OnePlus 3 v OnePlus 2: What's changed?

The long-rumoured OnePlus 3 finally got unveiled on late Tuesday night. The new flagship phone comes with major upgrades in terms of design, build quality and internal hardware over its predecessor.

OnePlus 2 was hyped as the 2016 flagship killer, but got severely panned from tech pundits and fans, as it lacked key features such as NFC (Near Field Communication) and fast charging, and also, to an extent, the build quality of the phone wasn't that good.

This time, OnePlus seem to have learnt its lessons and has incorporated almost all specifications a flagship phone should boast of. It has also kept some of the features of its 2015 model to maintain its unique identity.

To provide better perspective on the new OnePlus 3 and its predecessor, here is a brief description of the key changes between the two siblings.

Design and build quality:

The new OnePlus 3 comes with a candy-bar shape with sharper corners.

On the back, it features an all-metal shell with black-hued two plastic bands (for radio) — one each on the top and the bottom, similar to HTC One M9 series. It also houses a square-shaped camera module with LED flash below it.

The company has used aluminium-magnesium alloy in OnePlus 2 too, but the use of metal is less as compared to that in its successor.

On the front, OnePlus 3 features a camera at the top left corner and a physical home button, which many believe will also house fingerprint sensor like its predecessor.

As far as dimensions are concerned, OnePlus 3 is slimmer than its predecessor. It measures 152.6 mm in length, 74.6 mm in width, 7.3 mm in thickness and weighs just 158g.

On the other hand, OnePlus 2 measures 151.8 (height) x 74.9 (width) x 9.85 (thickness) mm in dimensions and weighs 175g.

Display:

Both OnePlus 3 and 2 sport 5.5-inch full HD (1920x1080p) screens, but the former is more power-efficient as it is made of Optic AMOLED and also promises enriching viewing experience. On the other hand, the latter houses LCD-based power hogging display panel.

Processor, RAM and storage:

OnePlus 3 houses Qualcomm's most powerful CPU yet, Snapdragon 820, which can clock a staggering speed of 2.2GHz. It is backed by sumptuous 64GB UFS v2.0 storage and LPDDR4 6GB RAM. With this kind of PC grade hardware, OnePlus 3 can play graphics-heavy video games with less lag and without the worry of the phone getting heated up.

OnePlus 2 features a 64-bit class Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 v2.1 series Octa-core SoC (System on Chip) with 3GB/4GB RAM and 16GB/64GB storage options.

Camera:

OnePlus 3 boasts a state-of-the-art camera hardware. It flaunts a feature-rich 16MP snapper with Sony IMX 298 sensor, f/2.0 aperture, 1.12 µm lens, OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation), EIS, 4K video recording ability. On the front, it houses an equally impressive 8MP camera with Sony IMX179 sensor, 1.4 µm (micron pixels) lens and f/2.0 aperture.

On the other hand, OnePlus 2 houses a 13MP camera with laser-based auto-focus, f/2.0 aperture, 1.3 µm lens, OIS (Optical Image Stabiliser), Dual-LED flash, 6 physical lenses and a 5MP camera on the front.

Battery:

OnePlus 3 houses a 3,000mAh battery, 300mAh less than that of its predecessor. Many might wonder why the company would reduce the cell capacity. It's actually due to lack of space in OnePlus 3. It measures just 7.3 mm in thickness, and is 2.6mm slimmer than OnePlus 2.

It has to be noted that the company is using the energy-efficient AMOLED-based display panel, so OnePlus 3 owners are less likely to face any drop in battery life as compared to OnePlus 2.

The new phone also boasts Dash Charge technology, which can charge the phone from zero to 60 percent within 30 minutes. It is also enough to play more than seven hours of full HD video, OnePlus claims.

Value-added features:

OnePlus 3 boasts a more advanced fingerprint scanner as compared to its predecessor. The new phone's biometric sensor can respond in just 0.2 seconds and has less false rejection rate, the company claims.

OnePlus 2 was the first flagship smartphone to boast l Type-C based  USB connector and its successor too features the same connector port. The advantage of Type C ports is that users need not worry about orienting the port while plugging the device as its works reverse as well.

OnePlus 3 also comes with slide-based 'Alert Button' on the left side, which acts as a notification access switcher with the options, 'none, priority and all'.

Another notable inclusion is the NFC (Near Field Communication), a faster version of the Bluetooth wireless data transfer technology. OnePlus 3 owners can also utilise NFC for cashless Android Pay option (now available in select regions). This type of monetary transaction is still in nascent stage, so this feature makes the device future-ready.

Also read: OnePlus 2 vs One: What's New in Second Generation Smartphone?

Key specifications of OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 2: