The company with a never settle mantra has released yet another flagship smartphone, OnePlus 6. The company, OnePlus, that likes to market its product as the flagship killer, is notorious for building up hype for its upcoming devices. During this review, we will look at the newly released OnePlus 6 smartphone and provide an insight into whether the device is able to live up to the hype.
In an era when flagship high-end smartphones cost anywhere from $800 to upwards of $1200, OnePlus 6 starts at $529 for a 6GB of Ram and 64GB of storage with nicely configured internal specifications. OnePlus also offers the option to go upto 8GB of Ram and 128GB of storage for $579 or you can max out at 8GB of Ram and 256GB of storage for $629. So it is not exactly cheap but it is much affordable compared to Samsung Galaxy S9+ or Apple iPhone X.
The Specifications
The OnePlus 6 is powered by a Snapdragon 845 processor clocked at 2.7 GHz and up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The display is AMOLED 6.28″ with a resolution of 2280 x 1080 px. and features dual camera setup on the back with a 20MP (f/1.6) + 16MP (f/1.6) lens and the front camera will be 20MP (f/2.0). The battery has a total capacity of 3300 mAh. For full list of specifications, check out the table below.
Following the smartphone trends of 2018, OnePlus 6 is also big phone that has an iPhone X like notched widescreen AMOLED display with 19:9 aspect ratio and 1080p resolution. I have actually gotten used to the notch so it is not a big deal after all. As ever were the OnePlus phones, it might not be the most expensive phone on the market, but it is a one of the fastest phones. You have a snapdragon 845 processor with Adreno 630 graphics, which is currently the fastest CPU and GPU combination available. The oxygen operating system is really well tuned and light weight in terms of the user interface, in fact it looks a lot like Google’s stock Android, which also adds to the performance. There are dual rear cameras situated on a glass back. One of the things that I liked about the previous OnePlus 5T model was that it had metal back. However, I was excited when I first heard that OnePlud 6 was going to sport a glass back because it would mean that OnePlus would finally offer wireless charging (metal doesn’t play very well with electromagnetic field created by wireless chargers). To everyone’s disappointment, the OnePlus 6 does NOT have wireless charging capability. So I guess OnePlus decided to use Glass just for the sake of being trendy. The glass on the front and back is Gorrila Glass 5 but it is still not worth the hassle when it breaks after an accidental drop. OnePlus says that the glass back allows for a better signal and this is true as the OnePlus 6 does have an excellent gigabit LTE with 20 bands, which includes almost all of the GSM carriers worldwide. Note that it will not work with CDMA carriers. The OnePlus 6 is a dual-sim phone, so if you like to have dual sim then you are covered. The NFC and WiFi connectivity offer excellent reception.
The Design and Build
The OnePlus 6 is available in 3 colors, mirror black (glossy one), midnight black, and silky white. The midnight black and silky white have a matt sandblasted finish but they are still glass with a smooth finish. So the matt finish colors are not any grippier than the glossy finish. Undeniably, the OnePlus 6 is a very nice looking phone. It doesn’t have the curvy glass design of the Galaxy S9 but it is slick and slim. I didn’t notice any creaking or uneven seams. You might not get wireless charging but you get Dash charging. It is OnePlus’s version of fast charging. However, you have to use OnePlus’s fast charger and cable to benefit from Dash charging. Any other USB charger will work but it will not be as fast as Dash. Sadly, the phone is not IP rated water and dust resistant, so you can’t go swimming with it or go out in pouring rain. OnePlus does say that is will be okay with splashes but it won’t tolerate water when it is fully submerged.
Looking around the phone, everything is nicely covered and hidden. The volume buttons are on the left side. On the bottom, there is a USB C port, mono speaker, and headphone jack. The Power button & volume slider on the right side. The volume slider provides you three positions, with settings for Vibrate, Silent, and Normal (ring). The fingerprint sensor is located on the read of the device, which works just fine. The front camera features face unlock which works extremely fast but it is not as secure as the iPhone X or Galaxy S9. You can also change the setting to set whether the volume buttons control the ringtone volume or the media volume. Similarly, in Android P, the volume rocker will adjust the media volume by default whereas in previous versions (Oreo and prior) it would adjust the ringtone volume by default. Speaking of options and settings, OnePlus does provide the option to display a black bar to hide the notch area.
The Operating system
The Oxygen OS runs on top of Android 8.0 (Oreo), which supports project treble. So if you are aware of the Android P beta that is available for select devices, the OnePlus 6 is one of those devices. This is also a big selling point for OnePlus 6 as they are very quick to provide device OS updates. The customization to the operating system of pretty minor with options for alert slider, gestures, status bar, fonts and buttons. The Gesture option allows you to use Android P like gestures by hiding the navigation buttons to operate the phone. There is also a setting for pocket mode to prevent accidental pocket dialing.
The Display
The OnePlus 6 has a nice AMOLED 6.28″ display, it might not have as high resolution of Galaxy S9 display but it is close enough. The screen density (402 ppi) is high enough with 2280 x 1080 px resolution. The screen supports DCI-P3 and sRGB color profile with adaptive mode as well. The screen doesn’t get as bright as the Galaxy S9 phone but it is plenty bright for reading outdoors in direct sunlight.
The Cameras
The cameras are very good for the price you pay. The front camera is 16MP Sony IMX371 with aperture of f/2.0, which captures enough detail to highlight all of the imperfections of your skin. To combat that issue, OnePlus offers beauty mode to make your selfies look more beautiful. All of the camera sensors are made by Sony. The rear cameras feature 16MP Sony IMX519 sensor and a 20MP IMX376K with aperture of f/1.7. The main 16MP rear camera has optical image stabilization that does wonders during video recording (you can’t see any jumps or jitters during movement). The video can be captured in 4K at 30/60 fps. The video is not bad but it looks a little oversharp, which can make the image look a little sharp. You also have slow motion video at 240 fps at 1080p and 480 fps at 720p. You probably want to go with 1080p slomo as the lower resolution video looks a little blurry. The secondary 20MP camera is used for background blurring and to capture additional details during low light conditions, which performs very well at night and indoors. The camera app provides options for Pro mode, panorama, raw capture mode. The camera UI is very simple and straight forward that does the job but you might not find all of the features on the competitors like Samsung Galaxy S9 and LG G7.
The Battery
The OnePlus 6 has 3300 mAh battery that is on par for a large phone. It is not the largest battery and it not tiny either. Typically, OnePlus phones have a good battery life, with around 5 hours of screen on time. The optimization and lower resolution of 1080p display does help with battery life and I am not complaining at all as I was able to get through the day with 40% battery left.
All in all, the days of the super cheap OnePlus phones are gone but they have done a great job of offering all of the important feature of a 2018 flagship phone for several hundred dollars less than the competition.
Pros:
- Lot of bang for buck: Fast performance, big screen, large storage
- Decent Cameras with OIS
- Design and Looks are great
- Supports Google’s project treble with Android P beta
- Headphone Jack
- 20 LTE bands with gigabit LTE
- Fast OS updates
- Lower price than competition
Cons:
- No wireless charging
- No IP Dust or Water resistance
Details Technical Specifications
| Features | OnePlus 6 |
|---|---|
| Screen Size | 6.28" AMOLED |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2280 px (402 ppi) |
| Chipset | Snapdragon 845 |
| CPU | Octa-core 4x2.8 GHz & 4x1.7 GHz |
| GPU | Adreno 630 |
| Memory | 128/256 GB, 8 GB RAM 64 GB, 6 GB RAM |
| Storage Option | No |
| Battery | Non-removable Li-Po 3300 mAh |
| Rear Camera | 16 MP (f/1.7, OIS) 20 MP (f/1.7) |
| Video Recording | 2160p@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/240fps, 720p@480fps |
| Front Camera | 16 MP (f/2.0) |
| Dimentions | 155.7 x 75.4 x 7.8 mm |
| Weight | 177 g |
| Security | Fingerprint (rear) |
| Wireless Charging | No |
| Waterproof | No |
| 3.5mm jack | Yes |
| NFC | Yes |
| Infrared port | No |
| Radio | No |
| USB | 2.0, Type-C 1.0 |
| Cost | $529 (USD) |
Source: GSMArena
I am officially a tech addict and enjoy providing my views on matters related to this industry. I am always interested in trying out new tech gadgets and I have owned multiple smartphones including the legendary HTC One, SGS2, Nexus 4, iPhone 4, 5S, 6S, XR, Note 9. You can ask me any tech related questions in the comment section or on twitter @hookedNav