OnePlus 6T Review

June 17, 2019 | Amy Davies | Rating star Rating star Rating star Rating star

Introduction

The OnePlus 6T is the previous flagship model from mid-range manufacturer, OnePlus. Announced in November 2018, it follows on from the OnePlus 6 which was launched in May 2018.

Some of the upgrades to the phone are relatively minor, being a bridging point between the older model and the recently announced OnePlus 7.

One of the big differences is to the display, which now features a much smaller notch design which takes up much less space than on the previous OnePlus 6 to make more use of the screen. A fingerprint scanner has also been embedded directly in the screen, too.

Both the front and rear cameras are the same as found on the original OnePlus 6, giving you a 16 megapixel and 20 megapixel dual f/1.7 device (which work together to produce your images, rather than being able to be used independently). The front camera is a 16 megapixel f/2.0 device.

Video specifications include 4K recording at up to 60fps, as well as super slow motion video.

Other differences to take note of are the removal of the headphone jack and a slightly increased battery life. You can buy the phone in two variants – 6GB RAM with 128GB storage, or 8GB RAM with 128 or 256GB of storage.

The OnePlus 6T has been kindly loaned to us by Vodafone, who offers the device on a number of different contracts. You can also buy the OnePlus 6T outright priced from £499.

Ease of Use

OnePlus 6T
Front of the OnePlus 6T

Outwardly, there’s very few differences between the OnePlus 6 and the OnePlus 6T, while most elements of the phone’s operation also remain either the same or very similar. The biggest noticeable difference is the much smaller notch which houses the front-facing camera – if you’re someone who doesn’t like notch designs, you might be pleased to see a reduction in size.

Included in the box is a screen protector (ready fitted to the phone), plus a rubberized case for the phone. Both of these things detract from the sleek lines and cleanest view of the screen possible, but it is probably a good idea if you have a tendency to drop or scratch your phone. Other phone cases can be bought separately, too.

The camera itself is the same as found on the OnePlus 6. That means, that it uses a dual camera setup, with one 20 megapixel sensor and one 16 megapixel sensor. Both sensors are joined by an f/1.7 lens. Unlike other phones on the market, such as the iPhone XS or the Huawei P20 Pro, the second sensor/lens is not used as a zoom, but instead to help with detail, as well as when using the One Plus 6T’s portrait mode.

OnePlus 6T
Rear of the OnePlus 6T

Using the OnePlus 6T's camera is very simple. To access it, you can swipe up from the bottom right hand corner of the lock screen (when holding the phone in portrait orientation) to go straight into shooting mode. By default, it will open in the Photo mode.

If the phone is already unlocked, there is an icon on the home screen, again found in the bottom right hand corner by default through which you can access the native camera app. The native camera app has a reasonable degree of flexibility, offering a simple interface, which can be expanded if you want to get a little more advanced.

Another way to launch the camera app is to double tap the power button in quick succession. You can also set the OnePlus 6T to automatically take a photo when the camera app launches, too, if you prefer.

OnePlus 6T
The OnePlus 6T In-hand

As standard, there are four modes to shoot from which are displayed along the bottom of the camera app. These are Photo, Video, Portrait and Night, which can be moved between by swiping right or left on the screen, or tapping the word of the mode.

When in the standard Photo mode, your options are fairly basic, but you can choose between three different aspect ratios (4:3, 16:9 and 1:1), as well as switching on or off a self timer and a flash. You’ll also see “1x” in a circle – tap this to zoom to 2x (but note that this is just a digital zoom). Alternatively, you can pinch outwards on the screen to activate the zoom, beyond the standard 2x offered.

You can tap around the screen to change the focus point, which will also have an effect on exposure, depending on the light underneath the active focus point. If you want to adjust brightness further, a slider pops up just next to the focus point selector, which you can use to increase or decrease exposure brightness.

OnePlus 6T
The OnePlus 6T's Camera Mode

If you swipe up from the bottom area of the screen, you’ll be presented with some additional shooting options to take advantage of, such as Time-lapse, Panorama and Slow Motion. Perhaps the most interesting to most photographers, however, is the “Pro” mode.

With this mode you can change a number of shooting parameters, such as ISO, white balance, shutter speed, focusing and exposure compensation. You can also switch on raw format shooting, too (which will be in the universal DNG format). A level, to help you ensure that landscape shots are straight, also appears when shooting in Pro mode (and does not in standard Photo mode).

Also in the Shooting Mode menu, you’ll find the Settings menu, whereby you can change of number of the camera’s key settings. Some of the settings are General, such as “Store location data”, which others only apply to certain shooting modes, such as Portrait and Pro.

OnePlus 6T
The OnePlus 6T's Shooting Modes

Going back to the standard shooting view, Portrait mode is something that we’re starting to see on almost all current smartphones. In essence it creates a fake shallow depth of field effect to imitate the look of shooting with a DSLR or large-sensor camera.

To use it is fairly simple, you simply point the OnePlus 6T at the subject you want to shoot – despite the name, it doesn’t have to just be humans, or even living things, you can also use it to create shallow depth of field effects with still life subjects, such as food. It’s important to make sure the camera has selected the subject you wanted it to – so it’s worth tapping to ensure the focus point is over the correct part of the frame.

OnePlus 6T
The OnePlus 6T

If there’s not enough light in your shot, or you’re not close enough to the subject, a warning will display on the screen to warn that the effect can’t work. In the settings menu, you can set the OnePlus 6T to additionally save a “normal” version of the photo – without the shallow depth of field effect applied – it’s worth doing this just in case something goes wrong with the effect. Unlike with some other devices on the market, it’s not possible to choose a different focus point during the editing process, or to increase or decrease the background blur.

Night mode is something we’ve seen in a few different phones of late – including the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and the Google Pixel 3. Here, the Night Mode is the same as found in the Pixel 3, shooting a set of images and merging them together – there’s no need to use a tripod to keep the phone steady.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 20 megapixel JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 5Mb.

The OnePlus 6T is capable of producing some very nice images, especially when the light is good. Phones like this demonstrate that you don’t necessarily need the most expensive model on the market to have access to a good quality smartphone camera.

In good light, colours are well-saturated, while the overall impression of detail is very good. If you examine images very closely, it’s possible to see the kind of image smoothing which is very common for smartphones – but unless you’re planning on printing out your images at very large sizes, it’s unlikely to be too much of an issue.

It’s great to be able to shoot in raw format should you wish to take a little more control in post-production, while having the option to adjust certain camera parameters is also appealing for those who are a little more advanced.

Under artificial light, the OnePlus 6T’s automatic white balance setting errs a little towards yellow or warm tones, but it’s not too bad, and can be corrected by changing the white balance setting in Pro mode if you’re finding it particularly problematic.

Portrait mode renders shallow depth of field effects fairly well, again especially when shooting in good light. There’s not too much in the way of noticeable obvious fringing, and certainly if your main concern is posting to Instagram etc, the effect is subtle enough to almost look “real”.

Having Night mode available is great, but in practice it doesn’t seem to work as well as those found on the Google and Huawei models. There’s some visible blurring when shooting handheld, while the detail rendered is not as high.

Noise

JPEG

RAW

ISO 100 (100% Crop)

ISO 100 (100% Crop)

iso100.jpg iso100raw.jpg

ISO 200 (100% Crop)

ISO 200 (100% Crop)

iso200.jpg iso200raw.jpg

ISO 400 (100% Crop)

ISO 400 (100% Crop)

iso400.jpg iso400raw.jpg

ISO 800 (100% Crop)

ISO 800 (100% Crop)

iso800.jpg iso800raw.jpg

ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

iso1600.jpg iso1600raw.jpg

ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

iso3200.jpg iso3200raw.jpg

Focal Range

Optical Zoom - 1x

focal_range1.jpg

Flash

Flash Off

whitewall-noflash.jpg

Flash On

whitewall-flash.jpg

Rear Camera - Flash Off

rear-camera-noflash.jpg

Rear Camera - Flash On

rear-camera-flash.jpg

Selfie - Flash On

selfie-camera.jpg

Macro

macro.jpg

Night

longexposure.jpg
night-mode-shot.jpg

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the OnePlus 6T camera, which were all taken using the 16 megapixel JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample RAW Images

The OnePlus 6T enables users to capture RAW and JPEG format files. We've provided some OnePlus RAW (DNG) samples for you to download (thumbnail images shown below are not 100% representative).

Sample Movie & Video

This is a sample movie at the highest quality setting of 3840x2160 pixels at 60 frames per second. Please note that this 17 second movie is 250Mb in size.

Product Images

OnePlus 6T

OnePlus 6T

OnePlus 6T

OnePlus 6T

OnePlus 6T

OnePlus 6T

OnePlus 6T

OnePlus 6T

OnePlus 6T

OnePlus 6T

OnePlus 6T

Conclusion

There’s a huge amount of choice in the smartphone market right now, which is great news for keeping prices down.

The OnePlus 6T occupies mid-range territory, not being one of the most expensive models you can buy, while also not being the cheapest either.

In terms of the camera, you get a well-rounded set of specifications. Enthusiast photographers will appreciate the capability to adjust certain shooting parameters and shoot in raw format, while those who are beginners or just want to treat their phone like a point and shoot, will also be pleased with the simple operation of the standard shooting modes.

The OnePlus 6T however stops short of being extraordinary – and while that is perhaps understandable for the price, there are other models on the market which are probably more deserving of attention. While image quality is good in bright light, using the Night mode is not as impressive as on other devices, in general.

There’s also the fact that there’s no zoom lens here – something which is starting to become increasingly more common. You do have the option to “zoom”, but it’s digital and therefore best avoided unless you don’t have the option to get closer to your subject. On the plus side, the second lens on the OnePlus 6T helps to create fairly pleasing shallow depth-of-field effect portraits which work well on Instagram or other social media sites.

Compared with the older OnePlus 6 – which is no longer available to buy directly from the company – the camera remains pretty much the same, but there are other improvements elsewhere – such as to battery life and a reduced notch size.

Overall the OnePlus 6T is worthy of your attention if your budget is in the mid-range, but you may also want to check out other mid-range offerings such as the Honor View 20. Alternatively, you might want to consider saving up a little longer and putting your cash towards something at the higher-end, such as the OnePlus 6T, Google Pixel 3 or Samsung S9.

4 stars

Ratings (out of 5)
Design 4
Features 4
Ease-of-use 5
Image quality 4
Value for money 4.5

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the OnePlus 6T.

Apple iPhone XR

The Apple iPhone XR is the cheapest of the three new iPhones released in 2018, sacrificing the telephoto lens and higher-resolution screen that the XS models offer. Read our in-depth Apple iPhone XR review to find out if it's still worth considering...

Apple iPhone Xs

The Apple iPhone XS is the 2018 update of Apple's best ever selling phone, last year's iPhone X. Read our Apple iPhone XS review to find out what this latest version offers and if it's the right smartphone for keen photographers...

Google Pixel 3

The brand new Google Pixel 3 smartphone offers photographers a 12 megapixel sensor, 5.5-inch FHD+ screen, wide-angle selfies, Portrait Mode, and the clever Night Sight mode for low-light hand-held shooting. Read our in-depth Google Pixel 3 review to find out just what it's capable of...

Google Pixel 3 XL

The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3XL are new flagship smartphones from Google. New features for photographers include Top Shot, which uses AI to help you capture the perfect photo every time, Super Res Zoom, which produces sharp details when you zoom, and Night Sight, which lets you take natural-looking photos…

Google Pixel 3a

Do you want the same excellent camera from the flagship Pixel 3 but at a much lower price? Of course you do! Then look no further than the brand new Pixel 3a, which features exactly the same camera module as its big brother, including the innovative Night Sight and Portrait modes, but at almost half the price. Read our Google Pixel 3a review to find out if this is all the smartphone camera that you actually need...

Honor 20 Pro

The Honor 20 Pro is a mid-range smartphone with flagship pretensions, aiming to take on £$1000 devices at a much lower-price point whilst delivering similar levels of performance, specification and quality. Does it succeed? Find out now by reading our in-depth Honor 20 Pro review, complete with full-size sample images and videos.

Honor View 20

The Honor View 20 is a mid-range smartphone with flagship specs and performance, with a 48 megapixel sensor, a “hole punch” to house the front-facing camera, and dedicated Night, Portrait and Pro shooting modes aimed at photographers. Is this all the smartphone that you really need? Find out now by reading our in-depth Honor View 20 review, complete with full-size sample images and videos.

Huawei Mate 20 Pro

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is simply the best smartphone for photographers that we've ever reviewed - find out why by reading our in-depth Huawei Mate 20 Pro review, complete with full-size sample images and videos...

Huawei P30 Lite

The Huawei P30 Lite is a new mid-range smartphone that offers a lot of features for keen photographers. It has a triple camera setup with a 48 megapixel wide-angle lens, an 8 megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens, and a 2 megapixel bokeh lens. Find out if this is all the smartphone camera that you need by reading our in-depth Huawei P30 Lite review, complete with full-size sample images and videos...

Huawei P30 Pro

The Huawei P30 Pro is a flagship smartphone that aims to rewrite the rules of photography. The P30 Pro is equipped with a new Leica Quad Camera System, including a 40MP main camera with the HUAWEI SuperSpectrum Sensor, a 20MP ultra-wide angle camera, an 8MP telephoto camera, the ToF Camera…

Nokia 7 Plus

OnePlus 6

The OnePlus 6 is the latest flagship smartphone on the block, but this one doesn't cost the earth, retailing for about half the price of the big players. Can it really take on Apple, Samsung and the rest though? Find out now by reading our in-depth OnePlus 6 review...

Samsung Galaxy Note 9

The Galaxy Note 9 is Samsung's latest flagship smartphone, boasting a 6.4-inch screen, dual 12-megapixel cameras with dual-aperture control, 2x optical zoom, 4K video at 60fps and super slow motion video at 960fps, and internal memory up to 512GB. Take a look at our in-depth Samsung Galaxy Note 9 review to find out if this is the best smartphone camera for avid photographers...

Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus

The Galaxy S10 Plus is the best smartphone that Samsung have ever made, but is it also the best for keen photographers? Find out now by reading our expert Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus review, complete with full-size sample images and videos...

Sony Xperia 1

The Xperia 1 is the first ever Sony smartphone to borrow technology from the company's successful Alpha range of mirrorless cameras, including the very popular Eye AF feature and the latest Bionz X processor. Could this be the ultimate smartphone for photographers? Find out now by reading our in-depth Sony Xperia 1 review, complete with full-size sample images and videos...

Sony Xperia XZ3

The Sony Xperia XZ3 is a flagship smartphone with a 19 megapixel camera, 4K HDR Movie recording, 960fps Super slow motion in Full HD, and AI predictive capture.Are there enough features and performance to tempt keen photographers? Find out now by reading our in-depth Sony Xperia XZ3 review, complete with full-size sample images and videos...

Review Roundup

Reviews of the OnePlus 6T from around the web.

techradar.com »

The OnePlus 6T is the most accomplished phone we’ve ever seen from the company, and a bunch of new features, including an in-screen fingerprint scanner and a larger battery, add up to make this one of the best phones you can buy right now.
Read the full review »

trustedreviews.com »

The OnePlus 6T looks to improve on the already excellent OnePlus 6 with a larger display, smaller notch, bigger battery and new fingerprint technology. Is it enough to take on Huawei Mate 20 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S9, iPhone XS Max and Galaxy Note 9? While the OnePlus 6T has been replaced by both the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro, you can still buy it from the OnePlus site. Saying that the only models still available are actually pricier
Read the full review »

tomsguide.com »

After years of releasing affordable, stylish Android phones, OnePlus is now pushing boundaries with the OnePlus 6T, the first smartphone to sport an in-display fingerprint sensor in the U.S. The OnePlus 6T's magical sensor works like a charm and makes us wish other smartphones would add this option in addition to facial recognition.
Read the full review »

Specifications

Basic parameters

Dimensions

157.5 x 74.8 x 8.2 mm

Weight

6.5 ounces (185 g)

Material

Glass

Colors

Mirror Black / Midnight Black

Operating System

OxygenOS based on Android™ Pie

CPU

Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 845 (Octa-core, 10nm, up to 2.8 GHz), within AIE

GPU

Adreno 630

Vibration

Haptic vibration motor

RAM

6 GB / 8 GB / 10 GB LPDDR4X

Storage

128 GB / 256 GB UFS 2.1 2-LANE

Sensors

In-display Fingerprint Sensor, Hall, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity, RGB Ambient Light Sensor, Electronic Compass, Sensor Core

Ports

USB 2.0, Type-C, Support standard USB
Type-C Earphone, Dual Nano SIM Slot

Battery

3700 mAh (non-removable) Fast Charging (5V 4A)

Buttons

Gestures and on-screen navigation support Alert Slider

Audio

Bottom-facing speaker
Noise cancellation support
Dirac HD Sound®
Dirac Power Sound®

Unlock Options

In-display Fingerprint Sensor
Face Unlock

Connectivity

LTE/LTE-A

DL 5CA/256QAM, UL CA/64QAM, 4x4 MIMO
Supports up to DL CAT16/ UL CAT13 (1Gbps/150 Mbps) depending on carrier support

Bands

FDD LTE: Band 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/17/18/ 19/20/25/26/28/29/30/32/66/71
TDD LTE: Band 34/38/39/40/41/46
TD-SCDMA: Band 34/39
UMTS(WCDMA): Band 1/2/4/5/8/9/19
CDMA: BC0/BC1
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

Check carrier compatibility

Wi-Fi

2x2 MIMO, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4G/5G

Bluetooth

Bluetooth 5.0, support aptX and aptX HD

NFC

NFC enabled

Positioning

GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo

Display

6.41 inches (The corners of the screen are within a standard rectangle. Measured diagonally, the screen size is 6.41 inches in the full rectangle and 6.24 inches accounting for the rounded corners)

Resolution

2340 x 1080 pixels 402 ppi

Aspect Ratio

19.5:9

Type

Optic AMOLED (Support sRGB, DCI-P3)

Cover Glass

2.5D Corning® Gorilla® Glass 6

Features

Adaptive Mode
Reading Mode
Night Mode
Lift Up Display

Camera

Rear Camera - Main

Sensor: Sony IMX 519
Megapixels: 16
Pixel Size: 1.22 µm
OIS: Yes
EIS: Yes
Autofocus: PDAF
Aperture: f/1.7

Rear Camera - Secondary

Sensor: Sony IMX 376K
Megapixels: 20
Pixel Size: 1.0 µm
Autofocus: PDAF
Aperture: f/1.7

Flash

Dual LED Flash

Video

4K resolution video at 30/60 fps
1080P resolution video at 30/60 fps
720P resolution video at 30 fps

Super Slow Motion

1080p video at 240 fps
720p video at 480 fps

Features

AI Scene Detection, Portrait Mode, Pro Mode, Night Mode, Panorama, Time-Lapse, HDR, HQ, Studio Lighting, RAW Image

Front Camera

Front Camera

Sensor: Sony IMX 371
Megapixels: 16
Pixel Size: 1.0 µm
EIS: Yes
Autofocus: Fixed Focus
Aperture: f/2.0

Video

1080P resolution video at 30 fps
720P resolution video at 30 fps

Features

Portrait Mode, HDR, Screen Flash, Studio Lighting, Smile Capture, Face Retouching

Multimedia

Audio Supported Formats

MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, WAV, FLAC, APE, OGG, MID, M4A, IMY
Recording: WAV, AAC, AMR

Video Supported Formats

Playback: MKV, MOV, MP4, H.265(HEVC), AVI, WMV, TS, 3GP, FLV, WEBM
Recording: MP4

Image Supported Formats

Playback: JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF
Output: JPEG, PNG

In the box

1x OnePlus 6T
1x Screen Protector (pre-applied)
1x Case
1x OnePlus Fast Charge Type-C Cable
1x OnePlus Fast Charge Power Adapter
1x SIM Tray Ejector
1x Welcome Letter
1x Quick Start Guide / Poster
1x Safety Information
1x Type-C to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter

News

OnePlus are unveiling the new OnePlus 6T flagship smartphone on October 30 at Pier 36 in New York City.

OnePlus Press Release

Are you ready to unlock the speed? We’re unveiling the new OnePlus 6T on October 30 at Pier 36 in New York City – and you can be there every step of the way. 

We’ll be livestreaming the entire event on oneplus.com and our social channels, so you can witness our latest flagship from the comfort of your own home. Follow our social channels for a reminder to tune in before the main event begins! 

Fancy an adventure? Be there in person to go hands-on with the OnePlus 6T and receive exclusive gifts. Limited-time early bird tickets go on sale October 8 at 13:00 BST. In the meantime, check out our launch mega-thread on the forums - it’s the perfect place to ask questions and get the latest updates on our launch event.

Preview Images

Ahead of our full review, here are some sample JPEG and Raw images and videos taken with the OnePlus 6T​ smartphone.​ The OnePlus 6T​ is a flagship smartphone with a 16 megapixel camera and 4K/60p video recording.

A gallery of sample images and videos taken with the OnePlus 6T smartphone.

OnePlus 6T Sample Images

Sample RAW Images

The OnePlus 6T enables users to capture RAW and JPEG format files. We've provided some OnePlus RAW (DNG) samples for you to download (thumbnail images shown below are not 100% representative).

Sample Movie & Video

This is a sample movie at the highest quality setting of 3840x2160 pixels at 60 frames per second. Please note that this 17 second movie is 250Mb in size.

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