OnePlus 6T Review

OnePlus is ruling the premium smartphone segment in India leaving behind companies like Apple and Samsung. OnePlus 6 was the best ever OnePlus smartphone which was launched in May 2018. The company managed to sell more than a Million OnePlus 6 in just 22 days. Following the massive success of the OnePlus 6, the company announced OnePlus 6T back in October with some minor upgrade and a bump in the price too.

The OnePlus 6T is now available for the starting for the price of INR 37,999 and goes all the way up to INR 50,999 for the recently launched McLaren Editon. Without any doubt, this is an expensive smartphone from the company, but the real question here is, is it worth that price? or is it worth the upgrade? Let’s find out that in the review here as I have been using the device for a little over two months now and I will be putting out all the Pros and Cons of the OnePlus 6T.

Box Content

OnePlus 6T
Data Cable
Power Brick 20W
USB Type-C to 3.5mm audio jack dongle
TUP case
OnePlus Stickers
User Manual
A Letter from Pete Lau

OnePlus 6T Specifications

Display: 6.41 -inch optic AMOLED(2340*1080 pixel) 19.5:9 display with a water drop notch
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 10nm processor, Adreno 630 GPU
RAM: 6/8/10GB
Storage: 128/256GB built-in UFS 2.1 2-LANE storage
OS: Android 9.0 Pie, OxygenOS
Rear Camera: 16MP+20MP Dual cameras with LED flash, f/1.7 aperture, OIS
Front Camera: 16MP Camera, f/1.7 aperture
Security: In-display fingerprint scanner, Face Unlock
Battery: 3700mAh battery with fast charging, 30W Warp charging(McLaren Edition)
Connectivity: Dual SIM, Bluetooth 5.0, 4G VoLTE, Wi-Wi 802.11/b/g/n
Dimensions: Thickness: 8.2mm and Weight: 180gms
Sensors: Hall, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity, RGB Ambient Light Sensor, Electronic Compass, Sensor Core
Colors: Mirror Black, Midnight Black, Thunder Black, and Papaya Orange(McLaren Edition)

Design

Starting off with the design, the OnePlus 6T comes with a glass back, similar to the OnePlus 6. Also, it comes with a curved glass display at the front with a metal frame at the middle. The OnePlus 6T weighs in at 185gms and is a very sturdy device to hold. The device is definitely tall at 157.5mm, compared to 155.7mm of its predecessor OnePlus 6 and It is thick at 8.2mm. At the front, the OnePlus 6T houses a beautiful 6.41-inch display with a tiny dew-drop notch, which also holds the sensors(Ambient/Distant/RGB) and the display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6.

On the right of the device, there is the OnePlus’s signature Alert Slider and the power button. At the left, there are volume rockers and over the top, there is secondary noise cancellation mic and over at the bottom, we’ve got the USB Type-C port. All the three(Power Button, Volume Rockers, and the Alert Slider) are easily accessible with the single hand. And, finally, there is no headphone jack on the device as it makes way for the in-display fingerprint scanner on the front.

Overall, the device is well balanced and feels sturdy and premium when you hold it in the hand and the weight distribution is also pretty good and doesn’t feel top or bottom heavy. The OnePlus 6T comes in four different options currently- Mirror Black, Midnight Black, Thunder Purple, and McLaren Orange(Carbon).

Display

With the introduction of a tiny water-drop/dew-drop notch, OnePlus 6T gets more room for the display and comes with a 6.41-inch Full HD Optic AMOLED display with a resolution of 2340X1080P, with a pixel density of 402ppi and a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6, which is scratch resistant and also will protect the display even in case of accidental drops.

Coming to the display quality, the display on the OnePlus 6T is one of the best Full HD display and gives great color reproduction, good viewing angles. The display gets pretty bright in the outdoors and is readable under the direct sunlight. OnePlus gives the users 5 different calibration modes like- sRGB, DCI-P3, Adaptive mode, Custom color, and a Default mode to choose from as per users choice. Further, there are a couple of handy dedicated modes for reading(Reading Mode) and night(Night Mode). The display is definitely not the best like the ones on Samsung flagships, but this display is one of the best full HD AMOLED displays that can be found on the phone.

Software

The OnePlus 6T runs on OnePlus’s Oxygen OS and it comes pre-installed with Android 9.0 Pie. In the last seven weeks, I got around four updates and the device is running on the latest security patch of December. If I had to define the software in two words, that’d be- Smooth & Fast. The OxygenOS has Zero bloatware and the UI feels pretty slick, it is very much similar to the Stock Android but, comes with more customization options compared to the Stock Android.

There are a lot of customization options available on the OxygenOS, to start off with the Navigation Gestures- OnePlus gives users with 1. Back, Home, Recent buttons, 2. Back and Home Buttons, and 3. Gestures. OxygenOS also gives options to perform tasks when long pressed the buttons. One feature that I personally liked and use most is the ability to trigger Google Assistant by holding the Power Button for 0.5seconds when using full gesture options. The navigation gestures are pretty smooth and are easy to use once you started using it on a regular basis.

Further, OxygenOS also packs in a Dark Mode, which looks absolutely fantastic on the AMOLED display. There is also an option to choose a color accent from a few preset colors and in case you want your own color accent, you can create one from the color pallet. There are also two other modes- Light Theme and the Colorful Theme, which is similar to the Pixel devices. If you have a OnePlus device, you must definitely use the Dark Mode, which looks pretty dope on the AMOLED displays and also consumes less battery.

The device packs in its own lightweight launcher, which is pretty simple and easy to use. Also, you will get an optional ‘Shelf’ to the left of your home screen which will have recent apps, contacts, toolbox, weather, and also a memo note. You can add any widget of your wish. Personally, I wish OnePlus gives an option to add the Google cards to the left of the Home screen instead of Shelf.

Here is the list of OxygenOS features:

Gaming Mode – allows users to answer calls directly from the speaker, blocks notifications, disables auto brightness, and boosts the network by limiting the other apps usage. You can add/remove any games/apps to the gaming mode list.
Quick launch – long press the fingerprint scanner to launch an app quickly- ideal use case would be launching a Payment page, Voice search, or any apps/shortcuts that you use frequently.
Parallel Apps – Use two instance of Social Media apps and also few other apps like Uber, PayTM etc.
App Lock– Lock apps with the fingerprint scanner
Pocket Mode – Prevents accidental screen/fingerprint touches when kept in the pocket
OnePlus Switch- To migrate all the data including contacts, messages, photos from your old phone, even works with iPhone now.
Smart Boost – Found under Laboratory settings, once activated will take advantage of RAM and loads apps and games quickly.
About Phone – This is a very unique infographic representation of the phone info done by the OnePlus team, it also includes OxygenOS contributors name
Screenshot– support for a long screenshot, 3 finger gesture to take a screenshot
Option to hide the notch
Ambient display mode
Display network speed

Performance

Most of the OnePlus smartphones are known for their brilliant performance, OnePlus 6T also continues to stay on the track and is no different from the previous flagships. The OnePlus 6T is powered by an Octa-core Snapdragon 845 processor clocked at 2.8Ghz and Adreno 630 GPU. I was using the base 6GB+128GB variant and had more than 220 apps installed on the phone and it could handle any task I pushed at it. The memory management is also pretty good and the apps were kept in memory for a good period of time.

Gaming

I played games like PUBG, Asphalt 9, at the highest possible graphics settings and OnePlus 6T performed exceptionally well without any frame drop or lag. Even while gaming, the games were kept in the background memory while I was switching between the game and some other apps. Overall, OnePlus 6T is a beast when it comes to performance and offers top-notch performance. If you are planning to get a device that performs really well, OnePlus 6T is the device to go for.

Camera

OnePlus 6T carries similar camera setup as seen on the OnePlus 6, the 6T packs in a 16MP main sensor with an f/1.7 aperture with Optical Image Stabilization as well as Electronic Image Stabilization and a secondary 20MP camera with an f/1.7 aperture. Over at the front, the device comes with a 16MP sensor with Sony IMX371 sensor with f/2.0 aperture. Let’s talk about the camera UI first, we get several shooting modes at first which includes Photo, Portrait, Video, Nightscape, Time-lapse, Panorama, and Google Lens. The Photo gives options like the timer, aspect ratio, flash, and HDR mode at the top and with video mode you can shoot in- 720P, 180P, 1080P 60FPS, 4K, and also 4K 60FPS. The front camera comes with support for Photos with HDR and face retouch options, Video recording up to 1080P, and also support for portrait mode.

Day Light Samples

Coming to the performance, OnePlus 6T takes good photos during the daylight, thanks to the algorithm and enhancement made by the company. The color reproduction was good and accurate, HDR mode takes better photos on a few occasions. The Portrait mode works pretty well too, the edge detection is on par and takes good shots. The dynamic range is also pretty good and photos taken comes out crisply and are well saturated.

Coming to the low light scenario, OnePlus added a new feature called NightScape to improve the low-light performance, the result has been a mixed bag in our case, to get a perfect Night shot, you need to hold mobile stable for 2-3seconds and even a slight disturbance will ruin the photo. Most often the images will have a good amount of detail but, tend to on the softer side.

Selfies

Even with selfie camera, both normal and portrait mode click good pictures with a fair amount of details and edge detection on pretty good on the portrait mode. The low-light performance is also pretty decent and above par, as it can produce decent shots at from the minimum light source available, the new feature Studio Lighting also helps to capture better selfies.

Low-light

Moving on to the Video department, OnePlsu 6T can record a crispy 4K video with which looks pretty dope, OIS and EIS do a pretty decent job and offers fairly stable videos. For slow-mo recordings, 6t supports 480fps at 720P and 240fps at 1080P up to 1minute and also offers to choose which part of the video you want to slow down. Slow-mo works better in well-lit conditions and better avoid using it at the night.

Pro Mode

All-in-all, OnePlus 6T has a pretty good camera but, when you compare it with the likes of Pixels and Samsung flagships, you can notice the struggle of the OnePlus 6T camera. Check out the camera samples to below.

Battery

OnePlus 6T comes with a 3700mAH battery compared to the 3300mAH battery found on the OnePlus 6. The smartphone supports Dah charging, though OnePlus never mentioned it during the launch, Dash is present on the charging adapter. The company has mentioned only fast changing on their site.

Moving on to the performance, OnePlus 6T can easily last more than a day even with moderate to heavy usage. I got more than 7 hours Screen on Time very regularly. With heavy usage like watching a movie on Hotstar/Netflix/Prime and playing games like PUBG, Asphalt 9 plus using social media apps all day, the phone will run out of juice by the end of the day. OnePlus had optimized the battery consumptions pretty well and kudos for doing that.

Charging

The 6T comes with a 5V/4A fast charger in the box which provides 20W power supply, with just 30minutes of charge the device will go up to 60% and it takes around 1 hour and 15 minutes to completely charge from 5%-100%. Fast charging is definitely a lifesaver and OnePlus has nailed it here. The device comes with a glass back and there is no support for Wireless charging. Wireless charging without fast charging capabilities is of no use, in our opinion.

Fingerprint scanner, Face unlock

One of the major change from the OnePlus 6 is the presence of in-display fingerprint scanner right on the AMOLED display. OnePlus uses a camera that uses the camera and light to identify the fingerprint and unlock the smartphone on 0.34seconds, which is one of the fastest. At first, the fingerprint scanner was pretty slow and later on after a couple of updates, the fingerprint scanner works flawlessly without any issues. As of today, I am very happy and it is also very accurate and works 9/10 times. Users can add up to 5 fingerprints and also choose from 3 animations to unlock. You can also use the fingerprint scanner to lock the apps.

The Face unlock on OnePlus 6T is pretty fast and works very well in the daylight, for night conditions, you can enable the assistive lighting feature which uses the screen’s light to recognize the face in the dark. Most of the times the device gets unlocked even before we keep our finger on the scanner, thanks to the fast face unlock feature.

Audio, Connectivity, and Others

OnePlus 6T comes with a mono speaker at the left of the device, which is pretty loud and provides clear audio output. While gaming or watching a video in landscape mode, it will easily be muffled. Audio quality during the calls was also pretty good and I didn’t face any issues and I have 0 complaints in the audio department.

One major bummer that many users will have to worry about is the absence of the headphone jack on the OnePlus 6T. The absence of the jack makes way for a slightly bigger battery and also the in-display fingerprint scanner. OnePlus, in the recent update bought the Audio Tuner for the Bluetooth devices, which will come in handy for the OnePlus 6T users.

On the connectivity front, the device packs in Dual SIM slot with Dual4G VoLTE support, Bluetooth 5.0 aptX HD, Wi-Fi 802.11/b/g/n, USB Type-C with OTG and audio support and NFC. The OnePlus 6T is not an IP rated smartphone, but the company claims that it is daily water resistant and can take a slight water force.

The Final Thoughts

The OnePlus 6T is not a major upgrade from the OnePlus 6 with the starting price of INR 37,999, the phone definitely brings in a few worthy features like the in-display fingerprint scanner and a bigger battery. OnePlus 6T is absolutely the best value for the money flagship smartphone. With Apple iPhones cost going towards lakhs and Samsung and Pixel going beyond INR 60k, the OnePlus 6T is still reachable for the majority of the users who are looking to buy a flagship smartphone with a beautiful display, great performance and battery life and also the new in-display fingerprint scanner.

Pros:

Brilliant display, performance
In-display fingerprint scanner
Great battery life
OxygenOS- Smooth and Fast

Cons:

Lacks 3.5mm headphone jack
No IP rating

OnePlus 6T is available on Amazon, OnePlus.in, and across major offline retail stores pan India starting at INR 37,999:

OnePlus 6T 6GB+128GB – INR 37,999 available in Mirror Balck variant
OnePlus 6T 8GB+128GB – INR 41,999 available in Mirror Balck, Thunder Purple, Midnight Balck variant
OnePlus 6T 8GB+256GB – INR 45,999 available in Midnight Balck variant
OnePlus 6T 10GB+256GB McLaren Edition – INR 50,999 available in Speed Orange variant

Price Update

OnePlus 6T price has been bought down after the OnePlus 7 launch and is now available starting at just INR 27,999 for 8GB variant on Amazon.in.

So, what do you think about our review? Drop a comment below and let me know, follow me on Twitter for more news and updates. If you have any queries regarding the OnePlus 6T, just hit me up and I will get back to you shortly.

PC: Vineeth Vishwamitra