Over the years, OnePlus has evolved as a brand whose primary focus is providing great value to its customers. For the most part, they have been doing it right with their "Flagship Killer" devices. So, like every year, with the bi-annual upgrade cycle, OnePlus launched a new phone, the OnePlus 6. A lot of rumours and expectations have made rounds before its launch, especially regarding the NOTCH, a lot of which have been met.  

Here’s a summary of the experience of living with the device for a week, covering all the positives and negatives of the device.

Let's first get the specifications out of the way:  

• 6.28-inch AMOLED display
• 6GB or 8GB of RAM
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor
• 16-megapixel front camera
• Dual 16+20-megapixel rear camera with OIS
• Oxygen OS (Android 8.1 Oreo)
• 3300 mAh battery with Dash Charging
• 64GB, 128GB, or 256GB of storage
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Three colours: Mirror Black, Midnight Black, Silk White 
• Alert Slider

DESIGN

The OnePlus 6 is a well-built device, with an all-glass body from front-to-back. OnePlus says it's built out of Gorilla Glass 5, which is assumed to be more tough and resilient. On the outside, the device has got an alert-slider above the usual Volume UP, Volume DOWN button, and Power Button. It has a single speaker on the bottom, which is impressively loud. The Oneplus 6 DOES have a 3.5mm headphone jack (in case you are still using a wired-headphone). For authenticating, they went with two options, with the fingerprint sensor moved to the back of the phone under the Camera and, a face-recognition mechanism, which is stupendously fast. Not to mention, the USB-C port that powers the device with Oneplus's own Dash Charge fast charge technology, that puts other chargers to shame.  

It’s 2018 and talking about design would not be complete without taking the famous NOTCH into consideration. Yes, it's there on the OnePlus 6. If you are one of the many that would argue its purpose in the first place... you do have the option to switch to a NOTCH-less display with the provided setting.

DISPLAY

The OnePlus 6 sports an AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2280 x 1080 at a pixel density of 402ppi. To make a display of that size fit on a smaller footprint, OnePlus had to get rid of the head and chin found on the previous generation design. Also, at a time, when most of the companies are coming up with at least a 1440p display, OnePlus is still stuck on a 1080p display. However, for a day-to-day use, you won’t notice much difference as the display offers a really sharp and crisp image.

SOFTWARE

The OnePlus 6 comes with Android 8.1 Oreo with OnePlus’ Oxygen OS on top to keep the experience as close to stock as possible. A newer version of Oxygen OS with Android P has been confirmed for the device later this year. To make life simpler, some new gestures have been introduced, which make the navigation buttons on the bottom obsolete. Though that’s a learning curve and takes time to get used to. Overall, the software experience on the OnePlus has always been a breeze, thanks to the Oxygen OS which has been very smooth and fluid.

CAMERA

The primary essential these days in a smartphone is Camera. You use it all the time, from taking selfies, to clicking amazing landscapes, to snapping pictures of your pets. The OnePlus 6 has a good camera considering its price. But when you consider the tagline that OnePlus has been using for a while, the “Flagship Killer”, you need a phone that beats or stacks-up against other flagship devices in every department. With the OnePlus 6 you get a decent camera, decent because there is a lot of improvement that needs to be done, especially with the colour reproduction. A lot of the times, images produced from the camera are very vibrant and over-expose the subject. 

OnePlus 6 Vs iPhone 7 Plus - Cameras

The image from the OnePlus 6 (left) looks good on screen, but the blue and yellow colour come no where close to what those colours look in real life. The image from the iPhone 7 (right) Plus however looks a bit dull, but does an amazing job of depicting the object as close to accurate as possible. However, at the end of the day, it boils down to preference, some prefer sharp punching colours off the screen, while some prefer images as they are in real life. Watch WhatGear Oneplus 6 camera comparison video

PERFORMANCE

The OnePlus 6 performs really well from day-to-day use to heavy use and handles almost everything thrown at it with ease. From multitasking, to running multiple heavy apps on  the background, to heavy graphic intensive gaming, the device doesn’t break a sweat and performs exceptionally. Watch the WhatGear Gaming Speed Test Video

Here are some benchmark scores:  

VERDICT

When gauging a device, it’s not about how it performs on paper, rather how it does when stacked up against other smartphones. OnePlus does that task pretty well by delivering flagship specifications on a device at a reasonable price, where other manufacturers are charging almost double the price. The devices from OnePlus have been known to age well, as OnePlus does an excellent job of providing updates to these phones over a longer period of time. 

After using the device for a considerate amount of time, there are a couple of issues that one can notice straightaway. The most noticeable among all is the number of scratches and scuffs the device gets due to its all-glass body. This design choice also makes the device more susceptible to damage, and with the no information on about the IP certification, there’s a lot of ambiguity around the device’s ability to withstand extreme conditions. 

The other disappointment is with the Camera, as the image quality hasn’t improved much compared to the previous generation devices, though there are some significant improvements in the video quality. The pictures coming out of the device are still not up to the point where it could be compared to some other flagship devices like the Google Pixel 2 and iPhone X. However, this can be improved to some extent with software updates in the future.

Should you buy it then?

So, if you are someone coming from an older OnePlus device like: 5, 5T, you can wait a year and see what OnePlus has to offer next year. But, if you are using an even older device, this upgrade is something you might not want to miss out on. We found some great deals online for the Oneplus 6 you can find them here. 

WhatGear Videos on the Oneplus 6

Troy from WhatGear's Opinion on the Oneplus 6

The Oneplus 6 is currently my smartphone of choice. This is largely due the the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845's processors blistering speeds & graphics as well as the Oneplus 6 screen size. The notch doesn't seem to bother me at all... which is a surprise. Previously I was using a UK version of the Galaxy Note 8 with the Samsung Exynos chipset which is definitely a bit slower. However I still love my Note 8.

Anyway I decided to sacrifice the slightly superior super amoled display & stylus, for the amazing face unlock feature and the smaller footprint of the Oneplus 6. I do miss some of the edge functionality sometimes but not massively.

The cameras for me are a high enough quality for me. You can see what I mean in my Oneplus 6 camera comparison video. 

I am a huge fan of the Oneplus design this year. The glass finish gives it such a nice premium feel. However I did fit a Oneplus 6 Slickwrap onto the device to avoid scratches. Scuffing the device is definitely a concern. Check out my instagram to see how it looks...It's pretty awesome.

" I really cannot fault the Oneplus 6! especially with the price point. It is indeed a beast of a device! I would highly recommend it. " Troy R