We unbox the OnePlus 6T!
OnePlus’ “flagship killer” moniker has never been in jeopardy as it is now. With Xiaomi and Honor constantly undercutting the prices of OnePlus’ offerings with their own flagship products, the company is no longer the only one producing top-tier flagships at a significantly lower price compared to traditional brands.
Despite that, the OnePlus 6T still looks like it’s great value for money. An improved screen, new on-screen fingerprint scanner, and beefy internals are sure to draw quite a few converts this holiday season.
Packaging and contents:
The OnePlus 6T comes in a minimalist white box with the company’s logo in the front, along with a large number “6”.
Once you open the box, you’ll see the phone, thicker than usual documentation, a letter from OnePlus CEO Carl Pei, along with a soft case, USB cable, a fast charger and a USB Type-C adapter for wired headphones.
What is it?
It’s the latest iteration of OnePlus’ flagship phone. OnePlus has settled on a bi-yearly release schedule for their devices, and like last year, the later refresh of their flagship model has the most bells and whistles.
It still looks as premium as before.
It sure does. The first thing you’ll notice when you’re looking at the rear of the phone is the fact that there’s no fingerprint scanner in sight (we’ll get to why later). The body is made of glass, and the phone, depending on the configuration, is available in two finishes: mirror black or midnight black.
The finish looks extremely nice, though the glass rear is a fingerprint magnet. We wouldn’t blame you if you slapped on the soft silicone case included in the packaging on the phone immediately.
The dual rear camera module is the only point of interest at the back of the phone now that the rear fingerprint scanner has been nixed. The OnePlus logo is there too, but it’s a bit more subdued compared to the rest of the phone.
The power button is on the right side of the phone, along with the slider that allows you to quickly mute your phone with a flick of a button. The volume rocker is on the left, along with the SIM tray. After the ribbing OnePlus gave Apple a few years ago when they decided to remove the 3.5mm jack, it seems like the company has also worked up the courage to remove theirs too, which explains the USB Type-C dongle in the package.
On the front sits the 6.4-inch full HD+ Optic AMOLED panel, with a 19:5:9 aspect ratio. There’s still a notch in front but it’s extremely tiny, which is fast becoming the trend for most smartphones today.
Embedded in the front of the display is the in-display fingerprint scanner, which is fast becoming a more common sight on flagship phones today. It’s pretty quick though it’s definitely slower than traditional, physical scanners on the rear of the phone. Also, OnePlus recommends that you get screen protectors from them if you want to replace the one that comes with the phone since the on-display scanner isn’t guaranteed to work with some forms of screen protection thanks to how it operates. There’s also a face unlock feature that you can use if you want quicker (but less secure) unlocks on your phone.
Overall the phone feels premium and easy to hold in the hands. Despite it having a rather large display for its size it’s still rather manageable to use, and that AMOLED panel really looks pretty sweet compared to traditional LCD panels available on phones nowadays.
OnePlus has pretty much stuck with the same cameras that it put in the OnePlus 6, though the company has changed the software somewhat to deliver better results. To recap, the phone has a 16-megapixel main wide-angle shooter and a secondary 20-megapixel lens, with both sporting f/1.7 lenses. The front camera is a 16-megapixel deal with a f/2.0 aperture.
Powering the OnePlus 6T is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845, which is currently the reigning champion in terms of how many devices utilize it. That’s paired with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for our review unit, though Digital Walker, the official seller of OnePlus devices in the Philippines, also sells the 8GB/128GB and 8GB/256GB variant at Php 2K and 5K more, respectively.
The phone uses a 3700mAh battery which is quite a jump from the OnePlus 6’s 3300mAh power pack. That’s guaranteed to deliver at least a day’s worth of use, and if you run out of power, you can use OnePlus’ fast charging tech to quickly get the phone back in action.
OnePlus has certainly pulled out all the stops for their latest flagship. It’s certainly difficult to stick to a bi-yearly release date for a flagship especially with such a small company like OnePlus. But there are enough changes in the phone to warrant a release, and the OnePlus 6T definitely has the chops to go up against all its affordable rivals and come out on top.
The OnePlus 6T is now available to buy in Digital Walker and is priced at Php 31,990, while the 8GB/128GB variant is priced at Php 33,990. The top-end 8GB/256GB variant is priced at 36,990. All three variants come with an 18-month warranty.
