The OnePlus 3 Review
by Brandon Chester on June 20, 2016 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- OnePlus
- OnePlus 3
Camera Architecture
Camera quality was not one of the OnePlus 2's strong points. OnePlus had made an effort to improve on their almost non-existent processing from the OnePlus One, but they went too far and ended up destroying the detail within images. With the third iteration of their flagship phone they need to find a middle ground between the image processing of the OnePlus One and OnePlus 2. That image processing needs to be built on a solid foundation, and with the OnePlus 3 comes a move away from the OmniVision camera sensors used in the OnePlus 2, along with changes to some key aspects like the autofocus mechanism. The specifications of the OnePlus 3's camera system can be seen below with the OnePlus 2 also there for comparison.
| OnePlus 2 | OnePlus 3 | |
| Front Camera Resolution | 5MP | 8MP |
| Front Camera Sensor | OmniVision OV5648 | Sony IMX179 |
| Front Camera Aperture | f/2.0 | |
| Rear Camera Resolution | 13MP | 16MP |
| Rear Camera Sensor | OmniVision OV13860 (1/2.6") |
Sony IMX298 (1/2.8") |
| Rear Camera Focal Length | 28mm eff | 29mm eff |
| Rear Camera Aperture | f/2.0 | |
| OIS | Yes | |
| Autofocus | Laser | Phase detection |
OnePlus has moved back to Sony sensors with the OnePlus 3. What's interesting is that they've actually moved to a smaller sensor size, which was probably a combination of what was available within pricing constraints, as well as how thin the sensor needed to be to minimize the camera hump on the back of the phone. In addition to the sensor shrinking, the resolution has gone up, which means we're now dealing with 1.12 µm pixels rather than 1.3 µm pixels on the OnePlus 2's OV13860. At a quick glance one would expect that this means image quality will certainly be worse, but improvements in sensor technology from year to year make smaller pixel sizes more viable, and one can't conclude anything just based on the sensor specs alone.
The lens system remains similar between the two phones, with the same aperture and a similar focal length. OnePlus has also changed from laser autofocus to PDAF. While this is an upgrade in many respects, PDAF generally does not work well in low light while laser autofocus does, and so it's not the case that the move to PDAF will improve autofocus speeds in every situation. That being said, the OnePlus 2 is notoriously bad at focusing in the dark even with its laser AF so the actual focus itself in the dark may be improved with the OnePlus 3 even if it's not as fast.
Still Image Testing
This first daytime test involves a scene with variant lighting conditions, which can cause some smartphones to overexpose their photos. There's also a lack of direct sunlight throughout the entire area due to the leaves of trees, which provides a good way to see how different phones handle the balance of exposure, noise processing, and sharpening to maintain detail in both bright and dark areas.
The OnePlus 3 performs very well in this test. Compared to a device like the iPhone SE or iPhone 6s there's definitely a greater level of detail and sharpness in the more distant objects, and in the branches and leaves of the tree. The OnePlus 3 also has a more natural exposure than the iPhone, but the white point does skew toward green which gives the entire photo a green look to it. The OnePlus 2 doesn't suffer from this issue, but it ends up overexposing the photo which produces a less natural looking appearance overall. One interesting point is that the OnePlus 3 has removed more detail in the grassy area than the OnePlus 2, which is a regression in detail that I didn't expect to see. My only other complaint is that the OnePlus 3's photo does push a bit too hard with the color saturation, and the Nexus 5X provides a photo that is closest to what the scene actually looked like to my eyes.
For a $400 smartphone the OnePlus 3 does very well here. OnePlus just needs to do a bit of tweaking to their image processing, but they're in a much better place than they were with the OnePlus 2 when it originally launched. Nothing here stands out as a problem with the camera itself, and OnePlus has been known to make many changes to image processing with their updates to OxygenOS so I expect that there will be continued improvements to still image quality as time goes on.
This next scene is a fairly standard outdoor scene, and the only area of difficulty would be capturing the detail in the distant bushes without producing significant sharpening artifacts. In this scene the OnePlus 3 again performs quite well, and I would actually say that it provided the best photo of the devices that I tested. Compared to the OnePlus 2 there's a noticeable improvement in sharpness, which is visible by looking at the brick texture of the building on the left and the leaves of the tree on the right. The colors in the scene are also more true to how it actually looked at the time. The one thing that doesn't look quite right are the bushes in the distance, which end up looking flat. Most of the other devices end up avoiding this, but they also suffer from areas that are overexposed and over sharpened, so every device has a trade-off here.
Ultimately there's not really anything that OnePlus is doing wrong here. The exposure and white balance are correct, and the level of detail is high, with significant improvements over the OnePlus 2's sharpness across the frame, and especially near the edges.
The low light performance of the OnePlus 3 improves significantly over the OnePlus 2. As I mentioned at the start of the page, the OnePlus 2 has serious issues with achieving focus in low light, and the shots here that I used for it are the best of many attempts. The OnePlus 3 is able to focus, and on top of that the detail retained in the image and the exposure are both very impressive. Of the devices I've compared I would say that the OnePlus 3's image is actually the best one, with the iPhone 6s coming after but being worse due to the increased noise level and lesser detail retained. I'm no longer testing the Nexus 5X using its HDR+ mode because Google has had more than enough time to fix their issues with normal image processing by now, and when you compare the OnePlus 3 to the 5X's stock processing it's clear that the OnePlus 3's low light capabilities are superior.
While the previous test was a low light test with lamps illuminating the area, this next test is really just to see how far each camera can push its exposure and how much detail can be maintained while also doing proper chroma and luma noise reduction. In this case it's again clear that the OnePlus 3 leads the other devices, with the OnePlus 2 failing to focus properly again, and every other device being decidedly worse with the detail retained, overall exposure, and noise across the frame.
In all my test cases the OnePlus 3 improves significantly over the OnePlus 2. OnePlus has come a long way from the early days of the OnePlus One where even basic noise processing didn't seem to be implemented properly. I think the OnePlus 3 provides great image quality for a $400 device, and it addresses pretty much every issue I highlighted with the OnePlus 2, which shows that OnePlus is listening to reviewer and user feedback to improve their devices year over year.
Video Recording
The OnePlus 3 certainly improves over its predecessor with still photos, but it's not clear whether the same can be said for video recording. Looking at the files doesn't show any improvement in quality from an encoding perspective, as OnePlus is still encoding UHD video at 42Mbps with the H.264 baseline profile. The audio is kept as a dual channel 96Kbps AAC track as well. OnePlus still has room to improve with the basic image processing and the stabilization provided by the OIS even if the video doesn't improve in bitrate, and I've recorded two videos to demonstrate the video quality when moving as well as from a mostly stationary perspective. Like many Android devices, the OnePlus 3 can only record UHD video for up to ten minutes.
Unfortunately, the UHD video recording on the OnePlus 3 isn’t very impressive. There are a number of issues with the footage, starting with stability. OnePlus is making use of their OIS, but they’re doing so in the same flawed manner as every other Android manufacturer who has implemented OIS when recording video. The problem is that the OIS is used to keep the video as stable as possible, which then fails when the OIS reaches its travel limit and resets, causing an extremely rapid shift in camera position which shows up as jerky motion in the video. This doesn’t pose a problem if you just point the camera somewhere and start recording, but if you plan to move at all while recording it makes for some really jarring footage.
In addition to jerky footage caused by the stabilization implementation, I’m noticing some severe issues with macroblocking that makes the footage look much lower in quality than you would expect from a UHD video on a modern smartphone. In both video samples you can see it in the sky and on the concrete paths, and it results in footage that just isn’t competitive with something like the iPhone SE which also costs $399. These artifacts aren't a result of any image compression on Youtube either, as they exist in the source files as well.
The OnePlus 3 improved significantly with still image quality, but the video quality has some serious issues. Most vendors are pushing higher bitrates than OnePlus is, and Apple is still ahead of all the other smartphone vendors here. It's not as though the OnePlus 3's video quality is terrible, but I feel as though there was room for improvement here but no action was taken.
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pcpoweruser - Monday, June 20, 2016 - link
You are simply not getting something - display accuracy has very little to do with sRGB color space itself. sRGB is a relatively dull, limited colorspace that defines collors far bellow what human eyes can see and it only exists because wider gamut was problematic to achieve on pre-OLED displays. AdobeRGB (that OLEDs can reach) is far richer, vibrant closer to life color space.Personally, I would never use modern, wide-gamut OLED display in crippled sRGB mode that essentially limit panel ability do render deep, saturated colours, it is just not 'fun'. Many of these colors are just UI elements, icons, etc - they look much nicer with wide gamut. Yes, I cannot believe that Android still does not have any form of color management built in and think it is a total disgrace. As a result, the cost of using full abilities of wide gamut displays is that photos (typically designed to be shown on sRGB display) will look oversaturated, even if they are embedded with proper sRGB/AdobeRGB profile, as Android simply have no way to process it. However, to be fair, I a can live with this - I am not a photographer and do not need accurate saturation in photos on my mobile.
But to the point: AdobeRGB (that many OLEDs target) is essentially extension of sRGB, so on OS that does not understand color management, photos with sRGB profile would simply look more saturated - but the colors would be still accurate (i.e certain share of red would be still the same shade, just more intense). NTSC that Oneplus 3 panel seems to target is a different gamut, that is 'shifted' in space (look at CIE graphs), so for instance orange might become red - and this is a problem.
Additionally, there is another aspect of accuracy: balance of individual primary colours at various intensity steps (so called 'greyscale') - and this is quite broken in Oneplus 3 too (yes, I have got one) - blue is dominating heavily pretty much all the intensity steps.
Combined with a very high color temperature ('balance' option in the UI does not help much, it just adds hideous pink hue) and low ~800p real resolution thanks to pentile pattern (with all the artifacts like diamond-shaped fill and color fringing at hight contrast edged) the result is simple - the display is objectively very bad.
My point of reference is to N6P panel, which is absolutely gorgeous, accurate and ultra sharp in comparison.
It is a shame, as otherwise phone is great (build quality, SoC, fast storage), but looking at the screen is just too painful for me - so I am sending it back.
I understand that possibly less than 1% really care about quality of the display, but I am one of those people and totally agree with the reviewer here.
grayson_carr - Tuesday, June 21, 2016 - link
You've missed my point entirely, which was to request that Anandtech provide measurements for displays as they are calibrated out of the box. By default, the Galaxy S7 and Nexus 6P are just as bad, calibration wise, as the OnePlus 3. They are not calibrated to any standard. Not sRGB, not Adobe RGB. Yes there are sRGB modes on both the S7 and 6P, which are what Anandtech tests and publishes results for, and there is also an Adobe RGB mode for the S7, but when you take those phones out of the box, the calibration of each is truly awful, just like the OnePlus 3. Uhg, and you're acting like the 6P has some great panel. God, the 6P screen is sharp and accurately calibrated (in sRGB mode), sure, but it has a horrible grainy look to it and has awful sunlight visibility in sRGB mode (sunlight visibility in the default inaccurate mode is fine, but it's truly terrible in sRGB mode). I own an S7 Edge, OnePlus 3, and Nexus 6P because I'm an Android app developer, so I can compare them all side by side here.pcpoweruser - Tuesday, June 21, 2016 - link
You are missing my point too: 6P in default mode is fine - it targets colour space similar to AdobeRGB, so colors are just more saturated, but they are still the same colors. There is no reason to use sRGB mode on 6P (as you mentioned it impacts maximum brightness badly - like any color curve adjustment) unless you are a photographer and work with sRGB photos on your workstation - by using sRGB mode you are simply crippling display capability to show wide gamut.Oneplus 3 is different, by default it targets odd gamut that actually shitfs colors and make them very different colors - this does not happen 6P. Not to mention terrible white balance and greyscale, which is just fine on 6P in non-sRGB mode. Grainy look on 6P display: is this a joke? Maybe with some dodgy screen protector. It is one of the sharpest, cleanest displays and makes Oneplus 3 look absolutely terrible in comparison.
grayson_carr - Wednesday, June 22, 2016 - link
"colors are just more saturated, but they are still the same colors"What? Not to me. If you take a color and make it way more saturated, it is not the same color. I guess you're saying green will still be green, etc, but just more saturated. I get that. But it still makes photos look untrue to life if the colors are all oversaturated. And even if I accept your explanation for the 6P, what about the S7 and Note 5? The default adaptive mode on those phones is NOT sRGB nor Adobe RGB. It's Samsung's made up colors that they think look good and it's no better than what we see on the OnePlus 3. If Anandtech would test these modes we would see that, which is why I want Anandtech to start testing and discussing them.
Buk Lau - Monday, June 20, 2016 - link
maybe because other so called "reviews" don't even have a colorimeter to properly test displays? subjectively saying "oh it looks good to me" doesn't mean much to everyonegrayson_carr - Monday, June 20, 2016 - link
The display is only 'bad' from a color accuracy standpoint. I actually have the phone, and also own a Galaxy S7 Edge and Nexus 5X. Subjectively, if you hand a random person on the street all three of these phones, they would probably say the OnePlus 3 display looks the best. The Nexus 5X is technically the most accurate, but looks washed out next to the other two to your average person who doesn't deal with color accurate displays for a living. The S7 Edge (mine anyways) has whites that lean too much towards green, so it looks kind of unnatural. I thought the lower resolution of OnePlus 3 would bother me because the display is pentile, but honestly, the screen density it set such that I never bring the phone close enough to my face to notice. Also, while I don't have a measurement device, I think the white balance of my OnePlus 3 is not as cool as the one Anandtech received. Comparing it to other phones, I would guess my sample is more in the 7500K range. Brandon also seems to have missed the color temperature slider in the display settings. I wonder if he had adjust the color temperature a bit warmer if the color measurements would have been a little better.grayson_carr - Monday, June 20, 2016 - link
Oh, I forgot to mention, if you like how the Galaxy S6, S7 and Note 5 displays look in their default adaptive display mode, you will probably like how the OnePlus 3 display looks because it looks very similar to that. Unfortunately, Anandtech and everyone else only test the color accuracy of Samsung displays after changing the display mode to basic / sRGB, which almost no one uses in reality. So you will hear the Galaxy S7 display is suuuupppppeeeerrrr accurate, blah, blah, blah!!! But if you go out and survey actual Galaxy S7 owners on the street, 99.9% of them will be using the default display setting that is not accurate at all and probably no more accurate than the OnePlus 3 display, yet people still say it looks great. So bottom line, don't write of the OnePlus 3 because Anandtech hates the display.Buk Lau - Tuesday, June 21, 2016 - link
it's ok, we get it, you are trying to defend your purchase. Idk if you have read any of those reviews you mentioned so far (probably not as you are still saying these), but in N6P review they clearly gave out results for both profiles. also what you are forgetting is that this is not simply a color profile issue, 1+ just straight up didn't calibrate these panels out of the box. what people like is different from what something objectively is. you can like the 1+3 and its poorly calibrated panels, but that doesn't change the fact that the panel is inaccurate. there's a reason why these standards exist, and just because you don't like the standard doesn't mean it's important.grayson_carr - Wednesday, June 22, 2016 - link
Why would I need to defend my purchase? I own a Galaxy S7 edge and will be keeping it as my main phone and returning the OnePlus 3. I only bought a OnePlus 3 because I am an Android app developer and phone enthusiast and just like trying all of the new phones. That's great that they gave out results of both profiles for the 6P, but if I remember correctly, it's only because they tested the default profile before they discovered the sRGB mode. They never test the default profile of Samsung phones. I want them to call Samsung out for shipping phones with displays that are so inaccurate out of the box. Yeah, it's great that Samsung gives you an accurate profile setting, but when you just test that and don't even mention the default profile, it confuses people and makes most people think Samsung displays are accurate right out of the box. Even many reviewers at other popular sites obviously don't know that Samsung displays are onky accurate in basic mode.grayson_carr - Wednesday, June 22, 2016 - link
there's a reason why these standards exist, and just because you don't like the standard doesn't mean it's important.Wtf dude? You've got me all wrong. I'm a proponent of sRGB. I like it and wish all phones were calibrated to that standard out of the box. That said, if you're going to completely trash a phone for not being calibrated to sRGB out of the box, you need to trash every phone that isn't calibrated to that out of the box to some extent, but Samsung just throws in an sRGB profile that no real world users even know about and gets away with shipping displays that aren't calibrated to any standard at all by default (cough... adaptive mode)???