Oneplus 6T first impression: Is it a worthy upgrade?

OnePlus, a brand is known for making disruptive flagship device every year. The company is also known to take head-on with famous smartphone brands such as Apple and Samsung. After launching OnePlus 6 earlier this year, keeping up the trend, the company has finally launched its much-awaited OnePlus 6T device globally, yesterday. The India launch is yet to take place tonight at 8.30 PM and will reveal the price for Indian markets.

OnePlus 6T design

 

The OnePlus 6T’s body comprises of glass on both the front and back of the device. The phone looks comfortable to hold and it’s easy enough to grip with dimensions of 157.5 x 74.8 x 8.2mm the phone doesn’t feel big in hands.

The rear of the phone looks clear since the fingerprint from the back has been replaced by in-display fingerprint reader at front. So now you have a two-sensor camera and a small flash below it. Otherwise, the back of the phone is empty which pretty neat, good work OnePlus.

On the right edge of the phone there is a power on button, which is one of your options for waking the device the other option is a double tap on the screen – and above that is the signature OnePlus slider that gives you an option to mute your phone with a quick slide.

On the left-hand edge of the device is the volume rocker. On the bottom of the phone is the USB-C port, flanked by two speakers for enhanced stereo audio.

One of the big shock from the company about the newly launched OnePlus device is that it has shed the 3.5mm headphone jack, which is a decision that has disappointed a lot of OnePlus fans out there.

Instead, OnePlus comes with a bundled 3.5mm to USB-C adapter in the box so you can still plug in your wired headphones, while it also encourages you to use Bluetooth headphones as an alternative.

It’s an odd decision by the company considering the company has been making much of the fact that it’s included the headphone jack on every device while rival companies have dropped it.

For color option, you’ve got the choice of two colors that are mirror black or midnight black. It is expected from OnePlus to introduce further colors along the line too. We might see red and white versions, as with previous generations of OnePlus devices, but so far there’s no news about it.

OnePlus 6T display

The display is something which gets a lot of upgrades in OnePlus 6T. The company has ditched the notch for a smaller notch which is called teardrop notch by companies. It takes up relatively little space, meaning there’s more screen at the top left and right of the device.

The display is a 6.41-inch AMOLED Full HD here, but as the body of the phone isn’t as large relative to the screen size it doesn’t feel like a big-screen size phone when it’s in your hand. It has 19:5:9 aspect ratio, so it offers a bigger screen than some of the other phones. The display has a resolution of 2340 x 1080, with 402 ppi, and the picture quality is amazing. The AMOLED technology makes the colors look astoundingly crisp.

The biggest upgrade of all is the OnePlus 6T’s unlock, and that’s by using the fingerprint reader that’s now embedded in the screen. It took us a while to get used to using the device’s display fingerprint unlocking, but once we did get used to it we found it to be secure, fast, and nice to use. You can also have Face Unlock enabled at the same time and face unlock was always quick enough to not let use in-display fingerprint.

 

OnePlus 6T specifications

Take a quick look at specs sheet:

Display	6.41 inch Full HD AMOLED, 2340x1080p, 19.5:9
Body	Aluminum frame, All Glass body
Processor	Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630 GPU
OS	Android 9 Pie, OxygenOS
Camera	16+20 MP f/1.7 Rear, 16 MP front f/2.0
Battery	3,700 mAh, Dash Charge

 

The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset like the previous OnePlus 6. The phone comes with up to 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage as usual. The phone is snappy and app launches are fast. The speed is an exception in OnePlus 6T. The device has not seen any major improvement in this department. There is a boost mode which lets the phone use massive RAM to store app data in RAM for faster app loads and multi-tasking.

OnePlus 6T camera & battery life

 

Nothing much has changed in the camera department. The sensors remain the same at 16+20 MP with a f/1.7 aperture with Optical Image and Electrical Image Stabilization. As of now, I feel the images clicked from OnePlus 6T is similar to OnePlus 6 and looks not much improvement has made here. The company also claims to have upgraded its portrait mode but we don’t notice a huge improvement. There is also a new feature called night mode which enables the users to click photographs in the dim environment. This is similar to Pixel 3’s night sight mode.

For selfies, there is a 16 MP camera and which is similar to the previous device. The front camera has a f/2.0 aperture and EIS. The selfies form OnePlus 6T looks much better than OnePlus 6. The selfies have better clarity, details, and sharpness and are definitely an upgrade.

The phone supports video up to 4K at 60fps and also has support for a super slow motion which records 1080p videos at 240fps and 720p at 480fps. So, nothing has changed in the video department.

The battery is slightly bigger with OnePlus 6T as it has made a jump to 3700 mAh which as earlier 3300 mAh. The difference in battery life is noticeable and is a big appreciation since the smartphone uses a bigger AMOLED display.

OnePlus 6T user interface

The device looks different on as soon as you see after the boot. The OnePlus 6T’s interface looks quite different to stock Android. The 6T is running Android 9 Pie out of the box, with OnePlus’ own OxygenOS UI on top of it.

It means the main apps look different since there is Android Pie while OxygenOS adds a variety of customizations that you only get in a OnePlus device.

There is not much bloatware on the smartphone. The phone comes with pre-loaded Google apps such as YouTube, Gmail, calculator, calendar and more. Apart from these, you’ll find the interface to be neat and clean.

If you don’t like the navigation button on the bottom of the screen you can enable a feature called Navigation Gestures, which is similar to most of the smartphone these days.

There are also a variety of gestures that you can use for example you can lock the phone by double tapping anywhere on the home screen and tap the screen with three fingers at the same time to take a screenshot in a whip.

OnePlus 6T release date and price

The OnePlus was already available for pre-order on Amazon India and now since the pricing is coming out tonight the pre-orders are closed now.  However, the device will be available from the OnePlus site from November 6.

The OnePlus 6T prices start at $549 / £499 for the 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage in the Mirror Black color. The same storage and color but with 8GB of RAM will cost around $579 / £529.

Midnight Black versions of the phone with 8GB of RAM and cost £529 / $579 or $629 / £579 depending on your choice of storage that is 128GB or 256GB versions.

Indian pricing:

The OnePlus 6T is priced at Rs. 37,999 for the 6GB RAM/ 128GB storage variant, which is only available in a Mirror Black colour. The 8GB RAM/ 128GB storage model, on the other hand, is priced at Rs 41,999 and is available in both Midnight Black and Mirror Black colour variants. At last, the 8GB RAM/ 256GB storage model is available only in a Midnight Black colour variant and is priced at Rs. 45,999.

Conclusion, Should you buy it?

The answer is Yes. If you’re looking for an affordable flagship device than most of the other smartphone manufacturers are offering.

That lower price of the phone makes it a favorable choice for someone who doesn’t like spend much yet want to taste a flagship. Although it only has a Full HD+ resolution display and also lacks features such as wireless charging, the OnePlus 6T is a great flagship smartphone to buy.

It’s difficult to find any flaw with this phone. If you want a phone with a solid battery life with solid power and cutting-edge features like the on-screen fingerprint scanner, the OnePlus 6T is the one for you.