OnePlus and Huawei are arguably the two most recognisable smartphone brands to come out of China and be successful in Western markets over the last few years.

The OnePlus 6T joins the outgoing five-month old OnePlus 6, going up against the likes of the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro that launched in April. Here is how the OnePlus 6T compares to the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro.


Best OnePlus 6 deals

 

OnePlus vs Huawei design

  • Huawei P20: 149.1 x 70.8 x 7.65mm, 165g
  • Huawei P20 Pro: 155 x 73.9 x 7.8mm, 180g
  • OnePlus 6: 155.7 x 75.4 x 7.75mm, 177g
  • OnePlus 6T: 157.5 x 74.8 x 8.2mm, 185g

It's safe to say Huawei's P20 and P20 Pro both took a huge detour from the path forged by the P10 series in 2017. Metal backs are out, and shiny, gorgeous, iridescent glass is in. Whichever colour you go for, you'll be getting one of the best looking phones of 2018.

The OnePlus 6 followed this trend, replacing the aluminium body of the OnePlus 5T with a glass rear in the OnePlus 6, and the OnePlus 6T does the same. The OnePlus 6 has a dual camera on the rear with a fingerprint sensor below, while the OnePlus 6T has a dual rear camera too but the fingerprint sensor is built into the front display

Both the P20 and P20 Pro have fingerprint sensors on the front, below the screen. The P20 has a dual camera on the back and the P20 Pro has a triple camera system on the back. One important element of the P20 Pro's design is that it's waterproof up to IP67, while the P20 is water resistant to a lesser extent. OnePlus offers water resistance on the 6 and 6T but neither have an IP rating.

Like the P20 series phones, the OnePlus 6 has a notch at the top of its display, housing the front facing camera and earpiece. The OnePlus 6T offers a much smaller notch with a speaker slit right at the top of the display and just a camera lens present in the notch itself. 

OnePlus vs Huawei display

  • Huawei P20: 5.8-inch, Full HD+, IPS LCD
  • Huawei P20 Pro: 6.1-inch, Full HD+, AMOLED
  • OnePlus 6: 6.28-inch, Full HD+, AMOLED
  • OnePlus 6T: 6.41-inch, Full HD+, AMOLED

Huawei's P20 and P20 Pro come with two different screen sizes, with the larger AMOLED screen measuring 6.1-inches, and the smaller IPS LCD display measuring 5.8-inches. Both feature the same Full HD+ 1080 x 2240 resolution and 18.7:9 ratio. 

OnePlus has avoided jumping to Quad HD for the last couple of years and continues to do so, with the OnePlus 6 offering Full HD+ at 2280 x 1080 and the OnePlus 6T offering Full HD+ at 2340 x 1080. This means you won't notice much difference in sharpness, if any at all, between the OnePlus devices and the P20 devices. 

The OnePlus 6 has a 6.28-inch AMOLED display with a 19:9 aspect ratio screen, making it a little taller than the P20 and P20 Pro. The OnePlus 6T increases the screen size to 6.41-inches, hence the extra pixels in the resolution and it ups the aspect ratio to 19.5:9 due to the reduced notch and chin. None of the devices being compared here offer HDR support.

OnePlus vs Huawei hardware

  • Huawei P20: Kirin 970 processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB storage + microSD, 3400mAh
  • Huawei P20 Pro: Kirin 970 processor, 6GB RAM, 128GB storage + microSD, 4000mAh
  • OnePlus 6: Snapdragon 845, 6/8GB RAM, 64/128/256GB storage, no microSD, 3300mAh
  • OnePlus 6T: Snapdragon 845, 6/8GB RAM, 128/256GB storage, no microSD, 3700mAh

The OnePlus 6 features the Snapdragon 845 platform inside, along with up to 8GB RAM and up to 256GB of storage space. There are variants with 6GB of RAM and 64GB or 128GB storage too however, with the top-specced model only available in the Midnight Black finish.

The OnePlus 6T offers the same chipset as the 6. It also offers 6GB or 8GB of RAM, though storage options are now 128GB and 256GB, meaning no 64GB for the latest model. None of the OnePlus 6 or 6T models offer microSD support and the 6T doesn't have a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Huawei is one of the few manufacturers that doesn't make use of Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors. Instead, it has its own in-house chipset effort going on. With the P20 and P20 Pro, that means the Kirin 970 processor paired with either 4GB or 6GB RAM depending on whether you go with the regular or Pro version. Both come with 128GB internal storage, as well as a microSD slot for expansion. 

OnePlus' fast charging technology is regarded as being one of the best fast-charging methods around - or it was until the Huawei 40W and Oppo 50W charging standards were released. In our testing, it's certainly proved to be fast, especially while the device is in use. It can be found on the OnePlus 6 and 6T.

As for battery size, the OnePlus 6 has a 3300mAh cell, which isn't quite as capacious as the P20 Pro's 4000mAh or the P20's 3400mAh. The OnePlus 6T has a bigger battery than its predecessor at 3700mAh, though this is still smaller than the P20 Pro. Wireless charging is not supported on any of the devices being compared here, despite their glass backs.

OnePlus vs Huawei camera

  • Huawei P20 Pro: Triple camera, 40MP/20MP/8MP, 5x hybrid zoom, AI object recognition, 24MP front
  • Huawei P20: Dual camera, 20MP/12MP, AI object recognition, 24MP front
  • OnePlus 6: Dual camera, 20MP/16 MP, 16MP front
  • OnePlus 6T: Dual camera, 20MP/16MP or 12MP, 16MP front

Huawei's latest cameras, co-engineered with Leica, are among the best on the market, thanks to some AI-powered smarts. The Pro model differs from the regular in that it has a triple camera system capable of producing amazing super night mode shots as well as up to 5X hybrid zoom, for sharp images even when you're quite far from the subject.

Few devices compare to the night-time prowess of the P20 Pro or P20. Night mode on those two phones is ridiculous, letting you take 4-6 second exposures completely handheld and then using AI to stabilise the photo so that it's not blurry. 

The OnePlus 6 features a dual rear camera made up of a 20-megapixel main sensor and a secondary 16-megapixel sensor and the OnePlus 6T offers the same hardware, though it has improved algorithms for portrait mode and night shots. There is a new feature called Night Scape which - like Huawei's night mode - can capture handheld photos at night, stabilising the picture and bringing in lots of light. There is also another feature called Studio Lighting on board the OnePlus 6T.

For the OnePlus 6, the company made the main sensor 19 per cent larger whilst also adding OIS and super slow motion video capabilities, both of which the 6T offers too. In our testing, the OnePlus 6 camera proved to be a big improvement on the OnePlus 5T. Photos, even in low light, were good, as are those from the 6T. With its boosted HDR and impressive low-light chops, the 6T is a great camera for the money. 

OnePlus vs Huawei software

  • Huawei: EMUI 8/Android Oreo
  • OnePlus: Oxygen OS/Android Pie

The Huawei P20 and P20 Pro currently run on Android Oreo with EMUI 8 over the top. It is not yet know exactly when the Android Pie update will arrive. The OnePlus 6 has already been updated to the Android Pie-based Oxygen OS and the 6T launches on Oxygen OS based on Android Pie.

Huawei's EMUI 8 is a heavy skin on top of Android which is quite different to the relatively light, clean experience usually offered by Oxygen OS, OnePlus' software. Both are highly customisable, but OnePlus tends to stick to a software that looks and feels a lot more like stock Android. 

OnePlus vs Huawei price

 

This is the one area where OnePlus has regularly stolen a march on its competition. Its first phone was labelled the flagship killer because it had many of the specifications of expensive flagship phones, but cost significantly less. These days, OnePlus phones are more expensive, but so are big-name flagships. 

Huawei's P20 and P20 Pro aren't quite at the top end of the scale, but they're fairly expensive at £599 and £799 respectively (RRP). 

The OnePlus 6 meanwhile started at £469, which is £20 more than what the OnePlus 5T cost when it was first available but still considerably cheaper than both Huawei's models. Since the 6T launched - in typical OnePlus style - the OnePlus 6 was discontinued and is no longer available for sale. The OnePlus 6T starts at £499 making it £100 less than the P20 and £300 less than the P20 Pro.