In a world where top smartphones start from at least $750 reaching exorbitant prices of over $1000 for more storage and better cameras, comes the OnePlus 6T featuring 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage for just under $600 ($580 to be more precise) and does all the things that other more expensive smartphones are doing.
OnePlus phones started to be available to buy since early 2014, with their OnePlus One launch aiming since then to change the way the flagship phones market is seen. It wasn’t very well received though especially in the US due to carriers mainly as they would not have the OnePlus phones on their offer. But since their launch, OnePlus gained a small but significant fan base spreading awareness and right now you can find them in T-Mobile’s offers both in physical stores and website.
The OnePlus 6T runs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chip, the same chip as other 2018 Android flagships feature which start from $750 like the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus, LG G7 or Google Pixel 3XL, meaning that the OnePlus 6T can runs all the top Androing phones just as well as the other phones if not even better due to it’s lighter interface and more RAM.
Despite being a $580 phone the design is not compromised. The phone features a sleek metal and glass design that looks just great. The back glass has a frosted matte finish, looking and feeling superior than smooth glass (preferred by other manufactures). The front surface has bezels around the display that are narrower than other smartphone. Even the notch’s water-drop design is small and unobtrusive.
The novelty for the OnePlus 6T is the fingerprint sensor. The sensor is located on the front of the phone but this time is hidden inside the display and it works very well despite the fact it is a first generation effort for adding a fingerprint sensor in-display. There are some issues with this sensor when the phone is in direct sun-light (but this is just the way in-display sensors work, it is not about their implementation) but OnePlus has a backup system implemented and can switch automatically if the fingerprint is not recognized to the blazing fast face recognition unlock without any issue what so ever.
The screen of the OnePlus 6T is one of the biggest screens on any smartphone to this date. It features a 6.4 inch display making on par or larger than the bigger models of other smartphones in the market and those phones tend to cost more than the standard screen size models.
Camera wise (16+20 MP dual camera), it is just as good as most smartphones but with fewer features. Until now the only phone that can beat all other phones in this department is the Google Pixel 3 that has an excellent camera implementation and that is the end of it.
The missing features that would just have been awesome to see would have been an optical zoom lens for better close-up shots like on the Galaxy S9 Plus, or an ultra-wide angle lens like on the LG G7. The OnePlus 6T does have a second lens though, but it is sole purpose is to eliminate the blurry background effect for portrait mode shots, which is a shame. The front camera does not come with any features as well but it takes selfies just as well as the other flagship phones.
There are some other features that are missing from the OnePlus 6T like: no wireless charging, no stereo speakers, a 1080p resolution versus the more popular and superior 1440p and no official water resistance rating.
Overall the 6T must be taking into consideration when looking to buy a new flagship phone. From my point of view there is no need to spend close to $1000 just to have a sharper display or wireless charging or any other non-essential things that let’s be honest we don’t even use on our day by day life. All we care when we spend allot of money on a phone is for the phone to look great, run all the apps without problems and can run for an entire day without charging it several times (which this phone can do without sweating).
