Introduction
If you’re a fan of Android, then you must be familiar with the new OnePlus 6T entering sales recently, and now we have it in for a review! We can see many improvements – display, in-display fingerprint scanner and battery – but there are also some drawbacks such as the loss of the 3.5mm audio port with which the company proudly boasted before removing it. This was a true gunshot to the head of their hard earned credibility since OnePlus was considered to be perhaps the only company that listened to their fans.
All previous devices by OnePlus arguably had the fastest OS, so let’s see how this time the 6T performed, but before we do that let’s peek into the box of the 6T and see what we got inside.
Design has stayed quite the same – we still have pretty much the same old white box with the model number in the middle, but this time, around the box there is a red ribbon where “OnePlus Community” is defined as “A collection of individuals possessed of a tremendous understanding and superior taste in the finest technology. What’s most important, is that they’re a part of what we do – and that includes you.” Quite deep, isn’t it? Anyway, inside the factory box there is the phone itself, of course, user manuals, a SIM tray tool, new stickers, an invitation to the OnePlus forum, 3.5mm to Type-C adapter as well a DASH Charge charging adapter and a DASH Charge Type-C cable. It was speculated earlier that OnePlus wanted to change the name of their superior charging system to Wrap Charge, but it seems that the name change is still not authorized.
Let’s now deal with the phone!
Video review
Unboxing
Display
OnePlus has a long tradition of using Optic AMOLED displays, and in a word, they look – outstanding. It’s true that Samsung’s Super AMOLED displays are superior, but this matrix reproduces black colors much deeper, and also the color accuracy is amazing. Inside the settings, the 6T offers sRGB mode, and it also fully covers the DCI-P3 color profile. That said, the colors are really good, but it comes with a price – sunlight legibility is not something to boast with, and we’d say it’s even worse compared to the predecessors.
A huge improvement is the display size itself, since this time we have a 6.49” display with the aspect ratio of 19.5:9. We’re sorry for compact phone lovers, but this phone isn’t something you can use single handedly – you will have to use both hands. Anyway, all views are more than sharp since we have the same old FullHD resolution. This is one of the first phones that used the sixth generation of Corning Gorilla Glass that, the manufacturer claims, should withstand drops from the height of 1 meter.
Hardware and OS
This phenomenal flagship is another device by OnePlus that uses the same, strongest chipset by Qualcomm – the Snapdragon 845, which is paired with either 6 or 8GB of RAM as before, but this time we see little changes in user available memory. We no longer have the version with 64GB of storage, so the 6T comes with either 128 or 256GB of internal storage. As this phone was included in the beta testing of the Android 9.0 Pie, it’s only natural for it to come with the Pie out of the box, which it does.
This device performed excellently in terms of performances, both in benchmark tests and user experience-wise. All tasks are executed immediately, while games are fluent with stable framerate even during very heavy use. The new version of OxygenOS, 9.0.5, offers new customization options. You can tailor the accent color to yourself while previously we only had a few presets. Also the Always-On display is now removed and in its place now we have the Ambience display that gets activated by touching the display or simply placing the phone upright. It also offers many customization options that will do a good job as a replacement to the LED notification light that has also been removed. It needs to be even further improved though, because, for example, the screen will light up every time you go over a hole while driving which can be quite distracting. Another of the settings found here is the gesture navigation – simply swipe from the bottom to get back to the start menu, swipe and hold to enter task manager or swipe from the right bottom corner upwards to go back a step – very easy and useful. We have the new in-display fingerprint scanner, for the first time in OnePlus phones, but make sure to take your time to register the fingerprint, because if you rush it, the phone will have some trouble recognizing your fingerprints later on. However, when it’s been set up correctly, it works great.
Your call speaker is placed in its natural position, above the notch on the front panel, and we can barely even see it. Even though it’s smaller than it was, that won’t be an issue since the sound is crystal clear and more than just loud, but sadly we can’t say the same for the loud speaker. OnePlus didn’t bother to implement stereo sound into their flagship, which is something that has become standard even in mid-rangers, and even the Nokia 2.1 has it, and it’s an entry level phone! The main speaker provides sharp and quality sounds, but it’s not particularly loud which you’ll definitely notice while gaming without headphones.
Camera
Cameras placed into the last two generations of OnePlus phones, the 6T included, are their biggest downsides. Don’t get us wrong though, the phone really makes good, clear photos, but the second sensor has the same purpose as the primary one. It’d be nice to see a wide-angle secondary sensor, or telephoto, but no – we have the same old setup. We have a 16 megapixel and a 20 megapixel sensor, both of which have the angle of view of 25mm. We did see an improvement regarding software manipulation of a photo, especially in night time mode. What this mode does is it prolongs the exposure letting more light in the camera, but on the other hand, the quality is sacrificed. We think it’s better to stick to the normal shooting mode.
Speaking of the photo quality, in good lighting you can really make impressive photos, with nice colors and dynamic range, but with slightly noticeable noise that, on the other hand, you can only see when you zoom into the less bright parts of an image. Portrait mode also does a good job separating the subject from the background, the edges are natural and perfected. It’s available on the front side as well and it also performs nicely.
While we’re at it, the front facing camera provides more than just good results for a 16 megapixel sensor. Most manufacturers try to cram as many megapixels as possible into the front facing camera, clever marketing we’d say, however, 16 megapixels is more than enough to make a good selfie. HDR mode on the front camera doesn’t do that good of a job as on the back, details get lost under artificial dynamic range making photos blurry.
Once again, the video mode performed remarkably well, just as it was in the previous iteration, and there is also the electronically stabilized 4K 60fps support which is just waiting to explode of details.
Connectivity
OnePlus 6T, just as the earlier OnePlus 6, has all new connection options, so much new that the older ones are completely forgotten. As we’ve mentioned earlier, the 3.5mm port has been removed in order to implement new technologies, for example the in-display fingerprint reader, but inside the factory box there is a Type-C to 3.5mm adapter. All 6T phones are DualSIM devices and they don’t support any sort of storage expansion. On the bottom there is a USB Type-C connector while the NFC sensor is also here.
Supported wireless connections are:
- WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac double band with WiFi Direct, DLNA and HotSpot
- Bluetooth version 5.0 with A2DP, aptX HD and LE
- GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS and Galileo
- NFC
- USB 2.0 with OTG
Supported network frequencies are:
- 2G GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
- 3G WCDMA: 800, 850, 900, 1700, 1900, 2100 MHz
- 3G TD/SCDMA: 1900, 2000 MHz
- 4G LTE: 700, 750, 800, 850, 900, 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2600 MHz
- 4G TD-LTE 1900, 2000, 2300, 2500, 2600 MHz
Battery
Compared to the last year’s OnePlus 6, the battery in the T version has been increased to 3700 mAh. The 6T also performs better in terms of autonomy with around 7 hours of screen on time which translates to around a full day’s heavy use with gaming, viewing videos etc. Regular software updates only add up to autonomy, and the company really tries to optimize battery consumption as best as possible.
Good old DASH charge system is still here, but this time it’s not branded as such. We’re a bit sad that we didn’t get the new Super VOOD charging system with whopping 50W of power that Oppo phones got. Oppo, vivo and OnePlus are three brands led by the same company and they share their technology, which means that we can expect to see the new charging technology in the new iteration of the OnePlus.
Final words
OnePlus has once again succeeded in creating one of the best, if not the best premium flagship at the lowest possible price point. There is also the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 which is substantially cheaper, but its build quality just isn’t on par. We can expect improvements in the camera field in the future, and we believe that OnePlus is capable to deliver even better results. If you’re planning to buy this phone, don’t hesitate, it’s our warm recommendation.
OnePlus 6T Full Specifications
Do you like the OnePlus 6T? We’d like to hear your opinion in the comment section below. If you have any suggestions or you would like to see some new devices being reviewed, let us know either here or on our Facebook page. If you liked this review, subscribe to our YouTube channel, like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, sit back and relax as we’re working hard on new material for you.