OnePlus 6: Refreshingly different looks, despite featuring a notch screen

If the notch screen was the most popular innovation last year, this year has been one of “me-too” mobile phones. But the OnePlus 6 (Rs 39,999 for the 8 GB/128 GB), despite featuring a notch screen, looks refreshingly different. It features a vertical dual-camera set-up as well, but its sleek and shiny glass body is unlike anything I’ve seen from the company’s stables.

While the glass back of the mirror black review unit looks premium and good to hold, it is a fingerprint magnet. The phone started up fast and I was good to go. Bear in mind, though, that the alert slider and the SIM card slot have switched places from the earlier phones. Both face-unlock and fingerprint-unlock are blazing fast and I loved the brilliant contrasts on the vibrant 6.2-inch screen, which comes in a surprisingly compact frame. But it still does sport a chin, which kind of takes away from the size-zero bezels.

On an early morning walk, I clicked a number of photos with the 16-megapixel (MP) +20MP back camera. It focussed fast and the photos looked wonderful on the screen; the image stabilisation worked well. I also loved the pro mode. I shot a few videos (some in 4K at 60 FPS), and was quite satisfied with the response, so long as I kept my hands steady. A caveat: Avoid zooming in while shooting a video. Indoors, in direct light, the phone clicked decent photos but in low-light conditions, there was some noise. The 16MP front camera is great for selfies and video calls.

The phone is made for gaming and multitasking and I had a whale of a time with Asphalt 8: Airborne, Real Racing, Vector and Riptide GP2. And to help matters, there’s also the game mode.

The OnePlus 6 ticks all the boxes for a flagship phone, including the price tag. And while there are phones with better cameras, some of which are better-looking and few equally fast, this is the only one which combines a good camera, fabulous design and a sleek form factor in a sub-Rs 50,000 package.