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| OnePlus 3: In Black Apricot Case |
[User Experience] I eagerly bought the OnePlus 3 in Shanghai 2 days after the launch on 15 June having completely no idea that OnePlus 3 is officially making its way to Singapore shores in 2016!
Not sure if this is officially reported in the local media but on OnePlus Singapore Facebook and a query email sent to Challenger Singapore, it appears that OnePlus 3 may be officially on sale in Singapore.
In any case, I have gotten myself a Chinese version of OP3. The question is how much of a deal did I get?
LTE Band
Hardware difference is probably the most import when it comes to getting an export phone set. In this case I bring your attention to OnePlus International Official website. Combing through the page, I could almost find one difference, connectivity.
Under the connectivity tab, it shows that OnePlus comes with 3 versions; North America, Europe/Asia and last but no least, China. In Singapore, FDD-LTE is what we should be concerned with and below shows the bands used.
4G LTE Frequency Bands Covered by Mobile Operators:
• M1: 1,800MHz (band 3) & 2,600MHz (band 7)
• SingTel: 1,800MHz (band 3) & 2,600MHz (band 7)
• StarHub: 1,800MHz (band 3)
And there you have it, the China version perfectly compatible with FDD-LTE Band 3 and 7 used in Singapore. While the North America and Europe/Asia set may have support for more LTE bands, we are not going to need them in Singapore. Of course unless you are a frequent traveler to America, then you probably have to avoid the China version.
Singapore LTE Band Information - https://www.frequencycheck.com/carriers/singtel-singapore
Operating System (OS)
The Chinese OP3 comes with Hydrogen OS and the other version comes with Oxygen OS. The difference boils down to a single word, Google. That's right.
While the two OS have a lot of differences in aesthetics and features, Google apps are perhaps core reason why you would choose over the other. Oxygen OS, made for Google experience, is installed for the all version of OP3 except the China one, which uses Hydrogen OS. Hydrogen OS comes without any Google apps including Goolge Playstore, Google Play Services.and the Google apps suite such as Gmail and YouTube which requires Google Play Services to run.
Having said these, OnePlus has good community support for ROM installation, meaning it is possible to install Oxygen OS on a China version of OP3. And that's exactly what I did and I would post my experience in my next post.
