OnePlus Unveils Latest Flagship Smartphone, Boasts All-metal Design, Super-fast Charging

Following a few weeks of building hype, OnePlus has today taken the veil off of its latest flagship smartphone, the OnePlus 3. As before, this phone is being marketed with ‘Never Settle’ branding, and while there seems to be no mention made of the phone being a ‘Flagship Killer’, as the last one was, it still could be based on its features and specs.

Speaking of specs, let’s take care of those and then get into the features. On the OP3, OnePlus boosted the SoC to a Snapdragon 820 (OP2 had 810), and overall, the OP3 is said to be 35% faster CPU-wise, and 40% faster GPU-wise.

One spec that might make some raise an eyebrow is that the OP3 includes 6GB of memory, which OnePlus says will benefit multi-tasking. “Effortlessly shift between shooting 4K videos and playing graphic-intensive games without any delay or lag”, the company writes on the device’s product page. OnePlus is offering just a single SKU for its OnePlus 3, and that includes 64GB of memory. The company’s latest device (unfortunately) follows in the footsteps of the previous flagship and foregos a microSD slot.

Also similar to the OnePlus 2, the OnePlus 3 comes in at 5.5-inches, and sports a 1080p resolution, giving us a ppi of 401. Protecting the display is Corning’s Gorilla Glass 4.

A notable new feature is ‘Dash’, battery technology that will charge the phone from 0-60% in just 30 minutes – enough juice to last the entire day, per OnePlus’ claims. But while fast-charging is nice, it’s not the pièce de résistance: that’s the fact that the power management duties have been passed along to the charger, meaning that most of the heat will be generated there rather than in your hands.

That might not sound like a big deal, but how many times have you picked your phone up while it was charging and it was simply too warm to be comfortable? Another benefit: the charger is designed to charge your phone effectively even while you’re gaming or watching a movie.

As you no doubt expected, the camera has seen an upgrade on the OnePlus 3, with a boost to 16 megapixels. The front camera comes in at 8 megapixels, and supports a new feature called ‘Smile Capture’. This makes for ‘easy selfies’, as OnePlus likes to call it, because all you have to do to take a picture is hold the phone in front of you, and smile.

While the build quality of the OnePlus 2 was great, the OP3 has seen further improvements. This phone features an all-metal unibody, making for a seamless build that looks great (I admit I prefer the look of the OnePlus 2, but I appreciate the increased durability). The color scheme in the shots above is Graphite, but for those who want a bit of a lighter color, Soft Gold will also be offered.

The OnePlus 3 is available right now for $399 USD, €399, and £309.