Branding a phone with a certain numeric suffix is quite a generic term for smartphone industry. These numbers give phones their unique identity making them easy to be remembered. But who would have even thought of including mathematical calculations in model names! Well, OnePlus did that, and in no time they have grabbed the attention from every smartphone enthusiast. More interesting than name, were the flagship phone specifications at affordable prices.
The OnePlus 6T is the latest flagship from the brand with an incremental update over the OnePlus 6. The new device includes a bunch of new tweaks and bumps which OnePlus claims to make the 6T the best smartphone anyone can buy at the moment.
Is the OnePlus 6T the best smartphone at the moment? Let’s find out!
Design and build
The OnePlus 6T sports a uni-body glass shell design which looks premium. The device is 82mm in thickness and weighs 182 grams. Though the device feels comfortable to hold, the glass design makes it quite slippery and attracts a lot of fingerprints which gets annoying over time. We recommend a good case to keep your device clean and protected.
Currently the 6T is available in 3 colours - Mirror Black, Midnight Black and Thunder Purple. OnePlus has also announced a Limited Edition McLaren version which shall be soon available.
The front of the 6T is equipped with a 6.41-inch, edge-to-edge display only to be interrupted by a small notch. Just above the notch is the neatly placed earpiece which merges well with the phone’s design. The volume rocker and SIM card tray are placed towards the left, while the right holds the power button and the famous OnePlus profile slider.
The glass back holds the dual-lens camera with a centred OnePlus logo. The OnePlus 6T sadly has a single speaker setup placed at the bottom. It also misses on the headphone jack which means you need to carry a USB-C to headphone adapter everywhere.
Features
The OnePlus 6T is equipped with a 6.41-inch AMOLED display. The screen has a resolution of 1080 x 2360 pixels with a pixel density of 402ppi. Watching content is a pleasure with this edge-to-edge display. The most interesting bit about the screen is its in-display fingerprint reader. The fingerprint reader is not as fast as a physical unit, but the delay is minimal and easy to live with.
The OnePlus 6T comes with a dual-lens camera setup. The primary lens is a 16MP shooter while the secondary unit has a bigger 20MP sensor. Both the lenses uses Sony IMX sensors which OnePlus claims can create magic in every frame. The front-selfie camera uses a 16 MP sensor with the ability to click wide selfies.
OnePlus has made sure the 6T gets the best connectivity options. It comes with a 2x2 MIMO Wi-Fi setup with dual-band support (2.4G/5G). The device has Bluetooth 5.0 with AptX-HD support for lossless audio quality. OnePlus has also included NFC which can come handy for easy payments, connectivity and data sharing.
The OnePlus 6T is armed with a massive 3700mAh battery which is biggest ever for an OnePlus device. It also supports Dash Charging (OnePlus version of Fast-Charging) but it still lacks wireless charging support which can be a bummer for some.
Performance
The OnePlus 6T is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor. The device is available in two configurations - the base variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and the top-end with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The device runs on Android 8.0 Oreo, on top of which is OnePlus’ Oxygen OS. The user interface is quite simple to use and feels close to stock Android with a bunch of tweaks in place. The device we tested had already pulled in small updates to fix minor bugs.
We used our device as a daily driver, and ran number of applications like YouTube, Google Chrome and a bunch of other productivity software. Even having multiple apps running in the background, the device still felt optimal and there was barely any performance drop. The memory is well optimised and switching between apps is effortless.
The OnePlus 6T is equipped with Adreno 630 GPU to put out as much graphic performance as possible. We ran 3D Mark’s Slingshot Benchmark and got an Open GL score of 4,614 whereas the Vulkan score was 3,653. The scores are comparatively higher than many of the premium priced flagship phones. We even played PUBG and were amazed with the gaming experience. The game runs smooth even on the highest graphics setting. Though after continuous gaming, the device does heat up a bit and feels uncomfortable to hold in hands.
The dual-lens camera on the OnePlus 6T is capable of producing good quality pictures. We clicked a number of pictures and found out most of them to be sharp and vivid. The Auto-focus feature takes no time to identify the subject and the auto-white-balance also works perfectly. Even the picture clicked from the front-facing camera on the phone were good and wide. Images do have some oversaturation to them, but it does not drastically lower quality.
OnePlus has also included an intelligent scene detection mode, which does a decent job of adjusting the camera settings according to lighting conditions. The device also supports 4K video recording at 60fps. With the OIS (Optical Image Stabilizer) on-board, recorded videos feel buttery smooth.
The 3700mAh battery does a good job in powering up the device. We were left with almost 40 per cent of battery even after running multiple benchmarks and intensive gaming sessions. The OnePlus Fast Charge also does a great job of juicing up the device quickly.
Verdict
The OnePlus 6T truly is a high-end flagship smartphone with a much more accessible pricing. The performance is one of the best you can find today and in most cases, it even outperforms most of the expensive flagship devices. If you are in the market, looking for a premium flagship phone with a good camera and great battery life, then the OnePlus 6T is the ultimate device for you.
