Introduction
There's a new OnePlus 6T flagship in town, one uniquely similar and all the while, different from its predecessor. A new and bigger AMOLED panel, with a smaller notch and cutting-edge in-display fingerprint reader, plus a bigger battery pretty much define the upgrade over the OnePlus 6. However, the OnePlus 6T also marks the official removal of the headphone jack - surely, a downgrade and sad occasion for many long-term fans.
OnePlus 6T specs
- Body: 157.5 x 74.8 x 8.2 mm, 185 g. Aluminum frame, glass back, 2.5D Gorilla Glass 6 display glass. Mirror Black, Midnight Black schemes.
- Display: 6.41" Optic AMOLED, 2,340x1,080px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio 402ppi; sRGB/DCI-P3 color space support.
- Rear cameras: Main camera: Sony IMX 519 1/2.6" sensor, 16MP, 1.22µm pixel size, f/1.7 aperture, phase detection autofocus, OIS, EIS. Secondary camera: Sony IMX376K sensor, 20MP, 1.0µm pixel size, f/1.7 aperture. 2160p/60fps video recording, 1080p/240fps or 720p/480fps slow motion
- Front camera: Sony IMX 371 sensor, 16MP, 1.0µm pixel size, f/2.0 aperture; EIS; 1080p/30fps video recording.
- OS/Software: Android 9 Pie; OxygenOS custom overlay.
- Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845: octa-core CPU (4x2.7 GHz Kryo 385 Gold & 4x1.7 GHz Kryo 385 Silver), Adreno 630 GPU.
- Memory: 6/8GB of LPDDR4X RAM; 128/256GB UFS 2.1 2-LANE storage.
- Battery: 3,700mAh Li-Po (sealed); Dash Charge proprietary fast charging (5V/4A).
- Connectivity: Dual nano-SIM; 5-Band carrier aggregation, LTE Cat.16/13 (1024Mbps/150Mbps); USB Type-C (v2.0); Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo; NFC; Bluetooth 5.0, supports aptX and aptX HD.
- Misc: Under-display fingerprint reader; single speaker on the bottom; tri-position Alert Slider.
OnePlus's success is one of the textbook examples of viral online marketing in the smartphone industry. The Chinese manufacturer has built its reputation as an enthusiasts brand up from total obscurity relying on cutthroat pricing, lofty slogans and a loyal, tight-knit community.
So when you've spent the last few years cultivating a dedicated fan base by insisting that their opinions, wishes, and preferences come first, a certain backlash is to be expected when you go ahead and remove a feature they've explicitly voted as a must-have - the audio jack.
A hip, fan-friendly public image is great to have and OnePlus managed to craft one for itself truly masterfully. However, when it actually comes time to mass-produce handsets, the manufacturing realities ruling the parent company BBK Electronics Corporation impose a whole other set of necessities. In this regard, OnePlus, Vivo, Oppo, and even the young Realme are all subject to pretty much the same limitations and constraints that the whole industry abides by. And OnePlus is no longer positioned as the market disruptor it used to be so we can't realistically expect more.
So love it or hate it, the OnePlus 6T design and hardware are a product of the market realities and trends in 2018. It's no longer the brand you turn to for a breath of fresh air and just on the opposite, you get what everyone else is serving.
Luckily, a smartphone is a lot more than the sum of its hardware parts and external shell. The product experience exists on an independent plane of its own. Whether it is software, support or customer service, OnePlus has always put its own twist on things and usually, it's always been to the benefit of the consumer. The OnePlus 6T is no different and there is plenty to love about the experience it provides. Let's have a look inside the box first.
Unboxing
That experience starts with the package and accessories. In a way, the brand itself has added value. Few companies have managed to craft such an appealing signature image as OnePlus. Everything from the "Never Settle" slogan and mission statement it conveys to the recognizable logo design and materials, and the exclusive materials such as sandstone or wood have remained part of the package the consumer is getting. What's more, you can accessorize the OnePlus 6T heavily to the point it even matches your attire on different occasions and OnePlus would love it if you consider them a lifestyle brand for the fashion-conscious.
This approach and the attention to detail have served them well. The retail package of our OnePlus 6T review unit is nothing short of a perfect embodiment of the company's long-standing PR image efforts. It includes things like inspirational quotes and a letter from the CEO. All of them making it abundantly clear that you - the OnePlus community is at the core of the company itself.
Musings aside, the two-piece box itself feels very premium. It's one of the nicest we've seen lately, without actually being too flashy. It is coated with a rubberized soft coating and comes with multiple boxes and trays on the inside, including a thick plastic bed for the phone. Shipping damage should be a non-issue. Plus, every bit and piece inside the box feels really good to the touch. The various leaflets and manuals even carry the signature red color. OnePlus clearly went all out on packaging, but we have to wonder if that money could have been better spent on accessories.
There are no headphones in the box, although, there is, at least a little Type-C to 3.5mm adapter included. On the other hand, we can't really complain too much, since our box came with a thick clear rubber case. Another level of protection you get, out of the box is a precision-cut, pre-applied screen protector. It's not glass, but still looks and feels pretty good.
For charging, you get a familiar while 20W wall DASH charger in the box, along with a red USB Type-A to Type-C cable. The latter is definitely not standard due to the extra pins DASH requires, so hold on to it. Otherwise, you'd be stuck with slower charging speeds. Speaking of which, while 20W is definitely snappy, it is nowhere near the whopping 50W, as found on Oppo's Find X Lamborghini Edition. We know many fans were hoping to see this blazing fast charging make its way to the OnePlus line. But OnePlus is obviously trying their best to keep costs down. So, perhaps, next year.
So let's have a look at the phone itself now.
Design and 360-degree spin
Circling back to the whole BBK Electronics Corporation ownership situation, it's pretty easy to understand the design trends and limitations the lines of Oppo, Realme, Vivo and OnePlus have to work with.
While not necessarily a bad thing, or a new reality, for that matter, it does take away some of the design novelty and create similarity within BBK's various smartphone lineups. That being said, as per expectations, the OnePlus 6T looks very similar to the Oppo R17 and R17 Pro.
Overall, you get the same familiar metal frame, glass sandwich design. It is still the prevalent look of the day. The OnePlus 6T is 2mm taller than its predecessor and about 5% thicker, also a bit heavier. Still, it does include a larger battery and bigger display. Unfortunately, ingress protection is still not on the OnePlus list of features. However, the front protective glass layer has seen a upgrade to the new Gorilla Glass 6 material, compared to Gorilla Glass 5 on the OnePlus 6.
OnePlus 6T glass back
The official specs don't really mention anything about the back glass panel, though, other than a 40-step count for the manufacturing process. We haven't had any durability issues with the review unit so far. Plus, OnePlus has a solid track record in this regard, so it should be a non-issue. We have to admit, we a re a bit bummed-out that the Silk White color option is gone. At least in this initial release, that is.
The OnePlus 6T can currently be had in a reflective Mirror Black or a mat Midnight Black. That might sound kind of boring, but the two actually look very different. Plus, going by track record once again, more colors are bound to pop-up in the future, in special limited editions of the OnePlus 6T or otherwise.
Both back panel variants looks and feel very nice to the touch. The reflective one, naturally, attracting more dirt and grease. It is a bit unfortunate that there is still no wireless charging on OnePlus phone, since it would have been a perfect match for the glass back plate.
Front side
One thing that's clearly missing from the back side of the OnePlus 6T is a fingerprint reader. The 3.5mm audio jack, IP rating and wireless charging might be notable omissions, as already pointed out, but OnePlus decided that the under-display fingerprint reader is a worthwhile feature to jump on this year.
In case this is your first encounter with the tech, it does have certain limitations to overcome. Since the reader is optical by nature and placed a few inches away from the display glass surface, reading requires plenty of light and good transparency (which the OLED panel provides), a good and wide surface area without a lot of motion and a second or two to complete. Hence, for the best result, you need to get the finger placement right on top of the reader, conveniently marked with an on-screen circular animation then press slightly harder, so your finger spreads out more and doesn't move too much.
Sure, this type of readers are still not at the level of speed and accuracy that the conventional readers offer. We're happy to share that the UD fingerprint reader on the OnePlus 6T is definitely leaps ahead of earlier implementations we've seen. It is a lot less picky about the placement of the finger, the strength with which you press down is quite reasonable and the reading accuracy is nearly perfect. The only thing that still needs a bit of work is speed. And even that is no longer that far behind a conventional fingerprint reader and it's perhaps the fastest UD reader we've seen so far (Huawei Mate 20 Pro included).
If you find its limitations hard to swallow at this point, there is always Face Unlock, you can use instead or in parallel. It is just as snappy and accurate as the one on the OnePlus 6.
Enough beating about the notch then, shifting our eyes up a bit from the trendy in-display fingerprint reader, we instantly spot the "teardrop" notch - another 2018 trend. Now, we won't go defending the notch design regardless the shape or size it comes in. However, to OnePlus's (or rather BBK's) credit, the one on the OnePlus 6T is really small. Definitely a lot less intrusive than the one on the OnePlus 6. Well, a hole is still a hole and if you really despise it, you will probably have to hide it from the settings menu and sacrifice a bit of screen real estate.
Teardrop notch
Still, that relatively small area does manage to hold the 16MP selfie camera, along with the full array of traditional sensors, namely a three-in-on ambient/distance/RGB module. Plus, the earpiece is somewhere in that region as well. No notification LED, though. This obviously had to go.
On to controls then. In keeping with tradition, the OnePlus 6T has one extra button, compared to most conventional handsets. And it's definitely better than a dedicated AI assistant button. The three-stage mode selector toggle key has remained one of the OnePlus design staples for yet another year. It is positioned pretty high up on the right-hand side of the device and complete with a textured finish and plenty of customizability on the software side.
Teardrop notch
The only real issue we have with it is the stiffness. Granted, compared to the OnePlus 6 unit we have at the office, the rocker on the OnePlus 6T feels a bit lighter and easier to slide. However, the force required to do so is still a bit too much and it could easily lead to a nasty fall.
Underneath the mode switch there's a standard power button. Nicely defined and wide enough to press comfortably.
Dual SIM tray
On the opposite side - a volume rocker. Also, pretty bog-standard. These provide a nice tactile feedback and feel "clicky" so no complaints at all.
Bottom side
The top of the OnePlus 6T is pretty much empty, with only a small secondary microphone hole in sight. The bottom side has a bit more going on, but with one notable omission - no 3.5mm audio jack. Instead, OnePlus decided to go for a double grill aesthetic. Only one of those actually houses a speaker, while the other is for the main microphone. And that's the only speaker you get on the OnePlus 6T. The earpiece does not pull double duty for a hybrid setup. A potentially missed opportunity, in our book, but also likely a cost-saving measure. The same can be said about the USB Type-C port, namely since it still houses a USB 2.0 data connection. A minor annoyance for most users, for sure, but non the less, it is worth pointing out that the port lacks any additional whistles, like fast data transfer rates or video out. OTG is present, though.
Display
Now, compromising on quality of life extras like ingress protection or stereo speakers is one thing, but an inferior display is something central to a phone's experience, which will definitely drag it down. Thankfully, OnePlus has its priorities straight in this regard. Aside from the questionable notch, the 6.4-inch AMOLED panel on the OnePlus 6T has little faults to speak of.
At 6.41 inches in diagonal, it is definitely a step up in size from its predecessor. Of course, not all of that screen real estate is created equal or universally usable, due to the "skinny" 19.5:9 aspect ratio. For most vertically scrolling UI components, like lists and web pages it works pretty well. Multimedia is a bit of a different story.
Resolution is still set at an ultra-wide FullHD of 2340 x 1080 pixels, in this particular case. This is both a cost-saving measure and potentially a small battery-conserving one. Frankly, at 402 ppi, we still find the picture on screen perfectly sharp.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | ||
| 0 | 660 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 658 | ∞ | |
| 0.002 | 624 | 312000 | |
| 0 | 582 | ∞ | |
| 0.314 | 461 | 1468 | |
| 0 | 458 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 456 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 455 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 453 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 442 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 426 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 420 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 412 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 370 | ∞ | |
It's an excellent panel, even if not one that exactly manages to live up to OnePuls' claims of "one of the brightest in the industry." 453 nits are really good on an OLED. Plus, thanks to the perfect blacks, you get that all-important infinite contrast. Under direct sunlight, the OnePlus 6T does consistently manage to shine a couple of nits brighter, but for all intents and purposes, it lacks a brightness boost mode as other makers do.
Sunlight contrast ratio
Judging by the "Optic OLED" moniker, used by OnePlus, we can only assume the panel comes courtesy of Samsung as their previous screens. The lack of HDR certification hints that it's probably not a top-of-the-line model. Still, it excels when it comes to color accuracy. The OnePlus 6T offers quite a few color profile tweaks.
Screen calibration options
In the default mode most colors tend to get over-saturated a bit. It makes for a punchier AMOLED-y look, but the particular profile does introduce a fair bit of blue tint. If you like looking at a bit brighter colors, you can use the custom color profile slider and just warm the pallet up a bit to your liking. For an even more comfortable everyday experience, the Adaptive mode does a pretty good job of recognizing the ambient light temperature and adjusting the panel accordingly.
For more precise color control, both the DCI-P3 and sRGB profiles test well within what can be considered color-calibrated territory. The latter produced an average deltaE of just 2.4, with a maximum of 5 in cyan.
Rounding off the additional display options, there is a Night Mode, that's simply a fancy name for a blue light filter. It does come with an intensity slider and a scheduler.
Then there is Reading mode, which simply makes the display monochrome. In can be set to auto-trigger on a per-app basis.
Night mode • Reading mode • Ambient display
Ambient display has a few extras hidden under the hood as well. You can set a couple of different triggers for it, like tapping the screen or picking up your phone and there are a few watch style to choose from. There is no always-on mode, as a pre-emptive battery conservation measure.
Battery Life
Looking at a quick specs comparison between the OnePlus 6T and its predecessor, one thing almost instantly sticks out - the 400mAh or so, bump up in battery capacity. The handset now rocks a 3,700mAh pack, which is only natural, considering its bigger display and bigger body, all around.
The OnePlus 6T scored a great 90 hour total endurance rating in our battery test. Looking back at the OnePlus 6 and its endurance rating, the variance in individual on-screen tests, namely web browsing and video playback mostly falls in line well with the increase in battery capacity.
However, it is also clear that OnePlus has been keeping busy with software optimization, as well, since a few mAh of battery aren't nearly enough to explain the massive network standby time improvement we observed on the OnePlus 6T, compared to its predecessor. Whatever network issue OnePlus had, it appears to be all cleared up now. Hopefully, the fix is already available across existing OnePlus 6 devices as well.
Our endurance rating denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the OnePlus 6T for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern, so our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritties. You can also check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
Now, we've already established that you don't get any fancy new ultra-fast charging tech with the OnePlus 6T, a la Oppo's new 50W standard. Still, the trusty old 20W DASH technology is still speedy and efficient and safe in its "divide and conquer" approach to charging two halves of the battery simultaneously. With the included wall charger, the OnePlus 6T managed to get from 0% to 55% in 30 minutes, and a full charge was completed in just over an hour.
Since OnePlus is yet to make the jump to a Type-C to Type-C cable, DASH still relies on a custom Type-A to Type-C USB connector, with extra pins on one side. That means you do need to hold on to your custom cables, but it also means that any DASH accessories you already happen to own are still compatible. Fans will surely appreciate that.
Loudspeaker
The OnePlus 6T only has a single, bottom-firing speaker at its disposal. Still, it gets quite loud and produces clean sound.
| Speakerphone test | Voice, dB | Ringing | Overall score | |
| 66.2 | 70.4 | 78.2 | Good | |
| 70.2 | 74.7 | 70.0 | Good | |
| 68.9 | 74.0 | 76.2 | Very Good | |
| 68.1 | 72.3 | 82.2 | Very Good | |
| 68.5 | 74.3 | 81.1 | Very Good | |
| 71.5 | 75.7 | 78.9 | Very Good | |
| 67.2 | 72.5 | 84.5 | Very Good | |
| 68.0 | 75.3 | 84.0 | Very Good | |
| 71.0 | 75.4 | 82.9 | Excellent | |
| 71.8 | 69.2 | 91.0 | Excellent | |
| 72.8 | 74.7 | 86.6 | Excellent |
Looking at the individual scores, we can see that the new phone ranks lower than the OnePlus 6 in the Music and Voice loudness tests, but scores a lot higher in the high-pitched Old phone ringing test.
This shows that the two phones have differently tuned speakers. The OnePlus 6T does distort high-pitched sounds a bit but less so than the OP6.
Audio quality
The move away from a 3.5mm audio jack has cost the OnePlus 6T a bit regarding loudness - the OnePlus 6 was above average both with an active external amplifier and with headphones, whereas its successor is average and below average respectively.
Yet, when it comes to clarity of the output, the two are virtually indistinguishable. You get perfectly accurate output without headphones and a moderate amount of stereo crosstalk when you plug them in. Some minor intermodulation distortion and frequency response shakiness also appear, but those are impossible to detect without dedicated equipment.
| Test | Frequency response | Noise level | Dynamic range | THD | IMD + Noise | Stereo crosstalk |
| +0.03, -0.05 | -93.4 | 93.3 | 0.0010 | 0.0070 | -93.8 | |
| +0.17, -0.15 | -93.2 | 93.1 | 0.0056 | 0.245 | -61.1 | |
| +0.02, -0.09 | -87.7 | 87.0 | 0.0024 | 0.012 | -87.8 | |
| +0.15, -0.07 | -92.1 | 92.0 | 0.0029 | 0.149 | -82.2 | |
| +0.01, -0.02 | -91.2 | 93.2 | 0.0024 | 0.0080 | -88.7 | |
| +0.38, -0.21 | -93.1 | 92.5 | 0.0049 | 0.233 | -61.7 | |
| +0.01, -0.02 | -91.0 | 93.4 | 0.0026 | 0.0082 | -87.6 | |
| +0.40, -0.20 | -92.9 | 91.2 | 0.0049 | 0.236 | -61.7 | |
| +0.01, -0.03 | -93.7 | 93.7 | 0.0017 | 0.0074 | -94.1 | |
| +0.03, -0.02 | -93.6 | 93.5 | 0.0033 | 0.046 | -93.2 | |
| +0.03, -0.07 | -93.4 | 93.9 | 0.0012 | 0.0063 | -89.3 | |
| +0.01, -0.58 | -92.2 | 93.5 | 0.0088 | 0.330 | -55.7 | |
| +0.02, -0.15 | -94.3 | 94.3 | 0.0021 | 0.0069 | -94.3 | |
| +0.18, -0.13 | -93.7 | 93.6 | 0.0024 | 0.104 | -52.7 |
OnePlus 6T frequency response
You can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.
Oxygen OS with a slice of Pie
OnePlus has a solid track record of delivering and maintaining a clean, snappy and near-stock Android experience. The Oxygen OS ROM running on the OnePlus 6T is the latest iteration and a perfect embodiment of that mentality.
The ROM manages to maintain a near-stock appearance, with minimal clutter, while still including a few usable extras and quality of life additions. Another crucial part of the OxygenOS formula is a tight update schedule. OnePlus has been delivering quite well in this department, which is why the OnePlus 6T ships with Android 9 Pie out of the box. Plus, older OnePlus devices have already gotten a taste of the latest Google core as well, so there are few real software novelties to speak of on the OnePlus 6T. And anything that is still exclusively found on it will surely be making its way to other parts of the company's lineup shortly.
Ambient display
After a bit of battery endurance controversy on the OnePlus 6, the true Always-On display feature is gone. Still, there is an Ambient display that can be set to automatically pop up when you tap the screen or pick up the phone. It's the usual mostly monochrome affair, complete with a customizable clock widget, optional display message, and notifications. Of course, there is the immediately noticeable round icon guide for the in-display fingerprint reader.
Fingerprint settings
Since we are on the topic of security and the fingerprint reader already, it's worth mentioning that it does come with a few customization options to play around with. The new fingerprint enrolment process is pretty similar to what you would do for a standard reader, only the wizard is a bit more thorough. It definitely takes a minute or so to register a finger, since the OS is adamant about recording as much of the surface area as possible, prompting you to shift your finger around on its edges.
In our mind, the extra time spend in setup compared to something like a recent Samsung Galaxy device is definitely worth it, considering how accurate and speedy the UD reader tech has become in just a few short months since we saw its first implementation on a phone. As far as customization goes, you get three distinct and very well made animations to choose from that play out while the reader is engaged and sort of mask the bright green spot of light that shines on your thumb while it is working.
Face unlock
Of course, you can always opt out of the futuristic fingerprint reading tech, if it's not your cup of tea or even choose to simply accompany it with a Face Unlock. It is both incredibly fast and reliable on the OnePlus 6T. The only times we saw it struggle was in very dim environments.
If you're one to enjoy gestures, the 6 has them. While the screen is still off you can draw letters or symbols on the screen to do stuff. For instance, draw < or > for previous/next track, || (two-finger swipe) to pause, or assign an app to the letters O, V, S, M, and W. Beyond that, there is also flip to mute and a three-finger swipe down gesture to capture a screenshot. Double tap to wake and send back to standby are also present.
Gesture navigation options
Gesture navigation isn't exactly new to the OnePlus family. OnePlus has its own iPhone X-inspired scheme set up that came optional on the OnePlus 6 and was also introduced on the OnePlus 5T via update. Swipe up from the bottom center to go to the homescreen, swipe and hold for recent tasks, or swipe up from either side to go back. Of course, if you're not for of this way of getting around the UI, you can go back to the good old navigation bar and its buttons.
New to the Android Pie version of Oxygen OS is Google's own new navigation scheme. It sort of sits in-between the OnePlus all gesture approach and conventional buttons, since it does have a back button and a central control knob, of sorts. Tapping on it takes you to the home screen. Long pressing it triggers the Google Assistant. The "menu button" or task switcher/recent apps button is gone. To replace that you swipe up from the navigation area, or even slightly above it to bring up the revamped recent apps interface. A second swipe up, or alternatively, one longer/wider swipe, to begin with, takes you to the app drawer. It definitely takes some getting used to.
Buttons and gestures
And speaking of gestures and navigation schemes, we definitely can't overlook the signature OnePlus alert slider. It still toggles between Ring, Vibration and Silent modes, like always, but there are also a few minute tweaks that can be made to some of these modes.
Lock screen • Home screen • App drawer • Folder • Launcher settings
As far as aesthetics go, the OnePlus launcher comes pretty close to stock, with only a few minor additions. There is the Shelf, which is in place of your leftmost homescreen and is quite similar to the Google Assistant feed. It shows the weather, your most used apps, and frequent contacts. You can also add widgets and change the header image.
OnePlus Shelf
While there is no full-featured Theme support in Oxygen OS, there are quite a few customization options, scattered throughout the various settings menus. You can still choose between a predominantly white or dark UI, the latter, of course, makes a lot more sense on an AMOLED panel.
Theme • Notch options • Font • Accent Color
OnePlus offers a couple of options for system Fonts, as well as Icon Pack support, with various shapes and dyes. Speaking of colors, there is also the option to select a custom Accent color. This is the secondary color that gets dissipated all throughout the UI and can really make a noticeable difference to the appearance of the device.
One spot the different color accent instantly shines through is the notification shade and especially the quick toggles area. The notification shade can be lowered with a single swipe from anywhere in the UI (that's a setting though, and it's off by default) and an additional swipe will reveal the entire list of quick toggles. You can also use two fingers to bring down the whole thing in a single motion. The brightness slider is complemented by an Auto switch, something Google keeps refusing to build into stock Android. You can also handpick the icons that show up in the status bar.
Notification shade • Expanded view • Recent apps • Multi-window
OnePlus stuck to the rolodex style recent app switcher for quite some time, but now Oxygen OS finally decided to go stock and adopt the Android Pie horizontally scrolling view, with its huge interactive windows. There's the option for split-screen multi-window, naturally, accessible via the three menu dots in the app windows corner.
Digging down further in the Oxygen OS menu structure, we find a few more interesting additional features. Apparently, OnePlus adopted the smart Adaptive Battery management layer from Android Pie as well. It definitely can't hurt to have it work alongside the company's other Battery optimization.
Battery optimization • Adaptive Battery
Speaking of Android Pie additions, we were hoping to see the rest of Google's wellness center implemented as well, complete with options like Wind-down and app timers. These are absent from Oxygen OS at the time of writing this review, but our guess is OnePlus will waste no time in implementing them.
Oxygen OS also has a Utilities menu, entirely dedicated to some of its additional features. Gaming mode doesn't actually boost performance or anything similar, but can offer a distraction-free experience, better control over notifications, calls and brightness, as well as a priority network mode that won't let other apps steal vital bandwidth away from your games.
Utilities • Gaming Mode • OnePlus Switch • OnePlus Laboratory • Smart Boost
OnePlus Switch is a phone migration utility, likely familiar to OnePlus fans an users. However, in its latest version, it comes with the additional promise of app data migration. From our limited testing, it appears to work well enough, but there's little it can do for certain misbehaving apps that don't want to or haven't correctly exposed their data.
Last, but not least, there is Smart Boost, which we already mentioned in the performance section of the review. It currently resides in the OnePlus Laboratory section, which does speak of its beta nature, but is non the less, turned on by default. Again, we can't really test how well it speeds up cold app start-up times, but it can't really hurt to just leave it on. Especially if you get the 8GB RAM OnePlus 6T tier.
Performance
The OnePlus 6T finds itself in a rather weird place as far as internals go. It is based around the still current Snapdragon 845 flagship, but the chip came out fairly early this year. On the one hand, that potentially places it pretty late in its deprecation cycle. Well, not literally, of course, since a flagship chipset remains relevant for at least a few years. But, you still get our point.
On the other hand, and this is the weirder part, the original OnePlus 6 is also based on the same 10nm, Snapdragon 845 silicon. RAM tiers are pretty much unchanged as well, set at 6GB for the entry-level and 8GB for the upper tier. Storage has seen some changes, namely that the base storage variant is now 128GB, not 64GB. Now, the official specs do mention some storage specifics, namely that the UFS 2.1 chips use 2 lanes. What that boils down to is potentially quicker storage speeds, which could affect performance to some degree. We ran a quick benchmark to see just how much of a variance we are looking at, and while the OnePlus 6T has consistently quicker speeds, the difference is not really significant.
Storage speed: OnePlus 6T • OnePlus 6
Other than that, we expect the 8GB, 128GB OnePlus 6T review unit to perform practically identical to our 6GB, 128GB OnePlus 6 in synthetic benchmarks. Both also run OnePlus' signature near-stock build of Android Pie. So, any variance should come from extra RAM alone. And the numbers line up perfectly.
GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)
Higher is better
GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)
Higher is better
Looking at the pure-CPU test first, we see the 4x2.8 GHz Kryo 385 Gold, plus 4x1.7 GHz Kryo 385 Silver cores inside the Snapdragon 845 perform as expected. We had no issues with thermal management during stress tests either. The OnePlus 6T remains lukewarm to the touch under load.
Basemark OS 2.0
Higher is better
Basemark ranks the pair of OnePlus devices even closer together. Also, quite noticeable ahead of the Snapdragon 845 pack, due to software optimization alone.
AnTuTu 7
Higher is better
Moving on to AnTuTu and its more compound performance assessment, we can clearly see it's taking notice of the extra 2GB of RAM, compared to the OnePlus 6. Looking at the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and the Xiaomi Pocophone F1, both also equipped with 8GB of system memory, we can see the benefits of OnePlus' near-stock, lean and well-optimized Android OS at work.
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
On-screen rendering is where the screen resolution starts to play a major role. The Adreno 630 feels more comfortable rendering at the FullHD+ scale of the OnePlus 6T than the QHD+ on something like the Sony Xperia XZ3.
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
That being said, it is clear that even the 60 extra rows of 1080 pixels each, that the 19.9:9 OnePlus 6T sports over its predecessor do make a noticeable difference when rendering the same thing in true full-screen. Of course, if you run into any performance trouble or simply can't tolerate the notch digging into your content, there's always the option to hide the notch for certain apps and games.
Basemark X
Higher is better
Basemark X typically offers a more accurate and comparable representation of overall graphical fidelity, and we can see the OnePlus 6T neck to neck with its predecessor.
So, hardware-wise, it should come as no surprise that the OnePlus 6T is just a potent and capable of a flagship as its predecessor. Perhaps the latter might just have a slight edge in some on-screen rendering scenarios if you really insist on using the entire screen to game. However, marketing materials for the OnePlus 6T do mention a rather interesting Smart Boost technology, which we couldn't find any mention of on previous OnePlus phones.
As per its description, it merely takes frequently used apps and stores some of their initialization data in the RAM. This, in turn, enables the promise of 5% to 20% faster cold starts on said apps. Unfortunately, this is really hard to test. Plus, any meaningful data we do acquire could be skewed in the UFS 2.1 storage chips on the new OnePlus 6T do turn out to use one extra data lane for quicker read and write speeds.
So, let's just put it this way:
One may be nearly useless, but the other is great
OnePlus, along with sister company Oppo, has been pushing a particular camera setup for a few generations of devices, one we didn't feel was entirely justified from the get go and that's not changed with the OnePlus 6T. Starting with the OP5T, the secondary cam on the back got the same focal length lens as the main one, replacing the slightly longer (and similarly slightly more useful) module of the OP5. Effectively that means two cameras with the same FOV but different sensors.
The hardware goes like this. You have the primary cam with a 1/2.6" Sony IMX519 sensor that packs some 16 million 1.22µm pixels. The lens has a 25mm equivalent focal length and an f/1.7 aperture, and is stabilized. The secondary one relies on the 1/2.8" Sony IMX376K imager placed behind a similarly specced f/1.7 25mm-equivalent lens.
There are no major changes to the camera app compared to the previous generation, which was in turn an evolution of the one found on the 5T. The app defaults to the stills viewfinder, but a swipe to the right (or up in landscape) will bring up one for video, while a swipe to the left (or, obviously, down) evokes the Portrait mode. Another swipe in the latter direction will then take you to the Night mode - this one's new.
In the stills viewfinder you also have quick toggles for flash mode, self-timer, and aspect ratio. The HDR toggle is gone from plain sight and is now in settings. As before, there's still a 1x/2x button despite the lack of an actual telephoto camera.
Accessing other modes is done by tapping on the tiny arrow next to the 1x/2x button. That'll get you access to Panorama, Pro mode, Slow motion, and Timelapse. It's only on this mode selector screen that you can see the settings cog wheel - if you have no prior experience with OP phones, you'd be scratching your head trying to find the settings the first few tries.
The Pro mode allows manual tweaking of shooting parameters, including ISO (100-3200), white balance (by light temperature), shutter speed (1/8000s to 30s), focus, and exposure compensation (-2/+2EV in third-stop and half-stop increments). You can save 2 sets of custom parameters too, if you happen to do the same thing over and over again. A live histogram is also provided (quite a rare feature) and RAW capture is available too.
Camera interface: Viewfinder • Aspect settings (up top) • Portrait mode • Other modes • Pro mode
Image quality
Daylight images from the OnePlus 6T come very likable, which isn't remotely a surprise given the identical hardware to the OP6, whose shots we really enjoyed. We're particular fans of the wide dynamic range in the default AutoHDR state. Detail is good too, though we've seen better per-pixel results. And while you're zoomed in to 1:1, you'd spot some noise too, even at base ISO, but it's not as much or as obtrusive as to be an issue.
Camera samples
Colors are a subjective area, but we still feel like OnePlus has got them just right. It renders the Fall scenes very pleasantly and manages to convey the vibe nicely. We observed a significant difference between the OP6T and OP6 in some scenes (the dreamy sunrise shots of the trees), and we're strongly leaning towards the 6T's version. The OP6's rendition is more muted - more so than even the generally color-conservative iPhone, whose shots we've included for comparison. That said, images taken at midday didn't really differ all that much between the two OnePlus phones - is it some sort of a sunrise scene optimizer on the OP6T?
Camera samples: OP6T • OP6 • iPhone XS Max
There's a 1x/2x button so figured we'd test what the OP6T, fully aware that it doesn't have the camera to properly do the 2x part. Predictably, the results aren't amazing and it's nothing you can't achieve by cropping the 1x shot, upsampling and sharpening a bit.
Camera samples: 2x zoom
In low light, the OnePlus 6T takes very good, if not class-leading photos. Color saturation is very well preserved, detail is good and noise reduction is well handled.
Low-light samples, Photo mode
There's a newly added night mode, which attempts to do something along the lines of the pseudo long exposures we saw introduced on the Huawei P20. It's nowhere nearly as good, however, and in handheld shooting often produces less sharp results than the regular photo mode.
Low-light samples, Night mode
It behaves quite differently when the phone detects it's being well supported - like on a tripod. The pseudo long exposures get actually longer, to the tune of 30s per shot as opposed to the ~3s when hand-held. You can expect overall superior images that way, though it raises the question of whether the newly added Night mode is of any use if you have a tripod anyway.
OP6T, low light: Tripod, Photo mode • Tripod, Night Mode • Handheld, Photo mode • Handheld, Night Mode
For thoroughness' sake we took a bunch of zoomed in shots as well. You could call them usable in a pinch, though again you could achieve the same results from post-processing the wide-angle images. In all fairness, in low light, even phones with actual telephoto cameras don't actually use their telephoto cameras for 2x zooming, so the end results are comparable.
Low-light samples, 2x zoom
If not for zooming in, then at least the second camera can be used for depth detection in portrait mode. As with all implementations that rely on a 25mm-ish camera for portraits, taking headshots with the OnePlus 6T means going very close to your subject, and people generally aren't thrilled to have cameras stuck in their faces. On the other hand, you can do self-portraits with the rear camera at arm's length distance and still comfortably fit your mug in the frame unlike with tighter telephoto-based setups.
The OP6T does a great job with subject separation, and background blur looks pretty convincing.
Portrait samples
It works similarly well on non-human subjects too, even if they happen to be doggos.
Portrait samples, non-human subjects
Don't forget to check out how the OnePlus 6T fares against the competition in our Photo compare tool. We've picked OnePlus' own 6 and the Samsung Galaxy S9+ to get you started, but it's a pretty rich database of tested phones to choose from.
OnePlus 6T against the OnePlus 6 and the Galaxy S9+ in our Photo compare tool
16MP selfies too
The OnePlus 6T has a 16MP camera on the front too, just like the OnePlus 6. It's mated to an f/2.0 aperture lens, which the EXIF says has a 20mm equivalent focal length. It really doesn't. It's more like a 25mm (which is what the OP6 used to report back in the day, only now the old model says 20mm too - just OP things?).
EXIF musings aside, the OP6T takes some impressively detailed selfies under the right light. However, if the HDR mode kicks in it robs images of absolute sharpness, and it does tend to kick in a lot. There's also a particular tendency to render dark areas straight up black, like this guy's hair.
Selfie samples
Portrait mode is available on the front as well despite the lack of a secondary cam. The haloing we observed around OP6 selfie portraits is present here too, but other than that the algorithms work very well.
Selfie samples, portrait mode
Video quality
Not much has changed in the video department compared to the OP6. The OP6T can still record video in both 2160p and 1080p at either 60fps or 30fps, plus a 720p mode if you particularly hate the subject matter. 720p is also the resolution where you can have 480fps slow-mo capture.
Bit rates are also unchanged and 4K60 footage clocks in at a whopping 121Mbps, 4K30 gets 42Mbps, while 1080p is allocated 40Mbps and 20Mbps for 60fps and 30fps respectively. Audio is recorded in stereo at 156kbps in all modes.
As before, stabilization is available in the 30fps modes and cannot be switched off. On top of the expected crop that it introduces, it also has a detrimental effect on absolute detail and effectively 60fps footage is sharper and crisper. Wouldn't it have been nice if there were a toggle to turn it off if you knew you'd have proper support for the phone? Or, you know, have processing algorithms that don't ruin video quality for the sake of stabilization?
Anyway, the stabilization works quite well ironing out handshake or the motion produced when walking. It's less impressive when panning, with somewhat abrupt transitions at the start and finish.
2160p capture is nice and detailed in both frame rates, though as we said, the 60fps has an edge in sharpness. Dynamic range is nice and wide and we're also liking the color reproduction.
Dynamic range and colors are similarly great in 1080p, and the difference in crispiness is again present - the 60fps mode is the sharper one.
For those of you who want to pixel peep on your own computers, we've uploaded short samples straight out of the phone (2160/60fps, 2160p/30fps, 1080p/60fps, 1080p/30fps).
Another kind of pixel peeping can take place inside our Video compare tool. We've pre-selected the OnePlus 6 and the Samsung Galaxy S9+, but feel free to play around with other phones we've tested.
OnePlus 6T against the OnePlus 6 and the Galaxy S9+ in our 4K Video compare tool
Competition
Back in the early days of OnePlus, when lofty "flagship killer" slogans were thrown around, our task of recommending the unknown, mysterious challenger out of China was a lot easier. Regardless whether you are a fan of OnePlus and its products today, it's hard to deny the company's vision and its role in smartphone history as one of the few companies attempting to disrupt the flagship smartphone scene.
OnePlus 6 (left) vs OnePlus 6T (right)
Fast forward to 2018 and the mobile scene is vastly different. OnePlus is no longer operating on a startup scale with nearly as aggressive pricing and powerful challengers, like Xiaomi are quickly saturating pretty much every smartphone niche and price bracket with hard to beat value offers. The Xiaomi Mi 8 is a perfect example of a flagship on a budget. A big AMOLED panel and flagship chipset are both accounted for. The Mi 8 also throws in an arguably better dual camera setup in the mix.
OnePlus 6 (left) vs OnePlus 6T (right)
If you want to take cost-savings to the extreme, 2018 gave birth to a few really unique offers - flagships on a budget pretty much rivaling the original OnePlus One, like the Xiaomi PocoPhone F1. Mind you, with a smaller LCD display, plastic shell, a rather basic camera setup, and pretty poorly-received OS skin, there are more than a few drawbacks to consider carefully going down this route.
Xiaomi Mi 8 • Google Pixel 2 XL • Samsung Galaxy S9+ • Huawei P20 Pro
Speaking of software, it's another major reason to put after the OnePlus 6T. If you find yourself in that boat, hunting a clear Android experience, then there's every reason to consider the Pixel 2 XL. Sure, it's no longer the current Google flagship and you will be getting older hardware. Still, you can pretty much count on a smooth experience, even on the older silicon and there is plenty of praise to give to Google's camera.
Take price out of the equation or factor in carrier subsidies where OnePlus' game is non-existent, or even explore some alternative retail channels and the nice depreciated pricing on certain models and things get tough for the OnePlus 6T. The Galaxy S9+, for example, has a proper IP68 rating, a microSD slot, and a real telephoto camera. That, plus a sharper display and longer battery life. Want to go even bigger? Through the magic of the open market, in most European markets, the Galaxy Note8 is actually quite similarly priced to the Galaxy S9+.
Over at camp Huawei, the P20 Pro stands out as a great alternative. The Kirin 970 isn't quite on par with the Snapdragon 845, but the trio of Huawei camera area a force to be reckoned with. Plus, you get a few other quality-of-life bonuses as well, like IP67 rating, stereo speakers and even an IR blaster.
Verdict
Like we already mentioned, the heyday of OnePlus as the underdog disrupting the market and growing big on viral marketing seems to be officially over now. Frankly, this comes as no surprise, since the earlier model was inherently unsustainable and we have been observing the slow transition to a more mature market presence for a few generations now. It took the arrival of the OnePlus 6T, however, to officially finalize the transition in our mind.
Pros
- The value proposition is still great
- Bigger, brighter and overall better display than the OnePlus 6, with a smaller notch
- Bigger battery than OnePlus 6, with still snappy 20W DASH charging
- Bigger base storage than the OnePlus 6 (128GB)
- Finally usable in-display fingerprint reader - quicker and more accurate than ever.
- Oxygen OS has a stock look, but offers more features, and is blazing fast. Some Android Pie features have already started popping up in Oxygen OS and first on the OnePlus 6T
- The camera has seen a few software improvements over the same hardware setup in the OnePlus 6. All of these improvements, like Night mode, will spread to other OnePlus devices as well.
Cons
- A proper telephoto/ultra-wide camera would be more useful
- Still no official IP rating, no stereo speakers
- No microSD slot, no wireless charging, no headset in the box, proprietary charging peripherals
The OnePlus 6T is clearly not a radically different device compared to the OnePlus 6. One could make the argument that the latter didn't really pose a significant upgrade over the OnePlus 5T either. OnePlus's product strategy has never really been aimed at forcing its users to upgrade hardware frequently. The extended software support cycle is a clear indication of just the opposite. The core idea has always been to present a viable alternative to the Huaweis and Samsung Galaxy phones of the day.
In this respect the OnePlus 6T is frankly an equally attractive option as its predecessor. True, nothing major has changed: the chipset is the same, and so are the cameras. Still, for anyone looking for a flagship alternative to the mainstream option today, the OnePlus 6T is a no-brainer over its predecessor. Well, if you don't care too deeply about the 3.5mm audio jack, that is. The excellent, bigger and less notched display, the bigger battery, the now surprisingly reliable and usable in-display fingerprint reader all sweeten the deal.
You're still not getting an ingress resistance rating, wireless charging or stereo speakers, to name a few things, but oddly enough, that's perfectly okay, in the same way, it was okay with the OnePlus 6 and the 5T before it.
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