OnePlus has recently announced the third in the line of what it calls its “Flagship Killers”, and with the OnePlus 3, it may finally have developed something that could be worthy of that name. As it is by far the closest I’ve seen yet that could take on Samsung and Apple for dominance of the smartphone market. And as it has a mid-range price, but all the bells and whistles you would expect to find on a high-end premium handset it represents extremely good value for money.
OnePlus 3 Vs One Plus 2
In this article, I am going to take a close look at the OnePlus 3 and compare it to its predecessor the OnePlus 2 to see just what the differences are and whether a $399 price tag is justified.
Design and Build
To start things off let’s have a look at how it looks. Compared to the OnePlus 2 the OnePlus 3 has been given a complete makeover. With its 3rd generation handset, OnePlus has decided to go for a truly premium look and feel, gone are the plastic rough looking edges of the OnePlus 2. Instead, this new handset has a svelte metal unibody design with smooth edges. Furthermore, it’s also had some weight and thickness removed coming in at 7.35mm thick and 158g in weight.
You can really see that every aspect of this handset’s design, has had the attention of the design team and as such is a first class looking premium smartphone.
Display
One thing that has not changed between the OnePlus 3 and its predecessor, is the size of the screen. At 5.5-inches and FULL-HD (1920×1080) resolution, this all sounds very similar to what was on offer with the OnePlus 2. However, with its latest handset OnePlus has upgraded the display technology to Optic AMOLED, this is comparable to the technology used by Samsung with its Super AMOLED. This new display tech offers even more vibrant colors and an extremely good contrast ratio, so when compared to the OnePlus 2 the OnePlus 3 display certainly has the edge.
Camera
The rear camera has received an upgrade, from a 13MP sensor on the OnePlus 2 to a 16MP sensor on the OnePlus 3. And there’s more this new sensor is a Sony IMX298 camera, which brings with it a new manual mode, phase-detection and improved autofocus. However, there is one point of contention, and that is the fact that the OnePlus 2 has a dual-LED flash, but the OnePlus 3 has but a single one!
I’ve looked through the detailed technical specs and it seems as though OnePlus decided to scrap the dual-LED because it was not required. Is this a downgrade? I’m not sure, but it could be possible that the new Sony tech makes up and even surpasses the old camera tech.
Software
If you did not already know, the OnePlus series of handsets are Android-based. They run on a custom version of Android called OxygenOS and as it currently stands OxygenOS 3.0.2 is the current version being rolled out to the OnePlus 2. However, for its new OnePlus 3, OnePlus is giving it an all new version Oxygen 3.1, which is based on Android Marshmallow. Both versions offer an extremely quick user experience with lots of customizable options and there’s even gesture support.
OnePlus 3 vs OnePlus 2 Specs
As for how each handset compares in the specs department, take a look at the chart I’ve put together.
As you can see from the specs above, the OnePlus 3 is a huge improvement over the previous handset. With its increased RAM of 6GB, Snapdragon 820 CPU, and its unibody metal design, it by far more superior of the two handsets. And with not much difference in price, normally around $60, you could skip the OnePlus 2 entirely and be sure that you’re are getting something that is far superior!
