As promised last month, OnePlus has officially introduced its newest flagship -- the OnePlus 6 -- at an event held in London. The OnePlus 6 phablet offers a commanding 6.3 inch screen that comes with a front side notch (as earlier confirmed by the Chinese phone maker more than a month ago), a sleek glass rear cover, and a starting price of $529. The smartphone will go on sale this coming May 22nd.
Let us tackle the basic specifications first -- as mentioned earlier, the OnePlus 6 is equipped with a 6.3 inch optic active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) display, with a resolution of 2,280 by 1,080 pixels and an aspect ratio of 19 to 9, and reinforced by 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 5. On the rear side sits a couple of cameras -- the main camera is a 16 megapixel Sony IMX 519 with an f/1.7 aperture, while the secondary camera is a 20 megapixel Sony IMX 376K. The set up can support 4K resolution video recording as well as super slow mo (1,080 p video at 240 frames per second, 720 p at 480 fps). On the front side is a 16 megapixel Sony IMX 371 sensor (f/2.0 aperture).
As expected, the OnePlus 6 boasts Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 (eight cores, up to 2.8 GigaHertz), aided by an Adreno 630 graphics processor unit (GPU), 6 gigabytes of random access memory (RAM), and at least 64 gigabytes of built in storage. Other major features include a fingerprint scanner, a generous 3,300 mAh battery (non-removable, with support for fast charging), and OxygenOS based on Google’s Android 8.0 Oreo mobile operating system.
Regarding the notch, the OnePlus 6 joins other high profile notched smartphone releases like LG’s G7 ThinQ and Huawei’s P20 flagships in giving users the option of hiding the notch behind a black bar. The notch design may still prove divisive among today’s mobile users but at least OnePlus allows people the best of both worlds.
Moreover, the glass rear cover may be a welcome addition for some of the Chinese phone maker’s fans. Past OnePlus devices had featured an aluminum back, and while there is nothing inherently wrong with that choice, the OnePlus 6’s glass rear does offer a new alternative. But it is also quite possible that moving forward, OnePlus will be going for an all glass design for future flagship offerings.
With regards to software performance, the OnePlus 6 happens to be one of the first Android powered mobile devices to come with full support for Android P beta (find out which other devices have made the list). Previous OnePlus models have been consistently impressive when it comes to processing speed, and this year’s flagship is looking to continue that streak. After all, the company had earlier hinted that the OnePlus 6 will deliver “the speed you need” in its invite.
As mentioned earlier, the OnePlus 6 will hit store shelves on May 22nd at a price of $529, in color options of Mirror Black, Midnight Black, or Silk White.
