OnePlus 3 rumor review: "flagship killer" specs, price, release date

ell, it's about that time, folks – the annual refresh cycle of the OnePlus 2 is almost up, and OnePlus should be wowing us with its third "flagship killer" this Summer. As you probably know, the small company made headlines a couple of years ago, with its first smartphone, the OnePlus One. It was an aggressively priced handset that seemed to be too good to be true. Unfortunately, it sort of was — getting to buy one was only possible if you had an invite to do so. Thankfully, nowadays, OnePlus' invite system is only employed during the initial days of a phone's launch, and replaced by regular "in stock" sale soon after.

So, what should we expect from the new OnePlus smartphone? A price-to-value ratio is most certainly on the board. But what about the actual specs? And is the company going to stick to the same design that the OnePlus One and OnePlus 2 employed? Let's gather all the rumors and see what we know so far!

TL;DR

Design: The familiar OnePlus flagship looks overhaulet with fully metallic design and shapes unlike the previous models
Hardware: Snapdragon 820, possibly 4 GB RAM and 6 GB RAM variants, different storage tiers
Display: Super AMOLED panel; 5.5" or 5" diagonal, possibly two different variants; 1080 x 1920 resolution expected on both
Battery: Large 3,500 mAh juicer, won't support Qualcomm Quick Charge 3, but will have OnePlus-proprietary Dash Charge
Price and release: June announcement, starting price of $310 (for 4 GB RAM / 32 GB storage variant).

1. Design
2. Hardware
3. Price, release date

Design

This past week, we got to see a render of different variations of OnePlus 3's alleged retail box, as well as actual real-life shots of what the smartphone looks like. Starting with the box, we see that OnePlus is still toying with the idea of aggressive red – the company has been employing the fiery colors in its marketing and logo for as long as it has existed. This time around, it seems the box will be in pure white, with red accents placed accordingly.

Now, the phone is a breath of fresh air. The OnePlus 2 disappointed some fans by looking pretty much the same as its predecessor. It had a similar shape, its Sandstone Black back felt the exact same, even the camera module was similar, though, more awkwardly placed. Well, the One Plus 3 looks like it is going to be a radical departure from the OnePlus flagship's looks, and venture into the territory of full metal.

Two different sets of photos, supposedly from two different leaksters, show a more square-ish handset, with a metal back, with the obligatory plastic antenna bands also present. The smartphone packs a button on the front, which will most probably double as a fingerprint scanner. However, it's still unknown if its a mechanical button, or a capacitive touchpad, like the one on the OnePlus 2. The physical mute button also seems to be making a return, and we do love this feature on the OnePlus 2 / OnePlus X.

So, gone are the oval shapes and accents from before, the OnePlus 3 looks more like an inflated version of the midrange OnePlus X, which the company launched near the end of last year, only with a metal back, instead of glass or ceramic. If we were to liken the handset to something else, we'd say a mix between LG's G5, HTC's One M9, and a twist of Samsung with that very familiar camera bump.