Review of OnePlus 3T (Gunmetal, 64GB)

What is the OnePlus 3T?

The OnePlus 3T is to the OnePlus 3 what the iPhone 6S was to the iPhone 6. Itlooks very much the same, but there are some seriously welcome upgrades under the body.

Keychanges include a faster QualcommSnapdragon 821 processor, 13% larger battery capacity and improved front-facing camera. But, with thepricing now starting at £399, do thechanges justify 3T's increased upfront cost? Fortunately for OnePlus, the answer is largely yes,which is doubly good news as the OnePlus 3is being discontinued.

OnePlus 3T long-term review: A side of Nougat

As promised, OnePlus has been rollingout Android 7.0 Nougat to its OnePlus 3T phones. I’ve had it for just over a week now, butby all accounts it’s seeing a staggered releaseso don’t be surprised if you're still waiting.

With the update, things now look alittle different to what I’d grown accustomed tohaving used the OnePlus 3T as my main phone since its original release.

The firstthing I noticed had changed was the lockscreennotifications and the notification shade, which have both seen a design update.

Inkeeping with OnePlus’ light-handed touch tocustomising Android, it’s what you’ll see on other Nougat-powered smartphones such as Google’s devices. The changes mean you canreply from the notificationshade in a more intuitive, in-line manner.

There’s now a whole extra row of icons on the homescreen, too. As aresult, you get a 4x5 gridover the previous 4x4 one, and icons are able to make much better use of that larger screen.

Changes areabound in the Settings menu,too. Everything's now had a lick of blue paint and you get a bit of contextual information for each settingssection, such as how muchduration you can expect from the battery.

New emojis have also been introduced, so if you’re sick ofseeing the little "X" boxbeing sent to you from iPhone users, you’ll finally be able to see those little taco or cowboy emojis you’vebeen missing out on all thistime.

Nougat's other big feature is its Multi Window support, which makes it to theOnePlus 3T –but not in the manner I was expecting. Normally, you hold the Overview button – the one that brings up your recent apps – toopen up theMulti Window interface to choose which apps to open side-by-side.

On the OnePlus 3T, you bring the recent apps carouselup but holdone of the open app cards and drag it to one side of the screen. Unfortunately, Multi Window isn't supported by every app atpresent anddepending on what apps you use, can feel a little cramped.

Aside from the addition of Android 7.0, my time with theOnePlus 3T hasn’tchanged much from when I first reviewed it – which is a good thing. It still feels incredibly nippy and doesn’t succumbto slow down orjudder. If anything, it feels like it might be slightly snappier with Nougat.

Battery life has also held up, and Ican still easilylast a day without worrying about carrying a charger with me. It's hard to tell how much improvement, if any, there hasbeen from theupgraded Doze feature in Android Nougat, however.

For me, the OnePlus 3T remains a phenomenal phone for the money, andthe additionof Nougat only improves on it.

OnePlus 3T – Design

Not a great deal has changed here. There are now two colouroptions, a newGunmetal finish or Soft Gold, although if you want the new larger 128GB capacity option you’re limited to only Gunmetal.The Gunmetaloption replaces the previous Graphite finish available with the OnePlus 3 and is a little darker in shade.

Look to the bottom of the phone and you’ll find a neatly drilled speaker grille, a USB-Cport and a headphone jack. Thelatter is worth drawing attention to as, despite Apple's efforts to kill the 3.5mm jack, no one seems to bein a great rush to make USB-Cheadphones over Lightning headphones.

I’m actually all for moving away from the 3.5mm jack and useBluetooth headphones more oftenthan not, but there are still times when I want to use a wired connection beyond headphones. Too often Iwent to plug the jack-less Moto Zinto my car radio only to remember I’d left the adaptor connected to my wired headphones back home. It’sa frustration I can dowithout.

Along the left edge is a three-level Alert Slider to toggle betweennotificationprofiles. You can either have them all, priority or none, just like the OnePlus 3. It’s a useful addition you don’t see often.Below thisis the volume rocker, and on the opposite side the power button.

There’s a front fingerprint sensor, which I’ve alwaysstated is mypreferred position over a rear placement. The fingerprint sensor also doubles as the Home button, flanked by capacitive Backand Recentkeys that are only marked by a backlit dot, rather than their standard icons. This is because you can swap their positions inthe OnePlus3T’s settings.

The button setup is similar to the 's, and means you can do away with Android’s on-screennavigation buttons, freeing up more of the display. You can still turn on the on-screen navigation in the settings if you want.

Having a choice is great and the customisation options don’t end there, on the 3T you can also choose different shortcut actionsfordouble-press and hold inputs for any of the capacitive buttons.

The fingerprint sensor feels responsive and on a par withothergreat fingerprint sensors, such as the 's, when it comes to swiftness. It does fall afoul of the same pitfalls as all otherfingerprintsensors I’ve used though, so wet hands will still see you resorting to more traditional unlock methods.

Turn the OnePlus 3T over and you’ll see a moderate camera bump from theprotrudingrear camera. It’s not as pronounced as on certain other phones though and OnePlus has also made improvements here by coating thesensor insapphire glass, for an extra level of resilience.

The OnePlus 3T supports dual SIMs, useful if you have a personal and worknumberand don’t want to carry multiple devices. The second SIM slot does not double as a microSD card slot, as is the case with certainotherphones, so there’s no expandable storage, just like the OnePlus 3.

But as mentioned, there is now 64GB (£399) and 128GB (£439)capacity options. The extra for 128GB isn’t a complete rip-off compared to what others have charged for extra storage, either.Otherwise,NFC makes a welcome return so you can use Android Pay.

OnePlus 3T – Display

The 3T's 5.5-inch screen is on paperidenticalto the OnePlus 3's. It has the same 1,920 x 1,080 resolution and uses the same Optic AMOLED technology. That’s not going toamount to thehighest pixels-per-inch density in the world, but with general use it’s not something you’re going to notice.

The OpticAMOLED techmeans black levels are superb and the display still looks super sharp, regardless of its comparably low pixels-per-inch count.Viewingangles are also excellent, with limited brightness drop-off when viewed off-centre.

I was also impressed with thereserved auto brightness adjustment. Too many of the phonesI’ve tested have had very aggressive automatic adjustment settings that kickin even when ambient light levels haven’t changed. Brightnesson the OnePlus 3T is also more than adequate for outdoor use.

One ofthe chief complaints when the OnePlus 3 launched was itsunflattering and unnatural colour calibration. This was something that eventuallygot fixed through software updates, which is at least atestament to OnePlus listening to its customers.

Luckily, some of theselearnings have been applied to the OnePlus 3T. Out of the boxcolours are a little oversaturated but the display looks great and in truth,this is how I left the display during most of my testing.

If you want more natural, representative colours, an sRGB calibrationprofile is also an option, which makes the colours lookconsiderably more muted. Another custom option lets you manually adjust the colourtemperature to your liking.

From the Quick Togglemenu you can also turn on a Night mode, which knocks down the blue light part ofthe colour spectrum. This makes the display a little lessharsh on your eyes in the dark as well as supposedly reducing the impact on yourcircadian rhythm.

Like the Moto Z, there’s also anAmbient Display that turns the display on in a low-power mode when notificationscome in, as well as Proximity Wake that turns on thedisplay when you wave your hand over the camera. The latter doesn’t work as well asthe Moto Z’s dedicated proximity sensors, however.