OnePlus 3 unboxing and impressions [Video]

Today we’re taking a look at the recently announced OnePlus 3. I’ve only had this phone for a couple of days, so don’t expect a full review just yet. But instead, our initial impressions with more to come…

Aside from the phone itself, inside of the box, you’ll find some paperwork as usual, a USB to USB Type-C cable, and a Dash Charging wall adapter, which we’ll get into in a little bit. And if you haven’t noticed, this phone looks a bit different from its predecessor. Gone are the swappable back covers of the OnePlus 2, and instead we’re given an assortment of cases to choose from to customize things a bit.

It’s got an all aluminum design, it’s thin (7.3mm of thin goodness), lightweight, and pretty much checks all of the boxes for your typical flagship smartphone, but in OnePlus fashion, won’t cost you an arm and a leg off-contract. I have to say though, I’m a big fan of what they’ve done with the design this year. It just feels like such a solid smartphone.

Watch our unboxing and impressions video below:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UJtGMo5P40]

This year the flagship killer, is packing some killer specs. We’ve got a Snapdragon 820 processor, Adreno 530 GPU, 64GB of non-expandable flash storage, and a whopping 6GB of RAM… But I think that’s just OnePlus showing off a bit. But again, they’re aiming for that whole flagship killer aspect so more equals better? Oh and there’s even NFC this year too, so you’ll have no problem with mobile payments.

Around the front side, we have a 5.5-inch 1080p Optic AMOLED display measuring in at 401 PPI and I’m pretty happy about those stupid thin bezels as well. Colors are nice and bright here, images are crispy, and it just looks miles better than an IPS display.

The fingerprint sensor here is much better than last year’s model as well. It’s stupid quick and I never really ran into any issues aside from a hiccup once or twice. And also carried over from the OnePlus 2, we have the Alert slider on the side that will work to switch between different alert modes in Android.

Speaking of Android, I’m once again delighted to be using Oxygen OS. It’s based on Marshmallow and the experience is buttery smooth. This phone is quick. Maybe it’s the 6GB of RAM hard at work or maybe Oxygen OS keeps getting better and better, but whatever it is, I hope it lasts over time. I’ve always been a big fan of Oxygen OS though, there are slight customization throughout, but they’re tucked away enough to stay hidden when you don’t need them. OnePlus does a good job at this and I’m happy to see their operating system or well, skin progressing in a positive way.

Around the backside, we have a 16-megapixel Sony sensor with an f2.0 aperture. Nothing crazy or innovative, just a camera sensor that makes sense and that’s totally cool with me. The camera is quick to launch, pictures are quick to take, and so far things are looking good. The camera also includes Manual controls, raw image support, and even optical image stabilization and electronic stabilization, so your 4K videos here will be buttery smooth, but I’ll touch on that more in my full review so ma ke sure you’re subscribed if you want to catch that.

As mentioned earlier, the OnePlus 3 comes with a new Dash Charger that will juice you up to 60% battery in 30 minutes and surprise surprise, it lives up to that claim. We’ll have to wait and see how battery life performs over time though.

But this phone certainly can’t be all butterflies and rainbows right? Yeah probably not, but OnePlus has done a good job here and I’m excited to see more of this phone over the coming week or so. Is this truly a flagship killer? We’ll have to find out, but with no invites needed to buy one and a $399 price tag, it’s really hard to pass up.