OnePlus teams up with performance car maker

The OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition smartphone has been officially unveiled during an event held at the performance car maker's British HQ.

The headline features for the McLaren Edition of the OnePlus 6T include a new color variant, with McLaren's signature 'Papaya Orange' wrapping around the bottom edge of the handset and fading to black as it reaches the top, 10GB of RAM and a new fast-charging technology.

OnePlus has also created a carbon fiber-like pattern under the rear glass, plus the McLaren logo also sits on the back of the phone.

With 10GB of RAM, the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition adds two extra gig to the 8GB, top-spec standard 6T. You still get 256GB of storage though, like the top-spec 6T model.

A day's power in 20 minutes

The OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition debuts a new technology for OnePlus, Warp Charge 30. Building on the brands Dash Charge technology, OnePlus claims Warp Charge 30 can give you a day's power in 20 minutes. That's down from 30 minutes with Dash Charge, making Warp Charge 38% faster.

It's called Warp Charge 30 because 30 Watts of power will flow into the handset when charging.

The OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition release date is set for December 13 in Western Europe and North America, with availability in India, China, and the Nordics soon after.

The OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition price is set at $699 (£649), which is $70 (£70) more than the 8GB+256GB top-spec configuration of the standard OnePlus 6T.

Considering the price of Huawei's Porsche Design and Oppo's Lamborghini edition handsets, the price increase for the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition is relatively modest, although the upgrades provided here are relatively minimal.

You do, however, get a McLaren Speedmark logo in the special presentation box as well, made of the same carbon fiber as the firm's F1 car.

This is likely to be a limited edition handset, although it's currently unclear how many units will be available.

Improved night time shooting

We're exactly a week away from the launch of the OnePlus 6T, but the teasers keep coming and we've just seen our first camera sample from the rear shooter of the upcoming phone.

OnePlus CEO Pete Lau uploaded the photo you can see below to Weibo (that's a Chinese social networking site), alongside a caption that when translated from Chinese says something similar to "bring your own filter".

This is a night shot of the city of Shenzhen and we expect this is Lau's way of teasing improved low light performance, and it may even be a way to hint at the newly rumored Night Mode.



What does it mean?

The new Night Mode feature was first rumored last week after an "official OnePlus representative" spoke about it to TrueTech, but we're still unsure exactly how it will work.

It may be similar to long-exposure modes we've seen on some other flagship phones this year, but it's unclear if this shot was taken free hand or using a tripod. Fingers crossed this is the kind of shot you can get with the phone in your hand.

But this photo from Lau is specifically a night time shot, which bodes well for Night Mode being a feature on the new phone. While there's no EXIF data attached to Lau's photo we can still tell it came from a 13MP rear shooter.

OnePlus is set to announce its new phone officially on October 29 - there was a last minute date change thanks to Apple - and we expect to learn all about the upgraded rear camera at that event.

What do you know about the OnePlus 6T? Here's what you need to know


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Never Settle for a launch event in Apple's shadow

The next OnePlus launch date has officially been moved to October 29, a day earlier than the company originally announced, proving it's hard to compete with Apple.

The OnePlus 6T launch event was scheduled for October 30 at 11am ET in New York City until Apple pounced on that same date, in the same city, an hour earlier at 10am.

Instead of conflicting with the expected iPad Pro 2018 launch event, OnePlus changed its date to 24 hours earlier, at 11am on October 29.

"After deep reflection, we have decided to move the OnePlus 6T Launch Event in New York City to October 29," said the OnePlus Team on its official forum.

The company pointed at Apple specifically, saying that many members of the press provided feedback. "They showed us that, if we chose to stick to our original timeline, launching the OnePlus 6T on October 30, we would be overshadowed by Apple."

But, the change does affect OnePlus fans, too.

"To those affected, we know sorry isn’t good enough," said OnePlus, which charges its most die-hard fans admission for launch event tickets. "We will do everything in our power to make things right. Starting with those of you who own a ticket, but won’t be able to make the event. Everyone who owns a ticket will be able to apply for a full refund for their ticket."

New date, same OnePlus 6T hype

There's a lot of excitement around the OnePlus 6T phone, with leaks pointing to an in-screen fingerprint sensor on a mainstream smartphone, 8GB of RAM even for the entry-level configuration (unlike the OnePlus 6), and longer battery life.

The design is rumored to change in two ways. You'll see it get a smaller notch (a 'teardrop notch' not unlike the Huawei Mate 20 'dewdrop' notch), and no more headphone jack, as OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei confirmed to TechRadar last month.

TechRadar will be at the OnePlus 6T launch event and the Apple iPad Pro 2018 launch event – without having to be in two places at once.

Optical over ultrasonic

OnePlus has already confirmed that the OnePlus 6T has an on-screen fingerprint scanner, and now it's revealed the type of scanner technology used – and it’s not the best type.

In a post on Weibo (a Chinese social network), the firm shared that the OnePlus 6T has a “light-sensitive” scanner, which almost certainly means an optical one, which reflects light off your finger to get a 2D reading.

The other possible option for in-screen scanners is ultrasonic, which uses ultrasound to build a 3D picture of your finger. These scanners are therefore likely to get more detailed readings, and in turn be more accurate and secure.

As expected

The fact that the OnePlus 6T uses an optical scanner isn’t much of a surprise though, since most in-screen scanners are currently optical, including the one on the Oppo R17, which the OnePlus 6T is heavily based on.

An optical scanner is also likely to be cheaper to implement, which would be important to OnePlus as one of the main selling points of its phones are their relatively low prices.

If you're holding out for an ultrasonic scanner then it looks like the Samsung Galaxy S10 might have one – and not just an ultrasonic scanner, but a cutting-edge third-generation one. But you’ll have to wait until 2019 for that phone – and pay a lot more than you would for the OnePlus 6T.

If you’re fine with an optical scanner you’ll be able to dab your digit on the OnePlus 6T's screen soon, as it’s set to be announced on October 30, likely with a teardrop notch, a dual-lens camera and plenty of power.


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OnePlus 6T could be the first phone available in the US with an on-screen fingerprint reader.