One Plus 6 Reviews

Not too long ago, we were confused about companies releasing new top-of-the-line smartphones every six months.
 Sony was for a while the most prominent company to do this, and we feared that buyers would feel a little short-changed when their expensive phones wound up looking second-best so quickly. How times have changed,
 though! The six-month cycle is now practically obligatory in the Android world, and if sellers aren't constantly offering up the latest and greatest, they might as well not bother.

OnePlus seems to have embraced this philosophy whole-heartedly. It was just in November last year that the OnePlus
5T (Review) was released with the sole purpose of having an 18:9 screen because that had become the defining look for smartphones and the OnePlus 5 (Review) wasn't going to cut it anymore. There was practically nothing else new or different about that phone. Now, the OnePus 5T is already out of stock and has vanished from the company's website.

What we have in its place is the new OnePlus 6, which brings a lot more than just a cosmetic update or minor bump in specifications. It has a new processor, a new type of screen, and new design, and a few other tweaks and improvements. Surprisingly, it doesn't cost a lot more than the model it replaces. At launch time, OnePlus is selling this phone with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage at Rs. 34,999, with the 8GB RAM
 and 128GB storage variant priced at Rs. 39,999. There's also a Marvel Avengers edition with 8GB of RAM
 and 256GB of storage, but it will most likely not be available for long. If you're thinking of buying the OnePlus 6 right away, read on.

OnePlus 6 Design

As it has grown, OnePlus has become increasingly sophisticated in terms of its designs and manufacturing capabilities
. The OnePlus 6 has a glass rear panel, and three distinct versions of the smartphone (plus the Marvel Avengers edition)
 will be available to buyers at launch time. The most common one will be the Mirror Black finish, which is also the only option if you choose the lower-priced Rs. 34,999 configuration. This is very much like what we've seen before from other companies. It's slick and has a high sheen. It's also a little slippery, and very reflective, which means it will pick up
 smudges as soon as you touch it. This is the one that we have for review today. The Marvel Avengers edition has the same
 shiny finish with a carbon fibre pattern.

The Midnight Black option doesn't even really look like glass at first. OnePlus calls the finish "corroded", and that's
pretty accurate. It has a matte finish and looks quite stealthy. Everyone who sees it will want to touch it. If you hold
 it up to the light, you can see a refracted pattern in the glass. Then there's the Silk White finish, which will be
 available two weeks after the black options. This one has a contrasting rose gold frame, fingerprint sensor, and accents
 around the camera module. The glass back has a soft, smooth texture that OnePlus says was achieved by using actual pearl
 dust. Both Midnight Black and Silk White will only be available with the Rs. 39,999 configuration.

OnePlus has used Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on the front and rear of all OnePlus 6 variants. The three primary options
look and feel different, and that's surprising for a company that relies so heavily on hands-off online retail. Buyers
 should definitely try to make their way to a physical shop or OnePlus popup event near them to check all options out
 for themselves before making a decision. You won't be able to show your phone off if you're using a cover (you get a
 basic plastic one in the box), which is a pity.

 The thing you should notice first about the front of the OnePlus 6 is the notch, but unfortunately, there's a pre-applied
 the adhesive screen protector that in our opinion completely ruins the look of this phone. The screen is supposed to look nearlyborderless, but instead, there's a clearly defined line running around it; all the more noticeable because of tthe cutoutat the top. It shouldn't even be necessary with Gorilla Glass 5.

OnePlus is quick to point out that pushing all the electronics above the screen into a notch hasn't meant ditching a
 notifications LED because fans apparently really love this feature. The alert slider is also still very much there,
 but it's now on the right instead of the left. The behaviour of this control has changed, so it switches between Ring,
 Vibrate, and Silent rather than being linked to Android's Do Not Disturb feature.

The camera module at the back is now in the centre again and has a rough, scratchy rim. This is a problem that the
OnePlus 5 had but it was fixed with the 5T, so we're surprised to see it return. The vertical arrangement of the two
cameras means that the fingerprint sensor is a bit too low for our liking. At least the power and volume buttons are
within easy reach. There's a dual-SIM tray on the left. On the bottom, you'll find a single mono speaker, a USB Type-C
 (2.0) port, and a 3.5mm headphones socket which is sure to be a relief to many buyers.

This phone is comfortable to hold, thanks to the curved glass rear, but in addition to our Mirror Black unit being slippery,
 we found it hard to reach all corners of the newly enlarged screen. At 177g, it's on the heavier side too. The overall construction quality is excellent, and while OnePlus does use the term "water resistant", there's no official IPxx rating forprotection from water or dust ingress.

 OnePlus 6 specifications and software

The first phones to feature Qualcomm's new top-end Snapdragon 845 SoC were announced at MWC earlier this year, but OnePlus hasbeaten them to the punch in terms of actually going on sale in India. This gives the company a huge advantage,
 even if it's a temporary one. This SoC has eight Kryo 385 cores, integrated Adreno 630 graphics, improved security andimage processing subsystems, a faster LTE modem, and even hardware dedicated to AI processing.

Because of the notch and its "ears", the screen now measures 6.28 inches diagonally, up from 6.01 inches on the OnePlus 5T.
 There's a display setting that lets you mask the notch, and we didn't have trouble with any fullscreen apps. The resolution
 is 1080x2280, which is well below the QHD resolutions of today's major-brand flagships - but that difference is hardly
 perceptible, and you're unlikely to feel like you're losing out on anything.

Like we mentioned earlier, you can choose to buy this phone with either 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage for Rs. 34,999,
 or 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for Rs. 39,999. The Marvel Avengers Limited Edition is the only variant in India with
 256GB of storage, which is a pity because it will undoubtedly sell out quickly.

There are two Nano-SIM slots, but no microSD card slot for storage expansion. OnePlus officially supports dual standby for
 VoLTE using two SIMs, which will disappoint some people. You also get Bluetooth 5.0 with aptX HD, NFC, GPS, GLONASS, and multiple sensors including a gyroscope. The battery capacity is 3300mAh, and while you do get a huge 5V 4A Dash Charger in thebox, wireless charging isn't supported.

OnePlus 6 performance and battery life

Other than gaming, it's hard to define use cases that will really stress the Snapdragon 845 processor.
VR and AR apps aren't mainstream yet, and heavy content creation tasks aren't suited to smartphones anyway.
 In our real-world experience, we found the OnePlus 6 to be extraordinarily snappy, and we never had to pause for apps to load. With 8GB of RAM at our disposal, it shouldn't be surprising that apps stayed ready to go even after lying unused for a full day. That said, most people would still be perfectly happy with what today's phonesat well under half this price are capable of.

Benchmarks might not reflect real-world situations in this case, but they do let us understand how much power there is to tap. AnTuTu gave us a record-breaking score of 268,385, while the single- and multi-threaded GGeekbench scoreswere 2,389 and 9,013 respectively. 3DMark Slingshot Extreme managed 4,642 points. GFXBench's Manhattan and
 Car Chase gaming simulations ran at 54fps and 32fps respectively. Many of these scores exceed those of the Samsung
 Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus - though graphics tests favour the OnePlus 6 because its lower resolution screen is easier to fill up.

We spent quite a lot of time running some of today's most demanding games. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is growing
increasingly popular, so OnePlus fans will be happy to know that it automatically selected the High quality preset and
 also allowed us to turn on HDR and antialiasing without breaking a sweat.

When it comes to entertainment, you'll be quite happy with the OnePlus 6. The AMOLED screen is vivid, with punchy colours and great viewing angles. Videos look great, though the Default screen calibration mode seems to be deliberately oversaturated. You can choose between Default, sRGB, DCI-P3, and Adaptive modes, or even set your own custom colour
 temperature if you prefer. On the downside, there's only a mono speaker and it's very easy to block when holding the
 phone in landscape. Sound is surprisingly loud and actually has some body to it, but there's distortion at high volumes.

Battery life was good when we used the phone normally, which involved day-to-day use as well as a few hours of gaming and
 streaming videos. We got through our day with about 20 percent left at the end, which means we didn't have any anxiety
 about running out of power. One big annoyance is that there's no way to see the battery level percentage in the status
 bar, most likely thanks to the notch, but you can swipe down to see it in the quick settings panel.

Our HD video loop ran for only 10 hours, 59 minutes which was a surprisingly poor showing. We're giving OnePlus the benefit
of the doubt here, because our real-world experience was much better. The huge Dash Charger takes the phone up from zero to
just over 50 percent in half an hour, and gives you a full charge in around an hour and a half.

OnePlus 6 cameras

OnePlus is boasting of several improvements to its cameras. Most importantly, the primary 16-megapixel rear sensor gets optical image stabilisation, which fans have been demanding for a while. The sensor is also claimed to be 19 percent physically larger, allowing for more light to be captured, which should mean better detail and sharper shots. The secondary 20-megapixel camera is supposed to be used in low light and for depth effects.

Most of our shots came out looking good, but we weren't blown away. Daylight shots had a slightly warm tone,

though to be fair most were taken on exceptionally sunny Mumbai summer days. Colours popped nicely and close-up 

 subjects were handled well. Details and textures at a slight distance were not very realistic, and possibly overprocessed

 in software. The phone even managed to do a decent job when shooting subjects against the light. The portrait mode was

 slightly disappointing, taking a few seconds to isolate subjects from even simple backgrounds.

Low-light performance really stood out. Even on an unlit street, we were able to take shots that captured a lot of

 colour and detail, where lesser phones would have produced noisy grey blotches. There's a bokeh lens effects mode

 that distorts points of light into hearts or stars, which can look pretty cool. It only works if you have points 

 of in the background against a dark foreground, so it can be challenging to set up such shots. A software bokeh 

 mode for the front camera is promised for a future OxygenOS update.