My Review
4 August 2018
PROS
OnePlus is back with another one of their extremely great phones with an amazing value for money. OnePlus has been making these types of phones for quite a couple of years now. OnePlus does a really good job at this and if you get a OnePlus 6 you’ll feel like you have a high-end device for almost half the price. To create a cheap price tag OnePlus has to take out as many things as they can to make their device more affordable. These things, OnePlus hopes you won’t really mind not having and will not be a deal breaker for you. But there may be some things that can be deal breakers, and in this review, we are going to be covering all those aspects so you can decide to pick it up – and if I’m honest you should buy it.
- The BEST value for money
- Outstanding performance
- Good camera
- Extremely fast charging
- A headphone jack! 😁
- No wireless charging
- Measly speaker
- Not officially IP waterproof certification
- Another notch…
OnePlus is back with another one of their extremely great phones with an amazing value for money. OnePlus has been making these types of phones for quite a couple of years now. OnePlus does a really good job at this and if you get a OnePlus 6 you’ll feel like you have a high-end device for almost half the price. To create a cheap price tag OnePlus has to take out as many things as they can to make their device more affordable. These things, OnePlus hopes you won’t really mind not having and will not be a deal breaker for you. But there may be some things that can be deal breakers, and in this review, we are going to be covering all those aspects so you can decide to pick it up – and if I’m honest you should buy it.
Their Own Design
OnePlus has gone with a design of their own, and now the OnePlus looks quite nice. The colours you can get for the OnePlus 6 is Matte Black, Mirror Black and Silk Gold. The Mirror Black is glass back but does not support wireless charging. The Silk Gold looks absolutely stunning and will appeal a lot to women, this colour choice is probably one of the best colours I’ve ever seen on the phone and the Silk Gold makes the OnePlus 6 look very unique and better than it already is. OnePlus is known for great build quality and reliable quality overall. To the front of the phone you’ll find the display with a notch, and at the bottom you’ll see that there is a small chin there but it is quite mall and the notch won’t really affect you as Google and OnePlus have worked to increase compatibility with the notch and it gets hidden in a lot of apps.
The layout of the OnePlus’s ports and buttons and the selection of ports and buttons are very interesting. On the right side if the phone you’ll find the power button and an alert slider which I really like but you might end up mistaking it for the power button when you first get the OnePlus 6. The buttons have a really nice satisfying click to them and I guarantee that you’ll always love hitting the power button to turn the OnePlus 6. At the bottom you have a charging port with USB Type-C, a speaker and a headphone jack which is always nice to see.
The layout of the OnePlus’s ports and buttons and the selection of ports and buttons are very interesting. On the right side if the phone you’ll find the power button and an alert slider which I really like but you might end up mistaking it for the power button when you first get the OnePlus 6. The buttons have a really nice satisfying click to them and I guarantee that you’ll always love hitting the power button to turn the OnePlus 6. At the bottom you have a charging port with USB Type-C, a speaker and a headphone jack which is always nice to see.
Quite Clever Software
The OnePlus 6 is running Android Oreo with pretty much a stock android with OnePlus’s skin, Oxygen OS. Oxygen OS is very close to stock Android, in fact I prefer Oxygen OS over Stock Android because you will still get the stock Android experience but still have the extra OnePlus software features. For example, Gaming Mode which is a feature that disables all notifications whilst playing a game and it directs all your data resources to the game so when playing online games, your experience is smooth and reliable, and other apps don’t take up your internet resources. There is also the nippy face unlock that does not come on Stock Android.
The notch is also a factor that is blocked out by the software. In many apps the notch is left out and or incorporated into the app, so you don’t really get too annoyed by the notch too often. You can also remove the notch to make it look more like the Samsung S9 or if you like the notch and enjoy the full screen experience, you can force an app to make the notch cut into the app.
Another interesting and useful thing to mention is that the OnePlus 6 is one of the six phones alongside the Google Pixel that will get the new Android P: Beta. So, you can expect updates with the OnePlus 6 for quite a long time. I think this is because the Oxygen OS is so light, it will then be easier for OnePlus to update theirs phones for later Android versions.
The notch is also a factor that is blocked out by the software. In many apps the notch is left out and or incorporated into the app, so you don’t really get too annoyed by the notch too often. You can also remove the notch to make it look more like the Samsung S9 or if you like the notch and enjoy the full screen experience, you can force an app to make the notch cut into the app.
Another interesting and useful thing to mention is that the OnePlus 6 is one of the six phones alongside the Google Pixel that will get the new Android P: Beta. So, you can expect updates with the OnePlus 6 for quite a long time. I think this is because the Oxygen OS is so light, it will then be easier for OnePlus to update theirs phones for later Android versions.
Need For Speed
The reason why the OnePlus 6 has some set-backs is because of the pure speed of this phone. The OnePlus 6 has a SnapDragon 845, which makes the phone a bargain to buy since the price is so low. That is really what the OnePlus 6 is about, getting that incredible speed at the fraction of the price. Here are some of the CPU scores:
These scores are amazing for a phone that is so cheap. Infact these scores are excellent for a phone even at the high-range tier. The OnePlus 6 also goes up to 8GB of RAM allowing for quick multitasking. Since the OnePlus 6 is running almost stock Andriod, the experience and speed of the User Interface is lightning fast. You are definitely not going in the wrong direction when buying the OnePlus 6 for pure speed.
- AnTuTu: 269,191
- Geekbench 4: Single-core: 2,402; multi-core: 8,951
These scores are amazing for a phone that is so cheap. Infact these scores are excellent for a phone even at the high-range tier. The OnePlus 6 also goes up to 8GB of RAM allowing for quick multitasking. Since the OnePlus 6 is running almost stock Andriod, the experience and speed of the User Interface is lightning fast. You are definitely not going in the wrong direction when buying the OnePlus 6 for pure speed.
A Kinda Nice Display
For OnePlus to sell their devices at such a cheap price, they have to purposely remove some features that you might not really mind about it being removed. And one of these set-backs is the screen, not to say the screen is not good but it does not compete with those high-end flagship phones.
The OnePlus 6 has a screen with a 2180x1080 panel. This is not a QuadHD screen like the high-end phones but for the price the OnePlus 6 has by far the best 1080p panel I’ve ever seen. The screen is quite nice and vibrant and using the OnePlus 6 outdoors will be no hassle. I have noticed a bit of image distortion when tilting the screen and when viewing it in different angles. The notch is not that big and you won’t really notice it, but if you a person like me who really hates the notch, you can disable the notch through the software and then you will only see the time and other notifications icons. The chin at the bottom is not that big either and OnePlus made sure we’ll be getting as much screen as possible out of this phone and by no doubt at all is a bad screen. In fact, I would say that the OnePlus 6 has a better screen than the Huawei P20 Pro and it shows in the specs and it speaks for itself when you see the screen in person.
The OnePlus 6 has a screen with a 2180x1080 panel. This is not a QuadHD screen like the high-end phones but for the price the OnePlus 6 has by far the best 1080p panel I’ve ever seen. The screen is quite nice and vibrant and using the OnePlus 6 outdoors will be no hassle. I have noticed a bit of image distortion when tilting the screen and when viewing it in different angles. The notch is not that big and you won’t really notice it, but if you a person like me who really hates the notch, you can disable the notch through the software and then you will only see the time and other notifications icons. The chin at the bottom is not that big either and OnePlus made sure we’ll be getting as much screen as possible out of this phone and by no doubt at all is a bad screen. In fact, I would say that the OnePlus 6 has a better screen than the Huawei P20 Pro and it shows in the specs and it speaks for itself when you see the screen in person.
An Unexpectedly Good Camera
The OnePlus 6 is rocking a dual 16-megapixel and 20-megepixel rear camera both at f/1.7 with the main sensor optically stabilised. The weird thing about the second sensor is that it is not a telephoto or an optical zoom lens, it’s just used as a second sensor for depth information for features such as portrait mode. The overall performance of the camera is pretty good, I do personally love the amount of light and detail put into each shot. I do notice the that the pictures do tend to come out a bit under saturated but that is a personal preference and you can easily edit the photo in the gallery afterwards to achieve a photo that you desire. Moving onto low light shots, the OnePlus 6 does a stunning job at this thanks to it’s f/1.7 aperture. The low light performance is great but it definitely doesn’t outperform phones like the Huawei P20 Pro or the Samsung S9. The front-facing camera has a 16-megapixel sensor which performs very similarly to the main sensor at the front. When taking selfies with portrait mode, it is done entirely through software. It does a decent job and matches most phones it term of quality.
Images
Specifications
DISPLAY
Screen size (inches) 6.28
Touchscreen Yes
Resolution 1080x2280 pixels
Density 402ppi
HARDWARE
Processor 2.8GHz octa-core
Processor make Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
RAM 8GB
Internal storage 128GB
Expandable storage No
Battery Capacity 3200mAh
CAMERA
Rear camera 16-megapixel, 20-megapixel
Rear flash Dual LED
Front camera 16-megapixel
SOFTWARE
Operating system Android 8.1 Oreo
Skin OxygenOS 5.1
CONNECTIVITY
Wi-Fi Yes
Wi-Fi standards supported 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
GPS Yes
Bluetooth Yes, v 5.00
NFC Yes
Infrared No
USB OTG Yes
Headphones 3.5mm
Number of SIMs 2
SIM 1
SIM Type Nano-SIM
GSM/CDMA GSM
3G Yes
4G/ LTE Yes
SIM 2
SIM Type Nano-SIM
GSM/CDMA GSM
3G Yes
4G/ LTE Yes
SENSORS
Compass/ Magnetometer Yes
Proximity sensor Yes
Accelerometer Yes
Ambient light sensor Yes
Gyroscope Yes
Screen size (inches) 6.28
Touchscreen Yes
Resolution 1080x2280 pixels
Density 402ppi
HARDWARE
Processor 2.8GHz octa-core
Processor make Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
RAM 8GB
Internal storage 128GB
Expandable storage No
Battery Capacity 3200mAh
CAMERA
Rear camera 16-megapixel, 20-megapixel
Rear flash Dual LED
Front camera 16-megapixel
SOFTWARE
Operating system Android 8.1 Oreo
Skin OxygenOS 5.1
CONNECTIVITY
Wi-Fi Yes
Wi-Fi standards supported 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
GPS Yes
Bluetooth Yes, v 5.00
NFC Yes
Infrared No
USB OTG Yes
Headphones 3.5mm
Number of SIMs 2
SIM 1
SIM Type Nano-SIM
GSM/CDMA GSM
3G Yes
4G/ LTE Yes
SIM 2
SIM Type Nano-SIM
GSM/CDMA GSM
3G Yes
4G/ LTE Yes
SENSORS
Compass/ Magnetometer Yes
Proximity sensor Yes
Accelerometer Yes
Ambient light sensor Yes
Gyroscope Yes