Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

You can buy the OnePlus 3 in virtual reality right now for $400

Open beta of Android 7.0 Nougat is now available to all OnePlus 3 owners

OnePlus finally announced the highly teased OnePlus 3 in virtual reality, and, boy, was it trippy. Anyone can download The Loop Android app to walk around the company’s Loop space station and explore different “decks” such as Design, Dash Charge, and more. Each deck explores features of the OnePlus 3, and, of course, the experience is amplified if you have a VR headset.

Rather than distributing Cardboard VR headsets like it did for the OnePlus 2 launch, the Chinese smartphone startup sent out well-built “Loop VR” headsets to 30,000 loyal supporters so they could watch the live VR unveiling of the OnePlus 3. You can also just check it out on your Android phone, of course. You can even buy the OnePlus 3 within the Loop app in virtual reality, but before you click the buy button, read all about the phone’s specs here.

Recommended Videos

OnePlus 3 gets Android 7.0 open beta

The OnePlus 3 is finally getting Android 7.0. Kind of. An open beta for Android 7.0 running on the OnePlus 3 has been made available, signaling that a full release will most likely take place in the very near future — which makes sense considering the fact that OnePlus promised that the OnePlus 3 would get Android 7.0 before the end of 2016. New features include a multi-window view, new notifications design, and some extra customizations.

Of course, considering its still a beta there are a few bugs. Known bugs include that Android Pay may not work properly, as well as a few stability issues.

If you want to take your chance and get the Android 7.0 open beta, you can head to the OnePlus forums and download it.

Release date and price

nexus2cee_2016-07-25-11_16_36-OnePlus-3-Soft-Gold-YouTube-728x402
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The OnePlus 3 is available for purchase in VR (or in the 360-degree experience if you don’t have a VR headset) via the Loop Android app — that’s right, the invite system is no more. The device costs $400 — putting it in the “flagship killer” range, but it’s still pricier than previous OnePlus devices. The phone comes in “graphite.” A two-toned gold version — dubbed the OnePlus 3 “Soft Gold,” officially — will be go on sale starting at 12 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 26, in the U.S. on OnePlus.net, and on August 1 in the U.K. (12 p.m. CEST), Hong Kong (6 a.m. HKT), and Canada (6 a.m. EST). If you don’t want to deal with the theatrics, you can also buy the device from the company’s website.

OnePlus has held pop-up events across seven major cities, including New York, Berlin, London, Paris, and several locations in India, to promote the launch of the OnePlus 3. Notably, co-founder Carl Pei attended the New York pop-up event on June 15.

Where’s the sandstone?

With the OnePlus 3, the Chinese company implemented an all-metal design, moving away from the classic sandstone finish that was beloved on the OnePlus 2 and One. The company did have a device with a glass back — the OnePlus X — and it also offered ceramic backs for 10,000 devices in Europe. An all-metal design is completely different, and the device doesn’t look like its predecessors. In fact, the back closely resembles the design of the HTC 10.

But that’s not a bad thing — the OnePlus 3 certainly looks good, even if it looks a little more familiar. The camera sits on the center-top, with a small LED flash below it and OnePlus’ logo in the center. The device has antenna rings close to the top and bottom edges, and the corners are a little more rounded than before.

There are several stylish cases you can get from OnePlus to make your OnePlus 3 to stand out — whether you want classic sandstone, wood, or different colored backs.

The front of the phone resembles the OnePlus 2 a lot more, and you’ll find the same fingerprint sensor placed on the bottom center, which also doubles as the home button. There are capacitive hardware buttons, but you can add on-screen buttons if you like. OnePlus says the fingerprint sensor on the front is made of ceramic, which “improves accuracy with increased use.” It can reportedly unlock your phone in a sleeping state in under 0.3 seconds.

The bezels are thinner than ever, and OnePlus says the device itself is one of its “thinnest flagships” at 7.3mm. For reference, the iPhone 6S Plus is 7.1mm. The flagship device retains a 5.5-inch screen with 1,920 x 1,080 pixels like the OnePlus 2, but it uses an AMOLED screen like the OnePlus X.

The volume rocker and power button are on the right side of the phone as usual, and the Alert Slider is in the same place as it was on the OnePlus 2. The Slider on the left side lets you toggle your notification settings between “all notifications, priority interruptions, and no interruptions.”

Specifications

Powering the 5.5-inch display is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 processor, which seems to be running most Android flagships today like Samsung’s Galaxy S7, the HTC 10, and LG’s G5. Along with the boost in power, the rumors are correct in that the OnePlus 3 has 6GB of RAM. That should prove useful when handling multiple tasks, and it also future-proofs the phone.

The new smartphone runs OxygenOS on top of Android Marshmallow, just like its predecessors, and you’ll get a whopping 64GB of storage space. It also has a downgraded 3,000mAh battery — the OnePlus 2 had a 3,300mAh, but co-founder Carl Pei says in a Reddit Ask-Me-Anything that Dash Charge technology replaces the need for a bigger battery. The claim is that Dash Charge uses the USB Type-C port to let you charge the OnePlus 3 up to 60 percent in 30 minutes.

 

The rear camera is packed with 16-megapixels, and the front camera has 8-megapixels. The OnePlus 3 supports RAW image files and has a “robust” manual mode if you’re looking for more control over the camera. Thankfully, the camera also features optical-image stabilization as well as electronic image stabilization to reduce blur. The selfie cam has a Smile Capture feature, which will snap a picture when you smile.

If you’re hoping for fast Android updates, a OnePlus employee says in the Reddit AMA that the company is working on releasing updates as fast as possible.

Article originally published June 2016. Updated on 11-30-2016 by Christian de Looper: Added news of Android 7.0 update.

Julian Chokkattu
Former Mobile and Wearables Editor
Julian is the mobile and wearables editor at Digital Trends, covering smartphones, fitness trackers, smartwatches, and more…
OnePlus updates Watch 3 price for the US, and it’s good news
A person wearing the OnePlus Watch 3, showing the Wellness screen.

OnePlus has just announced that the price of its Watch 3 is going to drop back down.

The company originally launched it at $329.99. Then, due to what it called "current market conditions" in the U.S., that price hiked to $499.99 on April 10.

Read more
OnePlus 13T: Everything you need to know
OnePlus 13T

After a long wait filled with leaks and rumors, the OnePlus 13T has officially made its debut in China. It's a smaller, more compact alternative to the main OnePlus 13 lineup, and despite initial guesses, it's called the 13T — not the OnePlus 13 Mini. It's a smaller phone for those that prefer subtle devices over pocket-busters, but that doesn't mean it lacks power.

Unlike devices like the now-defunct iPhone Mini, the OnePlus 13T doesn't sacrifice power for size. It's currently only available in China, but there is hope for a global launch. Here's everything you need to know about the latest handheld from OnePlus.

Read more
4 big battery phones the OnePlus 13T will need to compete with
OnePlus 13T

People always say that big things come in small packages. That may just be the case for the OnePlus 13T, the first T model in the OnePlus phone line in three years. It's a little smaller than the flagship OnePlus 13 model thanks to its 6.32-inch OLED display and a weight of 185 grams, but OnePlus recently revealed on Chinese social media platform Weibo that it will house (translated) "the world’s first 6,260mAh glacier battery." That breaks the record held by the OnePlus Ace 3 Pro, which had a 6,100mAh battery.

A 6,260mAh battery guarantees a longer lifespan -- and, in turn, more screen time -- for people looking to get their hands on the OnePlus 13T. However, it's not going to be the only phone on the market with a larger-than-life battery. Other phones that have come before it come pretty close in battery size and energy -- the latter of which OnePlus has not given much information of in terms of charging power and speed. Here are four big battery phones that the OnePlus 13T will have to keep up with once it releases.

Read more