In my experience OxygenOS has provided a fairly stable and fast experience on the OnePlus 3, which is something I wasn't really able to say about OxygenOS on the OnePlus 2. Every operating system has bugs though, and OnePlus recently announced that OxygenOS 3.2.2 would begin rolling out to the OnePlus 3 as an OTA update. OxygenOS 3.2.2 is mostly a bug fixing update, and I've listed the change log from OnePlus below:

  • Improved notification management in doze.
  • Addressed alert slider/silent mode issue.
  • Disabled fingerprint sensor while in pocket.
  • Added NFC toggle in quick settings.
  • Improved noise cancellation in video recording.
  • Updated 4K video recording codec.
  • Added latest security patches and various optimizations.

I've encountered issues with the alert slider not disabling vibration when setting to silent mode, so I'm happy that OnePlus has squashed that bug. Among the bug fixes here is a change that is quite interesting despite being described in such a vague manner. "Updated 4K video recording codec" could mean a number of things ranging from a change in the H.264 profile used, to a move to HEVC or some other form of video coding. Given that video recording was one of the areas I felt the OnePlus 3 performed poorly, I thought it would be worth investigating what changed with video recording in OxygenOS 3.2.2.

  OnePlus 3 At Launch OnePlus 3 With OxygenOS 3.2.2
Resolution 3840 x 2160 3840 x 2160
Coding H.264 H.264
Profile H.264 Baseline H.264 High
Encoding Scheme CAVLC CABAC
Average Bitrate 42Mbps 54Mbps

Although OnePlus states that they changed the recording codec, H.264 is still being used. What has been changed is the corresponding H.264 profile. When it launched the OnePlus 3 used the H.264 baseline profile. This is the case for many Android devices, and I find it a bit odd as the H.264 baseline profile is generally intended for applications like video conferencing where quality and efficiency is not as much of a concern. The big difference between H.264 baseline and the Main and High profiles is the compression scheme that can be used. The Baseline profile is limited to using CAVLC encoding, which requires less processing power to decode than CABAC encoding which can be used with the Main and High profiles, but also results in lower video quality for a given bitrate due to the lower efficiency.

With the move to the H.264 High profile on the OnePlus 3 comes a change from CAVLC encoding to CABAC. This allows OnePlus to increase the quality at the same bitrate without increasing the file size. What will further improve video quality is the fact that the average bitrate has actually gone from 42Mbps to 54Mbps, an increase of nearly thirty percent. Unfortunately, I updated my OnePlus 3 without initially noticing these changes, so I'm unable to do a direct comparison between the two versions. That being said, the visual quality issues I identified in my original review were mostly the result of the relatively low bitrate, and so the improvements made to video encoding in OxygenOS 3.2.2 should address those problems.

Like the addition of an sRGB mode for the display, OnePlus's updates to the OnePlus 3 continue to improve the few things about the phone that kept it behind the best flagship phones on the market, and the result is a better experience for existing owners and an even better value proposition for prospective ones.

Comments Locked

24 Comments

View All Comments

  • Vishalaestro - Thursday, July 28, 2016 - link

    Have u got money from one plus ? you guys did not cover any other phones for their updates ? There are too many good phones out there better than one plus to be shown out .
  • Stochastic - Friday, July 29, 2016 - link

    I don't think there are any phones better than the OnePlus for the money in the US (at least not yet...Xiaomi may change that).
  • close - Friday, July 29, 2016 - link

    Maybe there are. Then again most of them cost twice as much. Take the HTC 10 or Galaxy S7 as an example. They might have a better camera or the CPU might be a little faster. But they're definitely a lot more expensive. I'd rather have a review for something like the OnePlus then yet another review for the "Big Names". This sounds more useful to the normal person.

    Also, what are those phones that are better than this one (maybe even cheaper)? And try to name one with general availability not a $200 phone only available in India or China.
  • BMNify - Friday, July 29, 2016 - link

    The last line of your comment answers the question. @Vishalaestro is from India and he maybe talking about Xiaomi, Le Eco and many other interesting manufacturers available in Asian and BRIC markets.
  • close - Saturday, July 30, 2016 - link

    I figured as much. That's exactly why I asked why would AT concentrate on phones that are unavailable in most of the world instead of this flagship class phone that's still cheap and available on most continents, especially the ones where AT is most read like Europe and North America.

    Hussein and Xiaomi got plenty of attention when they launched something. They just never had a product with so few compromises compared to the established flagships.
  • close - Monday, August 1, 2016 - link

    Apple's shitty autocorrect be damned. *"HUAWEI and Xiaomi".
  • evilpaul666 - Saturday, July 30, 2016 - link

    I'm looking forward to the Axon 7, Moto X 2016 (much less because Motorola is promising shitty support), and this year's Nexus phones if they ate reasonably priced. The One Plus I'm more hesitant about but may end up buying.
  • mkozakewich - Friday, July 29, 2016 - link

    They were really hard on them in their initial review, so I think they felt guilty when the updates happened. And truth be told, I was also scornful when I saw the benchmarks. A lot of this can be fixed in updates, though, and OnePlus has done a lot of really important updates.
  • krazyfrog - Friday, July 29, 2016 - link

    I tested the video back to back before and after updating and could spot absolutely zero difference between the two.
  • TO_BEhonest - Friday, July 29, 2016 - link

    After upgrade my oneplus 3 to 3.2.2, I am completely dissatisfied. phone slowed down - I cant believe phone has 6 GB RAM. Camera and audio quality decreased, its very poor now. It was good with 3.2.1. Video recording is very slow. While recording it moves frame by frame. Irritates.

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now