Unboxing and hands-on with the Thunder Purple OnePlus 6T

OnePlus announced its mid-cycle release: the OnePlus 6T in a New York event last month where the company announced that the OnePlus 6T was arriving to T-Mobile in the United States. We were also expecting to hear about a purple variant of the phone though there wasn't a single mention of it at the event.

Just about a week later, OnePlus announced an exclusive color for the Chinese market: Thunder Purple, during a Chinese launch event. Only for OnePlus to announce (exactly a week later) that the Thunder Purple finish was arriving to all markets. The variant is now available in North America, Europe, and India as of the date on this post.

Like the 6T, you have everything you need to get started inside the box. There's a quick start guide, a Dash charger and USB-C to USB-A cable, a USB-C to 3.5mm headphone adapter, a copy of a hand-written letter from Pete Lau welcoming you to the OnePlus community, some OnePlus stickers, a SIM tool, a high-quality tinted-clear case, and of course, the phone itself.

Camera • Dew-drop notch • Rear • Right side

This is the first gradient finish that OnePlus has ever done and it looks beautiful. The name "Thunder" is a great way to describe this finish because of the way that light reflects off of it. In some angles, you can see an "S" shape down the length of the phone, which kind of looks like lightning. The Midnight Black also did this on the OnePlus 6 but to have another color in the mix is really nice.

The color that was chosen is also really nice - the purple chosen isn't very feminine, it's pronounced enough for you to tell that it's purple, but the effect is subtle and sophisticated. If you have a chance to check it out in person, you definitely should. Otherwise, if you order this color blindly, you won't be disappointed.

Unlike the Mirror Black version of the OnePlus 6T, the Thunder Purple variant (and Midnight Black) only comes in the 8GB RAM + 128GB ROM configuration. So if you want to get the base-model 6GB variant, you'll only be able to get it in Mirror Black. Otherwise, you can only buy the Thunder Purple color in the US directly from OnePlus' website and not from T-Mobile. Ol' magenta only has the Mirror Black color in the 8GB + 128GB configuration.

Thunder Purple next to Midnight Black • Bottom • Display • Left side

The OnePlus 6T has the latest CPU from Qualcomm and a large 6.41-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with 19.5:9 aspect ratio. There's also a 3,700 mAh battery - larger than the 6's 3,300 mAh one, and an in-display fingerprint scanner is the norm. There's a 20MP + 16MP dual camera and a 16MP selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture. Finally, the OnePlus 6T runs OnePlus' custom Oxygen OS on top of Android Pie - OnePlus is also pretty quick to push updates to its phones.