OnePlus, which impressed us earlier this year with the OnePlus 6, is all set to debut its second flagship smartphone for 2018, the OnePlus 6T. As confirmed by the manufacturer recently, the OnePlus 6T will be made official at simultaneous global events on October 30. Ahead of the smartphone’s launch, OnePlus’ resident software expert Syzmon…
OnePlus, which impressed us earlier this year with the OnePlus 6, is all set to debut its second flagship smartphone for 2018, the OnePlus 6T. As confirmed by the manufacturer recently, the OnePlus 6T will be made official at simultaneous global events on October 30. Ahead of the smartphone’s launch, OnePlus’ resident software expert Syzmon K and User Experience Lead Crayon Hsieh answered some important questions regarding the changes that can be expected with OxygenOS on the OnePlus 6T. The interview has been posted on the company’s official forum.
OnePlus has finally confirmed that its next flagship smartphone will be launched with the latest Android 9 Pie operating system out of the box. Last year, the company had launched the OnePlus 5T with the Android 7.1.1 Nougat operating system out of the box. It was updated to Android 8.0 Oreo only in January this year. Quite clearly, it looks like OnePlus is getting quite serious about the software on its products. The OnePlus 6 ( Review) began receiving the Android 9 Pie-based stable OxygenOS update last month, while the Android Pie-based HydrogenOS update began rolling out in China earlier this week. Apart from OnePlus, only Essential and HMD Global have rolled out the stable Android Pie update for their smartphones. Some Android OEMs are expected to begin rolling out the stable Pie update for its smartphones by the end of the year, while others will release the update only by early next year.
The next OnePlus flagship smartphone will come with an improved gesture-based navigation compared to what is currently available on the OnePlus 6. Users will be able to quickly switch between two recently used apps with a flick from the bottom of the screen towards the right side of the screen. Another gesture that is missing on the OnePlus 6 is a shortcut to access Google Assistant. On the OnePlus 6T, users can simply hold the power button for 0.5 seconds to activate the Google Assistant. Since the OnePlus 6T features a very tall aspect ratio, the software team at OnePlus has implemented full-screen gestures as well. The software team tested each swipe over 1000 times to make sure that the motion feels natural. A lot of time was also spent on tweaking every single animation.
Gesture-based navigation is not the only exciting new feature that you can look forward to on the OnePlus 6T. The OnePlus OxygenOS software team has made some tweaks to the camera, which should allow the OnePlus 6T to deliver superior results compared to its predecessor. Since the smartphone is expected to feature an identical 16MP + 20MP dual-camera setup at the rear, tweaks to the software will certainly prove to be quite helpful. OnePlus has also focused on “FSE”, which stands for ‘Fast, Smooth, and Efficient’. FSE aims at ensuring that the software can make the most out of the hardware. OnePlus fans can also look forward to some other features like an advanced Do not Disturb mode and all the other usual Pie goodies.
