OnePlus 6T: New flagship killer has nasty surprises

OnePlus 6T may be a big design upgrade over the predecessor but it comes with major trade-offs.

OnePlus 6T skips 3.5mm headphone jack (HT Photo)

OnePlus on Monday launched its latest flagship phone, OnePlus 6T. The new smartphone comes with a new in-screen fingerprint sensor and screen design. It also has a larger 3,700mAh battery. The smartphone, however, comes with some big trade-offs for OnePlus users.

No 3.5mm headphone jack
OnePlus has now joined the growing list of smartphone companies which are abandoning 3.5mm headphone jack. While OnePlus 6T comes with USB Type-C wireless headphones, lack of 3.5mm headphone jack is going to be a great deal of inconvenience to those who have still not moved to a wireless ecosystem. Also, those who use headphone jack while charging the phone may have to now look for a wireless headphone or USB Type-C headphones.

"More people are now demanding bigger and better screens, new technology, and exceptional battery life. We listen carefully to our user feedback and aim to deliver the best possible overall experience that is balanced and burdenless. With the removal of the headphone jack, we were able to install a larger battery and implement Screen Unlock while maintaining a similar form factor and ergonomics to the OnePlus 6," OnePlus explains.

No LED indicator
LED indicator may be a small feature but it's still quite useful, especially if you have missed calls or texts. OnePlus 6T no longer has this feature, thanks to the smaller waterdrop notch that houses just the front-facing camera. The new smartphone now allows users to see the notifications on the lock screen but the device needs to be picked up.

Slow Nightscape mode
OnePlus had promised better lowlight photography with OnePlus 6T. The new phone comes with a new "Nightscape" mode which is supposed to capture high-dynamic range and deliver improved clarity, less noise, more accurate colour reproduction. The catch is that the image processing is very slow. It also requires users to keep the phone stable when the image is being processed.

OnePlus explains that the camera takes 2-second exposure time, and up to 10 multi-frame shots to deliver better Nightscape photo. The process of combining 10 shots together takes longer than usual. The company, however, has promised to optimise the processing time with the future updates.