OnePlus 6 review: OnePlus’ finest is still punching above its weight

New Delhi: OnePlus phones have typically offered the sort of user experience that more expensive flagship phones offered. While this is a tough act, the company’s newest phone, the OnePlus 6, appears to have lived up well to this challenge.

Looks

There is a definite design improvement, which becomes apparent with the slimmer bezels. Moreover, the OnePlus 6 is shorter than its predecessor, the 5T (155.7mm vs 156.1mm), and yet has a larger display (6.28-inch vs 6.01-inch). The Mirror Black variant with the robust Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on the front and back is attractive but fingerprints can smudge the look. The matte finish on the Midnight Black and Silk White variants is easier to maintain. The Marvel Avengers Edition phone has a Kevlar-like finish to the shiny black body. Besides, the gentle curve on the back panel gives the phone a good grip.

Display

The new 6.28-inch Optic AMOLED display (2,280 x 1,080 resolution and 19:9 aspect ratio) screen of the OnePlus has a cut-out at the top. While it does not get in the way when you’re using an app or playing a game, there is an option to rescale the display and hide the “notch” if it bothers you. The screen reproduces colours very well, and reading text isn’t a problem even under bright sunlight.

Power-packed

The OnePlus 6 runs Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon 845 processor, which will suit gamers and anyone who will use this device for productivity or editing apps. What really makes the difference is the 8 GB RAM (only the entry spec variant has 6 GB RAM and 64 GB storage), which pushes the performance ceiling higher as more apps are updated to support that much memory in a phone. The Oxygen OS (based on Android 8.1 Oreo) looks the same as before, but subtle changes to the animation speed, tweaked icon sizes and fluid transitions make it pleasant to use. There is the option to hide the navigation bar at the bottom and use iPhone X-esque swipe gestures to navigate the interface. The 3,300 mAh battery easily lasts a day on a single charge.

Camera

The OnePlus 6 continues to use the dual-camera system, but with newer optics—a 16-megapixel main sensor and a 20-megapixel secondary sensor. The main sensor’s pixel size is larger than before, which allows for better lighting in photographs. Updates to the hardware as well as the image processing algorithms are noticeable, and though you will still see certain ‘noise’ around objects in some photos, it is lesser than before and colours, while detailing as well as vividness of photos is significantly better. However, low-light photos tend to be a tad inconsistent.

In sum

As things stand, you would only consider the entry spec variant priced at Rs34,999 (6GB RAM+ 64GB storage) if more storage space isn’t important. The variants priced at Rs39,999 (8GB RAM + 128GB storage) offer the ideal balance. For those who can spend more, the limited edition Marvel Avengers Edition (8GB RAM +256GB storage) would be the best value for money option.