The OnePlus 3T (also abbreviated as OP3T) is a smartphone made by
OnePlus. It is the successor to the
OnePlus 3
The OnePlus 3 (also abbreviated as OP3) is a smartphone produced by OnePlus. It was revealed on 14 June 2016. The phone was unveiled in a virtual reality event and OnePlus offered its customers Loop VR headsets to experience the event using th ...
and was revealed on 15 November 2016.
It is an incremental update to the company's flagship phone being released only 6 months later. It features the identical Optic
AMOLED
AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode, ) is a type of OLED display device technology. OLED describes a specific type of thin-film-display technology in which organic compounds form the electroluminescence, electroluminescent materia ...
display, the same Sony
IMX298 rear camera sensor, and the same
Dash Charge Oppo VOOC (Voltage Open Loop Multi-step Constant-Current Charging), also known as Warp Charge on OnePlus devices and Dart Charge on Realme devices, is a proprietary rapid-charge technology created by BBK Electronics. In contrast to USB Power Delive ...
technology as its predecessor.
The OnePlus 3T is also the first phone from OnePlus to be available for immediate delivery (in Europe and North America), without long waiting times from being out of stock.
Release
The OnePlus 3T was released on 15 November 2016 via a
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
live video. It went on sale in a new Gunmetal colour with the Soft Gold option being released soon after much like the OnePlus 3. The OnePlus 3T has 6GB of RAM, the option of 64 or 128GB of
UFS 2.0 storage, and a
Qualcomm Snapdragon
Snapdragon is a suite of system on a chip (SoC) semiconductor products for mobile devices designed and marketed by Qualcomm Technologies Inc. The Snapdragon's central processing unit (CPU) uses the ARM architecture. A single SoC may include mu ...
821 processor.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Colette, a French high fashion, streetwear, and accessory retailer, OnePlus and Colette partnered to produce 250 exclusive limited edition black versions of the phone featuring a Colette logo at the back of the phone. This exclusive edition of the phone went on sale in Paris at a Colette store on 21 March 2017.
Specifications
Hardware
The OnePlus 3T has the same metal back design, compared with the OnePlus 3, with anodised aluminium and curved edges. The device is available in two colors, a new Gunmetal (black/gray), which is slightly darker than the Graphite color used in the OnePlus 3 and Soft Gold (white/gold) which was released on 6 January 2017. A limited edition Midnight Black colored phone was available to purchase on 28 March 2017, it featured an all black backing similar to the Colette exclusive limited edition but without the logo.
The OnePlus 3T's darker aluminium backing is the only physical characteristic that allows it to be distinguished from the OnePlus 3. Users can also purchase the same protective covers in Bamboo, Rosewood, Black Apricot, Karbon and Sandstone, which takes care of the camera hump and evens it with the phone.
It features the same Optic
AMOLED
AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode, ) is a type of OLED display device technology. OLED describes a specific type of thin-film-display technology in which organic compounds form the electroluminescence, electroluminescent materia ...
display with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection, in the same casing of the
OnePlus 3
The OnePlus 3 (also abbreviated as OP3) is a smartphone produced by OnePlus. It was revealed on 14 June 2016. The phone was unveiled in a virtual reality event and OnePlus offered its customers Loop VR headsets to experience the event using th ...
. The OnePlus 3T now comes in options for 64 GB or 128 GB of
UFS 2.0 storage. The phone also features the same alert slider which users can use to quickly toggle between alert modes from silent to priority to all notifications. It includes NFC and the same fast finger scanner which can unlock the device in approximately 0.3 seconds.
The OnePlus 3T contains the same rear-facing Sony
IMX298 sensor with 16 MP, 1.1 μm, f/2.0,
Optical image stabilization
Image stabilization (IS) is a family of techniques that reduce blurring associated with the motion of a camera or other imaging device during exposure.
Generally, it compensates for pan and tilt (angular movement, equivalent to yaw and pit ...
(OIS) and
Electronic Image Stabilization
Image stabilization (IS) is a family of techniques that reduce blurring associated with the motion of a camera or other imaging device during exposure.
Generally, it compensates for pan and tilt (angular movement, equivalent to yaw and pit ...
(EIS), as the predecessor. The phone has an upgraded front-facing Samsung 3P8SP sensor with 16 MP, 1.0 µm, f/2.0 and EIS.
The phone once again has the same OnePlus quick charging capabilities named Dash Charge with the ability to gain 60% of the charge in 30 minutes. According to the company, this is accomplished by doing all the power transforming required for direct input to the battery in the power brick supplied, not within the phone itself, reducing heat on the device. Additionally, the power brick can contain larger, dedicated electronics, whereas any power processing on a phone has to use smaller and cooler equipment, reducing the speed of charging.
The phone comes with a faster Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor and a bigger 3400 mAh battery.
Software
The OnePlus 3T came out of the box with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, as OxygenOS version 3.5. The last version of 6.0.1 released was OxygenOS version 3.5.4 on 14 December 2016.
OnePlus released the first stable version of Android 7.0 Nougat on 31 December 2016, with the release of OxygenOS 4.0. The last version of 7.0 was released as OxygenOS version 4.0.3 on 9 February 2017.
OnePlus then released a first stable version of Android 7.1.1 Nougat on 16 March 2017, with the release of OxygenOS version 4.1.0. The last version of 7.1.1 as OxygenOS 4.1.x was released as version 4.1.7 on 22 August 2017.
A major stable update (still based on Android 7.1.1 Nougat) was released on 25 September 2017, as OxygenOS version 4.5.0. The last version of 7.1.1 was released as OxygenOS version 4.5.1 on 16 October 2017.
After owners of the phone expressed concern whether their phone would be abandoned after the release of the
OnePlus 5
The OnePlus 5 (also abbreviated as OP5) is a smartphone made by OnePlus. It is the successor to the OnePlus 3T, which was released in 2016. The OnePlus 5 was officially unveiled during a keynote on 20 June 2017 and first released on June 20, 20 ...
, it was confirmed by Pete Lau, the CEO, that the phone, and its predecessor would eventually receive a software update to
Android O
Android Oreo ( codenamed Android O during development) is the eighth major release and the 15th version of the Android mobile operating system. It was first released as an alpha quality developer preview in March 2017 and released to the pub ...
. It was also announced that it would be the last major update.
On 19 November 2017, the first stable Android 8.0 Oreo update was released, as OxygenOS version 5.0.
In May 2018, OnePlus released OxygenOS version 5.0.3 with the same Face Unlock feature present on the
OnePlus 5T
The OnePlus 5T is an Android-based smartphone produced, released and marketed by OnePlus. It was unveiled on 16 November 2017 via a live streamed press event which aired on YouTube. It went on sale on 21 November 2017. It is an incremental up ...
for the 3T and its predecessor several months after promising it.
On 30 July 2018, OnePlus updated their support policy choosing to provide
Android P
Android Pie ( codenamed Android P during development), also known as Android 9 (API 28) is the ninth major release and the 16th version of the Android mobile operating system. It was first released as a developer preview on March 7, 2018, and ...
as the last update for the OnePlus 3T instead of Android 8.1.
The last version of 8.0 was released as OxygenOS 5.0.8 on 27 November 2018.
Stable Android 9.0 Pie for the 3T was released on 22 May 2019 as OxygenOS version 9.0.3 (OnePlus choosing to now synchronise their OS version numbering with Android).
The last version of 9.0 Pie was released on 20 November 2019, as OxygenOS 9.0.6. It was also confirmed this would be the last official update released for the 3T by OnePlus.
Network compatibility
The OnePlus 3T has the following compatibility .
Reception
OnePlus 3T generally received a good reception. It was especially praised for its good performance and price to quality ratio. The OnePlus 3T was considered too similar to OnePlus 3 and the increase of the front camera's megapixels was thought to be ineffective in many reviews. Many critics felt the difference was so small that OnePlus 3 owners should not upgrade to OnePlus 3T.
Criticism
XDA Developers
XDA Developers (also known simply as XDA; often stylized as xda-developers) is a mobile software development community launched on 20 December 2002. Although discussion primarily revolves around Android, members also talk about many other opera ...
discovered that with the launch of the Android 7.0 Nougat update, OnePlus introduced a software
defeat device
A defeat device is any motor vehicle hardware, software, or design that interferes with or disables emissions controls under real-world driving conditions, even if the vehicle passes formal emissions testing.United States Code of Federal Regulat ...
into the code of the OnePlus 3 and the OnePlus 3T, relaxing thermal throttling and increasing clock speeds when the phone detected that it was in a benchmark app, in order to boost benchmark scores.
This came as a bit of a shock to much of the Android enthusiast community, as every major manufacturer had removed their benchmark cheating code following the massive backlash that occurred when it was originally discovered on other devices in 2013.
OnePlus immediately stated that they would be removing the benchmark cheating from future software versions, and that they weren't sure how it made it into a production build.
OnePlus later reversed this decision with the OnePlus 5, reintroducing the software that locked clock speeds to their maximum while in a benchmark.
References
External links
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{{Android tablets
Android (operating system) devices
OnePlus mobile phones
Mobile phones introduced in 2016
Discontinued smartphones
Mobile phones with 4K video recording