The OnePlus 3 and its successor OnePlus 3T surely are two great smartphones from 2016. They are solid, powerful, support Dash Charge and have a competitive price. However there are an increasing number of other Chinese manufacturers that have began to offer similarly strong devices with even lower prices.
As you might have guessed from the title, we’re talking about the Helio X25-equipped Vernee Apollo, so let’s compare it to the OnePlus 3T!
Both the Vernee Apollo and the OnePlus 3T feature a full metal body with up to 98% aluminum coverage on the back (antenna bands excepted). They sport a very similar industrial design with a focus on the simplicity and texture of metal.
What’s probably the biggest difference between two smartphones is the CPU, we indeed find a Snapdragon 821 on the OnePlus 3T vs the Helio X25 on the Vernee Apollo. The latter, although less powerful, it’s still more than good enough to run most modern 3D games and 2K/4K high resolution videos. Besides the three-cluster deca-core CPU framework allows for more efficient tasks managing and thus increasing battery life.
The two smartphones also differ in the amount of RAM as we find 6GB on the OnePlus 3T and 4GB on the Vernee Apollo. Honestly, 4GB is plenty enough nowadays and it will probably be for many more years. You probably won’t see a real difference in everyday use, or to be precise, you won’t have a bad user experience with “only” 4GB of RAM, the phone will still be smooth.
As far as charging speed, both smartphones feature quick charging, it’s called Dash Charge on the OnePlus 3T and it can charge the phone at 20W. Meanwhile the Vernee Apollo tops at 18W, a good result nonetheless. That said, the Dash Charge of the OnePlus 3/T is a proven performer.
The displays on these two devices are quite different. We have a 1080p AMOLED screen on the OnePlus 3T, which is alright but could be better on what’s supposed to be a flagship killer. What’s less encouraging is the fact that the display uses Pentile alignment, that means the real PPI count of the 5.5-inch phone is 323, instead of the 401PPI 5.5-inch 1080p screens usually feature.
Gizchina News of the week
On the Vernee Apollo we instead find a 2K display with standard RGB alignment with a 541PPI count. Which as you can see in the image above, makes a huge difference.
All of this really matter if you do VR, though; indeed the Vernee Apollo ships with VR goggles so that you can play VR games flawlessly at the best quality possible.
Let’s do a final roundup. The OnePlus 3T is undoubtedly more powerful but Vernee’s AnTuTu lower score shouldn’t be taken as the end all be all. The Helio X25 is a powerful processor and will execute most tasks effortlessly, this together with the 2K display on the Vernee Apollo, makes the phone a good contender.
Lastly, we can’t avoid mentioning price, the OnePlus 3T is priced $439 while the Apollo costs $299. If you don’t really care about spending more then go with the former, if instead you’re looking for a good price to specs compromise and you’re interested in trying out VR games, then consider getting a Vernee Apollo.
Vernee is currently running a flash deal on the Apollo, it’ll cost $249 instead of $299 and there are only 999 pieces available. The deal starts at UTC 9:00 AM Dec. 15th.
They also have their Christmas Gift Pack on sale for $299 and it includes: the phone (duh), a VR headset, a case and a screen protector.
You can find more info about the event over here.
are you serious? vernee is cool but OP3T is another song dude…
Well, question is: Does it worth price difference!?
You see, if someone is willing ti spend 300$ on a phone, and think to maybe scratch 100$ extra… This comparation is great, to see what can he get for more money, and decide can he live without it.
And now you can get $50 discount to buy this phone, namely 249$ of Apollo vs. 439$ of OnePlus 3T. Almost 200$ price difference.
Or I can get a SD 820 phone for cheaper…
Or you can get a Le Max 2 that can legitimately be compared to the oneplus 3t that’s just $210.
if you can survive with that SW 😉
They released sources so there are several ROMs out there. The only phones with decent software in this price range though are made by Xiaomi. And that’s only if you like MIUI. If screen size doesn’t matter the Zuk Z2 is $179 with a sd820
l know that better than you, but personally l never check the price when purchasing something 🙂 quality matters
so, just go and buy iPhone 😉
iPhone, seriously, fuck apple dude i’m android fan 😉
Than, Galaxy Note 7:)
it’s legend, only 4 devices exploded and everyone loses their mind, man dies because of fucking apple device, none bats an eye, apple is jelaous because samsung is 3 years ahead them :V
lmao what a tool
yeah a complete waste of song. 2016 into 2017 and people are still happy to settle on phones with fixed storage options, why even bother “upgrading” lol.
Appolo will never get any support and updates, OP3 will… Since it comes wit MTK SoC, you can’t expect custom ROMs neither…
Hi, you are wrong. In fact, Vernee has rolled out 4th OTA updates for Apollo Lite (https://www.gizchina.com/2016/12/12/fourth-ota-update-vernee-apollo-lite-arrived/), Vernee Mars was updated to Android 7 recently (https://www.gizchina.com/2016/12/05/vernee-mars-nougat-update-rolls-tomorrow/).
i did not menaged to go in to provided links, but i must say, it comes as suprice to me…totaly have mist that one.
nice one for Vernee…but that one for custom ROM’s still stays…MTK will never give kernel source code (because they are stealing some patents 😉 )
Team M.A.D. updated the Vernee Thor and the old Jiayu S3 to nougat. Its actually one of the most stable versions of nougat out there.
That’s just plain wrong
Really?? You think the 10-core MTK is faster than a 4-core Snapdragon? Ahahahah… That thing reminds me of UMI ads!
Of course the OT3 is 10 times better, faster and you ‘ll get good support! The Apollo is just an expensive crap.. They can’t even write the board without mistakes: “Heilo”…
Hi, you need to take all aspects into consideration, the price, the overall performance, the display, the cost-effectiveness. By the way where do you see “Heilo”?
Well, to be honest Matthew, you can get a LeEco Le Max 2 with a better chipset, 2K display as well, 4GB ram as well, 21MP as well for about the same price or even cheaper if you know where to look. Not forgetting that LeEco is a rather well known and established brand compared to Vernee.
Vernee’s choice in pricing has been rather odd in my opinion, specially the Mars equipped with just the P10 chipset and selling at well above $200.
Actually the baseline Le Max is at $210 on kimovil. So is the Xiaomi Mi 5
I just saw Le Max 2 for $201 on AliEx. It’s cheaper than Vernee Mars that has the P10 chipset.. Vernee is still rather pricey for it’s class. I never knew that website (kimovil) existed, thanks for sharing.
Yea. I check Kimovil daily because prices are always changing. For those that don’t know, Kimovil.com checks multiple reseller websites and AliEx for prices on all mobil phones in the market…
I like Vernee because they using a “stock Android” version installed, The Mars model have now been updated to Nougat. So for me LeEco are not a option, and many other Chinese alternatives. About the pricing about Vernee they have very often campaigns etc.. So I guess the listed prices are not realy the real price. I bet the new Apollo will stay at $249 a long time.
You can always flash the official mokee/ cynogenmod that has OTA and which are stock android on Le Max 2. The custom support are much better. I’m guessing because it’s a Snapdragon.
According to their forums their stock android is buggy. Software wise the best thing they’ve ever done was release sources so people like team M.A.D. can develop for their phone. They ported Nougat to the Thor before Vernee updated the Mars and the team M.A.D. release is more stable according to whats being said on their forums. At this point, the only phones I can recommend from Vernee are the Thor and Apollo lite but that’s only because of team M.A.D. support…
Yes I own Apollo Lite and are happy with it so far. Just recived the latest OTA update to it.
For the Apollo we will wait and see a real review of it.
I’m glad you’re happy with it but as a man of logic I can not just go by one persons anecdotal evidence. From everything I’ve seen and read on the forums and from professional reviewers, the software is pretty buggy even after the 4th update. In fact, I’ve read a lot of accounts that say they can’t even update the phone. The Team M.A.D. Nougat ROM release should fix most of these problems though.
I can get a redmi note 4 that has incredible battery life and a helio x20. The Zuk Z2, even though it’s smaller, is priced at $180. Goodwill mentioned the Leeco Le Max 2 at $210 on Kimovil. You have the Xiaomi Mi 5 that’s at around $210 with the sd820. There are several sd820 options at this range with similar specs.
Hmm, where did I write that? I said the Snapdragon 821 is more powerful but the Helio X25 is still a great CPU for a cheaper device.
are you serious? vernee is cool but OP3T is another song dude…
Well, question is: Does it worth price difference!?
You see, if someone is willing ti spend 300$ on a phone, and think to maybe scratch 100$ extra… This comparation is great, to see what can he get for more money, and decide can he live without it if that 100$ uses for something else.
And now you can get $50 discount to buy this phone, namely 249$ of Apollo vs. 439$ of OnePlus 3T. Almost 200$ price difference.
yeah a complete waste of song. 2016 into 2017 and people are still happy to settle on phones with fixed storage options, why even bother “upgrading” lol.
Or you can get a Le Max 2 that can legitimately be compared to the oneplus 3t that’s just $210.
if you can survive with that SW 😉
They released sources so there are several ROMs out there. The only phones with decent software in this price range though are made by Xiaomi. And that’s only if you like MIUI. If screen size doesn’t matter the Zuk Z2 is $179 with a sd820
Or I can get a SD 820 phone for cheaper…
l know that better than you, but personally l never check the price when purchasing something 🙂 quality matters
so, just go and buy iPhone 😉
lmao what a tool
iPhone, seriously, fuck apple dude i’m android fan 😉
Than, Galaxy Note 7:)
it’s legend, only 4 devices exploded and everyone loses their mind, man dies because of fucking apple device, none bats an eye, apple is jelaous because samsung is 3 years ahead them :V
whats with those old school looking icons?
Old stock image to show the difference between pentile and RGB displays.
Appolo will never get any support and updates, OP3 will… Since it comes wit MTK SoC, you can’t expect custom ROMs neither…
Hi, you are wrong. In fact, Vernee has rolled out 4th OTA updates for Apollo Lite (http://www.gizchina.com/2016/12/12/fourth-ota-update-vernee-apollo-lite-arrived/), Vernee Mars was updated to Android 7 recently (http://www.gizchina.com/2016/12/05/vernee-mars-nougat-update-rolls-tomorrow/).
i did not menaged to go in to provided links, but i must say, it comes as suprice to me…totaly have mist that one.
nice one for Vernee…but that one for custom ROM’s still stays…MTK will never give kernel source code (because they are stealing some patents 😉 )
Team M.A.D. updated the Vernee Thor and the old Jiayu S3 to nougat. Its actually one of the most stable versions of nougat out there.
That’s just plain wrong
Really?? You think the 10-core MTK is faster than a 4-core Snapdragon? Ahahahah… That thing reminds me of UMI ads!
Of course the OT3 is 10 times better, faster and you ‘ll get good support! The Apollo is just an expensive crap.. They can’t even write the board without mistakes: “Heilo”…
Hi, you need to take all aspects into consideration, the price, the overall performance, the display, the cost-effectiveness. By the way where do you see “Heilo”?
Well, to be honest Matthew, you can get a LeEco Le Max 2 with a better chipset, 2K display as well, 4GB ram, 21MP (more MP alone doesn’t make a better camera, btw) for about the same price or even cheaper if you know where to look. Not forgetting that LeEco is a rather well known and established brand compared to Vernee.
Vernee’s choice in pricing has been rather odd in my opinion, specially the Mars equipped with just the P10 chipset and selling at well above $200.
I have nothing against Vernee, in fact, I’m thinking of getting one to try but the thing that is stopping me is your pricing. Your pricing is not competitive enough at your level. There are still many and better alternative that I can consider.
Hmm, where did I write that? I said the Snapdragon 821 is more powerful but the Helio X25 is still a great CPU for a cheaper device.
I can get a redmi note 4 that has incredible battery life and a helio x20. The Zuk Z2, even though it’s smaller, is priced at $180. Goodwill mentioned the Leeco Le Max 2 at $210 on Kimovil. You have the Xiaomi Mi 5 that’s at around $210 with the sd820. There are several sd820 options at this range with similar specs.
Actually the baseline Le Max is at $210 on kimovil. So is the Xiaomi Mi 5
I just saw Le Max 2 for $201 on AliEx. It’s cheaper than Vernee Mars that has the P10 chipset.. Vernee is still rather pricey for it’s class. I never knew that website (kimovil) existed, thanks for sharing.
I like Vernee because they using a “stock Android” version installed, The Mars model have now been updated to Nougat. So for me LeEco are not a option, and many other Chinese alternatives. About the pricing about Vernee they have very often campaigns etc.. So I guess the listed prices are not realy the real price. I bet the new Apollo will stay at $249 a long time.
According to the Vernee website there also are a Quallcom/Snapdragon device planned for spring 2017.
You can always flash the official mokee/ cynogenmod that has OTA and which are stock android on Le Max 2. The custom support are much better. I’m guessing because it’s a Snapdragon.
Yea. I check Kimovil daily because prices are always changing. For those that don’t know, Kimovil.com checks multiple reseller websites and AliEx for prices on all mobil phones in the market…
According to their forums their stock android is buggy. Software wise the best thing they’ve ever done was release sources so people like team M.A.D. can develop for their phone. They ported Nougat to the Thor before Vernee updated the Mars and the team M.A.D. release is more stable according to whats being said on their forums. At this point, the only phones I can recommend from Vernee are the Thor and Apollo lite but that’s only because of team M.A.D. support…
Yes I own Apollo Lite and are happy with it so far. Just recived the latest OTA update to it.
For the Apollo we will wait and see a real review of it.
I’m glad you’re happy with it but as a man of logic I can not just go by one persons anecdotal evidence. From everything I’ve seen and read on the forums and from professional reviewers, the software is pretty buggy even after the 4th update. In fact, I’ve read a lot of accounts that say they can’t even update the phone. The Team M.A.D. Nougat ROM release should fix most of these problems though.
whats with those old school looking icons?
Old stock image to show the difference between pentile and RGB displays.
Vernee lacks NFC, lacks stabilisation and their software quality was at best questionable so far. OP3 is in a very different league overall. Btw another site at least says very similar article is a PR by vernee. Here it is presented as an actual article…:-D
Vernee lacks NFC, lacks stabilisation and their software quality was at best questionable so far. OP3 is in a very different league overall. Btw another site at least says very similar article is a PR by vernee. Here it is presented as an actual article…:-D
Why is it so damn hard for china brand to start using qualcomm snapdragon variant for their flagship phone ?
Maybe Mediatek is very famous in china somehow (Could be mediatek selling their soc at dirt cheap price to china manufacturer) but for outside china especially west countries like USA, europe, etc Qualcomm have bigger chance to sell.
China market more or less has already been very saturated with very fierce competition from other good quality and cheap price tag like xiaomi, Meizu, Umi, etc so i think they have to start thinking outside the box and start selling outside china.
Btw i got an impression that Mediatek soc always got problem with licensing outside china, so probably qualcomm is much more safer bet.
Even with the price difference to me this is a pointless comparison. Oneplus has the hardware and software nailed while vernee is just not stable or bug free enough even after 4 updates for me to recommend it to anyone for a daily driver. Also paid advertisement must be disclosed in the future if you want to attract any new readers.
Why is it so damn hard for china brand to start using qualcomm snapdragon variant for their flagship phone ?
Maybe Mediatek is very famous in china somehow (Could be mediatek selling their soc at dirt cheap price to china manufacturer) but for outside china especially west countries like USA, europe, etc Qualcomm have bigger chance to sell.
China market more or less has already been very saturated with very fierce competition from other good quality and cheap price tag like xiaomi, Meizu, Umi, etc so i think they have to start thinking outside the box and start selling outside china.
Btw i got an impression that Mediatek soc always got problem with licensing outside china, so probably qualcomm is much more safer bet.
FAKE news. This is an ad. Compare it to a redmi note 4 or redmi pro or zuk z2 or le pro 3 or le max 2 and there is no reason for Apollo to exist.
FAKE news. This is an ad. Compare it to a redmi note 4 or redmi pro or zuk z2 or le pro 3 or le max 2 and there is no reason for Apollo to exist.