Thinking About the OnePlus 6T (Premium)

I referred to the OnePlus 6T as an “S year”-type release when it was launched Monday in New York. But the firm’s T-branded releases are more correctly identified as a sideways shift than an upgrade. And I’m starting to doubt the need for this kind of release.

Put another way, the OnePlus strategy mirrors that of Windows 10, with which we’re provided with two upgrades a year instead of the industry norm of half that. And as with Microsoft’s software, this release cadence may be doing more harm than good.

This is especially true when you consider that many of the “improvements” in the OnePlus 6T, when compared to the feature set of its predecessor, are really just different choices, a different way of doing things. And that many users might prefer the older phone to the newer one.

To understand what I mean, consider what hasn’t changed between the OnePlus 6 and 6T.

The basic form factor is the same. The 6T’s dimensions are 157.5 x 74.8 x 8.2 mm, and it weighs 6.5 ounces. The 6 lands at a nearly identical 155.7 x 75.4 x 7.75 mm and weighs 6.2 ounces. Even the launch colors—Mirror Black and Midnight Black—are the same. (OnePlus adds color choices over time.) As is the glass covering the entire body, which is 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 6.

The internals—the processor, the RAM, and the storage—are literally the same. Both are powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 with Adreno 630 graphics, 6 or 8 GB of LPDDR4X RAM, and 128 GB or 256 GB of UFS 2.1 2-LANE storage. (OK, the 6 could be had with 64 GB as well.)

The camera system? Identical from a hardware perspective, and whatever minor software changes are coming to the 6T will be ported to the 6. Because, again, they are the same. The sensors—a 16 MP Sony IMX 519 and a 20 MP Sony IMX 376K on the back and a 16 MP Sony IMX 371 on the front—are identical.

Connectivity is identical: Both support up to DL CAT16/ UL CAT13 LTE at 1 Gbps/150 Mbps (depending on carrier). Both have 2×2 MIMO, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac with both 2.4G and 5G support. Both provide Bluetooth 5.0 (with aptX and aptX HD support) and both are NFC-enabled.

When you look at what’s different, you see a few major changes—most of which are debatable trade-offs—and a few minor changes.

The biggest visual change, I think, is the new and very small teardrop notch. In this age of the stupid-big notch—cough, Pixel 3 XL—shrinking the notch should be laudable. But the notch in the OnePlus 6 was non-objectionable. It’s half the width of the notch in the iPhone X-series phones. And half as tall as the one on the ugly Pixel 3 XL.

But it’s what we lost thanks to this smaller notch that bothers me. The notification LED, a hallmark of all previous OnePlus handsets, is gone. And because there’s no upper forehead or larger notch, OnePlus was unable to add a second speaker. So the OnePlus 6T remains the only 2018 flagship to ship with a single mono speaker. Folks, that is unacceptable.

You do get a slightly bigger display thanks to the smaller notch (and, on the bottom, the very slightly smaller “chin” bezel). The OnePlus 6T display lands at 6.41-inches and provides a resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels, compared to 6.28-inches and 2280 x 1080 pixels with the OnePlus 6. But both displays offer the same pixel density of 402 ppi. And the size difference is negligible in the real world.

The minor changes to the OnePlus 6T mean that OnePlus 6 cases are no longer compatible. So anyone upgrading—and no one should, but this firm’s ardent fans are thinking differently, as always—will need a new case as well.

The biggest real-world change, however, is the new in-display fingerprint reader. And while I understand the desire to claim a “first” with such technology, this decision is much like that of Apple’s to switch entirely to Face ID last year with the iPhone X. It’s too soon, the technology isn’t ready yet.

By all accounts, the in-display fingerprint reader is distracting, with a glaring bright green light that is particularly problematic when the display is dimmed. Worse, it’s much slower than other authentication schemes, including especially the very fast rear-mounted fingerprint reader used by the OnePlus 6. So this one is really an “upgrade.” It’s a different way to do the same thing. And it’s not as efficient as the previous method. (Again, like Face ID.)

But you don’t just lose the efficiency of the rear-mounted fingerprint reader. You lose the headphone jack as well. You may recall that OnePlus last year noted that 80 percent of its users still used the headphone jack. By removing it this year, OnePlus is signaling that its core strength—listening to users and delivering value—is less important to it than trying to one-up the competition. This is a mistake.

As an added insult, OnePlus doesn’t even include any USB-C earbuds in the box, though you do, of course, get a USB-C headphone jack converter. Even the lowly Pixel 3 provides USB-C earbuds (and they’re excellent, too).

The OnePlus 6T provides a bigger battery (3700 mAh vs. 3300 mAh) than its predecessor, and that should result in better battery life. That said, I’ll qualify this improvement by noting that the OnePlus 6 already provided all-day battery and is lighter. And I’ll point out that OnePlus’s best-in-market fast charging solution almost negates whatever battery life benefit the 6T brings. Too, this technology is unchanged in the 6T.

Finally, what’s still missing? Wireless charging. Real waterproofing. And stereo speakers, as noted. These are features that users expect in a flagship. And OnePlus only sells one phone, which it describes as a flagship.

But it also swaps that phone out every six months, not every year, which is not the way you usually treat your most valuable asset. Apple and Samsung, by comparison, have offered three new flagships each of the past two years. But they’re only upgraded once a year. So customers see the value in these more expensive products.

The OnePlus upgrade cadence is too fast. Those who do buy the first new phone each year will feel, rightfully, that their purchase has been found lacking and was quickly replaced … for some reason. And those who wait for the second “T” release may find, as in this case, that the changes aren’t always meaningful, let alone positive. In many ways, these changes are just “different,” and not “better.” They take the product sideways, if not backward in some cases.

This may seem like a goofy comparison, but the OnePlus 6T reminds me of Michael Crichton’s “Jurassic Park” sequel, “The Lost World.” (I’m referring to the book here, not the movie.) The first one was amazing, but the sequel was surprisingly lacking. And at the time, I said that anyone could have taken that first story and written a better follow-up than Crichton had. It was a rare misstep for one of my favorite writers.

The OnePlus 6T is just like that. When I look at its predecessor, the OnePlus 6, I see just a few major issues to address: The middling camera system and the lack of stereo speakers. But what OnePlus did was keep the camera system and the mono speaker and then make the fingerprint reader worse and remove the headphone jack.

What the f#$k, OnePlus. Anyone could have designed a better follow-up to the OnePlus 6 than OnePlus has. And the OnePlus 6T appears to be a rare misstep for one of my favorite handset makers.

We’ll see. I’m still interested in reviewing the OnePlus 6T, of course, and while I may disagree with some of the design choices here, I can’t argue with the pricing or value. OnePlus does remain exceptional in that very crucial area.