OnePlus 6T: Is it really a flagship killer?

OnePlus 6T has a Snapdragon 845 processor, 6 or 8 GB of RAM and 128 or 256 GB storage with OxygenOS: it combines specific to the top with a reasonable price.

PRO

  • Build quality
  • Display
  • Camera

CONS

  • Absence audio jack
  • USB Type-C port only 2.0,
  • Fingerprint reader not very precise

It is now 5 years that OnePlus has arrived on the global Android smartphone market and has already carved out a good space both in sales and in the hearts of the many fans that follow the Chinese company in many occasions of meeting.

And although the strategy of the annual double flagship can turn someone’s nose up a little, especially with the thinning of the time gap between the releases of the first series and the subsequent T series, OnePlus products remain among the most appreciated by the public. For this reason, we have tried with great interest the current top of the range model, the OnePlus 6T (here instead the OnePlus 6). Let’s see how it is behaved.

OnePlus 6T

Design

Let’s start with the sales package: in addition to the OnePlus 6T and the legal manuals, it contains the 20 Watt Dash battery charger, a USB type C cable, a Type-C adapter for 3.5 mm jack headphones, the SIM extractor tool and a soft silicone cover. No stereo headphones.

The dimensions of the terminal are 157.5 × 74.8 × 8.2mm and the weight of 185 grams. The structure, like most of today’s flagships, is made of metal, covered both in front and behind in glass; we know that the display is covered with Gorilla Glass 6 while we do not know the detail of the rear glass.

On the front of the smartphone there are the 6.41″ Full HD + AMOLED display with a 19.5:9 ratio and a notch drop, inside which the front camera is positioned; the speaker is hidden on the upper edge of the phone and the lower chin is rather small. On the back there is a dual camera with dual tone flash and the OnePlus logo.

The back is in glass treated to give an almost rubbery feel to the touch, a very pleasant solution that does not hold the fingerprints as usually happens with glass bodies (although there is a cover in the pack, we preferred not to use it).

At the edges of the 6T there is a microphone for canceling noises at the top; the dual SIM slot, on the left, next to the volume rocker (the latter in an unusual position that led us to press it by mistake on several occasions); the power buttons and a mute switch, to the right; the USB Type-C port with OTG support, a microphone and the speaker grille, at the bottom.

OnePlus’s choice to implement a physical key to switch from ringer to vibration is curious, when all the other brands use the volume keys to perform the same operation.

Technical data sheet

From a good flagship of the end of 2018, OnePlus 6T arrives on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 platform, octa-core SoC with 10nm architecture, clock up to 2.8GHz and AI. The GPU is the Adreno 630, and next to the chipset there is plenty of RAM configurations ranging from 6GB to 10GB, while the memory storage is 128GB or 256GB, not expandable.

The rear dual camera consists of a 16MP main Sony IMX519 sensor with f / 1.7 aperture, 1.22μm pixels, optical and electronic stabilizer (OIS + EIS) and phase detection autofocus (PDAF), and a second sensor Sony IMX376K 20MP with f / 1.7 aperture, 1μm ePDAF pixels. You can capture video up to 4K @ 60fps and in slow motion at 240fps.

OnePlus 6T

The front camera is a 16MP Sony IMX371 with f / 2.0 aperture, 1μm pixel, fixed focus and electronic stabilizer, which can record video up to 1080p @ 30fps.

Do not miss the full range of sensors: brightness, proximity, accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer. There are also Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity with aptX HD, NFC, dual band 2.4 / 5 GHz WiFi 802.11 ab / g / n / ac, GPS localization with A-GPS, Glonass, Galileo, BeiDou. As for cellular connectivity, all the 2G, 3G and 4G bands used in our country are supported, with the latter up to LTE Cat.16 with a maximum download speed of 1Gbps (where supported by the telephone operator).

The 3700mAh battery comes with support for fast 20W (5V / 4A) charging.

On the software side, OnePlus 6T mounts the OxygenOS 9 with a design very similar to the stock of Android 9 Pie but enriched with different features and, above all, a wide range of gestures to speed up interactions with the smartphone.

  • Screen: 6.41″ FHD + AMOLED, Gorilla Glass 6
  • CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
  • GPU: Adreno 630
  • RAM: 6/8/10 GB DDR4X
  • Internal memory: 128/256 GB
  • Front camera: 16 MP, f / 2.0, with EIS
  • Rear camera: 16 MP dual-camera + 20 MP, f / 1.7, OIS, EIS
  • Connectivity: 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac dual band, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, USB Type-C, NFC
  • Dimensions: 157.5 x 74.8 x 8.2 mm
  • Weight: 185 grams
  • Battery: 3,700 mAh with fast charging
  • OS: OxygenOS 9 based on Android 9 Pie

Price

OnePlus 6T is available in two colors, both black: Mirror Black and Midnight Black. The basic version with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal memory is on sale for $559 while the 8 + 256GB version comes to $639. OnePlus has also launched a special version, in collaboration with McLaren, with 10GB of RAM, available for $799.

Review

We were in the company of the OnePlus 6T for about two weeks, including the very stressful days of the Mobile World Congress, and the smartphone certainly came out well. The chipset is a guarantee, since the Snapdragon 845 was the reference processor for all of 2018 and only now has it been replaced by the successor 855.

A separate discussion should instead be made on RAM: OnePlus has provided different memory configurations from a minimum of 6GB to a maximum of 10GB on the McLaren Edition; a part of this choice is definitely a marketing strategy, now the various companies are chasing each other to the sound of numbers by adding jig just to put them well on display in their own data sheets.

OnePlus 6T

But if we make a comparison with some smartphones that use Android Stock (Pixel 3) or Android One (we had a Nokia 8.1 in the other pocket), we note that although these are perfectly fluid even with only 4GB of RAM and with an average use of just 2.5GB, OnePlus 6T shows an average use of 4.5GB of RAM even with the phone switched on and without any application running. This makes us understand that it is often easier and cheaper to make the system fast by adding gigabytes of RAM rather than hiring good engineers who can optimize the software.

Very nice the AMOLED display, bright and clearly visible in all light conditions, with a good range of colors and deep blacks; the drop notch is not at all annoying.

Also good is the unlocking with the face, always fast and precise, while we cannot say the same about the impression sensor positioned below the screen: on many occasions we had to place the finger several times on the display before being able to unlock it.

Another positive aspect is the audio, both in call and in hands-free mode, and also while listening to music and conversations from the system speaker (mono); good also the sound in Bluetooth headphones.

Moving on to the photographic department, we certainly cannot complain: all the shooting modes are present, including time-lapse and slow-motion videos, and the quality is satisfactory in all light conditions. The rear camera is able to take photos with 2x lossless zoom thanks to the interpolation of the data captured by the two cameras. Also present was the automatic detection of scenes thanks to the use of artificial intelligence, and a night mode that the producer called Nightscape.

The autonomy was also satisfying, which, despite the frenzy of the days of the fair, allowed us to reach the end of the day without having to pull out the power bank. In any case, fast charging allows you to recharge your smartphone in less time.

Speaking of the operating system, we can say that we appreciated this OxygenOS, which combines a clean design and very similar to the stock of Android Pie with a series of gestures and other useful functions that simplify the experience of using the terminal. We particularly appreciated the gestures to easily switch from one app to another and the customizable reading mode so as not to over-strain the eyes especially in the evening hours.

AH Sagar

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *