OnePlus 6 First Impressions: Premium Build And Speed That You Need

OnePlus 6 Rear View

It’s official and the  OnePlus 6 has been launched in London a short while ago. This is one of the most anticipated phones of the year and is expected to take the OnePlus legacy and brand to new heights. We have the OnePlus 6 Mirror Black variant with 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage with us, here are our first impressions of this device.

First up, a quick summary of what the OnePlus 6 brings to the table

  • All-glass design, featuring Corning® Gorilla® Glass 5
  • 6.28” Full Optic AMOLED Display with a 19:9 Aspect Ratio Octa-core Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 845 processor (up to 2.8GHz) Up to 8GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage
  • Dual rear camera system: 16 megapixel camera with a f/1.7 aperture, supported by a 20 megapixel camera
  • Face Unlock: One of the fastest facial recognition technologies on the market
  • Oxygen OS based on Android 8.1
  • OnePlus’ unique alert slider allows you to effortlessly switch between silent, vibration and ring
  • Dash Charge – a day’s power in half an hour
  • OnePlus 6 is available in a total of three colors with glass design: Midnight Black, Mirror Black and Silk White

OnePlus 6 Mirror Black

Now that we got the innards all listed out. Let’s talk about the crafting and build. OnePlus is known to deliver great premium experiences with their devices using good design elements and top of the line materials to make devices, the OnePlus 6 is no exception to this. When we take the device out of the box, the first thing that catches our attention is the brilliant all-glass body. The design has been completely overhauled after the OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 5T and what you get is a leaner and taller device that feels like you are holding a fortune in your hands. The horizon line which is now a OnePlus family feature is there.

The OnePlus 6 is the first OnePlus device to feature an all-glass body. Due to its strength and how the overall design has been carefully thought out, OnePlus has used Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on both the front and the back of the device, shaping it with slight curves to create an uninterrupted look and feel. This feels great to hold and use and yes, heads do turn when you pull it out of your pocket.

OnePlus 6 Side View

The Alert slider has moved sides and is now on the right side of the device along with the power button. This means that the SIM tray and the volume rocker are on the left side. The sensors, notification light, the  and the front camera are housed in a notch that sits right on the center of the top of the display.  There is a small chin at the bottom of the display, but that is necessary to tie in the front and the back of this all- glass device.

OnePlus 6 Bottom

The bottom side houses the  3.5″earphone jack, the USB Type-C socket for charging and connectivity and a speaker grill. Moving to the back side we see the dual camera setup, flash and fingerprint scanner all right in the center of the phone. The dual camera setup is now vertically aligned for the first time in a OnePlus device. The camera bump is very thin and does not jut out as much as the OnePlus 5 or the 5T had them bulging out. The glass back is very smooth and reflective. We recommend that you use the back cover that is present in the box. It will stand you in very good stead.

The device packs the powerful Qualcomm ® Snapdragon™ 845, taking advantage of the increased power and efficiency of Qualcomm’s latest chipset. Together with the Adreno 630  GPU, the OnePlus 6 is powered to be smoother than any other OnePlus device. With up to 8 GB of LPDDR4X RAM, you can run a large number of apps simultaneously, without noticing a single second of lag and switch between apps with ease. We will be putting the device through performance testing and multitasking evaluations in our detailed review that is coming soon.

The OnePlus 6’s dual camera system features a 16MP main camera, supported by a 20MP secondary camera. With an f/1.7 aperture, the 16MP main camera has been bolstered by a 19% larger sensor and OIS for very good performance in a range of conditions, including low-light. We will be telling you more in the full review.

The OnePlus 6 captures 4K video in up to 60 frames per second. Electronic Image Stabilization compensates for shaky movements while recording. With the OnePlus 6, the company is introducing super slow motion mode, which can capture high-definition video at up to 480 frames per second. This will be interesting to try out.

The OnePlus 6 comes with a 3300 maH non-removable battery that supports Dash Charge. This means that you can be juiced up and running in under an hour and get going.

So all in all,  at the first glance it looks like OnePlus have their bases covered with OnePlus 6 in a premium and classy build and have all the innards to give you the speed you need. We will tell you more in our detailed review. Stay tuned.

About Shakthi

I am a Tech Blogger, Disability Activist, Keynote Speaker, Startup Mentor and Digital Branding Consultant. Also a McKinsey Executive Panel Member. Also known as @v_shakthi on twitter. Been around Tech for two decades now.

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