It was a fine Thursday afternoon and Una was sitting in her office chair after a long lunch. “ I will be bored to death if no device comes in for a review” she thought. Just as she was about to slip into a slumber, she heard a familiar beep at her terminal.
“Hooray!!!, a new device has come in” Una cried ecstatically. She moved her paws quickly over her keyboard to see which device had come in. ‘OnePlus 6’, the monitor told her. The purchase was marked as 18-8-18. “So it is due for a three year review and the purchase date looks so damn symmetrical” She thought.
The person who came in with the device handed over the user report along with the device.”It’s time to put on my Astronaut Suit” She said excitedly and hurried to the donning room.
Ever since she was given the astronaut suit after the Una Space Program, she likes to wear it when doing a device review.
She came back in a jiffy and opened the box. First thing that greeted her was the user report for the last three and some years.
She held the three year old in her paws and thought “This does not look like a three year old, it looks so much younger”.
Una proceeded with her review and this is her report along with the user report for the three years.
The Hardware
User Report : The phone is thin and curves on the back are a pleasure to hold. Glossy smooth back did cause me a bit of anxiety about dropping the device from my hands. It feels study in build and is not prone to bends (wink wink). The phone was accidentally dropped on multiple occasions but never had a crack on the back or over the screen.
The back of the phone is a fingerprint magnet and I needed to wipe it continuously to ensure a clean look.
I am a heavy user and charge the phone daily. Still the charger, cable and charging port is working just like the first day with an affirming click feel to insertion.
The alert slider was a very important part of the experience with the hardware. It literally provides a switch to switch between silent, vibrate and ring modes. It did help me avoid a lot of embarrassment as I could hide my amnesia for turning the phone silent as covertly as possible.
All the three buttons, The power, volume up and volume down are working perfectly to the date.
The 3.5mm headphone jack is also working as supposed and I never had to wiggle the cable to make the proper connection.
Once the phone got drenched in rain and the display became full of colored grains just as you see in an old signal-less TV. The front and back camera both were studded with water droplets and I thought this was the end of journey for my OnePlus 6. But surprisingly after a week the phone started working again with no trace of damage.
Una Reviews: As said in the report the phone shows no signs of fall. But there is mild loss of paint at the charging port.
The fingerprints are visible on the sides(see above) so I conclude the problem of fingerprint smudges as a valid point.
It is mentioned in the user report that there was water damage but my review could not find any traces of water damage in the phone. It is sufficient to say that the phone has made a remarkable recovery from the water logging.
All the switches are in perfect working condition and retain the initial feel.
The Software
User Report: From the point of get-go the interface was quick and lag free. I was the quickest to finish any mobile-related task among my peers due to the quick response provided by the OnePlus 6.
When my boss asked me to find something from the internet and I needed to cut short the walk back to my seat because the task got finished quickly, I realized the value of my hyper-performant phone.
I have used this phone as a developer tool. It is quick to connect and the log data is super useful at that front also.
I have been using this phone with two sims since the beginning. Switching the active sims for calls and internet was instantaneous and unnoticeable.
Some software updates brought bugs with them which slightly reduced the usability. But bug hammers came with the subsequent ones that quashed almost all of them bugs.
Una Reviews: The phone is currently at Oxygen OS 11.1.2.2. It has around 10 apps currently side loaded through the Android studio. Still the phone is fast like a pace car.
Switching between apps is quick and there is no visible stutter on opening or switching apps.
Opening camera is also a sub-second affair and in about a second, you can take your first shot.
There is no significant heating up and the maximum temperature recorded as 44 degree Celsius which is under acceptable limits.
The Camera
User Report: I wanted to give a separate section to the camera as I have taken more than 6000 photos till date. The camera opens within a second and is very quick to auto focus during photo shoots.
The stills weighed between 1.5 to 7Mb depending upon the amount of detail in the photos. 30 second HD video came to around 75Mb.
The phone did get slightly more than warm if I was taking too many photos in quick succession or 4K 60fps video for a long time.
Una Reviews: Both the front and the rear cameras are in perfect working condition. Glass over the camera lens is completely free from scratches. This attests to their superior scratch resistance.
The camera retains the details in dimly lit areas too which is a good thing as it is an indication that the old sensor still is a capable contender.
I could not in my review find any evidence of water damage to any of the cameras.
The battery
User Report: I have had at least one charging per day which amounts to more than a 1000 cycles. It is said that the battery in mobile phones is rated for about 500 cycles and this one is way past that. Battery life understandably has come down but I can still get through the day if I am not using 4G networks.
Una Reviews: The battery still charges from 10 to 100 in about an hour with the supplied charger. It retains 70% charge if left with 4G network turned on for 24 hours. Battery drains quickly if you are actively uploading or downloading with 4G networks.
UNA DECISION
Even after 3+ years of use, this device retains its usability. It can be continued to use without any immediate review for approval.
Thus this OnePlus 6 receives UNA SEAL OF APPROVAL.
