OnePlus launches its next gen phone in India

Today, Chinese phone maker, One Plus launches its next gen flagship, the OnePlus 6 in India at an event in Mumbai, barely a day after the global launch at the Copper Box Arena in London. About 500 visibly enthusiastic tech journalists from around the world attended the event.  Taking the stage,  Carl Pei, co-founder of One Plus kicked off the event with a glance back at One Plus' young history, this being only the fourth year of the phone's existence. Last year, the One Plus 5 sold 7,000 units per minute at its peak globally. In India, the phone was the best selling premium phone on Amazon within the first month since its launch, Pei said. Immensely popular among young early adopters for its unbeatable specs, performance, and design offered at a reasonable cost, each edition of the One Plus smartphone has only expanded its cult-like following, spreading easily to mainstream users. Today, the One Plus is the most recommended phone in its price category.  At the event in London, Carl Pei first presented a surprise product, the Bullet Wireless earphones, the company's first wireless audio product. The earphones, connected to one another with a neck band,  have magnetic caps on the earbuds that snap together to prevent tangling, play and pause music and take phone calls. The Bullet earphones support OnePlus' popular 'Dash' charging and will give five hours of listening with a mere ten minute top-up. These will be available sometime in June.  The OnePlus 6 smartphone will be available in three colour variants: Midnight Black, a sleek and smooth matte like finish that is surprisingly made of glass, a Mirror Black which is glossy, and a Silk White which is again smooth and made of actual pearl powder and again under glass. India prices will only be known at the event to be held in Mumbai later today.  Already proven as a speedy performer, the OnePlus 6 ex expected to work even faster and smoother, based as it is on the new Snapdragon 845 processor. It is actually the first phone in India to launch with this processor, although there are equivalents such as Samsung's flagship devices. The focus, with this year's flagship, is also very much on speed, underlined by the company's tagline for the device, 'The Speed You Need'.  "Your device should be able to deliver what you need, whenever you need it," Carl Pei said. The OnePlus 6 devices will be based on Android 8.1, but will also be able to work with Android P's developer beta version, for those who would want to download it and try it out.  Carl Pei pegs down his company's success to two factors - a good product (denoted by the One in the name) and word of mouth (denoted by the Plus, signifying sharing). OnePlus devices have become known as being powerful, future proof and top performing, beating more expensive flagship phones on several parameters. But it's also the 'attitude' of the upstart company that has caught the imagination of people who like and enjoy technology with the 'Never Settle' tagline evoking to a bit of an anti-establishment sentiment.  With the OnePlus 6 however, the company has settled a little considering the new device sports an iPhone-like notch on the top of the screen effectively allowing the shrinking of the edges around the display. The notch is rapidly being adopted by many Android phone makers. In the case of the OnePlus 6, it be hidden away with a setting.  The screen is a 6.28-inch with a 19:9 aspect ratio.  This time, the OnePlus flagship has both optical and electronic image stabilisation on its primary cameras which are a 20MP and a 16MP. The front camera allows for quick face unlock and in an upcoming update will also include artificial intelligence algorithms to take self portrait shots. Slow motion video will also be added.  OnePlus is also launching a special Avengers edition which has a Kevlar pattern on the back and other theme elements such as the wallpaper, the golden Avengers emblem and a phone case in the shape of Iron Man's helmet, and a gold Avengers medallion in a box embossed with the famous "A" insignia. This variant will come with 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage. This special edition will cost Rs 44,999. 

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