The year 2019 has been a blockbuster year for smartphones, we have seen so many flagship devices this year all trying to achieve a bezel-less design with minimal sacrifices. When it comes to flagship devices from OnePlus, they have been aiming at 2 smartphones-a-year strategy where the latter being an improved ‘T’ version of the former. The latter upgraded ‘T’ version offers a much refined modern design inheriting components from other flagship devices that are launched throughout the year.
The OnePlus 6 was already a near-perfect device for its price and the OnePlus 6T evolved to offer a smaller water drop notch and a quite few hardware refinements. The day we got our hands on the OnePlus 6T we were immediately impressed with the minimal waterdrop notch and we had started to get a feeling “Is it the Smartphone of the Year 2018?”. We are already slightly biased towards OnePlus devices and our love for OnePlus devices shouldn’t be a reason to straightaway declare it a clear winner, so we tested out the device for a couple of weeks comparing it with other flagship smartphones that are announced this year. So, here is everything that we love about the OnePlus 6T and in a way the following are out arguments in testimony to support out statement.
Maxed out Hardware
OnePlus has always been able to deploy the most powerful available Snapdragon chipset available in the market. And OnePlus 6T is no exception, with Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset at the heart of the OnePlus 6T is an undeniable powerhouse. And this isn’t on account of laziness: the Snapdragon 845 processor that powers both the OnePlus 6 and 6T is still super quick and as good as it gets until early 2019 when the 855 comes out. We also get a big boost to the battery: it’s up 400mAh from the OnePlus 6, meaning a capacity of 3,700mAh. The majority of the rest of this phone’s configuration and even the camera array is indeed identical as well.
Magnificent Evolution of Notch
The OnePlus 6 ushered in a new design direction for the company and its DNA runs strong within the 6T. Thanks to a slightly larger display, this phone’s footprint is fractionally bigger and it is a touch heavier but beyond that, changes appear slight. The OnePlus 6 was our first experience at the NotchLand from the company, with the 6T, the notch is less-intrusive and far more aesthetically pleasing. A waterdrop notch is a more practical design with the notch area been shrunken to minimal possible width.
Magical Screen Unlock
OnePlus isn’t the first OEM to put an in-screen fingerprint sensor on a device, Oppo and Vivo had already launched their 1st and 2nd generation devices. And we were highly impressed by Vivo Nex’s in-screen fingerprint sensor until we experienced the one on the OnePlus 6T. The 6T’s display lights up to detect the fingerprint as this is an optical scanner. Simply press lightly on the indicator and the phone will snap open to the home screen. This happens almost instantly — in 0.34 seconds, OnePlus says (We didn’t check the exact unlock time, but it is definitely fast)
More Power to Camera ft. Night Scape
The cameras on the 6T are physically the exact same hardware as found on the OnePlus 6: a 16Mp f/1.7 main sensor with optical image stabilization paired with a secondary 20Mp f/1.7 telephoto lens. Although the hardware is the same as before, OnePlus has added some subtle software smarts such as a night mode that clearly boosts low light. In daylight the cameras cope very well with good contrast and colour balance.
The night photography on OnePlus devices has not always been great, and with Google launching a dedicated Night mode in their camera app, OnePlus though of implementing the similar feature their camera app in the form of Night Scape. Switch it into Night Mode (Might Scape) or just shoot a shot in low light and you’ll be impressed with how much light it can draw in.
Pie-Pie All the Way
OnePlus’ OxygenOS skin over Android 9 Pie is very accomplished and probably our favorite Android version along with Google’s on the Pixel 3. The Oxygen OS is hands down the fastest skin on any Android device and with the Pie update which comes pre-installed on the OnePlus 6T makes it one of the few devices in the market running on Android 9.0 Pie. And added with monthly security patches, new feature implementations and at least 2 years of major Android updates, there is nothing more you can ask for.
Apart from these, there are a lot of customizations possible and there is even a dark mode in the display setting that makes all system apps and UI pitch dark for AMOLED displays. Additions like granular controls for gaming mode that stops notifications and locks brightness are the sort of thoughtful changes to Android that we approve of – there if you need them, but completely out of the way and silent if you don’t.
The Final Judgement- Is it the Best or Not?
Apart from all the above mentioned arguments claiming to make the OnePlus 6T the smartphone of the Year 2018, there are quite a few compromises that were made in the OnePlus 6T. It’s the first OnePlus phone without a headphone jack, and as usual, there is no expandable storage, no Wireless charging, which don’t seem essential and workarounds can be implemented to resolve these shortcomings.
Compared to the rest of the market the cheapest model is still very competitive and this is a no-brainer purchase if you are looking to buy outright. Performance is as fast and the OnePlus 6T offers a complete package for its price and its the best experience of Android that can match to snappiness of an iOS device.
OnePlus 6T price and availability
The OnePlus 6T is available in two color variants – Midnight Black and Mirror Black. The device is already available for sale at Amazon.in and OnePlus store along with being available in Reliance Digital and Croma stores across India.
The 6GB RAM/128GB storage variant is priced at INR 37,999, 8/128 variant for INR 41,999 and the high-end 8/256 for INR 45,999.
