The OnePlus 6T 'McLaren Edition' is even better than the standard phone models, but you shouldn't feel like you're missing out

oneplus 6t mclaren edition 2

The OnePlus 6T "McLaren Edition" has incredible specs and performance, and it's still cheaper than the majority of the competing smartphones from bigger companies.
It also comes with an astoundingly fast charging brick. It's stunningly quick.
And yet, it's hard to recommend when the regular OnePlus 6T models are already so good and cost less than the McLaren Edition.
The McLaren Edition is like McLaren cars themselves: supreme performance that few people really need.

Somehow, OnePlus continues to one-up not only the competition, but its own phones, which are already some of the best Android phones you can buy.

The $700 OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition comes with 10GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, making it the most powerful and fastest smartphone OnePlus — and probably any smartphone maker — has released to date.

oneplus 6t mclaren edition

And yet, the McLaren Edition OnePlus 6T is still cheaper than rival smartphones from big names like Samsung, LG, Google, and Apple.

The McLaren Edition also comes with OnePlus' new "Warp Charge" charging brick, and I've never seen a phone charge as quickly. It's absurdly fast and it decimates competing fast-chargers. It's even faster than OnePlus' own standard Dash Charge, which was already the fastest charging brick available for any smartphone.

Apart from the RAM, some design touches, and Warp Charge, the McLaren Edition is pretty much identical to the regular OnePlus 6T models.

Should you feel like you're missing out if you recently bought a OnePlus 6 or OnePlus 6T?

No, you shouldn't feel like you're missing out.

To be honest, I didn't sense much of a performance upgrade with the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition and its 10GB of RAM over the model with 8GB of RAM. It's possible that that the standard 6GB model might seem a little slower, but OnePlus phones are already some of the fastest Android smartphones you can buy.

If you bought either the OnePlus 6 or OnePlus 6T, you still have one of the best Android smartphones you can buy, and you paid hundreds of dollars less than you would have with some of the big-name phones.

In a way, the McLaren Edition actually highlights just how good the regular OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T are.

oneplus 6t

And even if you're looking to upgrade from an older phone, the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition wouldn't be my first recommendation.

10GB of RAM is overkill for most users, and there's little justification for spending $700 on a smartphone with so much RAM when the $580 OnePlus 6T with 8GB of RAM already exists. In fact, most smartphone users don't even need 8GB of RAM, but the OnePlus 6T with 8GB of RAM is so inexpensive compared to the competition that I'd recommend it to everyone regardless.

With that said, if you want 256GB of storage, the McLaren Edition might actually be worth a serious look. The only other OnePlus 6T model with 256GB of storage costs $630, and it has 8GB of RAM. For $70 extra, the extra 2GB of RAM and Warp Charging brick make a compelling case.

The McLaren Edition is a little bit like McLaren cars themselves: uncompromising performance and quality that certainly have a place in the world, but something few people need on a day-to-day basis. Still, at $700, you'd still be paying less than with competing smartphones.

Had it included wireless charging and an official water-resistance rating — things that the regular models also don't have — the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition would be much easier to recommend for the $700 price tag.

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