The OnePlus 6 has been out for a while now, you’ve probably read all the amazing reviews online already, watched a ton of videos on how great it is and I couldn’t agree more on how great it is by the way, but there are still some things, in this case, 5 reasons holding it back from being the phone of the year.
It’s packed with flagship level of specifications like the latest Qualcomm processor, the Snapdragon 845 chip, big 8GB RAM, a massive built-in storage, an excellent camera even in low light, a bright display and more.
So what do I have to complain about? In no particular order…
Design:
For £519 in the UK, you get a device with 6.28″ Optic AMOLED display, it’s vibrant, bright and great in all type of lighting conditions. It’s nicely elongated for watching movies but there I have issues with the OnePlus 6 is when it comes to that notch and how wide it is. Firstly, the notch is not one for watching movies as it’s in the way and yes you can turn it off and not all apps are optimised yet or Android itself is not fully notch-ready; it’s just an overlay which doesn’t really solve the problem for me. My thought here is if you will create a notch and add the option to turn it on or off, why not just exclude it totally and not have a notch? It begs the question or what purpose does it serve?
Secondly, the OnePlus 6 measures 155.7×75.4×7.75 mm and weighs 6.2 ounces without a case, no doubt it’s fantastic when playing games, watching movies etc, but I found it too wide for everyday use, especially when attempting to use it one-handed.
Even with a one-handed use mode, it’s still quite a struggle. It’s wider than the S9 Plus, LG G7, iPhone X and it’s just as wide as the Nokia 7 Plus.
Storage:
The OnePlus 6 comes with a 128GB UFS 2.1 2-Lane storage or if you want you can play slightly more for the 256GB version and there’s also a 6GB RAM + 64GB storage option too. Whichever one you decide to go for will offer fast read and write speeds, making the OnePlus 6 fast when storing/saving files, looking in your gallery, for example, you get to see your images very quickly.
For most people, 128GB is more than enough for storing images and even 4K videos, but besides being able to have more storage option, what I miss having is the option to use it as a card reader. Let me explain! When I fly my drone, I take my microSD card out and view my files straight away and whether I’m just showing it to my client or editing and posting it straight away to my social media pages like Instagram, it makes my life easier and I don’t have to carry my laptop with me in that case. This is something I often did with my Galaxy S9 Plus, but now I can’t.
Battery Life:
This one is a tricky one because OnePlus have dash charge which charges the OnePlus 6 from 0 to 60% in just 35 minutes if you have 35 mins to spare and carry your fast charge plug with you all the time. Besides that, it’s only got a 3300 mAh battery and for my kind of usage, it doesn’t last me the whole day.
Some days it drains really quickly especially when filming in 4K, Super Slow-mo, and processor intensive activities. I’m hoping this is something that can be fixed via software updates in the future but for now, it doesn’t stack up to the Huawei P20 Pro which also supports fast charging.
Wireless Charging:
Smartphone manufacturers who don’t include wireless charging, is usually because they haven’t used a glass back, but the OnePlus 6 has a glass back which would allow for wireless charging, but OnePlus decided to omit this feature. Glass back also means faster data speeds but why didn’t they add wireless charging? According to the Business Insider UK, OnePlus said it doesn’t want to add features for the sake of it, and it’s not facing pressure from its users to add wireless charging.
For me, I pick up my phone quite often and I simply don’t want to keep unplugging and plugging it in to keep it topped up before heading out for meetings and where wireless charging comes into play for me is I can place it on my wireless charging pad on and off without worrying about cables.
There are other things I could touch on like a singe down-firing speaker, no official IP rating for waterproofing and only a Full HD resolution, but those are things that could possibly increase its price point.
So what do I actually like about the OnePlus 6?
Putting aside those personal preferences, the OnePlus 6 has some cool features I quite like:
Gesture control:
You can maximise the OnePlus 6 display by hiding the navigation buttons on the bottom in exchange for swipe gestures. Double tap display to wake up your device and lock it too, swipe up to go back to home screen, swipe up and hold for a second to reveal apps running in the background, swipe up from the left or right to go back to the previous screen. Once you use the gestures a couple of times, you will soon get used to it. When on your apps screen, you can go far left to reveal hidden apps, so you can keep apps you don’t want people accessing there, however, it’s not locked so be aware of that. I also love the alert slider, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in meetings and it’s super quick to switch to silent mode.
Camera:
With a 16 + 20 MP dual camera setup, you can capture some amazing shots with the OnePlus 6. The 20 MP second lens allows you to zoom x2 without losing quality and the OnePlus 6 features the best UI for capturing slow-motion shots at either 240FPS (1080P) or 480FPC(720P).
Images come out really vibrant, excellent dynamic range and we even shot an entire car tech video using the OnePlus 6, thanks to how stable it is with EIS and OIS. when it comes to stills, it really surprised me how good it is, although still not as good as the Huawei P20 Pro for night photography but on par with the Galaxy S9 Plus. Check out the samples below:
Pure Android Experience:
OnePlus opted for OxygenOS from day one which meant a device with no random apps or bloatware and you also get regular updates. It’s based on Android Oreo and since I’ve had the OnePlus 6, I’ve had about 4 updates.
Price:
OnePlus prides itself in keeping the cost of its devices low so you can pick up the OnePlus 6 from £469 for the 6GB + 64GB storage variant, £519 for the 8GB + 128GB version and a maximum of £569 for the 8GB + 256GB option.
Overall the OnePlus 6 is definitely up there in my top 5 phones to consider this year and even slots well in the best value for money category. It’s loaded with flagship specs that will last you more than 2 years if you’re not an early adopter and OnePlus offer one of the best community and support there is, so you can always get help with any issue and give feedback on what you want your next OnePlus device should be like.
