The OnePlus 6 smartphone goes on sale next week with prices starting at $529 for a model with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.

As expected, the phone features the kind of specs and design you’d expect from a 2018 flagship, including a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, dual rear cameras, a water resistance chassis, dual cameras, and fast charging support.

Oh, and it also has a headphone jack… something a lot of modern flagship do not have.

But in today’s launch announcement, OnePlus focused more on design, software, and performance than on specs.

For example, the OnePlus 6 is the first smartphone that lets you shoot 1080p slow-motion video at 480 frames per second for up to a minute and then later choose which portions of the video to show at normal speed and which to slow down.

The company also notes that the OnePlus 6 has the biggest display of any phone the company has offered to date, but that the phone is about the same size as its predecessor. You can thank the controversial notch for that: it allowed OnePlus to put a 6.28 inch display with a 19:9 aspect ratio into the phone.

OnePlus says users also have the option of freeing up some space at the bottom of their phones by using gesture-based navigation instead of an on-screen navigation bar. Just swipe up to go to the home screen, or swipe left or right to go back.

Google is also bringing gesture support to Android P… but for now Google is adding gestures to the navigation bar rather than eliminating it, so OnePlus may be a bit ahead of the curve here.

The OnePlus 6 has a glass back that’s covered with Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The company says it’s as durable as the company’s previous phones, although I wouldn’t blame you for stuffing the phone in a case if you’re the sort of person who makes a habit of dropping phones onto hard surfaces.

OnePlus will offer 3 color options: mirror black (glossy), midnight black (matte), and a limited edition “silk white” with gold trim. That limited edition version will be available strting June 5th.

Other features include a 3,300 mAh battery, 20MP + 16MP rear cameras with optical and electronic image stabilization, a fingerprint sensor on the back and face unlock capabilities using the front-facing camera a 3,300 mAh battery with fast charging support (but no support for wireless charging), Bluetooth 5.0, and NFC.

OnePlus has also updated its camera software with a new video editor that lets you crop videos and add filters or background music. Portrait mode photos also support effects such as adding stars, hearts, or other flair to the blurred background of a photo. And OnePlus will roll out a software update soon that will let you snap portrait-style photos using the front-facing camera (a feature that used to be exclusive to Google’s Pixel phones).

The OnePlus 6 will come in three prices/configurations:

  • 6GB/64GB for $529
  • 8GB/128GB for $579
  • 8GB/256GB for $629

OnePlus also unveiled its new Bullet Wireless headphones today. The $69 earbuds have a light-weight aluminum shell and a magnetic design that allows one earbud to snap to the other when not in use.

That magnetic snapping feature also functions as a power button: snap the buds together to turn them off, and detach them to start listening.

When Paired with a OnePlus 5 or newer smartphone, the Bullet Wireless earbuds support automatic resume, allowing you to pick up listening to music where you left off as soon as you turn them on. And you can use the unsnap action to answer phone calls.

The earbuds also support fast charging via USB Type-C, allowing you get 5 hours of audio playback time from a 10 minute charge.

 

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15 replies on “OnePlus 6 hits the streets May 22nd for $529 and up”

  1. “Never settle”

    *doesn’t include a micro SD slot*

    I don’t know, sounds like settling to me. At least they have a 256GB option now, which is about the minimum I’d be happy with.

    And before some idiot posts “hurrrr durrrrr you don’t actually need all that space”, I’ll save you the trouble. Yes, I do, don’t tell me what I need.

    1. It’s not about what you need, it’s about what the vast majority of mobile phone users need, and in the age of cloud services, it’s not gobs of expandable local storage anymore.

      1. I suppose the vast majority of mobile users not needing expandable storage is why Samsung continues to include it. Sucks for all those S9 buyers who’ll be settling, I guess.

        1. I’d be willing to bet that a sizable (if not vast) majority of S9 users will never even put an SD card into their phone, let along make much use of one.

          Of course, Samsung is the market leader and charges a premium price for a premium product. OnePlus is selling a similar spec’ed phone for hundreds of dollars less, so it makes perfect sense they would cut a few corners here and there to preserve a much tighter profit margin.

          I’d also wager than the lack of an SD card will hurt their sales not one jot.

  2. Whoa, now 5T looks expensive junk D;

    Did put preorder via Elisa for Matta 8/128, 569 euros. My upgrade goes from OP3T > OP6 lol

  3. It’s terribly unfortunate that Motorola is the only phone manufacturer willing to allow for hardware expansion (with the Z series). This phone, the iPhones, and all the other generic slabs from the other manufacturers are all essentially the same boring thing.

    Why not pursue real hardware innovation instead of useless crap like putting hearts or stars in videos? All of this is software focused because everyone wants to be the same.

    And this glass covering for the backs of phones has just got to stop. I see why the manufacturers do it–it makes phones less durable. Alas, consumers seem to like it because it makes their phone shinier.

    Having deprived customers of different choices in hardware, it’s no wonder that people are hanging onto their devices longer. There basically is no reason that most people would want an iPhone 10 over an iPhone 6s Plus. Functionally, they are basically the same. This is true of a Galaxy Note 3 versus the Note 9.

    1. Deprived? You think if the Z-series had been a runaway success for Motorola, the competition would have neglected to come out with their own expandable hardware. LG tried it in their flagship line, no less, and gave up after one model.

      What we’re seeing is the culmination of over a decade of design and development of the smartphone format, and if there is any lack of variety in today’s models, it only because they have yet to come up with that is better and/or more popular. And it’s not for want of trying. Companies outside of Samsung and Apple would love nothing more than to come up with a unique innovative design that would knock the top two of their perch, but for every idea that reaches the marketplace (and fails) there are dozens more failed ideas that didn’t even make it that far. Designs converge for a reason.

      Question: do you have a Moto Z series phone?

      1. I own a Planet Gemini which is even more different from a hardware standpoint.

        No one likes phones from LG. Unfortunately they’d have to be damned near perfect to attract any attention, regardless of what they do.

        And you talk about designs “converging,” but the truth is that the companies are really just trying to ape Apple. If Apple hadn’t copied the notch idea, it’d be nowhere near as common. This is also true of gesture navigation which has always been the best way to interact with a mobile device but it couldn’t get popular back when Blackberry and Palm were the only ones pushing it.

  4. Finally a decent flagship phone. Yes, it has a notch, but everything else hits the mark.

  5. And the minimum price for a OnePlus device continues to trend upwards. A shame that so few companies are interested in the mid-tier arena.

    1. That’s not going to change until the flagship prices stop trending upwards.

  6. I love the look of this phone but hate the notches. Why do manufacturers just copycat Apple they are still thinking inside the bubble get rid of the notch and I’ll pick one up in a heart bit.

    1. What’s wrong with extra screen real-estate on the sides of the front-facing camera?
      You can disable the notch by turning off the top section of the LCD, giving you exactly what you’d have if they hadn’t notched it.

      Plus the Essential PH-1 was the first notched phone, NOT the iPhone so…

      1. Yeah, I don’t really get the notch hate. Software options already exist to disable the notch when in landscape mode (e.g. watching videos) and to set the status bar background to black if you prefer not having a notch in your wallpaper.

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