I have spent more than a month with the Oneplus 3 now and not surprisingly, it is now my primary device! It created a ton of buzz when it arrived, some were over the moon, some were okay and some were lambasting it. Let me tell you, after a month and more with it, I am still impressed. Here’s why
The main thing that has me impressed does not reside as hardware or software on the phone. It is in the outside world! I am talking about Oneplus actively listening to feedback and actually sorting out the sore points that people were upset about. In his usual style, Carl Pei took to the forum and very honestly accepted feedback and rolled out fixes for ones that were really critical. Like the big noise about a mode not being supported by the display that very frankly seemed blown out of proportion. The other thing that helped this phone a lot is the fact that there is no circus around the invite system for this one and you just have to go online and buy it. People were also very impressed with the pop-ups that they could walk into and buy it.
That being said, I am a reviewer and it is in my brief to be technical, so let’s be that. The first technical reason that has me impressed with the Oneplus 3 is the performance. After the community wanted control over memory management, a fix was rolled out OTA and largely addressed that concern. Smartphones generally have a tendency to slow over time, when they are new, they’re all snazzy and fast and impressive, give them time and they get slower. Surprisingly, the OP3 has not done that yet. I see it still performing excellently and am yet to have lag or stutter come in. This I saw after I have had to substitute the OP3 as my main device for work owing to a surgery. I was unable to get to my laptop and had to work out of my phone for many weeks. The device did not disappoint me one bit! Is it the processor? Is it the large amount of RAM? Well, I think it is a combination of both. It helps that it has more RAM than my laptop and multi-tasks like a pro.
The next big reason for the device being impressive is Oxygen OS. I was a skeptic when I first got it with my Oneplus 2, I was comparing it constantly with Cyanogen and feeling bad. But then, the Oneplus philosophy of listening and fixing has worked here too. The custom ROM is very very close to stock android, has zero bloatware and the footprint on your device is not imposing. It’s there but never in your face. The latest update has a notification tray toggle for NFC and that is very thoughtful. I am now recovering from a surgery and hence when I have to hand off docs to my staff for publishing, I just switch on and tap – done!
The alert slider was a feature that I did not think much of when I first saw it, but it has grown on me big time and I have started looking for it whenever I see a new device in the market! It really is very nifty to slide the device into silent mode when you are doing something important and do not want constant buzzing. Or when you are resting after post surgical dressing you need only important alerts disturbing you, works like a charm!
Dash Charge is the hero of the whole package actually. Whatever great stuff a device has, at the end of the day, all that matters is whether it’s running when you need it or not. Believe me, dash charge makes life a lot more uncomplicated. A day’s power in half an hour and no frills there. I have the car charger that supports dash charge and on the run when you can charge up full in very short time when you are on the road, it quite literally saves the rest of the day. And when you have a device like the OP3 that is a good productivity enhancer, it is a deal maker to have dash charge! ‘Nuff Said!
The free support for a fixed time helps a lot! One of the things that has people worried a lot is the fact that while their devices are top-notch when they buy them, even a small technical snag ends up seeing them make endless runs to the service center and spending through their nose. The support deal helps there, a lot!
So, in summary, A Superstar is a superstar, and one that gets better as time passes is rare! That my dear friends is the Oneplus 3 for you! It’s like the calm Pete Lau and the vociferous Carl Pei put together in a device! I am loving it! I hope that Oneplus keeps going like this and gets to their rightful place in the pecking order!
