OnePlus 3T Review: At Rs 29,999, The OnePlus 3T Gives You The Best Bang For Your Buck

If you're a OnePlus 3 user scratching your head trying to wrap your mind around how your OnePlus flagship can turn 'old' in just six months, and at the same time cursing at the unfairness of life, the universe and everything in between in general, well, you're not alone.

For the OnePlus 3T is difficult to comprehend. That doesn't mean we don't find it appealing. It's beautiful, sexy, every bit as cutting edge as you'd expect a OnePlus flagship smartphone to be. A souped up anomaly off the OnePlus 3 production line that we'd take any given day of the week -- twice on Sundays! That's essentially what the OnePlus 3T is -- its maker's pride and joy, envy of the chasing pack, and an extremely compelling reason for Android fans to consider.

Same old design :(

There's nothing in the OnePlus 3T which is worse than the six-month old OnePlus 3 it replaces -- and the OnePlus 3 was (still is) a helluva smartphone. And therein lies some of OnePlus 3T's criticism - that in the quest to not change OnePlus 3's winning formula, maybe it's playing just a bit too safe.

Case in point -- the OnePlus 3T's design and overall look and feel. It's identical to the OnePlus 3's shell and exterior right down to the T (see what we did there?). Apart from the gunmetal finish, which is nice and premium, you'd be hard pressed to differentiate between the OP3 and OP3T. That's disappointing. With a brand new Mercedes, fans expect a new design -- just as Apple fans who grudgingly bought the iPhone 6s having passed over the iPhone 6, hoping for a newer look. So what if they're better under the hood? It'd have been nice for OnePlus, a brand that prides itself in pushing the boundaries and constantly keeping its competitors on their toes, to exhibit a fresh new idea with the OnePlus 3T's safe and sound exterior.

Now that that's out of my system, I must draw your attention to some undeniable positives in the new, improved OnePlus 3T design. The top of its frame slightly curves differently than the bottom portion of its shell, not something you'd notice at a glance but it feels pretty darn good. The single slab aluminum exterior of the phone is built well and exudes a sense of premium craftsmanship, while the finely textured gunmetal finish is smooth and velvety. Maybe a bit too smooth, as it slipped through my clumsy fingers and fell a couple of times over the weekend with no visual damage. Props to the Gorilla Glass 4 screen on the OnePlus 3T and the sapphire glass for added protection on its rear camera bump -- stray scratches can knock themselves out!

Geeky, customizability FTW

All the OnePlus essentials are here and customizability is pretty much the name of the game on the OnePlus 3T. The left edge has the three stage alert slider to strike a balance between app notifications and your sanity levels; the capacitive recent apps and back buttons on the bottom screen bezel are switchable which is pretty neat; the fingerprint sensor also doubles up as the home button -- again completely configurable, allowing you to define single-click and double-click actions. What¡¯s more, just like on the OnePlus 3, the AMOLED screen on the OnePlus 3T supports calibration, allowing you to switch between the default NTSC to sRGB or define your very own screen temperature (warm, cold or neutral) depending on what suits your eyes best. Quite nifty this!

The 3.5mm jack is sensibly retained on the OnePlus 3T, and it¡¯s conveniently placed on the bottom edge. The speaker grille and USB-C slot are other essentials on the OnePlus 3T -- fairly straightforward, nothing to complain or nitpick here. If you¡¯re a OnePlus user, you¡¯ll sense the familiarity of it all on the OnePlus 3T.

Performance is king

As far as performance goes, the OnePlus 3T pretty much gets straight As in all the key departments -- Screen, CPU, Graphics, Camera, Audio and Battery. The phone sports a gorgeous 5.5-inch Optic AMOLED screen that¡¯s great to look at -- colours look great, moving visuals are a treat, and text is sharp -- with very good native contrast and brightness levels. Unless you¡¯re viewing the OnePlus 3T screen at extreme angles, it shows very little colour shift or dim in brightness. The phone supports a single-click night mode which dulls and dims down the light coming off of the screen in a flash -- it¡¯s super convenient, as you don¡¯t have to mess with multiple settings.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 SoC on the OnePlus 3T ensures the phone¡¯s at the frontier of blitzkriegingly pacy performance. Both in AnTuTu and GFX OpenGL benchmarks, the OnePlus 3T ranks among the top 5 smartphones in the world right now -- a notch below the iPhone 7 Plus, but giving the Google Pixel XL a good run for its money. Apps launch and close like a breeze on the OnePlus 3T, and its fingerprint sensor works like a very quick charm. Whether it¡¯s gaming, watching a movie or listening to music -- thanks to the phone¡¯s better-than-average onboard speakers which are fairly loud and don¡¯t distort at high volume -- the OnePlus 3T performs every task with a lackadaisical yawn. Yes, the phone¡¯s that quick! And the threadbare out-of-sight custom skin it wraps in terms of software ensure you get to taste near-perfect vanilla Android Marshmallow 6.0 operating flavour. This is another reason why the OP3T seems fast compared to other flagships.

No grimaces here, it¡¯s all smiles!

In the camera department there¡¯s more good news. The OnePlus 3T offers better overall performance than the OnePlus 3. The rear camera is unchanged - it¡¯s the same f/2.0 aperture lens with 16MP Sony IMX 298 sensor with phase detection autofocus and optical image stabilisation (OIS). This helps the OnePlus 3T click very good pictures in a variety of still and moving visuals in a variety of light combos. The overall image quality is very good with low noise levels, with the camera reproducing vibrant colours, good amount of details showcasing a healthy dynamic range, and the optical image stabilisation works great especially while shooting videos -- it keeps jitters and shakes down to a bare minimum.

The 16MP front camera on the OnePlus 3T sports a 16MP Samsung 3P8SP sensor with a f/2.0 aperture lens (better than the OnePlus 3), and it helps capture crisper selfies, with true to source colours and sharp focus. The overall camera quality of the OnePlus 3T is roughly 80-85% as good as the one we saw on the iPhone 7 Plus and the Google Pixel XL at 40-60% of the overall cost -- which is a stellar proposition!

Forget about that charger!

The battery life on the OnePlus 3T is better than the OnePlus 3 -- it should be, as it¡¯s now 3400 mAh versus 3000 mAh from before. And that extra 400 mAh makes a big difference! Throughout my past four days spent using the phone, I¡¯ve only charged it three times, and I¡¯ve been fairly impressed with the phone¡¯s battery capability. I left the screen on auto brightness, with always on 3G and Wi-Fi, consuming social media, listening to Apple Music and watching YouTube and Hotstar videos, and the few games thrown in here and there, and I¡¯ve got the phone to last up to 22 hours -- something that I haven¡¯t seen many Android phones achieve, especially as powerful as the OnePlus 3Ts. The fact that it comes with only a Full HD screen (not a QHD screen) helps the battery last longer, and with more conservative usage I¡¯m certain the OnePlus 3T can easily last beyond a day. Easily. What¡¯s more, the Dash charger ensures quick charging of the OnePlus 3T -- upwards of 50% with as little as 30 minutes of charging. But without the Dash charger, that speed falls down drastically.

Should you buy it? Hell yeah!

The OnePlus 3T takes the OnePlus 3 and makes it even better. It¡¯s a minor update, we get it. It doesn¡¯t change a whole lot in terms of look and feel, but there¡¯s no question that its under-the-hood improvements are totally worth the extra 2k it demands. The screen¡¯s great, the camera¡¯s much improved and the battery lasts longer than ever. What¡¯s more, the OnePlus 3T isn¡¯t just a 30k phone, it actually bumps shoulders with more costlier flagships like the Apple iPhone 7 and Google Pixel, and more than holds its own.

The 64GB variant of OnePlus 3T sells for Rs 29,999, while the 128GB variant costs Rs 34,999. If you¡¯re a OnePlus 3 user, you don¡¯t really need the new device -- your old phone¡¯s still a great phone. But if you¡¯re any other Android user eyeing the market for an upgrade, and can¡¯t afford the Google Pixel XL, just close your eyes and get yourself the OnePlus 3T. Period.

RATING: 8.5 / 10