Hi everyone! Last Christmas to my surprise I won the 6T Mclaren edition giveaway, and I think giving something back to this wonderful community by reviewing it; is the least I can possibly do.
First off, let’s contextualize: My name is Giack and I’m an Italian songwriter living in London. My first love for a smartphone brand was Nokia back when I got my first N-Gage in 2004. I was just a kid and thinking I could play video games and call from the same device sounded to me like a Star Trek technology. After that first glorious phone, I got several other Nokia products until I hopped on the iPhone train. I had the 3gs, the 4s, and the iPhone 6 in 2015. And this is when this story begins. At every launch of a successor to my model, I just thought to myself: “why?” Why make the effort of spending so much money for a device that won’t give me what I need?
In 2016 I was at university and made friends with some computer technology students, and one of them had a OnePlus 2 and it was so powerful, so fast. He was always proud of what his phone allowed him to do. So every time there was a new generation of smartphones I found myself drawn more and more towards the OnePlus brand. But every year I had bigger and more important investments than buying a shiny new smartphone, so I waited and waited.
Finally this year I convinced myself that I needed a new device when my iPhone chose to deliberately delete a note where I was writing ideas and lines for my upcoming album. For no reason at all, I lost almost a year of work for a malfunctioning that shouldn't happen on a device of that price.
I told myself that after Christmas I would have bought a OnePlus 6T. Then to my surprise, I won the competition and I’m so grateful for it! But let’s not waste time on history anymore, let’s talk about this OnePlus 6T!
I chose to cover:
Unboxing, Transition from iOS, Speed, Screen Unlock, Camera.
Unboxing.
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The unboxing experience was nothing like I was expecting. From opening the plastic wrap to having my hands on the 6T itself was a beautiful journey. Reading the book was an emotional experience, I knew the story of OnePlus from the internet, but experiencing it with AR technology on this fantastic device in the palm of my hand made me really feel like I was about to be part of something awesome. Also, discovering that the 6T comes with a pre-installed screen protector and a carbon fibre case is already an awesome start! The screen protector is seamless and feels natural at the touch. In the case, there are also the Warp Charge power brick and the orange braided type-C cable, along with the sim key and some paperwork and the commemorative “Salute to Speed” sign with the carbon fibre McLaren logo, that I now proudly show on my coffee table.
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Transition from iOS to OnePlus (Android).
I feel that this is the most important point to me because it was the only reason that prevented me to get away from the iPhone echosystem when I had the chance: “how will I transfer all my data? Will that new operative system feel like home? What if I don’t understand the new interface?” I was scared as hell when I started using the android system I would “miss” iOS, but I'm glad to say that the transition was seamless! Using the OnePlus Switch app I could bring in everything I needed from one device to the other in just 40 minutes, and all I couldn’t bring with the app i was able to bring with Google Drive. One thing I have to say is that the android data transfer for mac is not the best app in the world, it certainly does the job but I think it could use an update. The biggest downside is that i have to sync files manually and it doesn’t provide a preview for the pictures, so i have to rely on the date of creation to choose which pictures i want to download. Obviously, this has very little to do with OnePlus, but I had to mention it for the sake of being objective in this review. And if you have any suggestion for making the best of that app you're very welcome to share it.
Speed.
My god this beast is fast! From the screen unlock (of which i’ll talk about in a second), to in-app picture render, to animations: it’s as fast as my thoughts! I was shocked by how smooth and seamless animations are: when I open an app, it’s there. Immediately. That is something my iPhone 6 wasn’t doing since early 2016, and i know, it’s an old model; nonetheless, it’s something I wasn’t used to seeing. I did some photo editing with Snapseed (an app that i frequently used on my older phone) and the moment you choose which photo to open it’s rendered right away. I remember I had to wait almost a minute before I could get to work. Also, I’m a big fan of locked screen gestures and considering that the phone is locked, flash and camera are activated instantly.
But the best feature of the OnePlus 6T to me has to be Warp Charge. I wake up at 8 every morning, i plug it in at 8.30 and it’s 100% in 20 minutes. Truly a full day of power in 20 minutes because even on a very demanding day i still put it on my nightstand with 25%. i love to be independent of my power bank and to be sure that in 20 minutes I get all the juice I need for a whole day. Now, I don’t have a term of comparison, because this is my first “fast charging” smartphone ever; despite that, I find it's charging speed impressive.
Screen Unlock.
This Phone knows me. It knows that my fingers sweat really often during the day, especially when i’m playing or exercising. So whenever i pick it up it’s already unlocked thanks to the face unlock technology. Needless to say, I’m not a big fan of fingerprint scanners (i have never used it on my older phone because it was slow and failed to recognize my finger 7 times out of 10) but I have to admit that this fingerprint scanner works really good, even better in low light conditions. Say, for example, I’m laying in bed and the poor lighting and unnatural position of my face make it impossible for the sensor to unlock the device, the fingerprint scanner works great and in less than a second I’m in.
Camera.
All the pictures you have seen so far were taken with the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition. I personally can’t tell the difference between the dual and the front-facing camera, a thing that was really evident in my previous phone. This is probably thanks to the fact that both the front-facing camera and the rear main sensor are 16 MP. Anyway, here are some pictures I took during the day and one in low light condition with the flash on.
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Would I recommend it? Absolutely! I really think this is the best phone I’ve ever had. Only time will tell if something will ever top the 6T McLaren edition; but when it comes, I’m sure it’ll be a OnePlus.
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