Six months after the 6 comes OnePlus 6T which, as always, represents an incremental improvement of the previous model, without distorting it. Let’s find out everything there is to know in our review
OnePlus is a house that entered the smartphone market 5 years ago, many things have changed since then and today the house has achieved a notable fame and media impact, not to mention a much more widespread distribution in the various markets.
For a long time now OnePlus has accustomed us to the launch of 2 top of the range per year: a basic model with the change of numbering and a variant T six months later. The T models have never innovated excessively and have always been incremental improvements, this OnePlus 6T is no exception to this rule. Speed and efficiency are the cornerstones of this OnePlus 6T, which allows itself to improve autonomy and to provide us with a fingerprint reader under the display, but sacrificing the 3.5mm jack.
OnePlus 6T: technical sheet | Review
- Display: 6.41” Optic AMOLED Full HD+ (1.080 x 2.340 pixel, form factor 19,5:9)
- Processor: Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 845 (Octa-core, 10nm, 2.8 GHz)
- Memory: RAM 6/8 GB, interna 128/256 GB UFS 2.1 2-LANE
- Rear camera: 16 Megapixel f/1.7 Pixel da 1,22 µm + 20 Megapixel f/1.7 Pixel da 1,0 µm
- Front camera: 16 Megapixel f/2.0 Pixel da 1,0 µm
- Connectivity: dual SIM (nano + nano), 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2,4/5GHz), Bluetooth 5.0 con support aptX e aptX HD, GPS + GLONASS + BeiDou + Galileo, USB Type C
- Dimensions: 157,5 x 74,8 x 8,2 mm
- Weight: 185 grams
- Battery: 3700 mAh with fast charging (5V 4A)
- YOU: Android 9.0 Pie with OxygenOS 9.0.5 customization
Design and ergonomics: clean and elegant – OnePlus 6T | Review
OnePlus 6T is impeccably built, Corning® Gorilla® Glass 6 both front and rear, with an aluminum side frame.
The front houses the front camera at the top, inside a small notch drop, a novelty compared to 6 which however led to the loss of notification LED. Between the front glass and the metal frame we find the ear capsule set. The rest is completely clean: the fingerprint sensor it has in fact been inserted below the display and it is of the second generation optical type. Unlocking with the fingerprint is good but not perfect and fast like that of a classic sensor, with hands or screen not perfectly clean it tends to make mistakes and be slower. Using it, however, I noticed that accuracy tends to increase over time. To assist the sensor, however, we find the excellent 2D release with the face, extremely fast, especially if we set the opening of the home automatically after recognition, without further swipes. If the lighting conditions are poor, it is also possible to allow the illumination of the face through a white screen.
The back has a curved glass on the sides that facilitates the grip and, centrally, in the upper part, the group of rear cameras from 16 + 20 Megapixel, under which there is the dual LED flash and a little lower the company symbol.
As for the side frames: at the top we have only the second microphone, at the bottom there is instead the first microphone and mono speaker, symmetrically arranged on the two sides of the USB Type C 2.0 connector. On the right side of OnePlus 6T we have the on / off key and it notifications slider (very convenient), on the left there are instead the volume rocker and the trolley for the 2 nano SIMs.
As mentioned, the smartphone is a real top of the range and, as such, returns an excellent feeling, both for the materials used and for the build quality: the overall yield is that of a clean and elegant product. It is not exaggeratedly large and also allows one-handed use (within the limits of a 6.4 inches clearly), thanks also to navigation via Android 9 gesture.
Display: a great AMOLED – OnePlus 6T | Review
The mounted unit is a Optic Amoled 6.41 ”with rounded corners, 19.5: 9 shape aspect and Full HD + resolution of 1,080 x 2,340 pixels, for a density of 402 ppi. The display is very nice and the brightness turns out to be really high, making it highly visible even in direct sunlight. I noticed that the ambient light sensor, however, tends to go a little too low in low light environments. Excellent viewing angle and obviously absolute black.
As for the colors, these can be set according to different profiles: default, sRGB, DCI-P3, adaptive mode and custom color, which allows you to adjust the color temperature. In general we have a realistic and undistorted rendering, while maintaining bright and satisfying colors.
Present a night mode to eliminate, in a more or less marked way, the blue component of the light emitted by the screen, and one reading mode which makes the screen black and white for less eye strain. Then we also have theAmbient Display, customizable of course, which can show notifications and the clock when the smartphone is lifted or simply touched.
Hardware and performance: over the top – OnePlus 6T | Review
The hardware sector relies on the best the market has to offer right now. We have, in fact, the SOC Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 845 (Octa-core, 10nm, 2.8 GHz) con GPU Adreno 630, flanked, in my test setup, by 6GB in RAM and yes 128 GB di storage UFS 2.1 2-LANE (there are also 8/128 and 8/256 GB variants).
With equipment of this caliber it becomes frankly almost useless to talk about performance: simply the system runs smoothly, without lag or hitches in all contexts of daily use. You will never have delays in responding to your commands in web browsing, in using the navigator, in the camera, in social networks and even in games: the Adreno 630 GPU does not fear even the most demanding titles with 3D graphics. I have not, among other things, overheating never occurred smartphone, which has always remained cold.
The 6GB of my version was more than enough to keep dozens of applications running without seeing reloads, if not sporadically and after a long time of inactivity of the app itself. In this sense, the 8GB variant, rather than offering an immediate performance advantage, can guarantee greater longevity to the terminal, with an eye to the future and to apps that become increasingly heavy over time.
Note of demerit of the hardware part instead I reserve it for the vibration motor: it leaves the feeling of a continuous vibration, it cannot be clear and precise as for example on an iPhone or LG G7. They are subtleties, but on this range they still deserve to be highlighted.
Camera: still missing a little bit – OnePlus 6T | Review
The photographic sector of OnePlus 6T relies on a pair of now standard rear cameras: we have a main lens from 16 Megapixel f/1.7 con pixel da 1,22 µm, flanked by a 2x lens from 20 Megapixel f/1.7 e pixel da 1,0 µm. The camera features both a portrait mode, able to apply a depth or bokeh effect, whatever you want night mode, specifically designed for taking pictures in low light conditions.
In good lighting conditions the photos are excellent, with good detail and a balanced and undistorted color rendering.
Macros are also very good. The bokeh effect works well but not perfectly, the two photos taken have in fact a very similar rendering, although the first (left) with bokeh effect and the second (right) in normal mode are taken.
The night mode helps in difficult conditions, and actually improves the photo rendering, as you can see from the comparison below: photo on the left without night mode, photo on the right with night mode. However, we are not at the levels of a Pixel 3 and miracles are another thing.
At the front there is instead a camera from 16 Megapixel f/2.0 Pixel da 1,0 µm. that does well even in difficult conditions.
As for the videos these can be shot at 1080 60 fps, 4k 30 fps and also 4k 60 fps. Ultimately the photographic sector is promoted even if it does not yet reach the best competitors.
Connectivity and reception: nothing to complain – OnePlus 6T | Review
The OnePlus 6T modem is able to guarantee performance in 4G up to 1Gbps in download (DL CAT16) and 150 Mbps in upload (UL CAT13), provided that the network in your area guarantees such performance. Added to this are Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac 2.4G / 5G 2 × 2 MIMO, NFC, Bluetooth 5.0 with support for aptX and aptX HD, and a geolocation that counts on GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo.
Beyond the boredom of such acronyms, the reception offered by OnePlus 6T is absolutely satisfactory and improved compared to the past, probably also thanks to the adoption of glass over metal (the reference is OnePlus 3). Even on the move, in the car, and using a BT headset, even in rural areas, I have always had good reception. The audio quality from the ear capsule is good and the volume is very high, the speakerphone volume is also good, albeit mono.
The Wi-Fi and bluetooth connections are also stable and reliable and nothing to say for localization: always fast and precise even indoors.
Software: fast, clean and functional – OnePlus 6T | Review
OnePlus 6T comes out with already on board Android 9 Pie and customization Oxygen OS 9.0.5. We have in our hands one of the best customizations in the Android landscape, at least the writer thinks so. Everything is designed to make the clean, fast and functional system. The animations are reduced to a minimum to always have a smartphone that responds instantly to our inputs, we find only useful functions, nothing superfluous or redundant.
Present the shelf screen, accessible by swipe to the right in the home, which collects the most used apps, frequent contacts and all our widgets. Then we have the dark theme, excellent in combination with the AMOLED screen to save battery. OnePlus then implemented a series of customizable gestures and touches to access the drawer, notifications, turn on the flashlight, the camera, control the music player, etc. Then there is the new mode of Android 9 gesture navigation, which replaces, only if you want, the classic three buttons home, back and multitasking.
It is very useful and functional slider lateral, able to change the usage profile of OnePlus 6T from ringtone, to silent, to an intermediate mode that can be partially customized.
Then I want to mention the presence of the game mode, the possibility of having double accounts in some apps (Parallel App), and that of hiding some programs (App Locker). Finally, the ability of the alarms to function even when the phone is switched off is useful.