It has been 7 days since I started using OnePlus 6. Launched on 17th, May 2018, this is the latest flagship smartphone from OnePlus. As many are perhaps thinking about if this is a worthy device to purchase, I want to offer some of my initial impressions and thoughts on user experience thus far.

If you don’t know much about this specs and features of this phone yet, I’d recommend our unbox/first impression video down below. In the video, we also compared OnePlus with other popular smartphones out there right now, namely iPhone X, Samsung Galaxy S9, and Mi MIX 2S.

Exterior

Simply stunning. To me, OnePlus has never been a brand about design but its functionality and value. Reputation goes that OnePlus produces high-quality smartphones for those on a budget, which is true. However, this time OnePlus has certainly upped the design by a notch (pun intended). I have the Mirror Black version, which is extra glossy. There IS a notch, but considerably smaller than most of the other brands. With smaller bezels and considerably larger screen, OnePlus 6 has screen-to-body ratio of 84%, quite an achievement from an engineering standpoint as well.

Camera

16MP supported by a 20MP dual lens system work pretty well. With an aperture of 1.7, the camera is also decent in a low-light environment. Yet, I find the portrait mode a bit underwhelming, mostly because there is room for algorithmic improvements. In the video, I pointed out a small mess-up regarding the portrait mode where my shoulder was blurred in with the background.

Speed

I did a speed test comparing OnePlus 6 and iPhone X. In terms of app launching time for 16 apps, OnePlus 6 is only a bit faster (2’36”) than iPhone X (2’49”). As I tested multiple times behind-the-scenes, I also found that OnePlus seems to be considerably faster at launching smaller apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and etc; whereas for larger applications, the two appears to be on par with one another. The real difference, however, was shown during the reloading test. OnePlus 6 finished the run at 2’12”, compared to iPhone X’s 1’17”, thanks to the large RAM space that come with OnePlus 6.

UI

There are some really cool features such as the Screen Off Gestures, and One-Stop Payment. However, overall I don’t find the UI as intuitive as iOS or MIUI. It takes a little bit of getting used to for sure. I think I’m still on the learning curve despite I been using it as my primary smartphone in the past weeks.

Water-Resistant

Despite not having an official IP rating, like the 5T, people expected OnePlus 6 to have water-resistant capabilities. When we reached out to OnePlus CEO, Pete Lau, he assured us that it can handle water well, such that OnePlus 6 survived underwater for 30 mins during internal testing. Here we did something crueler – we dumped it in Coca-Cola.

Price

Refer to the picture below for the details in different regions.

There is just so much value packed in this device. You don’t need a $1000 smartphone when OnePlus is clearly offering one of the best devices out there for a $500-$600 price tag.

SEE ALSO: The Most Capable Smartphone Under $600? OnePlus 6 Full Reveal