OnePlus didn’t “really feel the need” to support wireless charging on the OnePlus 6, company officials told the British edition of Business Insider. “We’re not going to add a feature just for the sake of it,” the representatives asserted, suggesting wireless charging presently isn’t among the most requested functionalities of its customers. Officially announced last Wednesday, the OnePlus 6 presents a largely incremental upgrade over the OnePlus 5T but is still the most powerful device from the company to date, featuring Qualcomm’s newest Snapdragon 845 chip and up to 256GB of flash memory, a storage record for the smartphone maker.
Besides a slightly taller screen that’s now equipped with a display notch, the OnePlus 6 also replaces the metal rear plate of its predecessor with a glass back, having teased that change in the run-up to the launch of its latest Android flagship, which many industry watchers wrongly interpreted as the company embracing wireless charging after almost half a decade. The lack of support for any such technology is now being singled out as one of the main drawbacks of the newly unveiled device which debuted alongside yet another price increase and is now closer than ever to its flagship peers, virtually all of which allow for wireless charging. OnePlus is still quick to point out that its new product comes with an alternative selling point when it comes to replenishing its energy levels – Dash Charge, a unique fast charging solution that’s not prone to throttling due to overheating because the external brick of the charger itself is the module that absorbs any heat generated while the handset is being recharged.
The OnePlus 6 will become officially available for purchase tomorrow in Midnight and Mirror Black variants, whereas the Silk White model is set to be released on June 5. The handset starts at $529 and goes up to $629, depending on the exact memory configuration. OnePlus is expecting its latest offering to become its best-selling product to date, as was the case with all of its previous Android flagships.