OnePlus 6 India launch on May 17: Everything we know about OnePlus’ new flagship

OnePlus on Tuesday announced the launch date for its new flagship smartphone, OnePlus 6. The smartphone will be unveiled in London on May 16 followed by China and India next day. The London event is scheduled to begin at 12PM EDT (9.30PM IST). In India, OnePlus is holding an event in Mumbai which is slated to start at 3PM on May 17. In China, the launch event will take place in Beijing at 10 am CST.

OnePlus 6 will be available in India online exclusively via Amazon India. The two companies have previously partnered for the older OnePlus phones. Amazon India has already started accepting registration for OnePlus 6 where customers can sign up for a "Notify Me" option. OnePlus 6 will go on sale in India on May 21. Note that the first sale will be exclusive for Amazon Prime members.

Ahead of the launch, OnePlus has revealed plenty of details about the new smartphone. So far, the company has confirmed that OnePlus 6 will come with top-of-the-line specifications such as Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845 processor and 8GB of RAM. OnePlus 6 will also come with a 256GB storage model which is a first for the company.

OnePlus 6: New Design

Apart from top-of-the-line specifications, OnePlus fans can expect premium design from the new flagship smartphone. Recently, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau confirmed in a forum post that OnePlus 6 will come with a glass back panel. The announcement followed a teaser that hinted at a new in-house design for the device.

Pete Lau also explained how the OnePlus 6's glass back is going to be different from any other smartphone of the kind in the market. OnePlus 6 will have five printed layers of nanotech coating, which OnePlus says is a first for the smartphone industry.

"The phone has five layers of nanotech coating instead of three, even though the degree of separation between each layer is extremely subtle and tough to discern because the additional layers give the back of the device a stronger impression of depth," OnePlus said in a note.

"The advantages of glass over metal are manifold: glass communicates a transparent, bright and pure feeling. The way glass transforms under different lighting is a particularly important challenge — the OnePlus design team tested over 70 glass prototypes before selecting the best one," the company said.

OnePlus 6: Camera

If the recent camera samples shared by CEO Pete Lau are to be believed, OnePlus 6 is going to improve in the camera department as well.

As mentioned in our detailed review of OnePlus 5T, the OnePlus flagship did a good job at matching the performance of premium phones like Samsung Galaxy Note 8, but lagged behind in the camera department. Based on camera samples, we can easily predict that OnePlus 6 will sport a dual-camera setup on the back, enabling richer portrait-mode photos and superior results in bright daylight conditions.

OnePlus 6: India Registrations, Lab Community

Last week, Amazon India began allowing customers to register for the OnePlus 6. Note that you can only register yourself for a "notify me" option, which means you will be up to date with updates on the OnePlus 6 India launch. You cannot pre-order the phone on the e-commerce platform right now.

If you want to grab the OnePlus 6 ahead of everyone else, the company has introduced a new programme called 'The Lab'. Under this programme, users can get a review unit ahead of the official launch. Interested users can submit their application to "join the lab".