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.
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jaspreet - Tuesday, November 29, 2016 - link
My office collegue got a pixel xl and has been showing off as to how good it is . I will be sending him this article which clearly shows that pixel xl is a much much poorer phone than a almost half priced One Plus 3T . Time to shut him up :)amdwilliam1985 - Tuesday, November 29, 2016 - link
Yeah, for some reason Pixel XL does poorer on benchmarks, but in real life(where it actually matters) Pixel XL rules. Too bad we can't read about UI/UX in reviews, you have to use the phone to actually get/know the experience.jaspreet - Tuesday, November 29, 2016 - link
Not sure what you mean , but real life and all are up in the air things . You need to back it up with numbers to convince people to go for the phone . I dont see anyone sane going for pixel which performs poorly as shown here, compared to the very good one plus 3T as an android phone priced half . To me it is funny that despite being such a poor phone some sites have raved about it which was irritating . I think Anandtech has show Pixel its rightful place ie at the bottom . Well Done.ithehappy - Tuesday, November 29, 2016 - link
You do realise that the camera is pretty bad on the OP3 right?arayoflight - Tuesday, November 29, 2016 - link
The read and write speeds are increased due to F2FS file system instead of EXT4. Oneplus 3 with Oxygen OS 3.5.6 posts the same numbers.Here are the results from my Oneplus 3 using F2FS instead of EXT4( 1 thread, 4KB random, 256KB seq)
https://goo.gl/photos/Mm8xjr5pMkwsRJuR8
UtilityMax - Tuesday, November 29, 2016 - link
Oneplus 3T still performs like a flagship killer phone while undercutting everyone else in price. However, I feel like Oneplus no longer offers the killer value it had when it introduced Oneplus One for only 300USD (for 16GB version) two years ago. Sure, the specs have improved since then, but aren't memory storage and cores supposed to get cheaper with time? We see a 50% price hike over the original Oneplus One, and the 3T no longer feels like a steal. It's still has a very good value though.Meteor2 - Tuesday, November 29, 2016 - link
Why give away your products when you don't have to. Intel found that out with cheap Atoms for tablets. Sad times for us though.Lolimaster - Tuesday, November 29, 2016 - link
We really need 1440 and 1080p RGB AMOLED.mkhadi1 - Tuesday, November 29, 2016 - link
Is there a LG V20 review in the works?BenSkywalker - Tuesday, November 29, 2016 - link
Are you actively trying to lose credibility on your display analysis?Why not argue that LCDs have superior contrast to OLEDs- you will find that outside of yourself, it has as much support as your stance on off angle viewing issues. The point is measurable- go ahead, try it. Your dE results will tell you what every other person in the world can easily see- this is *NOT* debatable. For the record- the OnePlusOne becomes washed out to the point of being unreadable before the color shift on the OnePlusThree is close to severe- while still being usable. That isn't hypothetical, they are sitting here side by side.
You can measure it for yourself. If you find something other then what I am saying it would be groundbreaking and shake up display analysis and observations around the world, so why won't you do it?