After a lengthy promotional campaign and a fair bit
of leaks the OnePlus 6T is here just about six months after its predecessor
arrived on shelves. At this point we're well aware of what the OnePlus 6T brings over the
OnePlus 6 but we'll go over it again.
Half of the OnePlus 6T's improvements are in the
hardware and the other come through software. The former include a smaller
water drop-styled notch, an in-display fingerprint scanner and a larger
battery. The latter include improvements to the camera and the performance.
There's one hardware regression we need to get out
of the way - the already acknowledged removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack. On a
positive note, OnePlus has the fairly priced (€ 20/US$ 20) USB-C Bullets headphones
ready for the OnePlus 6T's launch and will generously bundle a USB-C to 3.5mm
adapter in the phone's box.
The OnePlus 6T has visibly smaller top and bottom
bezels than its predecessor, thanks in part to the new notch. You won't see it, but the
fingerprint scanner sits in the bottom half of the OnePlus 6T's screen, right
where your thumb would naturally rest. The phone will display a fingerprint
icon on the spot you need to put your finger once the phone is picked up.
The 6.4-inch panel of the OnePlus 6T is only
slightly larger than the 6.28-inch of its predecessor but visibly taller when
pitted side by side. Most importantly, the bottom bezel is even thinner now. OnePlus added a larger 3,700mAh
battery to the 6T - a 12% upgrade over the 3,300mAh unit found in the OnePlus 6.
All of this has lead to a phone that's marginally
taller and thicker than its predecessor and 3g heavier - differences most
people won't notice. The cameras are identical in hardware to the OnePlus 6, but differ in
software. There are two on the back - a main 16MP f/1.7 OIS and a secondary
20MP f/1.7 that's upscaled to produce 2x telephoto shots. On the front there's
a 16MP f/2.0.
The duo on the back is tuned to produce better HDR
images than its predecessor and there's a new Nightscape feature - similar to
Huawei's Night Mode and the Pixel 3's Night Sight - it will try and create
brighter low-light images with lower noise.
The OnePlus 6T shares the Snapdragon 845 chipset
with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM of its predecessor, but OnePlus has improved
things on the OxygenOS side of things with a new Gaming mode and Smart Boost.
The updates in Gaming mode will lock the screen
brightness during gaming, give you more control on notifications and limit data
usage of other apps. Smart Boost is said to improve app cold start speed by
keeping certain app data in the RAM. For now, this only supposed to work for
certaing games.
As part of OxygenOS under Android 9 Pie the OnePlus
6T has support for all manner of Android navigation - OnePlus' own gesture
system (quite similar to Apple's gesture-based navigation), Android 9 Pie's
native (pill) gesture navigation and the old three-button navigation.
Of course, since this is a OnePlus smartphone it
comes with Dash Charge, which is rated at up to 20W. OnePlus claims the provided
charger will top up the OnePlus 6T with up to a day's battery in just 30
minutes.
The OnePlus 6T will be sold in three configrurations
- 6GB+128GB priced at US$ 550, 8GB+128GB priced at US$ 580 and 8GB+256GB, which will
cost US$ 630. T-Mobile is offering a $300-off the 6T when you trade-in an eligible
device (including all OnePlus devices released so far). The OnePlus 6T will go
on sale in North America on November 1 and then launch in Europe on November 6.
