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.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
176 Comments
View All Comments
nfriedly - Monday, June 20, 2016 - link
> There’s basically no use case where you use a phone without looking at the screen, and right from the very first moment I turned on the OnePlus 3 I could tell that the colors are completely wrong.Except for, you know, talking. :P
That said, I agree with your point - I use my phone more for texting and web browsing than calls, and the awful screen means there's no chance I'll ever buy or recommend it.
fanofanand - Monday, June 20, 2016 - link
zing!barn25 - Monday, June 20, 2016 - link
You know ever since anand left this site has pretty much gone to shit, no reviews, late reviews as well as shilling for intel. this is why this site has dropped 2000 points ranking -wise in the past year. Keep up the good work @ killing yourselves.vision33r - Monday, June 20, 2016 - link
One thing to consider is that OnePlus devices are a breeze to root since the Bootloader can be unlocked simply with a setting. You can't do that with any Samsung these days. Oxygen OS has recently opened up to developers so expect custom roms to be easy as an unofficial CyanogenMod Rom for the OnePlus Two was available easily. While the display has issues, I think it will be an improvement over OnePlus Two. I have trouble reading it in the sun light compared to the Nexus 6P. So, here's hoping that the sRGB setting will be out soon and make the user experience more acceptable. I do like some of the custom touches on the OxygenOS which gives it a custom rom feel in a stock rom.airro - Monday, June 20, 2016 - link
Amazing review, I never payed much attention to different tech review sites when I googled smart phones and read reviews. But after reading this one, I am wowed. The author so damn knowledgeable and the article so well written, so technical, and well organized, with even a drop down spinner to select the sections. (Unlike other review sites that have pages that you don't know leads to what.). I created an anandtech account just so I could post this comment.UtilityMax - Monday, June 20, 2016 - link
So, is the Nexus 5X still the best "budget" smartphone in the 300-400USD range?peterfares - Monday, June 20, 2016 - link
This review just shows how terrible of an SoC the Snapdragon 810 was. Snapdragon 808 is also just as bad, I hate it in my BB PRIV. The 805 would have been a better choice.syxbit - Tuesday, June 21, 2016 - link
Exactly. I'm not sure why, but last year AnandTech spent so much time defending Qualcomm with the SD810/808. And now than Qualcomm has something better in 2016, they go back to criticizing it the 2015 line.joehtoo2 - Monday, June 20, 2016 - link
Great review! Can't find anything else like these on the internet, love the deep divesFidelator - Monday, June 20, 2016 - link
Top tier still camera, better than the ones on iPhones, performance, build quality, battery and battery charge speed, I most certainly will not be using my phone as a reference display nor will I edit sensitive content on it, the saturated look doesn't bother me o most people for that matter, though I get where you are coming from, this is a no brainier for my use case and I'm sure most people fall there.Now. The real problem, I can only buy through Amazon, yet, the price listed there is $600, what the hell Oneplus. The price difference is absolutely ridiculous, list it at the proper price.