The OnePlus 3 was announced today. To no surprise, the device is only being sold as an unlocked smartphone. Which means the only way you’ll be able to buy the OnePlus 3 is through OnePlus themselves (and Amazon at some point). Luckily, there’s no invite system this year, so you can head to their site and purchase one whenever you want. The OnePlus 3 has some pretty beefy specs as well. Including a 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED display, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 processor with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. Definitely putting the OnePlus 3 on par with other flagships coming out this time of the year.
However, for those that are on T-Mobile US, one important question might be whether the OnePlus 3 features VoLTE calling. And surprisingly, it does. According to one of OnePlus’ customer service reps that is part of their AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit right now, the OnePlus 3 does work with T-Mobile’s VoLTE functionality. Meaning that users on T-Mobile will be able to place calls over their LTE network instead of the legacy voice network. This is a feature that you don’t find on many unlocked smartphones, simply because they need to be certified with T-Mobile to work properly. Making it a pretty big deal, and an important feather in OnePlus’ cap.
For those that may be unaware, VoLTE literally stands for Voice Over LTE. Allowing you to make voice calls over LTE, and that’s something that a variety of apps already allow you to do. Including WhatsApp, Hangouts, Viber and many others. The reason why VoLTE is such a big deal is that T-Mobile’s – and other carriers – LTE network is much more robust and up-to-date, when compared to their voice network, which has been around for years and years. This also means that their LTE network likely has much wider coverage, which is definitely the case with T-Mobile and their 700MHz spectrum.
If you’re looking to pick up the OnePlus 3 and you are on T-Mobile, you have another reason to pick one up. Coming in at $399, it’s likely one of the cheapest smartphones with flagship specs, that supports their VoLTE network.