OnePlus Ace 3 Pro Minimalist Unboxing

Foreword

Last month, I got an iPhone and found it quite difficult to use, which made me realize that I still need a high-performance (and root-unlockable) Android phone. With fewer options available now, after some research, I got the OnePlus Ace 3 Pro.

The last time I used this brand was with the OnePlus 3, which was my first phone bought in college. Back then, switching from a Lumia 640 to the OnePlus 3 felt like sprinting from the primitive age into modern society 😂. However, later on, the Snapdragon 820 (often nicknamed the "fire dragon") generated too much heat, and I ended up repurposing the phone into a greeting robot...

Speaking of the OnePlus brand, in my opinion, it’s a mix of praise and criticism. They previously stuck with their own Hydrogen OS, which was clean and ad-free, though system updates were painfully slow and many features were missing. Now they’ve switched to OPPO’s ColorOS, which has plenty of features, but the experience can be quite annoying, with ads plastered throughout the system...

OK, back to the main topic. This time, I only took a couple of simple photos, so this can only be described as a "minimalist" unboxing.

Packaging

This packaging continues OnePlus's consistent red style

The packaging texture is still quite good (at least better than iPhone's eco-friendly packaging)

Unboxing

The color I got is Space Mirror Silver. It looks quite nice and the texture feels great.

One More Shot

Benchmarking

Since this is a performance-focused phone, I decided to run some benchmarks (this step was missing in my previous reviews).

This time, I used GeekBench and 3DMark for the benchmarking (I seem to have forgotten to include the AnTuTu entertainment benchmark).

GeekBench

CPU Benchmark

It's strange; this phone has an 8 Gen 3 chip, but no matter how I run the benchmark, the single-core score is always this low. This score can't even compete with the 7 Gen 1, let alone the 8 Gen 2...

I'm not sure what's going on.

GPU Benchmark

This score is quite impressive.

The 8 Gen 3's GPU improvement over the 8 Gen 2 is huge. My 8 Gen 2 handheld gaming device can only score around 10,000 points.

I also noticed that using the Vulkan API yields higher benchmark scores than using the OpenCL API.

Vulkan API and OpenCL API are both open standards introduced by the Khronos Group, but they differ significantly in their design goals, application domains, and functional features.

---

What is Vulkan?

Vulkan is a high-performance interface (API) for 3D graphics rendering. It allows games and applications to communicate more efficiently with the phone's GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). Simply put, Vulkan can make games run smoother with better graphics while reducing device power consumption. For users who enjoy playing large mobile games, phones supporting Vulkan can offer a superior gaming experience.

---

What is OpenCL?

OpenCL is an interface for general-purpose computing. It can distribute complex computing tasks to the GPU or CPU for processing, accelerating application performance. For example, during photo editing, video rendering, or artificial intelligence computations, OpenCL can significantly improve processing efficiency, completing these tasks faster.

---

Differences Between the Two

• Different Purposes:
  • Vulkan focuses on graphics rendering, primarily enhancing the performance of games and graphics-intensive applications.
  • OpenCL focuses on computational tasks, accelerating applications that require heavy data processing.
• Optimization Direction:
  • Vulkan aims to reduce graphics rendering overhead, improving frame rates and image quality.
  • OpenCL aims to enhance computing power, accelerating non-graphics processing tasks.

3DMark

The benchmark scores from this software are relatively normal.

Summary

The OnePlus Ace 3 Pro supports Vulkan and OpenCL, meaning it delivers excellent performance in both gaming and computational capabilities. Understanding the differences between these two technologies helps us better appreciate the performance advantages of this smartphone and how it provides an outstanding experience across different application scenarios.

Summary

The phone has good aesthetic appeal and feel, but unfortunately, the screen, system ads, and camera performance are still not satisfactory.

It's acceptable for daily use. However, considering its price, the camera quality is still at this level, which is a bit disappointing…😂