What makes a flagship smartphone? Technically speaking, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a phone that’s jam-packed with features. A flagship device from a company that launches several different phones just means that it’s the best device it has to offer, when compared to its own family of handsets. A company that only launches one phone? Well, that’s its flagship.
With that in mind, I can’t help but be a bit confused as to why some people are suggesting the OnePlus 3, OnePlus’s brand new flagship, isn’t a “real flagship.” The phone is indeed the company’s leading charge, packed with the most important features, especially considering there aren’t any other models coming down the pipeline from the company, apparently.
Not only that, the OnePlus 3 is a high-end device in just about every category, right? It has gobs of RAM at 6GB. It has a ridiculously fast processor with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 under the hood. The camera appears to be top-notch, and it has a 1080p HD display. Plus, it has a high-quality build, just for good measure.
There’s a lot to like about the OnePlus 3, and it is indeed a high-end smartphone, but I’ve been seeing comments that point out the display as a reason why “it’s not a real flagship.”
The OnePlus 3 features a 1080p HD AMOLED display, and from what I’ve been hearing it’s great to look at. But what it isn’t is a 2K display, like we see on so many other “real flagships” out there, including the Galaxy S7 edge, the HTC 10, and LG’s G5. Even Motorola’s high-end Moto Z Force has a 2K display. But here we are talking about how the OnePlus 3 only has a 1080p display.
Technology moves quickly and it honestly feels like we leap frogged over 1080p displays. They used to be a major talking point, but it feels like companies were so adamant on getting to the “next big thing” in display technology that we’re focused entirely on 2K now. What’s more, rumor has it that Samsung could already be gearing up to upgrade its Galaxy S high-end models to a 4K panel!
The rat race continues, so perhaps it’s inevitable that some companies, despite launching their own flagship handset with a plethora of high-end specifications, get left behind in one way or another. After all, the aforementioned handsets that boast 2K displays are all pretty expensive. Meanwhile, the OnePlus 3 with its 1080p HD panel is only $399.
My question is this: Does a high-end flagship smartphone have to have a 2K display to be a true competitor to the top smartphones on the market right now? Or is it okay that a phone have a 1080p HD display as long as it has the other specs matched, or even surpassed?