Back in 2014, an unknown company called OnePlus was entering the market with a blast, releasing One, their first smartphone. Being a combination of high-end specs and a pocket-friendly price, the phone quickly became a hit and turned the company in one of the most important players.
Considering this, everybody was looking forward for the second generation of the handset. Unfortunately, the OnePlus 2 wasn’t exactly what fans wanted, so they were a bit disappointed and immediately started hoping that the third one will be better.
And here we are, one year later, reading all sorts of rumors about the OnePlus 3. Unlike other manufacturers, such as Samsung or Apple, the Chinese manufacturer doesn’t have a specific period of the year for launching phones. The first model was introduced in April 2014, while OnePlus 2 was announced last year, in July. OnePlus co-founder, Carl Pei, claimed that the device should make its debut by the end of next quarter, so we might as well see it somewhere in June.
OK, but what do we know so far about the OnePlus 3?
Design
There are two main things we’re looking forward to seeing, just like last year: a metallic body and a fingerprint scanner. Hopefully, OnePlus 3 will have them both, since they’re somehow mandatory for today’s flagship.
Recently, infamous leakster Evan Blass, also known as @evleaks, posted an image which he claims to be depicting the actual device. If it’s indeed accurate, it means that the OnePlus 3 will finally have a metallic body, a fingerprint scanner integrated in the physical home button on the front, and a protruding camera on the back. Otherwise, it has a bit of an HTC flavor, being designed around a very similar design language.
Display
It seems that there’s a new trend among smartphone manufacturers, a lot of them opting to release their flagships in various sizes. After Samsung, OnePlus might do the same, releasing the 3 with a 5, 5.2 and 5.5 displays, according to the latest rumors.
On the other side, it’s less likely, considering that the company already has a 5.0 device, the OnePlus X. Our guess is that they will continue with 5.5, just like the previous two models, but stepping up the resolution, from full HD to QHD, and using an AMOLED panel instead of LCD.
Hardware
From this point of view, it’s pretty easy to predict what the handset will sport under the hood, as most manufacturers are focusing on the best that the market has to offer. To be more specific, we’re talking about a Snapdragon 820 powering the OnePlus 3, alongside 4 GB of RAM and at least 32 gigs of internal storage.
However, there are some rumors about the phone coming in a few different variants, one with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage, as suggested above, while the other one will have a whooping 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage. We’re very curious about this, to be honest!
Otherwise, the OnePlus 3 will offer expandable storage, using a microSD card, a feature that the top phone makers brought back this year. As for the battery, it could come with a 3000 mAh power pack, according to @evleaks, using OnePlus’ Dash Charge instead of Quick Charge 3.0.
Camera
The Chinese manufacturer did a very good job with the camera on the OnePlus 2, but hey, there’s always room for improvement. Recently, some leaked benchmarks revealed that its successor might be packing a 15 MP snapper, able to shoot 4K videos, while on the front it will have a 7 MP camera, capable of full HD video capture.
Of course, features like autofocus, HDR and touch focus shouldn’t be missing either, but our recommendation is to take this with a pinch of salt. As Samsung proved, it’s not always the number of megapixels making the difference..
Software
Ever since the first model, OnePlus phones were loaded with a custom version of Android, Cyanogen Mod, followed by the company’s own OxygenOS, which is also a customized version of Google’s mobile operating system. Considering this, we’re looking forward to seeing a new version of the OS, based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow, with a whole bunch of new features.
For the moment, this sums up everything we know about the OnePlus 3, but since the phone is prone to be released in the near future, keep an eye on our blog, as we will be back with updates as soon as anything new comes up!