The wait is over and the OnePlus 6 is now official. At an event in London Carl Pei took to the stage to announce their company’s new flagship and surprised everyone by beginning with announcing a product that was not expected, a pair of wireless headphones but first let’s unpack the announcement that everyone was looking forward to.
OnePlus 6
After the detour into headphones Carl Pei announced the OnePlus 6 to much fanfare from the fans in attendance in London. Mr Pei first began by talking about the specs in the new phone, emphasising that although the phone has some of the best specs around it is nothing if they do not all work together to bring a combined package that results in a great experience. OnePlus believe they have done exactly that creating their fastest ever flagship.
- 6.23 inch Optic AMOLED display, aspect ratio 19:9
- Display resolution of 2280 x 1080 pixels, 2.5D Gorilla Glass 5
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
- 6GB or 8GB of RAM
- 64GB / 128GB / 256GB of onboard storage
- USB 2.0, Type C
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- 3300mAh battery with 5V 4A charging
- Alert Slider with more functionality
- LTE 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/18/19/20/25/26/28/29/30/32/66/71
- Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4G/5G
- Bluetooth 5.0
- NFC
- Rear Sony dual camera 16MP/20MP with OIS and EIS, f/1.7
- Super Slow Motion: 1080p video at 240 fps, 720p video at 480 fps
- Front camera Sony 16MP with EIS f/2.0
- Dual SIM
- Water resistance
- 155.7×75.4×7.75 mm
- 177g
- Mirror Black/ Midnight Black/ Silk White
- OxygenOS based on Android 8.1 Oreo (and supports Android P beta)
Wow. That is every spec-junkies fix right there. Although there were a few things not mentioned Mr Pei paid great attention to how OnePlus are planning to speed up the phone even more now and in the long run aside from the impressive specs. A change in the way the OS caches memory and how it renders graphics on the display is designed to give an impressive, smooth speed long term.
While there was a mention of the water resistance of the OnePlus 6 there was no mention of any rating. OnePlus tell us how they have done it foam to prevent water seeping into the wiring, waterproof materials in the headphone jack and fingerprint scanner and all buttons sealed using silicone loops. OnePlus have told the Verge that the water resistance is “comparable” to other flagships but they do recommend to not take it swimming. Depending on how important water resistance is to you, you need to determine if this is enough for you.
OnePlus talked a lot about the camera, promising fast capturing along with slow motion (as a post processing tool) at 480fps/720P that can be shot for a full minute.
The designs are impressive but for those who dislike a glass covered phone are not going to be impressed. The front and back are entirely Gorilla Glass 5. OnePlus use glass as it is more malleable and they have more options and can do more with it in their design process.
The phone is available from May 22nd in Midnight Black and Mirror Black with the White Silk available in three weeks on June 5th. The prices, in US dollars as the UK and Euro prices are a very poor conversion, are impressive for a phone with these specs. The phone begins at US$529 (AU$673) for the 6GB/64GB variant up to US$629 (AU$801) for the 8GB/256GB variant.
At this stage it is not available here in Australia but can be purchased online from OnePlus themselves (add in a mail forwarder used for Australians). We do not have any word on if/when it will become available here but of course will let you know as soon as we hear anything.
Bullets Wireless
OnePlus have done headphones for a while but were never entirely happy with the wireless experience of headphones but think they finally have something that is up to the standard they deem acceptable. The new Bullets Wireless headphones come in black and give up to 8 hours of playtime and strangely only use Bluetooth 4.1 (the OP6 is BT5.0). They are available for US$69 beginning the 5th June.
There was no mention of a special edition Avengers OnePlus 6 in London so we will keep an eye on Beijing and Mumbai today to bring you up to date on that when it happens. Interestingly though there is a “Special Offers” link on the buy OnePlus 6 page but at this stage that link isn’t active.
If you want to know more about the OnePlus 6 head on over to the OnePlus website and check it out. We are hoping to have a review unit cross our desk in the coming weeks as well if you want to hear real world reviews before making any purchasing decisions.
I got my OP 6 a few days ago from eBay, includes a year warranty and a power adaptor. I would suggest to get the A6003, HK version as it is compatible with all Australian Bands. I am able to use my OP6 A6003 Version with optus’s 4g+ network and the general mobile network connection is fantastic. There are a few sellers on eBay who don’t specify the version and from my questioning of them they are usually the Chinese version (A6000) which support most bands except for two or so 4g bands (I think) Not sure about other networks… Read more »
Iám conflicted now, I was going to get nokia 7 plus but now this is only about $20 more then that, but then it would be more as I would get it vire a forwarder and so on.
I’m waiting for the pick-up notification for my Nokia 7 Plus now 😉 Top of the line specs are great and all but I’m sure the Snapdragon 660/4GB/1080p screen will be sufficient for my needs. Android One, massive battery and Australian warranty are more important to me. I hear the camera is very good if you sideload the Pixel camera APK too.
Did anyone notice that there is allocation for the 6 on the products section of their au website. But when you try to go to it it 404s. Here’s hoping they’ll sell it locally!
Bought Oneplus 5t 6gb 64gb from Nextbuying and love it
Yeah dude! I’ve been checking everyday, they have added a new banner up the top of the website saying u can get priority shipping if you order on the 22nd but that link just refreshes the page -.-‘.I can’t find any other way to buy it, even tried on the US site but postage address is locked it America and u cant change it haha.
typo: ‘The from and back are entirely Gorilla Glass 5’
Should be ‘front’
Cheers Jeni.. it was very early when typing….
No problems Scott.
It’s the sort of typo that any spell checker would overlook.
What I don’t get is why people think that OnePlus has lost its design edge? They have designed a great looking phone, glass or not. They couldn’t include wireless charging, unless you want the price to be pushed up another $50 just for the sake of it. And the notch isn’t that bad to use. You can individually choose which apps work with it and which apps black the area out. In other words, all the areas people are complaining about are the areas where Oneplus had improved. The screen looks great, some people are saying as good as Samsung’s… Read more »
I think i’m in the same boat as you. I must have missed the part about the free bullets… Wonder how they can do that when they said the bullets weren’t available until june… i’m waiting to see if the blue one materialises and/or the avengers model… we’ll know by around 830 tonight.
Re the grey market importers, yes we have used those before. We will shoot out some emails to the various sites in a few days and do our own research and sum up the best places to get it. Thanks for the recommendation
Ah good, a while bad you had a list of good places to buy the 5T, so keen to see who you think for the 6.
How have you been going with getting feedback from grey market importers on this?
I notice that Kogan have the OnePlus 6 for sale on their site (from $849) but their ‘In the Box’ section only shows an “AU/NZ Compliant Generic Charger”.
Given that dash charging is a big deal for OnePlus phones, it looks as though Kogan are only selling a crippled version of the product. Or does this mean that dash charging would not work if the proper dash charger had to be used with an AUS socket adapter?
You won’t get a OnePlus Dash Charger with Australian pins unfortunately. You’ll be able to use the official Dash Charger in the box with a converter,. Unfortunately you won’t get a native one….at least until OnePlus officially launch in Australia which they haven’t, at this stage, shown any inclination of doing.
It’s disappointing that it’s again missing wireless charging. Obviously they don’t know how to put in a good camera as they change their mind on every phone (and its always the best phone and way).
lol. good point. this way is the best. Proof will be in the pudding, they are obviously very confident with it stacking it against some of the best cameras out there.
notch!!! the nightmare continues, wait for the lenovo one
I’ll never understand people who get worked up over a notch that blocks an area that doesn’t really get used anyway – but don’t issue a peep about the rampant price rorts, fragile designs that can’t survive one drop (eggshells would be tougher), and missing key elements (microSD and wireless charging in this case).
Still, I guess if such people have any impact then the notched phones will drop in price to a sane level quicker for the rest of us.
@Fred I agree, all the notch does is give you a little extra screen real estate, hey and if you don’t like it go to the settings and turn the notch display off. Problem solved!!
I can’t understand the facination with a phone that isn’t even available in Australia from a company that seems to have lost its design edge and individuality with this phone.
Yep it’s cheaper than say a Pro 20 or a Nokia 8 Scirocco if you can be bothered trying to import it but it has no local support or warranty and lacks some specs such as water and dust proofing.
I’d rather spend the extra.
I think it’s appeal may become less depending on how the Nokias do but a lot of people, and especially the ones OnePlus are marketing towards, want a clean experience — which rules out most manufacturers unfortunately. Essentially you are getting high end specs for mid range price. Is it worth it to you? Obviously not. To me it is because I want that clean Android experience in my everyday use and I want it to have flagship specs. That leaves the Pixel phones or the OnePlus 6 (Nokias at this stage have middling specs). Local support would be very… Read more »
Fair enough in terms of views, we all have different ones, which is great.
With Android One phones rolling out the software argument is less and less applicable.
You could also argue that today’s mid spec phones or last years flagships with local warranties, similar if not cheaper prices and similar “real world” performance make oneplus, in the absence of any real “design wow” less relevant in Australia today than say 2 years ago.
Loving my new P20 pro – amazing on so many fronts.
The P20 Pro is a VERY enticing phone. I have yet to use one but Jason says it takes amazing photos.
Android One is a great start but it lacks the customisation etc — eg. the way Huawei and others add things in. It will be interesting to see how the Nokias go. I am hoping to check out a 7 plus in the near future
Good argument re last years specs. At what stage does it even matter? I noticed a difference going from a Pixel XL to a Pixel 2XL but was it worth the price? Probably not.