Adreno 530 graphics chip. The Samsung Galaxy falls behind in the onscreen test because its 2,560 x 1,440 display requires much more graphics grunt to drive.

The key again, though, is to factor in the price. Here are how those numbers translate to frames rendered per pound:

Once again, the OnePlus phones are a significant stride ahead of the competition, and although the £70 price hike does impact the phone’s bang per buck, it’s still far better value than its immediate rivals.

Battery life should be a touch better, with a larger 3,400mAh battery in place, but on the first run of our test (I’ll be running it again a few times to make sure of the result), the OnePlus 3T returned less impressive results than its predecessor. It lasted 13hrs 22mins where the OnePlus 3 lasted 16hrs 56mins, a good three hours short.

That looks like it may be an anomalous result, though, given the reports I’m reading from around the web, which generally suggests battery life has improved, so I’m going to retest and update this section when I have a better idea how good it really is.

One thing that is clear is that, once the battery runs dry, the OnePlus 3T charges fast. OnePlus states the phone will deliver “a day’s charge in half an hour” when connected to the mains, which sounds impressive until you examine it closely. Exactly how long a given amount of charge is likely to last you will depend on how you use the phone, where you use it, what the network conditions are and so on.

However, I can report that it is pretty impressive. Starting with a capacity of 49%, half an hour connected to the mains ramped up the charge to 92%, with the phone hitting 100% capacity 24 minutes later. So, that’s almost half the battery in half an hour, which is pretty darned good, but probably only a day’s use if you’re really careful with it.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that the Dash Charge system the OnePlus 3 uses is proprietary and not compatible with any other system, such as Qualcomm’s Quick Charge. In other words, to get these rates of charge you’ll have to use the power adapter and cable supplied in the box.

OnePlus 3T review: Display quality

I wasn’t particularly keen on the screen on the OnePlus 3, at least not to start with. The colours were too lurid and unrealistic for my liking and certainly far from accurate.

OnePlus fixed that with a software update, adding the option to select an sRGB colour mode in Developer options, and the OnePlus 3T takes things a step further by introducing a new Screen Calibration section in the phone’s Display settings. Users can now choose from Default (a slightly less lurid version of the OnePlus 3’s original colour profile), sRGB and Customise options.

[gallery:10] It’s good to have those choices, but the display’s vital statistics remain unchanged. You’re getting a 1,920 x 1,080 AMOLED screen here with a maximum brightness of 421cd/m2 and perfect contrast, and it’s an excellent display in any of these modes. It’s crisp, colours are vibrant, and its new sRGB mode delivers a decent 93.2% coverage of the colour space.

The only slight disappointment for those thinking of investing in a VR headset is that the 1080p resolution (401ppi) won’t look anywhere near as sharp up close to the eye as a phone with a higher resolution such as the Google Pixel XL. For everyone else, though, the OnePlus 3T’s display is as sharp as you need it to be.

OnePlus 3T review: Cameras, rear and front-facing

I won’t go into the rear camera much here other than to say it’s decent. It’s basically the same as the OnePlus 3, with an f/2.0 aperture, phase-detect autofocus and optical image stabilisation ticking most of the key boxes for features. The only thing it lacks is laser autofocus for the very best performance in low light, but generally it’s a good performer.

The big news is the front camera is exactly the same resolution as the one at the rear. Yep, 16-megapixel selfies can now be yours, as long as you don’t mind your imperfections being captured in painfully sharp detail.

Do you really need all of those pixels, though? I’d rather have a camera that took better photos.

As you can see from the samples posted below, the front camera has trouble balancing areas of light and dark within the frame (and, yes, I know I need a haircut). Even in more favourable conditions, the images it produces are often overexposed, afflicted by wonky colour balance and, on close examination, a touch soft as well. I’m not impressed.

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For comparison, the Pixel XL produces selfies that are much more competently exposed (although sometimes a little dark), and with colours that are more true to life. It just goes to show that a higher pixel count doesn’t always mean a superior quality of image.

That’s a shame because, as mentioned above, the rear camera is actually pretty darned good, and capable of producing realistic, well-balanced images that capture the moment rather effectively.

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OnePlus 3T review: Verdict

The OnePlus 3T is a smartphone that feels a little unnecessary to me. It isn’t a major upgrade on the OnePlus 3, with the only improvements of note being the front-facing camera and increased battery capacity. Even if the battery life does prove to be a step forward in the long run, that’s not an awful lot of upgrade for your additional cash.

There isn’t even the temptation of Android 7 Nougat right now (which I find baffling), although the OnePlus 3T will be upgraded to Google’s latest OS before long, the company promises.

Does this mean we won’t be recommending OnePlus’ flagship smartphone any more? No, and the reason is simple: the OnePlus 3 was such a great buy that the company would have had to nearly double the price before negatively impacting its appeal.

So, as it stands, the OnePlus 3T is still a great buy. No, it’s not quite the outright bargain the OnePlus 3 was, but the OnePlus 3T’s speed, screen quality, decent camera and practical design mean it’s set to take over as our favourite smartphone just as soon as the OnePlus 3 is no longer available.