It was, however, well used and several years old but for a long time it was the worst camera phone on the planet. For about two years in low light it created terrible, red or purple photos and had vertical banding in daylight images. Dreadful, but as these were mostly for my own use not too much of an issue, except for that low light problem. My other previous phone was a Samsung Note II with its useless insane chip, imagine the world's biggest mobile phone manufacturer making one of its products with inferior components so prevalent that it gets nicknamed the insane chip, crazy indeed!

The search for a replacement was long, lots of reviews and I considered getting a cheap brand that I have never heard of with the notion that it could be replaced more often. But there was always a flaw in the reviews of cheaper phones, the camera.

As a photographer a camera is an important consideration and I would not think of using a phone for creating imagery for clients but when I want to take a snapshot of something to take details of opening hours or other information then a phone comes in useful.

I finally settled on the recently launched OnePlus 3 that has garnered good reviews in recent weeks.

When it finally arrived, ten days from Poland - at times it seemed like it was being carried by six butterflies rather than DHL, it was well packaged and first use has been great.

Here are some images of the unboxing and the main image is from the first evening; a low-light image taken at half past eight on a dull summer's evening in Dublin. 

• oneplus3-7252631
• oneplus3-7252633
• oneplus3-7252634
• oneplus3-7252636
• oneplus3-7252643
• oneplus3-7252649
• oneplus3-7252651
• oneplus3-7252654

In use the phone was easy to set up, once I had a nano SIM into one of its two slots, that's right at the expense of a micro SD slot the phone has two nano SIMs that allow you to add in a second card. Not much use for those of us living in the EU you might say, what about the end of roaming charges across the EU in 2017? Great, that's long overdue isn't it? Oh yes, the end of roaming charges is one that shows just how slow the EU has been in protecting consumer rights.

Well, given the recent appalling choice by UK (sorry, English and Welsh) voters to leave the EU then the dual SIM will become something of a necessity for those travelling from the UK to the EU including Ireland, or vice versa. What a bad choice #Brexit.

The Oneplus 3's 64GB of storage should be more than enough for most, even with RAW images and creative video modes. I've used it to take some slow motion video and will upload that to YouTube as soon as possible, more investigation of the camera modes to follow.

Simply, this is a phone that costs half the price of the so-called flagship brands and is superb. If you change your phone every two years then you could save half of that money by buying a OnePlus and that goes a long way to buying a SIM-only contract.

Excuse me for gushing but this a great phone, with a great camera and good value for money.