Everything we know about the OnePlus 6
OnePlus unveils its new notch phone on Wednesday. Here's what we expect to see.
- Coauthor of Uninvested (Random House, 2015)
The Oneplus 6 has now been officially revealed. Now, it does have a notch, but also image stabilization on its dual rear cameras. We spoke with OnePlus co-founder, Carl Pei about the new phone and the future of OnePlus.
With the success of its 2017 lineup -- the 5 and 5T -- the Chinese phonemaker solidified its reputation for premium phones equipped with top-tier hardware that sell for hundreds of dollars less than high-end competitors from Apple and Samsung .
A purported photo of the forthcoming OnePlus 6, due out Wednesday.
This year, OnePlus launches its new flagship, the OnePlus 6, on May 16. If the company sticks with its basic script from 2017, we'd expect it to follow the OnePlus 6 with an incremental update, most likely called the OnePlus 6T, later this fall.
The company, which has proven to be more candid than some of its competitors, has confirmed a number of things about the phone -- including the fact that it will have an iPhone X-like notch. But in addition to the details that have been announced officially, there are lots of rumors circulating. We've assembled what we know (and what we think we know) below. Check it out.
Editors' Note: This piece was originally published on March 30, 2018 and is updated frequently when new information surfaces.
It's official: May 16 is the date.
Confirmed: The OnePlus 6 launches May 16
OnePlus will launch the new phone on May 16 in London. Though tickets for the kickoff event are sold out, you can watch online. And the company has announced a series of pop-up events on May 21 in the US (New York and San Francisco) and Europe, where fans will be able to buy the new phone. We suspect that the phones will hit store shelves at the same time or shortly thereafter.
Confirmed: The OnePlus 6 will have a notch
After much speculation, OnePlus admitted that its next phone will have a narrow black notch running across the top of its screen, similar to the iPhone X and other Android phones like the Essential Phone , Huawei P20 and Asus ZenFone 5 . Phone notches typically house the camera and other front-facing sensors, and are the focus of impassioned debate among phone design fans.
Confirmed: It'll have the Snapdragon 845 chip
On OnePlus' forum, the company said that the OnePlus 6 will have a Snapdragon 845 chipset from Qualcomm, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. This is the same processor the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus have, and it offers a handful of new updates including better image and video processing, 3D mapping for facial recognition and much, much faster speeds -- the latter of which OnePlus emphasized with the tweet below:
6et ready! pic.twitter.com/bmvI75xphm
— OnePlus (@oneplus) April 2, 2018
Confirmed: The phone will have a bigger screen
OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei also confirmed that the phone will have the largest screen of any OnePlus phone before it, while its overall size will not increase. Apparent leaked specs measure the screen at 6.2 inches. The phone will also have a bottom bezel (aka chin).
Confirmed: It won't look exactly like the Oppo R15
OnePlus and another phonemaker, Oppo, are owned by the same company, BBK Electronics. Because of this connection, many Oppo and OnePlus phones look similar. Last year's OnePlus 5 looked almost exactly like the Oppo R11, for example, and the next OnePlus 5T was similar to the Oppo R11S.
An unconfirmed leaked image of the OnePlus 6.
So when Oppo announced the Oppo R15, it was safe to assume that the next OnePlus 6 would look the same. But Pei promises that the OnePlus 6 will look different. How different, we're not sure, but at least they won't be identical twins.
Confirmed: There will be an Avengers Edition (probably in India only)
Similar to the Star Wars Limited Edition of the OnePlus 5T, there are plans for an Avengers tie-in for the forthcoming OnePlus 6, according to Android Central. Given that the Star Wars phone was available only in India, we expect this year's promotional edition to follow suit. The movie, Avengers: Infinity War, debuts in India and the US on April 27.
The OnePlus 6 may come in different shades of black
Tech blog Winfuture reports that Amazon Germany may have slipped up by publishing a listing for the OnePlus 6 over the weekend. According to Amazon, there will be at least two different models -- "Mirror Black" and "Midnight Black." The listing is no longer live, and Amazon hasn't responded to a request for comment.
The OnePlus 6 will probably be super fast
Before OnePlus confirmed the Snapdragon 845 spec, users on the benchmarking site Geekbench spotted what is believed to be benchmark scores for the OnePlus 6. The test revealed the phone to be faster than the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus.
The device is listed as model number "NS P7819," which matches a number of unconfirmed leaked images of the OnePlus 6.
It may cost much less than the iPhone X
The Amazon Germany listing (reported by Winfuture) also included pricing information. If accurate, the 64GB OnePlus 6 will cost €519 ($620 and AU$820) and the 128GB version will start at €569 ($680 and AU$900). This would make it pricier than its predecessors, but still far less expensive than competitive phones from Apple and Samsung. Back in April, an anonymous post on the Chinese social media site Weibo had suggested that the OnePlus 6 would cost $749.
The OnePlus 6 will likely keep its 2 rear cameras
That same Weibo post also listed the OnePlus 6 with 16- and 20-megapixel rear cameras. More recently, Slashleaks has posted images of what it says is the OnePlus 6 with vertically-oriented dual-lens cameras. This would be the same setup as the current OnePlus 5T .
A render of what's purported to be the back of the OnePlus 6.
Editor's note: Senior Associate Editor Lynn La contributed to an earlier version of this story.