OnePlus are an interesting smartphone manufacturer, selling under the moniker of “never settle.” The business started selling the original OnePlus One smartphone in 2014 offering customers a flagship grade smartphone at mid-range prices. Customers could buy something with a similar chipset, screen, camera and memory to the established flagship handsets but at a fraction of the cost. However, whilst the OnePlus One was considered to be more than the sum of its parts, the device was very much eclipsed by some of the news surrounding the company. OnePlus had a shoestring marketing budget and so used publicity stunts to help sell the device. The company also worked hard to create and maintain demand for the devices, offering the first three ‘phones on an invite-only basis. Customers had to obtain an invite to buy the device. Although this technique was not universally liked across the world, it did ensure that OnePlus could match their manufacturing lines with customer demand, which is important for a business run with a very tight budget. Various invite competitions were arranged, some more successful than others and one forced the company to make an official apology: but all generated interest in the handset and the company. The seeds were sown for follow up devices, as people were interested in what OnePlus were working on next.
It’s now 2016 and OnePlus have just announced their third generation flagship killer device, the OnePlus 3. If you were waiting for OnePlus to announce and release details about the OnePlus 3, their 2016 champion flagship killing device, did you like what you saw? OnePlus’ latest smartphone is based around a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 System-on-Chip, which features two dual core Qualcomm custom Kryo cores clocked at either 2.15 GHz or 1.6 GHz, depending on the tier. The chipset is supported by 6 GB of RAM with 64 GB of internal storage and there’s a 5.5-inch, 1080p resolution AMOLED panel. Unlike the OnePlus 2, the OnePlus 3 comes with NFC. The model also comes with a 16MP main camera, a 8MP front facing camera, a 3,000 mAh battery and dual Nano SIMs, with Cat 6 LTE modem support. Better yet, the OnePlus 3 is selling for under $400 and ships with Oxygen OS, based on Android 6.0.1: this is a lot of hardware for not a lot of cash, and is sure to excite and interest smartphone, Android and OnePlus fans across the world.
If you ordered the OnePlus 3, here’s hoping the wait is not too long – and meanwhile, Hampus Olsson has released the original artwork behind the OnePlus’ wallpapers at the source website. The artwork is truly stunning, and you can check out the images below if you’d like to download them for your own personal device.
