“OnePlus 6T has the biggest display and battery yet on the series, and marks the debut of the Screen Unlock in-display fingerprint sensor and an all-new UI”
OnePlus 6T has finally been launched, after weeks of teasers and leaks, at an event in New York. The all-new OnePlus 6T sports the biggest display yet on a OnePlus smartphone and is the brand’s first to feature an in-display fingerprint sensor, which it calls Screen Unlock. It also has a bigger battery than its predecessors and comes with a minimum of 128GB storage, meaning the 64GB option as base storage has been phased out. The launch — which was rescheduled to a day earlier in order to avoid a clash with Apple’s event on October 30th — will be followed by an India-specific event where the OnePlus 6T price in India will be revealed.
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OnePlus 6T price
The OnePlus 6T price starts at $549 (~Rs 40,000) for the base 6GB RAM + 128GB variant. Its 8GB RAM + 128GB storage and 8GB RAM + 256GB storage options are priced at $547 (~Rs 42,500) and $629 (~Rs 46,000), respectively. The company is also making its foray into the US smartphone market by releasing the OnePlus 6T on the T-Mobile network. The smartphone goes on sale in India and the US on November 1st, while Europe release will be on November 6th. The OnePlus 6T price in India is expected to be a shade lower than its US pricing.
OnePlus 6T specifications and features
The new OnePlus 6T has a 6.41-inch Optic AMOLED screen with full-HD+ resolution (1,080 x 2,340 pixels), 19.5:9 aspect ratio, and 402ppi pixel density. OnePlus claims the smartphone has a screen-to-body ratio of 86 percent and the display is protected by Gorilla Glass 6. The iPhone X-like notch has given way to a smaller waterdrop notch; users will be able to hide the notch under the Settings app.
Among the new features of the OnePlus 6T display are Screen Calibration, Night and Reading Mode, and Adaptive Brightness. Screen Calibration allows users to choose between sRGB, DCI-P3, Adaptive Mode, and Custom Colour, apart from the default. Night Mode reduces blue light on the display in order to decrease the strain on the eyes under lowlight conditions, while Reading Mode eliminates colour entirely to make long reads easier on the eyes.
Coming to the phone’s highlight, the OnePlus 6T Screen Unlock uses an optical in-display fingerprint sensor and can unlock the handset in just 0.34 seconds, the company says. The response time for the in-display fingerprint sensor will decrease over time as the self-learning algorithm is familiarised with the user’s fingerprint and usage. It can also be used to fire up apps — just continue pressing on the display after it unlocks and an app shortcut bar will appear. This bar can house apps of your choosing and swiping up on the app will launch it. Apart from Screen Unlock, the smartphone has Face Unlock that can unlock the handset in 0.4 seconds.
The smartphone is powered by the flagship 2.8GHz octa-core Snapdragon 845 SoC, with Adreno 630 GPU to handle the graphics. Qualcomm says the graphics will, in fact, be 30 percent faster than those of the predecessor. OnePlus 6T comes with up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of internal storage, with no support for storage expansion. Like its predecessor, new model has a body made of glass and comes in the glossy Mirror Black and matte-finish Midnight Black options. OnePlus says the 3D-contoured glass on the back goes through 40 steps to make sure it complies with the “highest standards for strength, clarity, and beauty.”
OnePlus 6T camera upgrades are among the highlights of the device, the company claims. The primary camera setup on the back has two vertically-aligned sensors. The primary 16MP Sony IMX 519 sensor having f/1.7 aperture, 1.22-micron pixel size, OIS, EIS and 4K video recording support as well as a secondary Sony IMX 376K sensor with 20MP resolution, f/1.7 aperture and 1-micron size; this setup is backed by dual-LED flash. The selfie camera has a 16MP Sony IMX 371 sensor has f/2.0 aperture, 1-micron pixel size, EIS, and 1080p videos.
Battery capacity of the OnePlus 6T is 3,700mAh, making it the biggest yet on a OnePlus smartphone — the company says it achieved this by letting go on the 3.5mm earphone jack. The battery supports 5V 4A fast-charging and can deliver charge worth a full day in 30 minutes. Sensors onboard include accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, and electronic compass. Like previous OnePlus phones, there will be an Alert Slider on the side. For audio, the smartphone has a bottom firing speaker Dirac HD Sound and Dirac Power Sound support. Connectivity options on the smartphone include dual-SIM (nano), 4G LTE, dual-band Wi-Fi with 2×2 MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, USB Type-C 2.0, and GPS (BeiDou, Galilio, GLONASS).
On the software side, OnePlus 6T has an all-new gesture-based UI that is based on Android 9 Pie. The new OxygenOS version makes use of the latest Android flavour’s full screen gestures to provides “a more intuitive user experience” and saves “screen space by replacing the navigation bar with display swipes.” Some of the other software features on the OnePlus 6T are Lift to Wake, Quick Launch, Double Tap to Lock, and 3-finger screenshots. The company will soon roll out an update that will allow users to turn on Google Assistant by long-pressing the Power button.
There is a new Gaming Mode feature that makes alerts from third-party messaging and calling apps appear as small floating notifications. Users can also make them appear as white text on top of the display. More importantly, the smartphone has a Smart Boost feature that the company claims can increase app launch speeds by 5-20 percent by storing data from frequently used apps in the phone’s RAM. Smart Boost is optimised for apps that demand large amounts of input/ output data and is presently used on gaming apps.
