I’ve been travelling a lot lately, which is very hard for a hardcore gamer like me. I love playing games on my gaming PC, or my PS4. To quench my thirst for gaming while travelling, I got a Nintendo Switch which is pretty good. However, if its one thing that’s worked for mobiles in 2018, it’s gaming. I’ve been playing games for more than a decade now, and I’ve never seen portable games get this good before. Mobile games are no longer for just casual gamers. With compelling phones in the market like the OnePlus 6, we’re finally seeing amazing games make their way into the app stores.
Games Tested for One Plus 6 Gaming Review
There are a lot of good quality games out there, but I wanted to test the phone with the games I’m already familiar with and clocked countless hours. In two months, I’ve spent more than 100 hours gaming on my OnePlus 6.
Asphalt 8: Asphalt is not a new game when it comes to testing the performance of a mobile phone. However, it is not a new title, and pretty much all latest devices handle it well. There’s nothing special about it. I did test the phone with the newer Asphalt 9 which has better graphics, but Asphalt 8 was a lot more fun.
PUBG: I’ve clocked in countless hours in both mobile version and PC version of this game. However, the mobile version is so good and versatile, that I do not play the PC version anymore. I cranked up the graphics settings all the way up, with 60 fps. PUBG is a third-person shooter battle royale which puts 100 players on a massive map. There’s no way I would’ve believed if someone told me I’d be playing PUBG on a mobile just one year back.
Arena of Valor: AoV is a resource intensive with an intricate map similar to DOTA, where two teams of 5 members each compete against each other. Here timing and accuracy matter. The phone has to be highly responsive, and should not have frame drops. The graphics requirement for AoV is even more demanding than PUBG.
Specs of One Plus 6
I’m not a huge fan of the actual specs, but here’s everything you need to know:
Processor: Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, in which 4 cores are clocked at 2.8 GHz and the remaining 4 are at 1.8 GHz
GPU: Adreno 630
RAM: 8GB LPDDR4X
Storage: 256 GB
These are the kind of specs you’d expect to get in any flagship phone in 2018. The software also does justice to the phone, with very little customisation.
Performance
I was sure OnePlus 6 would handle Asphalt 8 and PUBG pretty well because the previous devices did. However, I was genuinely surprised when I could play Arena of Valor for hours without a single glitch with the highest settings available. The only other device I could do it with was the iPhone X. This alone tells a lot about OnePlus 6’s performance.
The RAM management is also on point. The phone comes with a massive 8GB RAM, which the software manages efficiently. There’s always enough RAM for any task I throw at it. The 256 GB ROM also helps. With most games well above 1GB, I can easily squeeze in hundreds of games on the phone.
Game Mode
One of the best features of OnePlus devices is the ‘Gaming Mode,’ which is hidden inside Advanced Settings in the Settings menu. There are a bunch of features in here which you’d want to look into if you’re serious about gaming. There’s an option to block notifications, Disable auto brightness, and boost the network. All three of these problems are the worst that I usually deal with while gaming on mobile. Notifications are an abomination while gaming. Auto Brightness, which usually is a fantastic feature to have, is a buzz kill while an intense gaming session. Network boost would prioritise internet access to the game over other apps, to maintain a low ping rate, which is essential for multiplayer games like PUBG and AoV.
Game mode can be activated from the system tray by swiping down. However, the best part is that you can specify the games you want Game Mode for, and the phone automatically toggles it for those games. Game Mode is something that every single manufacturer out there should be including in their phones.
Display
OnePlus has followed the trend with a bigger display and a notch. Unlike Apple, Google does not force developers to build apps for the notch. So none of the games I tested was optimised for the notch. There’s just a black bar to completely ignore the notch. However, you could head over display settings and select the app you want to be stretched for the notch. It messes with the aspect ratio, but I had no issues while playing games. The experience was a lot more immersive and satisfying.
Coming to the actual display, OnePlus 6 comes with a 6.28” AMOLED display and a resolution of 2280×1080. The pixel density is at 402 PPI, which is noticeable at times. Then, there’s the colour reproduction which is not as good as good as other OLED screens out there. However, I wouldn’t bother much, because better pixel density and colour reproduction come with devices that cost twice as much, and it’s not always worth it.
Hardware
By making the phone taller, OnePlus 6 feels right for both landscape and portrait gaming. It felt great to use even for one-handed games like Mario. The glass back gives extra grip when compared with previous devices like the OnePlus 5T.
Coming to the audio, which is a core part of any game, OnePlus 6 has only one speaker at the bottom left corner which is weak. The speaker lacks a punch and is easy to cover up, which left me wanting for more. However, to make up for the speaker, OnePlus has given us a standard 3.5mm headphone jack which most companies hate now. I just plug in any headphone I have for a proper audio experience.
Also, the phone does not heat up during long gaming sessions. Glass is an excellent thermal insulator. I played Arena of Valor for 4 hours straight, and the phone barely got warm which is commendable. I did not measure the actual numbers, but my iPhone X was a lot more warm with the same game for 4 hours.
Battery and Charging
A portable device is only good if its battery lasts long enough. The OnePlus comes with a 3,300 man non-removable battery which is good enough for gaming. The low-resolution screen also helps. The battery easily lasts about 4-5 hours for resource-intensive games like PUBG or AoV.
There’s a battery saver mode in Game Mode Settings which under-clocks the processor. The performance takes a hit, in favour of battery life. I chose not to use this feature because I like to play games in their maximum possible settings. For when the battery gets low, there’s DASH Charging.
DASH charging is still the fastest charging technology on mobile phones right now. The phone goes from 0 to 65 in just 35 minutes with the included charger. You can get a quick charge in-between gaming sessions, or even charge it while gaming. DASH charger prevents OnePlus 6 from over-heating when charging. The company no longer calls it DASH charging, but its still the same technology which we love and use from previous OnePlus phones.
Conclusion
OnePlus 6 starts at an exceptional price of Rs. 35,000. However, its performance matches that of phones twice its cost. OnePlus 6 is easily the best phone right now for current games like PUBG and other future games that are yet to come. Just as I am publishing this review, Fortnite for Android is out, and the phone holds up pretty well. You do not need phones built for gaming. Good phones are naturally going to handle gaming well. Whenever I find a break, I now reach out to my pocket, instead of something like the Nintendo Switch.
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