The OnePlus 3T Review
by Brandon Chester on November 28, 2016 10:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- OnePlus
- OnePlus 3T
System Performance
One of the key internal changes that the OnePlus 3T brings to the table is a move from Snapdragon 820 to 821. At a high level, Snapdragon 821 is very similar to 820, and in the case of the OnePlus 3T it's really differentiated by its higher peak frequencies for the CPU and the GPU. Both have four of Qualcomm's Kryo cores in a 2 + 2 cluster configuration, and both use Qualcomm's Adreno 530 GPU. In the OnePlus 3 the performance cluster on the CPU had a peak frequency of 2.15GHz, which is brought up to 2.35GHz on the OnePlus 3T. On paper, this gives a performance improvement of roughly 10%, which is also what Qualcomm states in their marketing materials.
PCMark is a test that the OnePlus 3 performed exceptionally well in. This was due not only to the use of Snapdragon 820, but to software optimizations that OnePlus had made to the OS and the Android Runtime as well. The OnePlus 3T continues this trend, and provides performance improvements across the board. The writing and photo editing tests are the most interesting of the group, as these are tests where software optimizations helped the OnePlus 3 to pull ahead of other competing devices, and the OnePlus 3T pulls ahead even further. It bests the Huawei Mate 8 in the writing test to become the fastest device on record, and the photo editing test improves over the OnePlus 3 which was still the fastest device in the test up until now.
The OnePlus 3T's JavaScript performance benefits from improvements that Google has made in Chrome 54, as well as the increase in peak CPU frequency compared to the OnePlus 3. In the interest of having a fair comparison, I've updated the OnePlus 3's results using the latest version of Chrome so it can also take advantage of optimizations that have been made.
Kraken and WebXPRT 2015 both demonstrate the OnePlus 3T's improved JavaScript performance. The gap is actually a bit larger than one might expect from a 10% increase in CPU frequency, and this could simply be the result of other changes made to the operating system in the newer version of OxygenOS, or changes to the DVFS settings that have been made alongside the change in SoC. Jetstream shows a smaller improvement, but it's in line with what you'd expect to see from the CPU bump.
Ultimately, Snapdragon 821 doesn't come with any mind-blowing performance improvements for CPU-bound applications, but the update does keep OnePlus on par with the competition, and allows them to take advantage of improvements in efficiency and errata fixes in addition to a modest performance uplift. Certain parts of the PCMark test also indicate that the 3T comes with additional improvements at the software level, which will hopefully make their way to the OnePlus 3 with the next major update to OxygenOS, but for now are something you only get on the OnePlus 3T.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
104 Comments
View All Comments
polygon_21 - Wednesday, November 30, 2016 - link
I wish there was a 7-8 inch tablet with the above requirements..nexus 7 2013 is getting really long in the toothUtilityMax - Wednesday, November 30, 2016 - link
Amen to that. Hardware specs aren't everything. Having a strong community support to be able to install recovery, root, mods, or alternative roms are priceless. That's why I am going to hang on to my Nexus 5X for as long as I can, even though it was already surpassed by 2016 devices as far as paper specs are concerned. I haven't even rooted mine yet, but it is sure cool to get monthly security updates and be the first to receive Android Nougat this end of summer.Death666Angel - Monday, November 28, 2016 - link
"(apparently ancient, despite only being 2 years old and still very functional) Nexus 4"It was released 4 years ago, which is the thing that counts, not when you bought it. :)
JoeyJoJo123 - Monday, November 28, 2016 - link
It's true that the phone was initially released 4 years ago. But for example, if I buy a 2 year old car today, you still have every expectation for it to last just as long as any other car.Nehemoth - Monday, November 28, 2016 - link
Car are designed to last like 20 years or so, that's why are so expensivehttps://www.quora.com/Why-are-cars-so-expensive-to...
JoeyJoJo123 - Monday, November 28, 2016 - link
I don't think you quite understood my point.My previous post didn't mention any confusion on my part on why cars were so expensive, rather I know why they're expensive.
My point is that with every major purchase, car, appliance, house, or even a phone, it shouldn't matter if it's 2 years old before you first got it, you paid good money for it and you still have every reason to expect it to last.
I don't think anyone sensible buys a 20 year old used car (and there are those that do as a collector or because they _have_ to due to their situation) and then the crankshaft breaks in two the next day they *shrug* and say, "Hey, it was 20 years old, and I didn't expect it to last long anyways".
Again, with every major purchase, people expect it to last.
UtilityMax - Wednesday, November 30, 2016 - link
Cars are expensive? You gotta be kidding me. Here in the USA we have the cheapest cars in the world. Go to Mexico, Brazil, Russia, UK, or Germany to see expensive cars. German brand cars, sometimes made in Germany, cost cheaper in the USA than in Germany. Even if you flip burgers as day job, you can still lease and drive a brand new car every year.TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, December 1, 2016 - link
You are smoking something. the only way a burger flipper could afford a car lease is if they didnt pay for rent, or food, ece.negusp - Monday, December 5, 2016 - link
Well, here in the USA we treat our workers like sh*t.bananaforscale - Tuesday, November 29, 2016 - link
Cars are quite different really, roads don't change to make your car less suited to its task. Well, not usually anyway because maintenance.