OnePlus ACE 3 Pro Review: The Imperfect Flagship Killer
OnePlus ACE 3 Pro
OnePlus ACE 3 Pro, the latest OnePlus device was launched last week. The new phone is another OnePlus’ mid-ranger (or flagship killer) powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. As using the OnePlus-family design, it is easy to get confused with the OnePlus 12, both inside and out. After we’ve done some tests, it is found that the ACE 3 Pro actually is slightly different from the brother. It is a decent phone with great performance and, most interestingly, can last long live with a huge 6100mAh battery.
But I’m still pondering whether it’s worth buying or not, for example, for just a tiny bit more money you can buy the OnePlus 12 on GeekWills and get a better camera, screen, motor, and USB 3.2 etc.
Unbox
Like almost all OnePlus phones, the ACE 3 Pro comes in the same red packaging with an A to C cable, 100W charger, and a regular phone case. The 3 colors actually come with 3 different back cover materials this time, with the green vegan leather version being the lightest, and the white ceramic variant being special.
Design
Design for OnePlus phones never change, at least not for the first half of 2024. So the ACE 3 Pro looks almost the same as the OnePlus 12 at first glance, except for the varied cover materials. Similar camera module and slightly-curved screen. No matter how many rear cameras were set on the island, the four black holes are just so stubborn, like they’re making a statement that they exist because of some aesthetic principles.
But if you look closely, the camera design has changed quite a bit, it removes the bracket structure next to the camera, and puts the lines there instead. That’s probably all difference I can show here.
Personally, I’m not really a fan of the OnePlus-family design, but honestly I’m completely used to it (or I just gave up to judge). The design now is at least quite recognizable as a phone made by OnePlus – solid and consistent.
I got the green version – The bright color and pattern look so impressive. But I must admit that the green version of the OnePlus 12 is more refined. The ACE 3 Pro has a leather-like back cover with a pattern feels like wooden surface. When running the finger over the surface, it feels more like the leaf-vein texture.
The Ace 3 Pro comes with a metal frame, and the 3-stage button has been inherited. So we really are not going to pick on it in terms of texture. At the same time, it also has a high quality linear motor that provides a very fine vibration for various scenarios.
The Ace 3 Pro uses a curved 1.5K (FHD+) resolution screen, and if you only look at the front, it’s hard for me to tell it apart from the OnePlus 12. So in terms of holding experience, the Ace 3 Pro maintains the same high standards that OnePlus has been known for.
About more important features, we’ve also summarized some of the them we care about for you.
Performance
The Ace 3 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen3. No doubt it is easy to guarentee a excellent performance.
It performed even better than the OnePlus 12 in the Genshin Impact test. It runs the game at 60 fps almost the entire running, so I was very happy with the gaming experience.
On top of that for gaming, it has a custom resolution and frame interpolation feature. We’ve tried similar features before on other phones. And I was able to get a 120fps gaming experience. No exception for the ACE 3 Pro.
And OnePlus did more than that though, we all know that frame interpolation adds latency and you have to wait for two frames to be rendered out before you can do the calculations, which is dictated by the principle. This time the Ace 3 Pro has worked with Genshin Impact, optimizing the latency up at an undetectable level. In actual gaming I could barely feel the latency, which is absolutely great.
BUT since it requires a partnership with the game developers, this is currently only available in Genshin Impact. In other games with frame interpolation activated, the latency is no different from what we experienced on other phones.
And one thing to note here: If the phone’s temperature gets high with the frame interpolation on, the frame rate will drop from 120 to 90, which feels like some sort of throttling.
In addition to Genshin Impact, I also tried the newest and very popular Wuthering Waves, a game known for its poor efficiency, so it was more challenging than Genshin Impact.
I ran it on high graphic settings, but not the highest graphics, and the average frame rate was 57 fps with obvious fluctuation.
Screen
The Ace 3 Pro uses a BOE 1.5k screen with LTPO support, a manual maximum brightness of 800nit, and a full screen peak brightness of 1600nit, which is slightly behind the OnePlus 12 on paper, but it’s still a very good screen. At least, it would be difficult to detect the gap.
In terms of dimming, DC-like dimming for medium and high brightness, 2160hz PWM dimming for low brightness.
Camera
The Ace 3 Pro’s main Camera is the IMX890, an old but popular sensor you can find in the Ace 2. Well I mean, it’s popular among the brands.
The 8MP Ultra wide Camera and Macro Camera are not quite competent. You can take this phone as only having a MAIN Camera, the other two cameras are more of a decoration. The camera-island design seems to indicate the powerful camera setup. But unfortunately, on the ACE Series, which houses a mediocre setup, the camera module just looks a bit funny.
We shot some samples here. Anyway, the main camera is not bad and is perfectly fine for everyday shooting.
Battery & Charging
The biggest highlight of this phone is of course the big 6100mAh battery, which is not only thinner but also bigger thanks to the new materials. In real life use it is amazing and without a doubt the strongest battery performance of any regular Phone I’ve tested.
In addition to the large battery, the Ace 3 Pro also supports 100W fast charging, it only takes 38 minutes to fully charge this battery. gaming phones don’t even have this Crazy efficiency!
Summary
So it is pretty obvious here, if you want a phone with great performance, a very big battery for long-lasting gaming and daily uses, and don’t care that much about the camera, then the Ace3 Pro is a great fit. But if you want a more balanced flagship, then the OnePlus 12 is now priced right.
