OnePlus 3T review: Digitally remastered

Contacts and telephony

Not much has changed in regard to the core set of apps within Oxygen OS since its last major update. Current OnePlus owners, as well as most stock Android fans will feel right at home.

The contacts manager features a tabbed interface, which displays all contacts and the favorites. You can sync with multiple accounts including Google and Exchange. A button to add a new contact is constantly present in the bottom right corner - you can choose which account to sync the new addition with.

Contacts app • The Phone app and its dialer

The phone app comes with a tabbed interface for speed dial, recent calls and all contacts. The dialer is invoked by taping on its dedicated key and supports smart dialing.

OnePlus has stuck to its typical design approach and like its sibling, the OnePlus 3T also has a single loudspeaker on the bottom. Just like it, however, the updated version isn't particularly loud. It only scored a "Good" mark in our proprietary test.

Messaging and text input

Messaging is pretty much as straightforward an affair as on every other droid out there. The generic Email app is being decommissioned in favor of the Gmail app. If you tap on its icon, it will tell you the Gmail app is the client that will handle all your emails from now on.

Messages app • Messages app • Gmail • Gmail

As expected, the default Google keyboard is on board as well. It offers two sleek-looking skins - Material Dark and Material Light. It is now smart enough and supports things like Gesture typing, but if you would rather go with a third party for this feature, SwiftKey is also on board by default.

Apps

As usual, OnePlus has kept its app package to a bare minimum. There is literally no bloatware to speak of.

Google Chrome is unsurprisingly the default browser in the new OnePlus 3T. Its design matches the material look and feel of Android.

Google Chrome

One of the Chrome's strengths is its ability to seamlessly sync with the desktop version, using nothing but your Google account. This allows you to open an article on your PC and finish reading it on your mobile phone. It also syncs your bookmarks and favorite sites.

OnePlus has opted to use most of the Google app suite on the OnePlus 3, but there are a few exceptions, like the dedicated File app, Gallery and Music player. The usual organizing tools are present as well - there is the massively capable Google Calendar, a neat Calculator, and Clock (alarms, world clock, timer, stopwatch). A Recorder app was also thrown in the mix.

Calendar • Calculator • Clock • Files • Recorder

OnePlus has also thrown in a Weather app this time around. It features a very minimalistic interface, complete with animations and a parallax effect. All the data comes from AccuWeather. The app is hardly a resource hog by any measure, but since it is not there to serve a vital function, like the rest of the small OnePlus package, you can always elect to uninstall it.

Weather app