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With the OnePlus 6 going on sale from today in India and from tomorrow in other parts of the world, the first batch of reviews of the handset is now live. Coming six months after the OnePlus 5T, a lot rides on the OnePlus 6 especially in terms of camera performance.
So, how good is the OnePlus 6? Is it a worthy improvement over its successor? Has OnePlus finally managed to nail the camera performance with its latest flagship killer? Let’s see what the reviews have to say.
OnePlus 6 Review Roundup
The Verge
The title of the review aptly sums up OnePlus 6 — ‘New Phone, Same Compromises.’ The OnePlus 6 is improved in every aspect over the 5T, but it comes with the same compromises as its predecessor. The camera quality while improved is still not as good as that of the Galaxy S9 or Pixel 2 XL The display while improved and bigger than before is still not the best around. It is decent, but there’s plenty of room for improvement.
The glass design of the OnePlus 6 means that it will easily pick up scratches despite the handset coming with Gorilla Glass 5.
As for the camera, here’s what the publication says:
Compared to last year’s OnePlus 5 or 5T, the OnePlus 6’s camera is a step up: images are sharper and have more detail, especially in low light. The camera app opens quickly and has a logical, easy-to-follow interface. But the portrait mode is just as gimmicky as before, and while the new slow-motion video modes are nice to have, I don’t really see myself ever using them.
But if you compare it to something like Google’s Pixel 2, a Samsung S9, or a Huawei P20 Pro, the OnePlus 6 images don’t hold up. Colors are nice and exposure is generally accurate, but the pictures have a gritty, over-sharpened look to them, especially when you zoom in. Even though the OnePlus 6 has both automatic and manual HDR modes, it doesn’t do as a good of a job pulling detail out of shadows or replicating what my eye can see as Google’s Pixel, and it can’t touch the Huawei for low-light image capture. The pictures just lack the “wow” factor that the best smartphone cameras all have.
Android Central
The publication came away impressed with the build quality of the phone which it found expensive and in the same league as the Samsung Galaxy S9, LG G7 etc. While it does feel premium, OnePlus has also cut cost wherever possible. This includes using a weak vibration motor, sticking to a mono speaker, no proper IP certification, and lack of wireless charging.
With its beastly specifications, the OnePlus 6 also performed admirably with no signs of lags. The 3300mAh battery is also good enough to ensure the phone lasts through a day.
The 3300mAh battery inside the OnePlus 6 is unchanged in capacity from the OnePlus 5 series, and is down slightly over the OnePlus 3 series, but the company says this one is the longest performer yet thanks to processor efficiencies and software improvements, and I’ve found that claim to be true. Indeed, the OnePlus 6 didn’t quit on me before the end of the day even once during my testing period, and there are more than enough power-saving settings to extend the life of even the heaviest of users.
Coming to the cameras, the OnePlus 6 marks a major improvement in this regard but its no Pixel 2, iPhone X, or Huawei P20 Pro killer.
Actually, let’s talk night photography, because that’s traditionally where OnePlus phones have struggled in the past. Recall the OnePlus 3 series: both phones had OIS, but were let down by the rest of the hardware. Here, not so much. In extreme low light, the OnePlus 6 still falls behind phones with larger sensors or wider apertures like the Huawei P20 Pro and Galaxy S9, but in situations one would consider “normal” night shots — a dimly-lit bar, or a street lit by a single overhead lamp — the phone is neck-and-neck with its more-expensive counterparts. It’s a remarkable achievement, especially given how far behind the OnePlus 5T was in this area.
Overall, just like previous OnePlus phones, if you have a budget of $500, the OnePlus 6 is the phone to buy as its leaps and bound better than its competition.
Android Police
The publication says OnePlus implementation of the notch screen is the best on an Android phone yet. It also praises the solid build quality of the handset, though notes that the bottom-firing speaker is middling at best and an area where OnePlus should not have cheaped out. It also says that due to the bottom chin, the design of the OnePlus 6 is not symmetrical which might not be liked by everyone. As for the display, while it is a good OLED panel, you are still going to struggle to read the onscreen content when outside under direct sunlight.
Coming to the camera, it is the same story. The primary 16MP sensor takes the best photos ever taken by a OnePlus smartphone but it struggles in low-light and HDR situations.
The watercolor processing effect is still present, though. As light drops further, the OP6 aggressively ramps up the ISO, which introduces noise. The shutter gets longer to help limit that, but you tend to get lots of low-light photos with both longer shutter and high ISO—they’re grainy and still not very bright. Phones like the Pixel and GS9 don’t have to crank the ISO as hard. At a certain point, the OnePlus 6 just can’t get enough light to take a usable photo, and that point comes sooner than it does on a more expensive phone.
The consensus remains the same: the OnePlus 6 is the phone to buy for under $500. However, with its ever-increasing price, you can spend hundred dollars more to get a flagship experience which would offer a better camera experience and a proper IP certification.
Linus Tech Tips
As the title of the video says, the OnePlus 6 is a top-notch phone with excellent performance, a decent but not Pixel 2-like camera, and great battery life.
What do you think about the OnePlus 6? Are you impressed with its camera performance? Do you plan on buying one? Drop a comment and let us know!
