OnePlus Nord 3 Full Review!

The OnePlus Note 3: A Mid-Range Powerhouse with Room for Improvement

I recently had the opportunity to test the OnePlus Note 3, and I must say that it's an impressive device that offers a great balance of specs at a relatively affordable price point. The phone features a large 6.7-inch AMOLED display, which provides vibrant colors and a crisp visual experience. The screen is also protected by a Gorilla Glass 5 layer, making it resistant to scratches and drops.

The OnePlus Note 3 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G processor, which delivers fast performance and efficient battery life. The phone comes with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage, making it suitable for gaming and multitasking. I was impressed by the device's responsiveness and ability to handle demanding apps without any lag.

One of the standout features of the OnePlus Note 3 is its camera capabilities. While the primary sensor is a Sony IMX 890 sensor that's also found in more expensive models like the OnePlus 11R, I found it to be lacking in terms of overall consistency. Most of the photos I took from the phone were vibrant, but when it came to capturing images of greenery or scenes with complex lighting, the results were less than impressive.

The camera app is intuitive and offers a range of features like night mode, portrait mode, and ultra-wide-angle shots. However, the results varied greatly depending on the situation. Some photos looked great, while others were marred by inconsistencies in exposure, contrast, and color balance. The low-light images, on the other hand, were quite nice, with pleasing output even when the phone's camera struggled to capture details.

The OnePlus Note 3 also features a decent ultra-wide-angle camera, which is often an afterthought on most phones. However, this one fell short of expectations, producing subpar results even under good lighting conditions. The selfie camera was another disappointment, struggling to maintain accurate skin tones and background exposures.

In terms of videography, the OnePlus Note 3 has some limitations. While it can record up to 4K at 60 frames per second from the primary camera, stabilization is only available in 1080P at 30 and 60fps. The overall quality of the videos was also subpar, with a darker tone and noticeable over-sharpening.

One area where the OnePlus Note 3 truly shines is in its design. The phone's metal frame and glass back make it feel premium, while the IP67 rating ensures that it can withstand rough handling. The haptics are also impressive, providing a satisfying feedback when interacting with the device.

The battery life of the OnePlus Note 3 was another pleasant surprise. With moderate use, I easily got through an entire day without needing to charge the phone again. Quick charging is also available, making it possible to top up the battery in just 35 minutes.

In conclusion, the OnePlus Note 3 has positioned itself well as a mid-range powerhouse with a great balance of specs and features. While the camera capabilities could be improved, the device's overall performance, design, and user experience make it a compelling choice for those looking for a flagship-like experience without the hefty price tag. With some software updates to optimize the cameras, I'm confident that this phone will continue to impress.

Camera Capabilities

OnePlus has made significant strides in its camera capabilities, but there's still room for improvement. The Sony IMX 890 sensor is a decent starting point, and I was impressed by the vibrant colors and crisp visuals produced by the primary camera. However, when it came to capturing images of greenery or scenes with complex lighting, the results were less than impressive.

The ultra-wide-angle camera was another disappointment, producing subpar results even under good lighting conditions. The selfie camera struggled to maintain accurate skin tones and background exposures, making it difficult to take high-quality selfies. Overall, I'd say that the camera capabilities of the OnePlus Note 3 could be improved with some software updates and tweaks.

Video Capabilities

The OnePlus Note 3's video capabilities are another area where it falls short. While it can record up to 4K at 60 frames per second from the primary camera, stabilization is only available in 1080P at 30 and 60fps. The overall quality of the videos was also subpar, with a darker tone and noticeable over-sharpening.

The ultra-wide-angle camera was unable to capture smooth footage, and autofocus was not available during recording. Additionally, the phone does not allow you to switch between lenses while recording video, which is a bummer for those looking to create more dynamic content.

Battery Life

One of the standout features of the OnePlus Note 3 is its battery life. With moderate use, I easily got through an entire day without needing to charge the phone again. Quick charging is also available, making it possible to top up the battery in just 35 minutes.

Overall, the battery life of the OnePlus Note 3 is a major selling point, making it an excellent choice for those with busy lifestyles or who need to use their phone extensively throughout the day.

Design

The design of the OnePlus Note 3 is where the device truly shines. The metal frame and glass back make it feel premium, while the IP67 rating ensures that it can withstand rough handling. The haptics are also impressive, providing a satisfying feedback when interacting with the device.

Overall, I'm impressed by the design of the OnePlus Note 3, which effectively balances form and function. While some may find the phone's size or weight to be a drawback, I think it's a minor trade-off for the benefits offered by the larger display and more premium materials.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello everyone it's me prathima so the OnePlus Note 3 is finally here I have been using it just over a week now and I believe this is one of the most well balanced mid-range phones you can get at the moment its price starts at 34 000 or some 450 euros for the base a 2028 GB variant and although this price segment is full of some good phones like the Galaxy a54 the Poco F5 and the Moto h40 all of them compromise in one way or the other but with the Note 3 OnePlus has nailed it at almost everything there are some aspects of the camera that OnePlus needs to fix with an update or two but other than that it's a stellar package overall okay the first thing that I really like about this phone is how simple its design is I have this matte black color option and it looks plain yet elegant you can also go with the Mystic green variant which has a glossy back but is equally good looking too here you you get Gorilla Glass 5 protection at the back while its display gets a dragon Trail glass OnePlus has also included an official ip5 for dust and splash resistance for the first time in the Nord lineup the ip54 rating basically means it can protect this phone from water splashes from any direction for around 5 to 10 minutes and this has definitely come in handy for me during this monsoon season likewise I like these flat frames with subtle curves at the back which offers a nice grip but more importantly I like the overall heft of the foot in fact it has a much better Hands-On feel than the more expensive OnePlus 11R the weight here is also evenly distributed so I had no problems using it with one hand for long minutes the power button is also easily reachable with the thumb although I would have liked it more if this alert slider was located a bit lower I'm also surprised to see an IR blaster on a OnePlus phone which means that you can use the Note 3 as a remote control cooler too upfront the bezels as you can see are quite minimal and uniform in fact they are on par with something like the Galaxy s2d3 Ultra Plus you also don't get a curved display like we saw on the OnePlus 11R which you know I'm not a big fan of this one here is a flat panel so I do not have any accidental touches when typing or playing games talking about the core quality of the display it's actually quite good well not Flagship level good but this AMOLED screen has everything from 120 hertz refresh rate to higher pixel density Timber colors and a fast dot sampling rate I'm using the phone in the default Vivid mode which produces a slightly Punchy color output but yeah you can also go with the other modes and even change the color temperature with a slider and this is also an HDR certified display and on my test I had no problems watching HDR content on otd platforms like Netflix and Prime video likewise interacting with the screen has been an absolute treat the touch here is quite responsive the vibration feedback is probably the best in the segment and there are no weird stutters in the UI too but I would suggest you use the phone in the high refresh rate mode as that one's more optimized the UI and most of the apps always blast 120 hertz here Chrome runs at 90 Hertz and videos at 60hz although it never hit the advertised 40 Hertz refresh rate in any of my tests I also found the brightness of this display to be plenty reliable OnePlus says it can reach up to 14 15 nits at Max but that's only while watching HDR videos whereas in Str content with auto brightness mode on it can still reach an impressive 1100 nits and I found it to be bright enough to look at the screen indirects online too on the opposite end the OnePlus Note 3 is minimum brightness is also quite low while it's auto brightness sensor works perfectly fine the industry fingerprint sensor here is pretty fast as well so overall you will love the display experience on this one the stereo speakers on the OnePlus Note 3 are also excellent for the price it has Dolby Atmos support and the audio here can get really loud with good travel the vocals sound clear and there is some hint of bass as well but the biggest biggest Improvement on the OnePlus Note 3 has got to be in the performance aspect here you get a much more powerful Diamond City 9000 chipset this time along with LP ddr5x RAM and ufs 3.1 storage which means compared to the last gen Nord 2n2t the performance jump here is quite huge both in terms of CPU and GPU as a result everything here feels fast and smooth multitasking is excellent and it almost feels like you are using a flagship phone that being said you can get faster phones like the icon U7 Pro with the Snapdragon 8 plus gen1 chip at a similar price bracket but what OnePlus offers is a much cleaner and easy to use UI experience with no bloatware apps and you will just love using this phone OnePlus is also promising three generations of os and four years of security patches on this thing so that is quite good as well now coming back to the performance the diamond City 9000 chip here can get slightly hotter but it does not throttle the performance nor it has any kind of overheating issue but yes if you're using mobile data and doing some high CPU usage tests it does get a bit warmer than other phones like say the Galaxy a54 anyway talking about gaming you do have an option of 90 FPS and pubg mobile and the gameplay is quite enjoyable it does not reach 90 FPS but hobo is at around 82 FPS and I found this issue with almost every game that I tested for instance genshin impact at 30 FPS mode only reaches 27 FPS on average while Call of Duty and Asphalt 9 are capped at 55 FPS but this should get optimized with an update so I am not worried all that much likewise High refresh rate games like Injustice 2 and Macarena cannot be played at a smooth 120 FPS and run at 30 and 60 FPS respectively that being said all of these games have no lags and Achieve almost 100 FPS stability okay let's get into the cameras now and this is one area where I feel like OnePlus still has a lot of work to do to improve the Note 3's overall camera prowess it features the same Sony IMX 890 sensor as the more expensive OnePlus 11R and the OnePlus 11 but I found it to be lacking in terms of overall consistency most of the photos that I clicked from the Note 3 are a bit more vibrant which kind of works in oneplus's favor sometimes but when I am clicking photos of greenery for example it looks quite unnatural similarly in this photo of the two I feel like the Shadows could have been better preserved and there are some instances whether or not three could do better with the whites too portrays are also Hit or Miss sometimes it produces good looking shots with nice background separation and focus but sometimes it makes the skin look a bit dark and contrasty the low light images on the other hand are quite nice although it's a bit less sharp and noisier than the OnePlus 11R most of the time I'm getting pleasing output especially while turning on the night mode however I am extremely disappointed to see a very average Ultra wide angle camera here just look at this Ultra wide angle nighttime shot that I took it's just so bad in so many ways and even under good lighting conditions the results I am getting here are quite average selfies come out nice most of the time but it does tend to turn the subject's skin soft and pinkish in some situations so yeah again I think some form of consistency is definitely lagging here OnePlus is also also not offering anything extraordinary in terms of videography yeah it can record up to 4K 60 FPS from the primary camera but OnePlus is only offering stabilization in 1080P 30 and 60fps videos but not in 4k for some reason and not just that the overall quality is subpar2 it's a bit darker and there's some over sharpening going on here the ultrawide videos are also substandard as it has very less details no autofocus and is capped out at 1080p 30fps plus OnePlus also does not let you switch between lenses while recording the video okay so in terms of the selfie video you are limited to 1080p 30 FPS only which is a bummer for a phone in this price range the subject's skin tone looks good and the background exposures also maintained well but at the same time there's no stabilization and the background noise separation is not good so overall pretty average video capabilities from the selfie camera lastly the battery life I'm getting on the OnePlus Note 3 is decent it's nothing extraordinary like the Galaxy s23 Ultra and the iPhone 14 pro Max but it should last you for an entire day if you're not a heavy user and even if you are you can quickly charge the phone with the 80 watt adapter in about 35 minutes okay let's conclude this video like I said in the very beginning I think the OnePlus Note 3 has positioned itself quite well by offering balance specs for around 34 000 rupees in India the only aspect I find this phone could do better is of course the cameras but I expect the company to roll out a few updates to optimize it in in the coming days just like they did with the OnePlus 11R but other than that it manages to impress me with everything else I really like its design its multimedia experience is superb you get a flagship-like user experience with fast performance nice haptics and up to Android 16 OS updates so overall the OnePlus Note 3 is somewhere at the top of my ranking in the best mid-range phones for 2023. so every event that is all for my full review of the newly launched OnePlus Note 3 so which comparison would you like to see next not 3 versus a54 or not three versus one plus 11R or not three versus Moto h40 or not 3 versus icon here 7 Pro to let me know in the comments by the way this review unit was provided to us by OnePlus and no editorial input from the company or our affiliate partner Amazon has been there in this review whatsoever this unit will be returned after the review is over so yeah saying this I hope you enjoyed the video thank you so much for watchinghello everyone it's me prathima so the OnePlus Note 3 is finally here I have been using it just over a week now and I believe this is one of the most well balanced mid-range phones you can get at the moment its price starts at 34 000 or some 450 euros for the base a 2028 GB variant and although this price segment is full of some good phones like the Galaxy a54 the Poco F5 and the Moto h40 all of them compromise in one way or the other but with the Note 3 OnePlus has nailed it at almost everything there are some aspects of the camera that OnePlus needs to fix with an update or two but other than that it's a stellar package overall okay the first thing that I really like about this phone is how simple its design is I have this matte black color option and it looks plain yet elegant you can also go with the Mystic green variant which has a glossy back but is equally good looking too here you you get Gorilla Glass 5 protection at the back while its display gets a dragon Trail glass OnePlus has also included an official ip5 for dust and splash resistance for the first time in the Nord lineup the ip54 rating basically means it can protect this phone from water splashes from any direction for around 5 to 10 minutes and this has definitely come in handy for me during this monsoon season likewise I like these flat frames with subtle curves at the back which offers a nice grip but more importantly I like the overall heft of the foot in fact it has a much better Hands-On feel than the more expensive OnePlus 11R the weight here is also evenly distributed so I had no problems using it with one hand for long minutes the power button is also easily reachable with the thumb although I would have liked it more if this alert slider was located a bit lower I'm also surprised to see an IR blaster on a OnePlus phone which means that you can use the Note 3 as a remote control cooler too upfront the bezels as you can see are quite minimal and uniform in fact they are on par with something like the Galaxy s2d3 Ultra Plus you also don't get a curved display like we saw on the OnePlus 11R which you know I'm not a big fan of this one here is a flat panel so I do not have any accidental touches when typing or playing games talking about the core quality of the display it's actually quite good well not Flagship level good but this AMOLED screen has everything from 120 hertz refresh rate to higher pixel density Timber colors and a fast dot sampling rate I'm using the phone in the default Vivid mode which produces a slightly Punchy color output but yeah you can also go with the other modes and even change the color temperature with a slider and this is also an HDR certified display and on my test I had no problems watching HDR content on otd platforms like Netflix and Prime video likewise interacting with the screen has been an absolute treat the touch here is quite responsive the vibration feedback is probably the best in the segment and there are no weird stutters in the UI too but I would suggest you use the phone in the high refresh rate mode as that one's more optimized the UI and most of the apps always blast 120 hertz here Chrome runs at 90 Hertz and videos at 60hz although it never hit the advertised 40 Hertz refresh rate in any of my tests I also found the brightness of this display to be plenty reliable OnePlus says it can reach up to 14 15 nits at Max but that's only while watching HDR videos whereas in Str content with auto brightness mode on it can still reach an impressive 1100 nits and I found it to be bright enough to look at the screen indirects online too on the opposite end the OnePlus Note 3 is minimum brightness is also quite low while it's auto brightness sensor works perfectly fine the industry fingerprint sensor here is pretty fast as well so overall you will love the display experience on this one the stereo speakers on the OnePlus Note 3 are also excellent for the price it has Dolby Atmos support and the audio here can get really loud with good travel the vocals sound clear and there is some hint of bass as well but the biggest biggest Improvement on the OnePlus Note 3 has got to be in the performance aspect here you get a much more powerful Diamond City 9000 chipset this time along with LP ddr5x RAM and ufs 3.1 storage which means compared to the last gen Nord 2n2t the performance jump here is quite huge both in terms of CPU and GPU as a result everything here feels fast and smooth multitasking is excellent and it almost feels like you are using a flagship phone that being said you can get faster phones like the icon U7 Pro with the Snapdragon 8 plus gen1 chip at a similar price bracket but what OnePlus offers is a much cleaner and easy to use UI experience with no bloatware apps and you will just love using this phone OnePlus is also promising three generations of os and four years of security patches on this thing so that is quite good as well now coming back to the performance the diamond City 9000 chip here can get slightly hotter but it does not throttle the performance nor it has any kind of overheating issue but yes if you're using mobile data and doing some high CPU usage tests it does get a bit warmer than other phones like say the Galaxy a54 anyway talking about gaming you do have an option of 90 FPS and pubg mobile and the gameplay is quite enjoyable it does not reach 90 FPS but hobo is at around 82 FPS and I found this issue with almost every game that I tested for instance genshin impact at 30 FPS mode only reaches 27 FPS on average while Call of Duty and Asphalt 9 are capped at 55 FPS but this should get optimized with an update so I am not worried all that much likewise High refresh rate games like Injustice 2 and Macarena cannot be played at a smooth 120 FPS and run at 30 and 60 FPS respectively that being said all of these games have no lags and Achieve almost 100 FPS stability okay let's get into the cameras now and this is one area where I feel like OnePlus still has a lot of work to do to improve the Note 3's overall camera prowess it features the same Sony IMX 890 sensor as the more expensive OnePlus 11R and the OnePlus 11 but I found it to be lacking in terms of overall consistency most of the photos that I clicked from the Note 3 are a bit more vibrant which kind of works in oneplus's favor sometimes but when I am clicking photos of greenery for example it looks quite unnatural similarly in this photo of the two I feel like the Shadows could have been better preserved and there are some instances whether or not three could do better with the whites too portrays are also Hit or Miss sometimes it produces good looking shots with nice background separation and focus but sometimes it makes the skin look a bit dark and contrasty the low light images on the other hand are quite nice although it's a bit less sharp and noisier than the OnePlus 11R most of the time I'm getting pleasing output especially while turning on the night mode however I am extremely disappointed to see a very average Ultra wide angle camera here just look at this Ultra wide angle nighttime shot that I took it's just so bad in so many ways and even under good lighting conditions the results I am getting here are quite average selfies come out nice most of the time but it does tend to turn the subject's skin soft and pinkish in some situations so yeah again I think some form of consistency is definitely lagging here OnePlus is also also not offering anything extraordinary in terms of videography yeah it can record up to 4K 60 FPS from the primary camera but OnePlus is only offering stabilization in 1080P 30 and 60fps videos but not in 4k for some reason and not just that the overall quality is subpar2 it's a bit darker and there's some over sharpening going on here the ultrawide videos are also substandard as it has very less details no autofocus and is capped out at 1080p 30fps plus OnePlus also does not let you switch between lenses while recording the video okay so in terms of the selfie video you are limited to 1080p 30 FPS only which is a bummer for a phone in this price range the subject's skin tone looks good and the background exposures also maintained well but at the same time there's no stabilization and the background noise separation is not good so overall pretty average video capabilities from the selfie camera lastly the battery life I'm getting on the OnePlus Note 3 is decent it's nothing extraordinary like the Galaxy s23 Ultra and the iPhone 14 pro Max but it should last you for an entire day if you're not a heavy user and even if you are you can quickly charge the phone with the 80 watt adapter in about 35 minutes okay let's conclude this video like I said in the very beginning I think the OnePlus Note 3 has positioned itself quite well by offering balance specs for around 34 000 rupees in India the only aspect I find this phone could do better is of course the cameras but I expect the company to roll out a few updates to optimize it in in the coming days just like they did with the OnePlus 11R but other than that it manages to impress me with everything else I really like its design its multimedia experience is superb you get a flagship-like user experience with fast performance nice haptics and up to Android 16 OS updates so overall the OnePlus Note 3 is somewhere at the top of my ranking in the best mid-range phones for 2023. so every event that is all for my full review of the newly launched OnePlus Note 3 so which comparison would you like to see next not 3 versus a54 or not three versus one plus 11R or not three versus Moto h40 or not 3 versus icon here 7 Pro to let me know in the comments by the way this review unit was provided to us by OnePlus and no editorial input from the company or our affiliate partner Amazon has been there in this review whatsoever this unit will be returned after the review is over so yeah saying this I hope you enjoyed the video thank you so much for watching\n"