We unbox the latest flagship from OnePlus!

Last year, picking a budget flagship smartphone was an easy affair: pick either a OnePlus 5 or 5T from Digital Walker and then enjoy the feeling of handling a flagship smartphone that’s dramatically cheaper than the competition. Unfortunately for the Chinese company, things aren’t as clear cut in 2019: the official return of Xiaomi sees their flagship offerings back in the fray, and unlikely hero ASUS has managed to release a flagship that has equivalent specs for less money than what the OnePlus 6 costs.

With tighter competition and a higher price tag, the OnePlus 6 has its work cut out for it, at least in the Philippines.

OnePlus 6 specs

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 octa-core processor
• Adreno 630 GPU
• 6GB/8GB LPDDR4X RAM
• 64GB/128GB/256GB of UFS 2.1 storage
• 6.28-inch Full Optic Full HD+ display, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection, sRGB and DCI-P3 color gamut
• 20-megapixel f/1.7 Sony IMX519 zoom and 16-megapixel f/1.7 Sony IMX 376K primary rear cameras with 1.22um pixels (primary), 1um pixels (zoom) PDAF, OIS, EIS, 2X optical zoom, LED flash, 4K recording, 480FPS slo-mo
• 16-megapixel front camera with AI
• Dual SIM
• 3G, LTE Cat. 16/13 4CA
• Wi-Fi,4×4 MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC
• GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
• USB Type-C, Fingerprint sensor, Face unlock, IP54 certification
• 3300mAh battery, Dash Charge
• Android 8.1 Oreo with OxygenOS 5.1

Packaging and contents:

The OnePlus 6 comes in a white and red box with the number 6 printed on the front, as well as the words “The Speed You Need” printed on the side.

You’ll see the box’s red innards when you open it up, as well as the phone, soft case, USB Type-C cable, Dash charger and documentation.

Initial impressions: budget flagship, high-end feeling

OnePlus has proved time and time again that affordable flagships need not be ugly or cheaply made, and their newest flagship is no exception. Picking it up from the box, the first feeling that hit us was how expensive the phone felt in our hands.

The all glass design is certainly a departure from look of the flagship in the past, but it’s a change we can get behind. The phone looks absolutely gorgeous, and won’t look out of place beside an iPhone X or a Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus. The rounded corners of the glass body give you a soft, curvy place to hold onto as you’re gripping the phone, though the glass body opens the phone up to accidental scratches since it’s less durable than metal.

The design of the rear is symmetrical, with the dual-camera module on the middle, with the fingerprint scanner right below it.

The phone’s frame is made from aluminum and is polished black, and blends extremely well with the phone’s overall design. The power button is located on the right, along with the notification slider.

The top is pretty clean save for an IR blaster, while the volume rocker and microSIM slot is on the left side of the phone. On the bottom is the speaker grille, along with the USB Type-C port and 3.5mm jack.

Many of today’s flagship smartphones have not resisted the call of the notch, and the OnePlus 6 is no exception. The phone sports a 19:9 aspect ratio, along with a notch that holds the earpiece and front-facing camera. Total display size is 6.28-inches, with OnePlus opting for a Full Optic AMOLED panel capped at 2280 x 1080 resolution, or around 402 ppi.

OnePlus has tinkered with the dual-camera formula in their previous phones, but for the OnePlus 6 they’ve stuck to what other brands have done in the past: stick a really good main shooter at the rear and compliment it with a good secondary sensor for depth information. Specifically, you’re looking at 16-megapixel rear shooter with an f/1.7 lens and a pixel size of 1.22 microns, along with OIS. The secondary camera is a 20-megapixel deal with an f/1.7 aperture as well, and provides depth information to the main camera. The front camera is a 16-megapixel sensor with an f/2.0 aperture lens.

OnePlus is boasting that their newest flagship is the fastest among its peers, despite having roughly the same hardware inside its gorgeous glass body as its competitiors. The phone has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor inside of it, and depending on the configuration, up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of expandable storage. Our review unit, handed over by Digital Walker is the basic 6GB/64GB variant which retails for Php 30,990.

Despite being the lower-end variant, our OnePlus 6 review unit scored high marks in AnTuTu. In fact, it’s the higest AnTuTu score we’ve seen yet, besting even Samsung’s Galaxy S9 Plus we reviewed earlier this year.

That’s it for this unboxing of the phone. Digital Walker has not detailed when exactly the phone will be available for purchase, though you’ll be paying Php 30,990 for the 64GB model and Php 33,990 for the 128GB model.