Just as the case with the past years, and despite the calamitous threat of the deadly Coronavirus causing GSMA to call off this year’s MWC, many of the tech companies have unveiled their latest addition to the lineups of their flagship smartphones. But as we drool over the rapid advancements in network speeds and processing power introduced to us every year, it still remains a tough task to guess whether these new smartphones will stand the test of time and prove to be a reliable option a year or two down the road. With the news of my Essential PH-1 will no longer receive official support, I thought it might be the best time to conduct a little experiment to deduce how well do older flagship smartphones stand the test of time.

The phone I chose to use is the OnePlus 3, partly because I already owned it. But mostly because it represents the first device OnePlus was able to sell more openly to the average consumer. Apart from dropping the absurd invite-based system, the OnePlus 3 featured an impressive spec sheet of the flagship caliber — a top-of-the-line processor with 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of UFS 2.0 internal storage. And unlike its predecessors, this spec sheet was complemented by a rather conventional design and a decent camera setup. I lost count of how many times I was asked what kind of Samsung or HTC phone do I have once I pull it off my pocket. Of course, OnePlus has moved far away now with their latest OnePlus 7T & 7T Pro phones — gone are the flagship killer slogans and the affordable price tags to a great extent, with great focus on the fit and finish of their phones. However, we can’t ignore the fact that many of the average Jacks and Joes of people got to know of the company at that time.

The Good

Display

The OnePlus 3 featured a 5.5” 1080p display, which is the same resolution as its predecessor’s screen. However, the OnePlus 3 marked the company’s transition from adopting LCD screens to adopting Samsung-manufactured AMOLED screens. As a result, the phone featured incredible contrast levels and decent brightness for outdoor use. And despite adhering to the controversial NTSC color standard out of the box, causing colors to be a bit oversaturated, OnePlus was quick to address the issue by rolling out a few software updates giving the user the option of switching to the sRGB color profile at will.

So how does the screen fare these days? Well, for starters, I am pleased to report that my OnePlus 3 suffers from no burn-in issues, thanks to the capacitive back and recents buttons on either side of that fingerprint sensor on the front. I am pretty sure though that most users who used the on-screen navigation bar would encounter this problem. Pictures viewed on this screen are still a joy to watch, thanks to the incredible contrast levels the AMOLED screen technology brings as I mentioned earlier. It only felt a bit archaic to hold since it featured that good old 16:9 aspect ratio. And of course, while it was credited for its high screen-to-body ratio at the time it was released, it might feel a bit archaic to look at as well to some people. I, however, was able to appreciate the experience of having a screen with no silly notches or cut-outs at the top. And to me, that bottom bezel was a blast from the past, as I remembered how easy it was to unlock the phone while it is laid on my desk without picking it up or doing some neck stretches to get the phone to recognize my face. Ah, those were the days.

Performance

To be quite honest, this might be the only aspect I had little skepticism about. Sure, flagship processors are considered to be much faster and more efficient than those released 3-4 years ago. But over the last 2-3 years, it is very hard to notice the performance gains of each iteration in normal day-to-day tasks. I share the opinion of many others that we have reached this plateau a long time ago. Mid-range processors at this point are considered good enough for most people, if not all of them. Gone are the days where buying a flagship phone was a must if you want to have a guaranteed flawless experience with little hiccups to worry about. Now, buying a phone with a flagship processor is more of a convenience rather than a necessity. And the OnePlus 3 sort of proves my point. Even when compared to the 3-year old Essential PH-1 of mine, the OnePlus 3 simply breezes through my apps with nearly no slowdowns to note. Heck, it even manages to best out the Essential Phone in things like RAM management since it has 2 more gigs of RAM at its disposal.

Sure, loading games on the OnePlus 3 is a tad slower, just as the Essential Phone is going to be when compared to something like the OnePlus 6. But apart from that, the OnePlus 3 ticks about every box comfortably just as it did when it was first launched. The only area where it was noticeably slower than my Essential Phone is when processing an HDR+ photo taken by Gcam. It takes about double the time needed to process the HDR+ photo on my Essential PH-1. More on that later in the upcoming segment.

Another area where the OnePlus 3 falls a bit short is that it might get a bit warm when used extensively. And when it comes to playing resource-intensive games for a prolonged time the CPU and GPU are most likely throttled to prevent further heating up. Other than that, the OnePlus 3 handles normal day-to-day tasks with ease. It’s quite fast at launching the normal suite of social media apps and it retains them in the memory for quite some time before forcing a reload. OxygenOS continues to impress with its handful nifty features, and thankfully OnePlus walked the extra mile and updated the phone to Android Pie, meaning that the OnePlus 3 has received 3 major Android updates throughout its lifetime before the end of official support. Of course, given the developer-friendly nature of the company, the geeky ones among us could easily unlock the bootloader and flash a custom ROM to keep the phone up to date with the latest security patches (the last OTA update has got the October 2019 security patch) and maybe even update the phone unofficially to newer Android versions. Still, this is more than an impressive feat the company should be applauded for, especially when the last software version suffers from no major complaints.

Audio (headphone jack)

Many of you might think the OnePlus 3 doesn’t have anything special with regards to the audio aspect. On paper, the OnePlus 3 features a measly single bottom-firing speaker with nothing special to boast about. And that’s definitely the case. The OnePlus 3 speaker is nothing special to write home about, though it is more than loud enough to hear when someone rings your phone. However, the OnePlus 3 features something that all of us used to take for granted that wasn’t required to be written in the specs sheet: a headphone jack, another feature that reminded me of the simpler times of the past. With my move to the Essential PH-1, I also made the move to wireless earphones and speakers — carrying around a dongle was not something I favored. But with the OnePlus 3, I could easily connect my phone to the good old sub-woofer set of mine that I had lying around in my room for a long time. And it sounded quite good too. Audio coming out of that port was quite loud and punchy, with very little background noise only evident at the extreme volume levels. And, most importantly, I could still stream my music on Spotify through the sub-woofer while still keeping my phone plugged in. This is something I could only do on my Essential phone if my Bluetooth speaker had enough juice in it. Nothing beats the classics, they say.

The Bad

Design

Rather than blending in with the top-tier flagships of 2016, OnePlus took a more conservative approach with the OnePlus 3, settling with an uninspiring metal slab housing a front-facing fingerprint scanner and a sizeable camera hump on the back. OnePlus has played it safe with the OnePlus 3, though I think they played it a bit too safe. It may be argued that this design is guaranteed to look more appealing to the average consumer. And as a sort of compensation for the geeky ones, OnePlus thought a Sandstone back cover could fill the void.

So how does it blend in with the current crop of phones nowadays? Well, in short, not that much. The design definitely makes the phone stand out albeit for the wrong reasons. This aluminum-based construction looks a bit outdated when compared to the glass sandwiches most people carry in their pockets, not to mention phones made from more ‘exotic’ materials like the stainless steel of the iPhone’s side rails. Maybe the only positive to take from this design is that it can be more resilient to drops — a slight dent in the corner is more ignorable than a cracked glass back for sure. And as I mentioned earlier, it really starts to feel a bit too old once you hold it. That 16:9 aspect ratio really hinders one-hand usability. And of course, these bezels are not the most appealing thing to look at now, with most phone shifting to an in-display fingerprint scanner or a rear-facing one to eliminate as much of the front bezels as they could. It may have looked more than just fine in its prime, but not so these days.

Camera

In the era where multi-lens camera systems are the norm, the OnePlus 3 definitely lacks behind when it comes to versatility. Even Google, the biggest advocate of the single-lens camera systems, made the move with the Pixel 4. Photo quality more or less shares the same narrative about the hardware employed, which can be summarised in one word: old-fashioned. Fortunately, the smart people over there at XDA-Developers have forged a new solution to improve the camera of many of the smartphones out there. After a few tinkering, I was able to install a compatible, modified build of Google’s camera software Gcam. That has worked out for the most part — HDR+ works wonders despite the aging hardware. There is, however, a small caveat. Due to the way it works — multiple frames are taken and processed together in order to obtain a final image with improved dynamic range — the phone takes quite some time to process the photo. It’s not like it works spontaneously on my Essential phone, not even the Pixel 3a can match this feat of the other Pixel phones. But it certainly does take more than 1 or 2 seconds. And taking a lot of photos will make the phone a bit toasty.

The Ugly

Battery life

The OnePlus 3 features a 3,000 mAh battery that supports Dash Charge technology, its proprietary quick charging technology. This allowed the phone to charge from 0 to 60% in 30 minutes, and to charge fully in just over an hour. Of course, this was deemed quite revolutionary at the time — these stats are still considered impressive even by today’s standards. Sadly though, the battery is one of the components that deteriorates much faster than most of the other internal components. Whether it is affected by being charged rapidly on a regular basis or not, there is also the fact that Li-Po batteries are not renowned for their longevity. This definitely does not bode well for the limited capacity of this phone’s battery. Sure, at its peak the OnePlus 3 was able to hold its charge for a full day of moderate use, including a couple of hours of navigation for those who rely on it to go to work. But now, it is nearly impossible to complete a full day without topping it up by afternoon. And if you want to spend the night out in a pub after your workday, you might struggle to keep it alive on your way home unless you plug it in some time in the middle. On the upside, Dash Charge will definitely bump it up to 60% or slightly more in 30 minutes.

To put things into perspective, I have been crunching some numbers for those who like to look at the issue in a more statistical and objective view. During the first year of use, I was averaging around 6-7 hours of screen-on time over an average charge cycle of 18 to 20 hours. Now, I am averaging around 3 to 4 hours of screen-on time at best over an average charge cycle of 8 to 10 hours. I think the word abysmal sums up the battery life of the OnePlus 3 currently. And since most of the time I stream my music via Spotify, my phone is almost always plugged in when I am back home. This comes as no surprise to me since I already anticipated such a drop in the battery life ever since the phone was released with a relatively small battery. I think people who have the OnePlus 3T — its sibling model with a 3400 mAh battery instead — will not find it that difficult to pull through their normal routine day. Thanks to that audio jack though, I can still connect it to my subwoofer set.

The Verdict

It has always been a mystery to know how flagship smartphones hold up. A couple of years before the release of the OnePlus 3, there was little to worry about apart from the performance. Mostly because things like mobile photography were merely an afterthought. The only area flagship smartphones had a big lead in over their mid-tier contenders was the performance. Now though, things have changed quite a bit. Mid-range smartphones have become really good and more than capable to carry out most day-to-day tasks with ease. People no longer have to part ways with a lot of cash to get a decent experience and browse through their social media apps or check out their news feed. Instead, I think the main reason people usually spend more money on their phones nowadays is the camera.

Which brings us to the next question, should you hold on to your 4-year-old flagship smartphone? Not necessarily. From high-quality displays and fashionable designs to multiple lens camera systems and beefy batteries, mid-range smartphones have gained a lot of steam lately, and are far too good to be ignored. That all stems from the fact that mid-range processors have become powerful enough for most people.

Then there is this niche lineup of the so-called flagship killers which the OnePlus 3 originally belonged to. The Poco X2, for instance, offers a quality screen with a 120 Hz refresh rate and puts up a respectable performance when it comes to gaming, despite sporting a midrange processor and not a high-end one. Not only that, but the Poco X2 also sports a quad-camera setup on the back, offering a very versatile camera experience as well. And if having a top-tier processor under the hood is still your main priority, the Realme X50 Pro makes a strong case for itself in this regard.

Bottom line is, while the OnePlus 3 was far from an annoyance to put up with in most aspects, an upgrade to a modern smartphone is certainly overdue. And thankfully, it doesn’t have to be a costly one.

Featured-Image: TechRadar