OnePlus 3: How the flagship killer sticks against rival smartphones

After metal bodies, large displays, multi-core processors and fingerprint scanners, the latest trend in the high-growth smartphone industry is the never-heard-before massive RAM capacities. The direct correlation of RAM with performance is well-known and well established. After pushing the limits of almost every smartphone feature, manufacturers are now focusing on improving the RAM ( phone storage space) like never before. As a result, today’s smartphones boast RAMs as high as 4 GB or even 6 GB – something that you won’t even find on most desktops.

OnePlus 3, the touted ‘flagship killer’, is one such smartphone that was launched a couple of months back – on the 15th of June to be precise. It’s loaded with an astounding 6GB of RAM capacity and that too at a not very steep price of Rs. 27,999. Other features are also equally impressive: as you will find below in our review. The device is once again an Amazon exclusive, but this time, there won’t be any invite-based sales. OnePlus has stepped up the production to meet demand and the demand is high indeed for this super-smart device!

The 6GB RAM is a smart move by the company at the right time. As of now, there’s only one other smartphone with that high a RAM in India, which is LeEco’s Le Max2 priced at Rs. 29,999. In comparison to OnePlus 3 it looks like this:

OnePlus 3 6GB vs LeECo Le Max 2: Comparison Chart

When you look at the table given above, it’s pretty clear that the OnePlus 3 is a worthy competitor to LeEco Le Max 2. It’s Rs. 2K cheaper and it has got pretty much everything that’s available in Le Max 2, except for the 21MP camera. Plus, its Oxygen OS is also very lightweight and cleaner in comparison to that of Le Max2 (the former uses only 139 MB of RAM in comparison to at least 1.4G B of the latter).

However, not all is hunky dory with the OnePlus 3. Thanks to the company’s unique approach towards RAM management, some reviews suggest that despite the massive RAM capacity, the OnePlus 3 isn’t any better at multitasking than some other devices with 4GB of RAM (i.e. Galaxy S7 Edge). This effectively means that despite having 6 gigs of RAM you can think that only 4GB will be available to use at a time. And though the company’s co-Founder Mr. Carl Pei has said that it can be fixed with third-party ROMs that’ll come out later this year, as of now there’s no quick fix to the problem, which brings us to the next point.

     Other Competitors

If only 3GB – 4GB of RAM have to be used, many other devices priced around the OnePlus 3 segment can also compete with it. Take a look at three more contenders that emerge onto the scene:

As you can see, aside from LeEco Le Max2, another top contender to the OnePlus 3 may be the Xiaomi Mi5. Its specs are close enough and it’s more affordable. Galaxy Note 4 and HTC One ME are also worthy competitors as they exceed the OnePlus 3 in important aspects like display and processor. Plus, the strong brands of Samsung and HTC may also work against the Chinese startup because people who go on to spend that much on their phones prefer established brands.

Given the scenario, it’ll be interesting to see which device sells the most and if the OnePlus 3 can really drive the kind of sales that complement all the marketing it’s been getting!

The remaining half of 2016 will be interesting times indeed for the smartphones market.