The OnePlus 3 Review
by Brandon Chester on June 20, 2016 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- OnePlus
- OnePlus 3
GPU Performance
GPU performance is one of the areas where Snapdragon 810 actually tended to do quite well. It's also the case that GPUs generally see larger performance gains year over year than CPUs. We already saw how Adreno 530 performs in the LG G5 review, but the device being compared to was the LG G4, which used Snapdragon 808. The OnePlus 3 represents an opportunity to compare a Snapdragon 810 device to its successor using Snapdragon 820.
The OnePlus 3 does very well in 3DMark Sling Shot. In both the physics and graphics tests it trails the LG G5 slightly, but the gap isn't anything truly significant. Exynos 8890 is still not something I can compare to until our Galaxy S7 review is posted, but barring that it's clear that Snapdragon 820's Adreno 530 gives the fastest smartphone performance in this test, and when looking at the graphics performance the performance is over two times faster than the OnePlus 2.
In BaseMark ES 3.1's on screen test the OnePlus 3 manages a significant lead over the LG G5 as a result of its lower resolution. In the off screen 1080p test both phones have essentially the same performance, which is what you'd expect. It looks like Adreno 530 doesn't make the same gains in this test that it does in some others, and it's not clear whether this is just the result of driver optimizations or something about the benchmark that is able to perform batter on other GPU architectures, which could be contributing to the iPhone's lead even in the off screen test.
In GFXBench Car Chase the performance of the OnePlus 3 is in line with the LG G5. On screen performance is significantly higher due to the lower resolution display, while off screen performance at 1080p is about the same as the G5 and exactly the same as the on screen result. As far as absolute GPU performance goes, both of our Snapdragon 820 devices are at the top of the chart for absolute performance, and that's good news for anyone playing games or using software that benefits from a powerful mobile GPU.
NAND Performance
The OnePlus 3 moves to a UFS 2.0 NAND solution, which OnePlus claims is three times faster than the eMMC storage used in the OnePlus 2. In more realistic testing you probably won't end up achieving speeds three times faster than the OnePlus 2 since it actually wasn't slow at all by eMMC standards, but there should be a decent uplift in NAND performance nonetheless.
The move to UFS 2.0 brings healthy gains over the OnePlus 2's storage performance, although as I said, the OnePlus 2 didn't perform poorly at all by the standards of eMMC devices. Sequential read and write performance is actually the best that I've measured so far on an Android device. We're still not looking at anything close to what you get for sequential performance on iOS devices, but there are some other factors at play like the fact that the iPhone was a 128GB unit while our Android devices are usually 32GB or 64GB devices. In any case, the OnePlus 3 doesn't present any problems with storage performance, and you certainly won't run into the same issues that you can with budget smartphones at the $200-300 range where the eMMC solutions can be exceptionally slow.
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[-Stash-] - Tuesday, June 21, 2016 - link
I'm currently running a Note 3, which has a 5.7" 1080p pentile AMOLED screen. I *can* see the subpixels, but it also doesn't bother me. I'd much rather take the better GPU performance/battery life improvements (although we don't appear to be getting this latter one with the OnePlus 3). For the price, I think this is an excellent trade off.I'm all for getting even 4k and 8k screens into phones, but not until the GPU and battery trade offs aren't there. And to be honest, until we're pretty much back to a week long battery life, I say stick to the 1080p screen! I'd also be much more interested in seeing Android move up to 120fps for general usage, as it would reduce the screen latency a bit too and make things feel so much better.
The colour accuracy, or lack thereof, is a concern. The Dash Charger wouldn't bother me if there was still QuickCharge enabled (so you have choice) , but at this point, I think there's enough positives to give the phone a try and see if I can live with it. The price point is very keen and I can't afford to blow £500+ on a phone, so £309 for flagship performance and a decent (if not market leading) camera are enough for that price. Ideally I'd still also like microSD and a removable battery, but I think for this price, I'll settle ;)
Sivar - Tuesday, June 21, 2016 - link
4K or 8K on phones?Do you also profess that megapixel count is a good measure of camera quality, or that 96 KHz audio is better than 48KHz?
Pissedoffyouth - Monday, June 20, 2016 - link
I hope Andrei comes up with his SoC deep dives soon, been a while comingjospoortvliet - Monday, June 20, 2016 - link
Absolutely and a great review it is... awesome work!deskjob - Monday, June 20, 2016 - link
Excellent review! So basically, this is a HTC One M9 clone (aesthetics) with current flagship specs and a bad screen. I am somewhat sensitive to the green tint from pentile Amoleds (S6 was horribly green, S7 still a hint), so the screen on this alone is a dealbreaker. Good to know.Any news on the HTC 10 review?
JoshHo - Monday, June 20, 2016 - link
It will be arriving with the GS7 part 2 review.Roland00Address - Monday, June 20, 2016 - link
Thank You,But also remember If You Give a Mouse a Cookie ;-)
Meteor2 - Monday, June 20, 2016 - link
A (timely) phone review! A (timely) phone review!I nearly crapped myself when I logged on.
I'll go and read it now :-). Thank you very much!
zeeBomb - Monday, June 20, 2016 - link
Just want to mention:https://youtu.be/1fcIZctnRjE - fix for RAM issue
It saddens me 1+ did this to a device that boasts having 6GB of RAM. Before tweaking the max app count is 20. 20!? Shameful! Y'all remember the OPX having issues of performance cuz they LIED of having a 801 snapdragon AB version, but really it was an AA? smh.
If too lazeh;
1) root, get build prop editor
2) search for ro.sys.fw.bg_apps_limit=20 and change to a number no more than 60
3) enjoy, spread the word!
Vishalaestro - Monday, June 20, 2016 - link
why don't you put the old HTC one m7 to the low light test with these phones, i still think their support for low noise levels even at a much higher ISO is a feature that many companies can't offer now.