OnePlus launched its flagship smartphone - the OnePlus 3 - on a virtual space station on Tuesday. The company's fourth smartphone is priced at Rs. 27,999 in India, and while it was scheduled to be available at 12:30am IST via Amazon India, it is already available with a 'lightning deal'. Though the company has finally eschewed the invite system, of course, limited units are expected to be available at launch.
(Also see: OnePlus 3 Review)
In the US, the OnePlus 3 has been priced at $399 (roughly Rs. 26,800), while it will be available at CAD 519 (roughly Rs. 26,300) in Canada, EUR 399 (roughly Rs. 30,200) in select EU regions, GBP 309 (roughly Rs. 29,500) in the United Kingdom, and HKD 3,098 (roughly Rs. 26,900) in Hong Kong. The US and Europe will see availability via the OnePlus site from Tuesday itself. Those who watched the launch on the VR app were able to purchase the smartphone ahead of their country's availability, after viewing the various demonstrations in the app. Users are then sent a link via email to complete their order.
At launch, the OnePlus 3 will be available in a Graphite colour variant, while a Soft Gold variant will be made available at a later date. It features a metal unibody using 'space-grade aluminium alloy', and is 7.35mm thick. The highlight of the smartphone is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC (two cores clocked at 2.2GHz, and two cores clocked at 1.6GHz) with Adreno 530 GPU on board, and 6GB of LPDDR4 RAM. You can read our OnePlus 3 review for our full verdict. With its specifications in this price segment, it competes directly against the Xiaomi Mi 5, which is priced at Rs. 24,999.
(Also see: OnePlus 3 vs Xiaomi Mi 5)
Running OxygenOS based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, the OnePlus 3 is a dual-SIM smartphone (Nano-SIM cards) that retains the 5.5-inch display size and full-HD resolution (401ppi) of its predecessors, but this time bears an Optic Amoled display with Gorilla Glass 4 protection. While it sports a USB 2.0 Type-C port, it does have a 3.5mm headphone jack in addition. The smartphone features a home button which sports a fingerprint sensor. It also comes with capacitive hardware keys, apart from the Alert Slider.
(Also see: OnePlus 3 Full Specifications)
The OnePlus 3 has a 16-megapixel rear camera with a Sony IMX298 sensor, an f/2.0 aperture, OIS and EIS, and PDAF autofocus, apart from RAW image support, 4K video recording support, and a Smile Capture mode. The front camera bears a Sony IMX179 sensor, an f/2.0 aperture on the fixed focus lens, and benefits from EIS. It can also handle 1080p video recording. The OnePlus 3 sports 64GB of inbuilt storage, which is not expandable.
The modem on board the OnePlus 3 offers 4G LTE Cat. 6 connectivity, with support for India's LTE bands. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC (unlike the OnePlus 2), and GPS/ A-GPS. The OnePlus 3 measures 152.7x74.7x7.35mm, and weighs in at 158 grams. It is powered by a non-removable 3000mAh battery, and the company is bundling a Dash Charge adapter alongside, which uses the company's fast charging technology to charge the battery up to 60 percent in 30 minutes.
Buyers in India will get a free 12-month subscription to Saavn Pro, and can avail of a 'double data' offer from Idea Cellular for 12 months. They can also avail of 12 months accidental damage coverage through the 'OnePlus Care app' powered by Servify.
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