It is year three in OnePlus’ great experiment to produce flagship handsets at a fraction of the price of rivals. The OnePlus 3 has been designed to compete with phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge but costs only £309, rather than the £500-600 that you’d pay for another brand.
This is easily the sleekest phone that OnePlus has launched to date, and if you’re after as much as possible for the money then this handset is easy to recommend. There’s little here not to like, especially since OnePlus has done away with the invite-only purchasing strategy adopted for its previous handsets.
Each OnePlus phone to date has offered a marked improvement on what has gone before. The original OnePlus One was an all-plastic affair, with a somewhat strange "sandstone" finish. The OnePlus 2 enhanced the body with metal sides, but retained the plastic rear.
The OnePlus 3 offers an upgrade once again, this time by way of a metal and glass design. It’s available in "Graphite" – a muted grey – and its 7.4mm-thick aluminium frame makes this handset a delight to both look at and hold.
A 5.5-inch phone may still not be for everyone, but the OnePlus 3 is among the more manageable phones with such a screen size. The finish is excellent too: the aluminium rear is anodised sports the same type of non-shiny look you’ll find on an iPhone.
I’ve always been a fan of the quirky, instantly recognisable design of the previous OnePlus phones, but have met plenty of folk who weren’t. Those people will be happy to discover that the OnePlus 3 has a far more conventional appearance.
The OnePlus 3 is plainer and prettier than its predecessors, but its quirks remain; they’ve just been relocated. It’s possible to buy super-skinny rear covers with the classic OnePlus sandstone finish, a few different wood finishes or one with a carbon-fibre look. These aren’t ultra-rugged cases, but will protect the aluminium frame from scratches, without adding bulk to the phone.
KEY FEATURES
5.5-inch 1080p Super AMOLED screen
6GB dual-channel DDR4 RAM
64GB storage
Android 6.0.1
OxygenUI
Snadragon 820 CPU
Manufacturer: OnePlus
Review Price: £309.00
OVERALL GREAT SMARTPHONES AT THIS RANGE