OnePlus 6 review – This flagship killer is worth all the hype

This is the Android phone that convinced me to dump my iPhone X

OnePlus 6 Review
Bottom Line
The OnePlus 6 is a flagship killer that’s worthy of all of its hype. It's a phenomenal phone that manages to outshine much pricier flagships. You won’t be disappointed with it, especially not at its very reasonable starting price point of $529
Display
Design
Performance
Price
Battery
Pros
Ergonomic glass design with fantastic finishes
Blazing fast performance
Large bright display
Great lowlight performance and solid optics
Water resistant
Powerful speakerphone
3.5mm audio jack
Priced competitively
Solid battery life
Case selection
Cons
No wireless charging
Poor wired audio experience
4.8

OnePlus has been making lots of headlines. The company sold over one million OnePlus 6 smartphones within 22 days of launch. To top that off, OnePlus fans are so passionate, that they are willing to pay to be at product launches and willing to line up for hours to get their hands on a new model. This is no easy feat in 2018 by any means – and OnePlus’ fans enthusiasm certainly rivals the passion of Apple fanboys and girls. With all of that said, is the OnePlus 6 really worth all the hype?

Often when I test a new flagship Android flagship, I’m tempted to bin my iPhone X and make the jump. But there is always ultimately something holding me back. Yet, the OnePlus 6 has impressed me so much, that after nearly one month of using it, I’m ready to leave my iPhone X behind for good. Read on to see why.

Display

OnePlus 6 review - This flagship killer is worth all the hype 1
The OnePlus 6 housed inside of a sandstone case

The large 6.28” full optic AMOLED display on the OnePlus 6 sports a 19:9 aspect ratio that really hits the sweet spot. The display is large with vibrant colors and it gets plenty bright, making it a pleasure to use – especially when watching movies. Meanwhile, its notch is minimal and not very distracting. With all of that said, is this the best display you’ll find on a flagship? No. But it’s really good, and it’s certainly a pleasure having all that screen real estate available to you throughout the day.

Design

Despite the generous amount of display real estate that the OnePlus 6 is strutting, it manages to stay super svelte and it’s curved in all of the right places – making it comfortable to grip and hold in your hand without being unwieldy. This is impressive when you consider that the OnePlus 6 is made of a glass design – which for many phones, makes the device slippery to grip. But OnePlus has done a beautiful job crafting the phone with a choice of 3 brilliant finishes which help make the phone easier to grip. The finishes also look fantastic. The mirror black finish looks and feels like ceramic, while the silk white screams elegance.

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OnePlus 6 with the mirror black finish option

Accessories

In addition, the company has an awesome selection of slim fitting cases that will protect the device well, while keeping its form factor slim. You can choose from a carbon fiber case, a wood grain case, a sandstone case, and several other choices which all pop. For so many phone manufacturers, cases are an afterthought, but not with Oneplus.

Performance

OnePlus has a great track record for coming out with phones that offer excellent performance, and the OnePlus 6 does not disappoint. Running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor and 8GB of RAM (there is also a 6GB RAM model available), the phone blew through our AnTuTu benchmark tests and managed to dethrone both the pricier Samsung Galaxy S9+ and Huawei Mate 10 Pro.

OnePlus’s OxygenOS keeps things simple and clean and helps keep performance top notch too. In general, day to day performance is excellent and the phone is a pleasure to use. We haven’t experienced any lags. And like with the OnePlus 5T, Face Unlock is faster than we’ve experienced on any other device to date. As a matter of fact, it makes the iPhone X’s face ID seem downright sluggish in comparison.

Cameras

Perhaps the weakest area of the OnePlus 5T was its camera. Fortunately, the camera on the OnePlus 6 has been vastly improved over the OnePlus 5T and it can stand on its own against the iPhone X. Actually, in many ways, it outshines the iPhone X – particularly in low light situations. That’s pretty incredible when you consider that the iPhone X costs practically double.

As a matter of fact, the more I use its dual-camera – the more I’ve grown to appreciate it. You can get some great DSLR- like shots with the OnePlus 6’s camera, and these are shots that you could not achieve with the 5T.

Meanwhile, the front-facing camera can take portrait photos, it performs well in low light conditions, and it has a convenient wide angle lens which works well for taking “groupies”. It’s not the best front facing camera out there, but it’s very good. Overall, the cameras on the OnePlus 6 are not going to dethrone most other Android flagships, but they’re very capable.

Next page: Call Quality, Battery Life, and Bottom Line

Call Quality

Call quality is great, but we’re especially impressed with its loudspeaker phone – callers said they could hear me loud and clear, even without having to be too close to the phone. This is often an afterthought on so many smartphones nowadays.

Battery life

Battery life is very solid, especially when you consider how much performance the 6 offers. We’ve been getting a full day of active use out of it. Unfortunately, OnePlus has decided to omit wireless charging from the device, which they say they did to help keep the cost down. Fair enough, but we’d like to see wireless charging be included in future models. To help compensate for the lack of wireless charging, they are offering a Dash Charge cable which can provide the phone with a full day’s charge in just 30 minutes. That’s quite convenient – unfortunately, Dash Charge only works if you’re using their proprietary cable.

Bottom Line

We’re a bit sad that OnePlus didn’t throw in wireless charging with the OnePlus 6, and we’re a bit miffed about the mediocre sound that comes through the phone on wired headphones. Also, the camera could still use some more improvement to compete with other flagships. Despite those few gripes, the OnePlus 6 is a phenomenal phone that manages to outshine most other much pricier flagships.

After spending nearly one month with the OnePlus 6, we’re confident enough to say that the OnePlus 6 is a home run. Heck, the OnePlus 6 is good enough to make an iPhone X user switch to Android – and that speaks volumes. It’s no wonder that other phone manufacturers are struggling to catch up with them.

Buy now from OnePlus

The OnePlus 6 is a flagship killer that’s worthy of all of its hype. You won’t be disappointed with it, especially not at its very reasonable pricepoint of $529. The 8GB RAM / 128GB storage model can be picked up for $579.

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