OnePlus 6T Review

The OnePlus 6T sports a bold look and resembles its predecessor OnePlus 6.

Last month, OnePlus completed four years in the Indian smartphone market. The company had announced its first smartphone OnePlus One in April, 2014 but it was in December that the device was made available in India. I still remember comparing OnePlus 2 with Moto X Play in August 2015 and giving Motorola an edge over the newcomer OnePlus because the Chinese firm was yet to settle down in India. Now four years afterwards, OnePlus is not only challenging the likes of Samsung and others in the premium smartphones segment but actually gained an upper hand in this range. Riding on the success of OnePlus 6, the company has launched its successor OnePlus 6T in October, which seems to conquer the premium segment yet again for the OnePlus. The USP of OnePlus is that it provides all the updated and recent features within a reasonable price range and it has done the same in OnePlus 6T. DESIGN The OnePlus 6T sports a bold look and resembles its predecessor OnePlus 6. Hold it up and you’ll appreciate the phone’s symmetrical construction that will make you fall in love with the device. The phone sports a huge 6.41-inch screen with a tiny notch sporting the selfie camera. In terms of dimensions and weight, the OnePlus 6T measures in at 157.5x74.8x8.2mm and weighs 185 grams. The smartphone is slightly heavier and fractionally thicker than the OnePlus 6, which measures in at 155.7 x 75.4 x 7.75 mm and weighs 177 grams. Its sleek body design makes OnePlus 6T very easy to hold and operate easily. The waterdrop notch is one obvious change compared to OnePlus 6. The second and the most startling change is when you flip the phone over. Unlike on the OnePlus 6, there's no fingerprint sensor just below the dual cameras. OnePlus has ‘buried’ the fingerprint sensor in the display itself. The body is built with glass and has an aluminum frame accords to the phone a premium look. However, the glass at is a bit reflective and serves as a magnet for smudges. You will have to take extra care of the smartphone in everyday use. Though, it’s a kind of phone you would never want to cover with a case. For protection, OnePlus has even bunged four covers in the box. DISPLAY The 6.41-inch FHD+ (2340x1080) optic AMOLED display the OnePlus 6T sports is also the biggest screen on any OnePlus phone ever. But this phone doesn’t feel bulky in hands while holding due to the 85.6 percent screen-to-body-ratio. The new OnePlus 6T has opted for 19:5:9 giving the display a complete full view display and wide viewing angles. The screen resolution of 6T is of 1080x2340 pixels and 402ppi density. The Full HD+ resolution keeps everything crisp, so movie lovers and gamers will be in hog’s heaven. The screen is vibrant, sharp, has great viewing angles and a good amount of brightness to use under direct sunlight. Access the display settings and you can configure the screen to just your liking. OnePlus offers options to switch between night mode and reading mode. You can also change screen calibration which includes sRGB and DCI-P3 for colour accuracy and set the colour temperature of the display. The OnePlus 6T revives the idea of an in-screen fingerprint scanner. For first-time users, it is quite fascinating. Pick up the phone and the fingerprint icon lights up on the dark display. Touch it, and it responds with an animation. Just stick your finger on the highlighted spot and you’ll dive straight into your home screen. OnePlus claims that this is the fastest in-display sensor in the world, which unlocks the phone in just 0.34 seconds. In our review, we found the unlocking speed to be consistent. The new OnePlus 6T has upgraded the screen protection as well with the new Gorilla Glass 6. PROCESSOR In terms of software, OnePlus 6T comes with the latest oxygen OS which is Android 9.0 Pie. Clubbed with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, and RAM options of 6GB and 8GB RAM, OnePlus 6T is blazing fast.  The latest Oxygen OS lets you make the most out of stock Android and offers exciting features which you can explore by going to settings to initiate them. The 8 GB RAM enables you to perform any task or play any game be it of high graphics without the worry of phone letting you down in mid of any task. In our review, the smartphone offers a commendable and lag free performance. We didn't notice any lag even while playing heavy graphics consuming games like PUBG, TEKKEN, NFS etc with multiple apps running in the background. The smartphone delivers on everyday tasks and even when pushed to its limits. Apps pop up the moment you tap their icons, and you won’t witness any stutter at any time. The internal storage of the phone is of 128GB which is more than sufficient to store anything on a phone. CAMERA The massive price drop on Google Pixel 2XL has recently posed a major challenge to all smartphones in the premium segment but the OnePlus 6T still reins at the top. In the camera department, the OnePlus 6T showcased its brilliance as it takes a solid point-and-shoot picture with a decent amount of detail in almost every condition. The OnePlus 6T sports the exact same camera setup as its predecessor and comes equipped with two cameras at the back comprising 16MP and a 20MP shooters. The aperture of both the sensors is of f/1.7. The cameras come equipped with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS), which ensure stable images eve when you’re on a fast moving vehicle. The OnePlus 6T performs admirably in outdoor daylight settings, with sharp captures and natural color rendering, and to boost colours and clarity of images shot during night, the smartphone offers a new shooting mode called Nightscape. The new Nightscape is perfect for capturing low-light urban environments with improved clarity, less noise, more accurate color reproduction and better dynamic range. As in OnePlus 6, you will see loads of detail packed into every shot, complete with realistic colour reproduction in the new 6T. HDR is also handled expertly. Portrait mode of the OnePlus 6T delivers good results and can pull off some impressive shots, both indoors and out. There are several other shooting options available, including AI scene detection, Portrait mode, HDR, and Studio Lighting. The 16MP selfie shooter with f/2.0 aperture holds the power to surprise you with its accuracy as it clicks some of the most detailed selfies under ideal lighting conditions. The OnePlus 6T rear cameras can capture 4K video footage at 60 frames per second, and Super Slow Motion at 1080p and 240fps / 720p and 480fps. Google Lens is also included as standard in the user interface. In our review the smartphone gets the job done most of the times and is able to bring up the details and shadow and preserve the color information. Images appear sharp even after zooming in and the skin tone and colors remain accurate. There's plenty of depth in the images as well. The OnePlus 6T, overall, is an excellent shooter. It may not be able to take on the Pixel 3 or Note 9 in the camera department but if you consider its pricing, the OnePlust 6T is the best in the business. BATTERY The OnePlus 6T is packed with impressive battery of 3,700mAh which will get you through a full day of web browsing, social media, streaming music and taking photos. In our review, we found that a full day of quite intensive use was no problem whatsoever. Also, Dash Charge is absolutely stunning and powers the cell from 0 to 25 percent after 15 minutes of charging. VERDICT The OnePlus 6T is our favorite smartphone of 2018. It is incredibly fast with fluidic performance, offers good cameras and has an excellent battery life. Also, it sports the in-screen fingerprint sensor, which hardly any other phones can match. With an impressive price tag of Rs. 37,999, it would be the first phone that would spring to our mind if asked about top smartphones in the premium segment.