Photos and Features

Before getting into the OnePlus 6T we have to get it out of the box first. OnePlus packed it up in a box with a large 6 on the front and the OnePlus logo up in the top edge. Below that is a red band that wraps around the box keeping it closed. The band highlights the OnePlus community and how by now owning the 6T you are one of them. Around on the back of the box, the band repeats its quote about superior taste in the finest technology. Below that is a standard sticker with the barcodes for things like the phone itself, its serial number, two IMEI numbers, and the meid number. Those help with setting the phone up if in the store. The sticker also shows this as the Midnight Black model with 8 gigs of ram and 128GB of storage. There is a 256GB of storage model as well as 128GB models with 6GBs of ram. There is a special edition McLaren edition with 256GB of storage and 10GBs of ram as well but it is hard to come by at this point. The 8GB/128GB variation I’m testing is also the same configuration that is easiest to find and has been on sale.

When you pull off the red band and the slide on cover from the packaging right up on top of the 6T’s box is the phone itself. It comes with a peel-off sticker on the front that shows where the fingerprint scanner is and it sits in a tray formed to fit the phone perfectly. Once you pull that tray out there is a small note under the tray that is printed but in the handwriting of OnePlus co-Founder and CEO Pete Lau welcoming you to the community and pointing out that your feedback moves the company forward. This note reminds me of the cards you get with Razer products as well. It's clear that OnePlus is focused on the underdog community aspect where you don’t get things like this with Samsung phones for example. I’m impressed that they still have this focus and feel, they did the same thing on their early phones but the company and name have grown so much I’m happy to see that they haven’t changed.

Inside the box up under everything are the accessories just like every phone. OnePlus has that bright red charging cable that they have had for a while now, I like it because it stands out from all of the other cords you might have in your car or on your desk and you know right away it is the cord that supports the 4 amp fast charging. Sadly the normal 6T doesn’t get the 30-watt warp charging the McLaren Edition and OnePlus 7 have though. The charger cord has a USB type-C on one end and a standard A on the other. That end plugs into the included AC adapter which is a little big and bulky but it is small enough to at least not block a second plug on a power outlet or strip which is the main thing I care about. There is also a Type-C headphone adapter which has that same white and red theme as well.

Up under the accessories OnePlus gives you all of the documentation but they pack it all together inside of the included case for the 6T. My OnePlus 3 was the first phone that I had come with a screen protector on it by default and seeing the included case made me feel the same as I did back them with the 3. Not everyone wants to rush and spend even more money on their phone right after buying the phone, not having to worry about protecting it right from the start is a huge relief. Not to mention it saving money. As for the documentation that was tucked inside, you get a card with the SIM card tool, a safety book, a manual, and one about the OnePlus Community.

So most phones have merged into a very similar style with just a few features now helping to set them apart. In the past, OnePlus has had a bottom row on the front of the phone with the android controls as well as a built-in thumbprint reader. The OnePlus 6 was their first model to drop that and extend the screen all the way down due to a built-in under screen fingerprint reader. The OnePlus 6T that I’m looking at is the successor to that model that made a few changes like dropping the headphone jack and making the “notch” at the top of the screen smaller. Speaking of, when you get a close look you can see that the front-facing camera is still at the top but the screen still extends up to the top of the phone. OnePlus shipped the 6T with a screen protector from the factory which I think is awesome, the included screen protector on my OnePlus 3 lasted years eventually saving the phone from a large scratch where I was able to then pull it off to a like new screen. The front facing camera is a 16MP model Sony Exmor IM371 which is the same one used on the OnePlus 6, 5T, and 5. It has a focal ratio of F/2.0 and is capable of 1080p at 30 FPS.

Around on the back, the 6T has a little more helping it stand out. Our model is the black version. My photo of the phone gives it more of a metallic looking finish but the phone actually has a really nice flat black finish. All of the sides are beveled with the long side edges having a lot more of a curve than the top and bottom for better in hand comfort. The overall phone dimensions are 157.5x74.8mm which for comparison the new S10+ is 157.6x74.1mm so extremely close in size. It's hard to see but OnePlus also put their logo on the back in a gloss black which looks great against the flat black. It is right above the sticker on the back with the IMEI and MEID numbers. Above all of that, they have the rear camera centered with the LED flash at the bottom and the dual rear cameras above that one on top of each other. The cameras are slightly raised over the back of the phone, but not much. It is similar to both the Note 9 and the S9+. For rear cameras, there is the main camera and a secondary. The main one is a Sony IMX 519 which is a 16MP with an aperture/focal ratio of f/1.7 then the secondary is a Sony IMX 376K which is a 20MP that is also f/1.7. The 16MP camera uses a larger sensor with a 1.22 µm pixel size vs the 1 µm of the secondary camera.

Taking a look at the right side of the 6T gives us a look at the overall thickness of the phone. At 8.2mm thick it is thinner than the new OnePlus 7 Pro and thicker than the Samsung S10+. It is thinner than the S9+ and Note 9 that I’ve also been testing alongside of the 6T. This edge doesn’t have very much going on, the power button is there and then one of OnePlus’s signature features, a switch that lets you flip between silent, vibrate, and ring modes.

The top edge only has one small microphone hole and right at the edge of the glass and the casing above the front-facing camera there is a small slit with the ear speaker but it isn’t visible at all without looking very closely.

The left edge of the 6T has the pop out SIM card tray which has support for two SIMs. Then below that is the volume up and down buttons.

Down on the bottom edge, the 6T has two sets of speaker holes and then a USB type-C plug for charging and data sync. Only one of the speaker ports is for the build in bottom facing speaker, the other is where they have the microphone is tucked away. You will also note that there is no longer a headphone jack like the OnePlus 6, you have to use the included Type-C to headphone adapter.

The 6T has a 6.41-inch screen or 6.24 if you account for the rounded corners of the display. It runs at a 19.5:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 2340 x 1080 giving the display a total PPI of 402. The display is an Optic AMOLED screen running 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 6 covering it. With the screen on you can see the notch around the front-facing camera better with that teardrop shape but I was immediately impressed with how close the screen gets to the side edges as well as the top other than around the camera. The bottom edge still has a little bit of a bezel.

I mentioned it when I talked about the packaging for the 6T but I can’t say it enough, I love that OnePlus includes a phone case with their phone. It is a simple transparent rubber case and it isn’t spectacular in any way, but it is free and protects the 6T. Combined with the pre-installed screen protector you shouldn’t have to worry about scratches and most damage right away. The case leaves openings on the end for the speaker holes and is designed to form fit over the power and volume buttons. While not very thick, the case is thick enough to also keep the camera glass off of a table when you set the phone down as well which is always a concern when the camera protrudes even if it is a small amount like the 6T.

Here is a look at the case after being installed. It has a transparent smoked color and as expected it fits perfectly. The only hole on the sides is for the SIM card tray which I’m surprised they bothered with, a lot of cases just cover those, but if you need to swap SIMs the included case will still allow that easily. On the bottom around the Type-C charging port, the case left extra room to make sure charging cables will still plug all the way in. In that same photo, you can also see how OnePlus went thicker on the corners to help protect the screen without making the entire case feel bulky. Even with the case installed you can still see the sticker on the back of our 6T which gives you a better idea of the overall transparency of the phone.

So knowing I would be testing against the Samsung S9+ and Note 9 I also got a few pictures with both of those next to the OnePlus 6T. The Note 9 is in blue and the S9+ has that rose color. I will say that I love that Samsung offers a few color options which help give a little uniqueness. OnePlus does have the McLaren 6T which has that carbon fiber and orange finish which would fit my own personal tastes, but beyond that, the 6T is only available in gloss or midnight black aka gloss or flat finishes. The picture of the three phones stacked shows that they are all similar in thickness favoring the OnePlus 6T by about half a mm. Its shape is very different, Samsung has their rounded glass on the front of both phones so the sides have more of a full round shape where the 6T has more of a curve on the back than the front edge. They all have USB Type-C plugs as expected but Samsung has kept the headphone jacks where the 6T dropped it. The top-down look shows how similar the S9+ and 6T are in overall size with the Note 9 only very slightly larger. Seriously, remember when “normal” phones where smaller and the Note like used to look huge, now all phones are basically at the same size as the Note lineup.

With the screens on all three turned on you can really get a better idea of how the notch around the camera and the thin bezels help fit a big screen. Both the Note 9 and S9+ have a larger bezel at the bottom of the phone and they both have a bezel at the top which the 6T didn’t.