OnePlus Nord 6: A Practical Review After 15 Days!

0:00 Okay, so this right here is the OnePlus Nord 6 and we have been using it extensively for more than 2 weeks. In this video, I'll give you a proper, a detailed, a decisive review so that you can decide better. And I'll also be answering all the questions that you guys have asked us on Twitter and YouTube. And if in case you're confused between Nord 6, 13R, or maybe the 4 4A Pro, I'll end that confusion as well.

0:21 It's going to be a spicy one, so sit down, relax, and let's get started. First of all, the box is everything you expect. The phone, the charger, a color-matching case, and also this red type A to C cable. So yeah, no cost-cutting there, but the design, well, it just doesn't stand out anymore. See, for starters, it looks and feels pretty much like the recent OnePlus flagships, which I have no problems with, but both the frame and the back are now plastic, which wasn't the case last year or even the year before. Now, it's definitely a downgrade, and even I felt, "Why did they do it?" But when I actually started using it, and you know me, my kind of usage is rough, very rough. But still, this phone handled me pretty well. In fact, there are no dents, no scratches on the sides or even on the back, and the pre-applied screen protector has also done a good job protecting it. So, if it can handle me, I don't think it's delicate at all. And one more big upgrade this time is IP rating. Yes, unlike last year, when Nord used to have a modest IP65 rating, this time they went all in. It's IP66, IP68, IP69, and even IP69K rated. With so many IP ratings, I think it'll be more comfortable underwater. Apart from that, the phone has gotten slightly wider, slightly thicker, and slightly heavier than before, but the in-hand feel is not compromised at all. It's grippy, it's comfortable, and the rounded corners go easy on your palm. One thing they should have fixed in the design are these two holes. They're very confusing. One is the mic, and the other is the SIM ejector hole. And if you're not careful, you can poke into the wrong hole and damage the mic. And you know what? It was not like this last time. So, OnePlus, if you're listening, please fix this in the next version. Now, if I talk about the display, it's slightly smaller than last time. It's 6.78 in, but in terms of brightness number and refresh rate, it's much better than before. In fact, in our testing, it reached 1,700 nits in HBM and 2,500 nits in HDR, which by the way is quite close to the numbers that we got on OnePlus 15. By the way, it's still a 1.5K LTPO panel. It still supports HDR 10 Plus across all apps, including Netflix, and it still has an optical fingerprint scanner, but it's not protected by the gorillas anymore.

2:36 This time, OnePlus is using crystal glass card protection, which they claim to be as good as Victus Plus. But still, I'd recommend you using a screen protector because you don't want your display to look like this, do you? I know a lot of you guys are watching and thinking whether you should get this or the OnePlus 13R. So, let me tell you something that happened with me when I was taking photos from both the phones, and this is actually quite surprising. So, I was taking photos from both the phones back-to-back, and suddenly, 13R's display got dimmed because of the thermal throttling, but Nord 6, well, it did not show any signs of struggle whatsoever. See, the thing is, theoretically, the processor on 13R is better than Nord 6, but practically, it's not the case. I'll give you more examples as we go deep into this review.

3:18 But coming back to the display now, I did not experience any visibility issue even in broad daylight. And when I compared it against the Nord 5, there's clearly some difference there. I'm not sure if the camera is doing justice, but there is some difference. The movie watching experience is also sorted. HDR on Netflix is working fine. Stereo speakers go loud enough, so no problems there as well. And since the display refreshes at 165 Hz, I played both Clash of Clans and Call of Duty in native 165 FPS, and the gameplay was buttery smooth. The average FPS numbers were very good. There was no overheating, no lags, no stutters, or anything like that. I also played multiple sessions of BGMI with and without the hyper frame rate and these were the average FPS numbers and temperature readings from both the sessions. As you can see, with frame interpolation, the temperature did rise a little, but it's still very much in control. And for the gameplay, it was very, very smooth. No hiccups, no lags, nothing. I even played multiple sessions of demanding games like Genshin and Futhering and here also the phone did not lose its cool and did not drop any frames as well. In fact, I stretched one of my sessions for 30 minutes, but still the temperature barely touched 40° and the phone was warm only around the camera island part. Overall, the gaming experience on this phone is top-notch and not just that, you also get useful gaming features like bypass charging, hyper frame rate and many, many more.

4:34 And if you're into benchmarks, this is what it looks like. AnTuTu scores are solid, as good as the 8 Gen 3 on the 13R. Geekbench CPU and Geekbench GPU are also quite close to 13R, so no problems there as well. And for 3DMark Wild Life, the stability is slightly less on Nord 6, but the temperature readings are the same. And if I compare it with the Poco X5 Pro, you'll notice that the scores are much lower and the temperature reading is much higher. So, yeah, in terms of day-to-day usage, Nord 6 handles everything with ease. Watching videos, taking calls, running Android Auto or even constant multitasking, there's no struggle whatsoever. And since there are no bugs, iOS users might call it boring, but that's a risk we'll have to take. Throughout my usage, I found only one bug, only one single bug and it was also not fatal. What happened was that whenever I opened quick settings or notification panel, the battery percentage disappeared, but now it's fixed. So, performance-wise, you will have no problems with this phone and what makes it even better is the battery life. Yes, the battery life on this phone is just too good to be true.

5:33 On my usual days where I scrolled Instagram, did a bit of gaming, YouTube and some calls, I got around 12.5 hours of SOT, which is just crazy good. And even when I pushed it hard with hours and hours of gaming with frame interpolation, I still got 10 hours 45 minutes of SOT with 12% battery still remaining. See, these are the numbers when I was pushing the phone to its limits, but for anyone who's going to use it normally, it will easily take you to the next day without even charging.

6:00 And that, my friend, gives you solid peace of mind. And for charging, the 80-watt charger in the box takes the phone from 0 to 100% in less than 90 minutes, which is also quite impressive for a battery this size. And just like the battery, the software department of this phone is also sorted. It's quite clean, it's feature-rich, animations are fluid enough, you get all the useful AI features, too, and the bloatware and ads are not as disturbing as it is on other phones. It's running on the latest OxygenOS 16 based on Android 16, and you are promised four OS updates and six years of security patches. By the way, I have noticed that OnePlus has also started adding screenshots in software update logs, which helps in better understanding of what new features have been added, and I think every brand should just copy it. All in all, everything about the software is top-notch, but still, there's one thing missing. And that is full-screen AOD.

6:47 Actually, it was there in Nord 5, but for some reason, it's not here in Nord 6. I just hope that OnePlus brings it with an update, and while they're at it, they should also bring seamless AOD. Haptics also play a major role in the user experience, and I'm happy to report that haptics on Nord 6 are as good as Nord 5, and the integration into the UI is also well thought out. So, no issues there as well. Now, the cameras have never been the USP of Nord phones, and it's the same for this phone as well.

7:12 It's a 50-megapixel main camera, which is a slight downgrade from last year, 8-megapixel ultrawide, and a 32-megapixel selfie, which was also 50-megapixel till last year. And even if you compare the specs of Nord 6 with 13R and the 4a Pro, the confidence does shake up a little, but when it comes to the actual photos, the results are actually very surprising. For example, in this photo, sky color looks different on all three phones, and to be honest, none of them captured what's real.

7:37 Anyways, if you just zoom in onto the clock, you'll notice that Nord 6 captured much better details, and the overall photo looks sharper. Now, the interesting thing here is that it's a 2x crop on both Nothing and Nord, while it's a 2x telephoto from 13R, but still the results are in the favor of Nord 6. In this photo, too, both the OnePlus photos look quite similar to each other, but Nothing has made it more dreamy. And in low light, 13R seems to have captured better details, while Nothing tries to beautify, but Nord 6 on the other hand is not very good at night. In fact, a couple of my night shots from the Nord 6 main camera also came out blurred. Not sure why. And with the portraits, 13R handles light better, the bokeh is obviously more natural, but the difference in subject is not major. The ultrawide photos also look quite similar. It's just that Nord keeps it extremely natural, while the other two try to boost a lot. And finally, for selfies, all three phones are quite close, but Nord has an advantage with 4K 30 recording, which is not there in both 13R and 4a Pro. For the main camera video, you do get 4K 60 support on both the OnePlus phones, but it's limited to 4K 30 on the Nothing phone. I personally found them to be equally good, equally stable, but lights are handled better on Nord 6. Now, after testing the camera extensively, all I'd like to say is that don't judge the camera by its specs.

8:48 Sometimes, optimization plays a much bigger role, and that's exactly the case with this phone. Of course, if you want a more versatile camera setup, Nothing phone 4a Pro should be your choice, but then you'll have to compromise on the performance a lot. It clicks good, usable photos that you can actually publish on your Instagram. And if it gets the night time optimization right, the low light performance will also improve a lot. So, if you're confused between this and 13R just because of the camera, don't, because it's not that big of a difference. In terms of connectivity, I mostly use the Nord 6 with my Airtel SIM. I did not face any call connectivity issue or mobile data problems. There's Wi-Fi 7 on board along with Bluetooth 6.0. You get 11 5G bands, there's NFC, and also an IR blaster in the camera module. There's no eSIM here, which is quite common in this segment.

9:32 Now that I've told you everything, let me answer some of the questions that you guys have asked us on Twitter and YouTube. First of all, Chandrajit asks if the Nord 6 supports HD Plus calling. Well, we have tested it with a Jio SIM and turns out it does support HD only, so no HD Plus here. Not sure why. Next up, The Silencer is asking about cooling system and network reception. Nice name. See, you do get a graphene cooling system here and that's the reason it did not get very hot while benchmarking or gaming. And for network reception, we have tested it in the weak spots like basement and lifts and the speeds as well as the network reception was very good. Next question is from Scammed Human and he's asking whether he should get Nord 5 or Nord 6 specifically for camera. See, hardware-wise, it's Nord 5, but if I have to talk about optimization, I will pick Nord 6. The details are captured very well on Nord 6 and the skin tones are also not that bad. So, if you're confused, I think you should get the Nord 6. Bike Lover is asking how's the weight balance, heating issues, or is there any network issue?

10:31 The weight balance is actually quite good. It's not top-heavy or neither it's a bottom-heavy. And for heating, at all. Next catcher is asking how's the camera on this phone especially at night time. Actually, if you're only looking for night time photography, I think you should avoid this phone and get the 4a Pro instead. Now, this is an interesting one. Why does OnePlus lost its design philosophy? Well, I don't think they have. The design now looks much more consistent across the entire lineup and I think that's what OnePlus is aiming at. Paul here is asking about battery optimization and to tell you the truth, the battery life on this phone is just too good to be true. We've talked about it in the battery section, so go check that out. Now, Vedant here is asking does Nord 6 have that Mac iPad ecosystem features as the flagship OnePlus have?

11:13 Yes, there is. You can just use the O Plus connector for all the connectivity and ecosystem features. Now, this one is a bit weird. Anupama here is telling that thermal throttling is ridiculously high on this phone. It seems that VC has been cut down from Chinese equivalent. Anupama, I'm really not sure why you are facing throttling issues because in our testing, where we have played Genshin for almost 1.5 hours with frame interpolation, the average FPS numbers stood tall and the temperature also did not go crazy high. In fact, I actually found the sustained performance on this phone to be pretty solid. Now, the last question is as detailed as this video.

11:48 There are four questions in total and I'll answer them one by one. Why choose this phone over Nothing Phone 4a Pro if you are not a heavy gamer? I get it. 4a Pro is better with design and cameras, but otherwise, this is pretty solid. How bright is the flashlight? I tested it and it's as bright as the Note 5. Is silicon carbon battery safe? Well, silicon carbon batteries are claimed to be as safe as the usual smartphone batteries. It's just that they give more juice. And for the last bit, head over to gadgets.beebom.com on this comparison and you'll get your answers clearly. Now that we're done with the questions, let's get to the most important part, pricing and voiding. So, the Note 6 has launched in India for 38,999 for the base variant with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage and it's 41,999 for 12 256 model. There's no 512GB model this year, but you do get bank discount of up to 3,000 rupees. The price is definitely higher than last year's Note 5, but given the current circumstances, where smartphone prices and smartphone specs are moving in the opposite direction, this is easily the most balanced and most value-for-money performance-centric phone of 2026. So, if you're looking to buy a phone under 40K, OnePlus Note 6 is the one that you can consider. I just hope they don't increase the price. So, yeah, that's it for this video. I really hope you enjoyed watching it. If you did, please press that like button. It really means a lot. And if you guys still have more questions for Note 6, feel free to ask us in the comments and we'll answer them. Thank you for watching and I'll see you in the next one.