A little earlier than its usual June refresh window,
OnePlus has revealed its new flagship Android device today, the OnePlus
6. The most controversial aspect of the new design, the notch at the top
of the 6.3-inch 19:9 OLED display, has already been the subject of a preemptive rationalization from the company, and fan demands have been answered with the added option to conceal the notch by putting a black bar on the screen around it.
Though beloved by few, the notched design does have a
significant upside in helping OnePlus fit a lot more screen into
basically the same dimensions as its previous OnePlus 5T and 5 models.
The OnePlus 6 is a little smaller than my 6-inch Google Pixel 2 XL, but
it offers more vertical screen space and makes the Pixel’s bezels feel
crude and chunky by comparison. It’s not that the 6 lacks bezels; they
just happen to be minimal and nicely designed. OnePlus’ interface is
well-tailored to the notch, and the company has tested the top 1,000
Play Store apps to ensure they play nicely with it. Whether or not the
notch is to your liking, you can’t accuse OnePlus of moving to it
without sufficient forethought.
The other big change with the OnePlus 6 is the
introduction of a new glass back, replacing the unibody aluminum case
that’s been the norm for OnePlus for a number of years. The company’s
press release says that this is “the first in OnePlus’ line of flagships
to feature an all-glass design,” suggesting that the metal backs of the
past are going to stay in the past. With this alteration, OnePlus joins
the vast majority of smartphone manufacturers — companies like Apple,
Samsung, Sony, Nokia, LG, and Huawei — in having glass on both the front
and the back of its flagship device. I’ve been told by a number of
these companies that the general trend has been driven by the
requirements of faster and more advanced LTE, making it increasingly
difficult to produce a phone with a metal back.
Although the OnePlus 6, replete with a notch and a glass
back, now blends into the mass of Android phones out there, it does
stand out with a number of its own unique strengths.
Firstly, the software is clean, thoughtfully designed,
and unfailingly fast. The OnePlus 6 was among the first Android phones
to support the Android P beta,
even before it was officially announced. OnePlus says that it’s
committed to heeding and responding to its fans’ wishes, and its
eagerness to deliver updates as soon as possible is a testament to that.
The other thing, the one that matters a great deal more
than it’s discussed on pages like these, is the price. Starting at $529
with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, the OnePlus 6 is once again a
little more expensive than its predecessor, but also a lot less pricey
than the typical Android flagship. It’ll be compared to phones like the Galaxy S9 and Huawei P20 Pro, both of which cost hundreds of dollars more, but it’s priced right in line with the Honor 10.
I think the OnePlus 6 has the quality of design, materials, and display
to be held right up alongside the best Android phones on the market.
Where I remain dubious with OnePlus is on the camera
front, though the company’s made positive strides by increasing the main
sensor size of its dual-camera system by 19 percent (for a pixel size
of 1.22μm). Optical image stabilization has been added to both rear
cameras, and you can now shoot faux-bokeh portrait mode pictures with
the front as well as the rear cameras. OnePlus is getting into the
algorithmically reprocessed photo game by offering the option to turn
the bokeh in a photo into various shapes like hearts and stars. I’ve
seen a demo of that, and, well, I guess I’m too old to appreciate its
value.
Not many other things are different about the OnePlus 6.
The signature OnePlus alert slider moves from one side of the phone to
the other, which the company tells me was a simple matter of space
considerations with the new phone’s layout. The headphone jack remains
in place, though, and OnePlus says it has no plans to remove it anytime
soon. I would have liked to see OnePlus add wireless charging with its
shift to a glass back, but that hasn’t happened, and neither has the
addition of waterproof certification. OnePlus argues that the 6 has
comparable water resistance to most modern flagships, and it was tested
extensively for that, but I’d still feel more reassured by having it
adhere to the same universal standard as everyone else.
Marketed under the slogan of “the speed you need,” the
OnePlus 6 comes with a Snapdragon 845 processor, Adreno 630 graphics,
and up to 8GB of RAM and a maximum of 256GB of UFS 2.1 storage. On one
hand, it’s great that OnePlus can cram the latest and best specs inside a
phone that retains a distinct midrange price (by 2018 standards). On
the other hand, I’m not convinced that OnePlus can actually use that
fact to make its device stand out. The comparably priced Honor 10 also
has a flagship processor inside, Huawei’s Kirin 970, and it also offers a
smooth and responsive experience. The rest of the OnePlus 6 specs are
fairly predictable: 2280 x 1080 resolution, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 up
front, 3,300mAh battery, Bluetooth 5, support for two nano-SIM cards,
and Dash Charge fast charging.
The one trend that OnePlus isn’t entertaining with its
new flagship (at least not yet) is offering a diversity of color
options. You’ll be able to buy the OnePlus 6 in either a glossy or matte
black or a shimmery white variant. These colors correspond to
particular specs: the mirror (i.e., glossy) black covers the $529 6GB /
64GB and $579 8GB / 128GB OnePlus 6, the silk white and the so-called
midnight black will be at the $579 price point and spec, and there’ll be
a $629 8GB / 256GB midnight black model as well.
All variants of the OnePlus 6 go on
sale May 22nd directly from OnePlus’ online store in North America,
India, and across Europe. The European and UK pricing is less attractive
than the US’s, with prices starting at €519 / £469 for 64GB of storage,
going through €569 / £519 for 128GB, and maxing out at €619 / £569 for
256GB.
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