OnePlus N6 Lite Review: A Fond Farewell to the 4G Phone

A naming note: OnePlus sells this simply as the N6 Lite. It is 4G only, and it is a different phone from the 5G OnePlus N6 and N6x.

Everything a careful buyer used to ask for.

Read the N6 Lite's spec sheet slowly and it reads like a list compiled by the most practical person in the family. A battery big enough that you stop thinking about it. A headphone jack, so the wired earphones in the drawer still work, and a Bluetooth stack that supports LDAC and aptX HD for the wireless ones. A dedicated memory card slot, so the SIMs and the photos never have to fight for room. An IP64 rating against dust and splashes, plus MIL-STD-810H. A side fingerprint sensor. A charger in the box.

That is a real list and it deserves real credit. The jack and the card slot are getting rarer, and the people who want them are not sentimental, they are practical: a parent who listens to devotional music on wired earphones, a delivery rider who needs a phone to survive a dusty day, a student storing a semester of lecture recordings. For each of them, this phone gets the basics right.

The screen is better than its resolution suggests in one way: 120Hz, so scrolling is smooth. It is still HD+ on a 6.75-inch panel, at 256ppi, so text is soft rather than crisp.

4G, 12nm and 15W, in a year that has gone 5G.

The problem is not any one spec. It is the year. The N6 Lite is 4G only, and a phone bought at Rs. 17,000 is usually a phone kept for 3 or 4 years, and 4G only means the phone never reaches the faster network a SIM bought today may already support. The Unisoc T7250 is built on a 12nm process, an older manufacturing process than the 6nm chip in a rival that costs about the same, and it is paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The card slot helps with storage; nothing helps with the memory.

Then the charging. 15W into a 7,000mAh cell is slow, and OnePlus does not publish a charge time, so we will not invent one. This is a phone you charge overnight, every time. The single 13MP rear camera and 5MP front camera are the basics and no more, and selfie video stops at 720p. OnePlus also publishes no numbered update promise for this phone, only a claim that it stays smooth for 36 months, which is a performance claim rather than a commitment to updates.

Who should buy what, at Rs. 14,000 to Rs. 18,000.

Tecno Spark 50 5G, about Rs. 18,000: this is the comparison that decides it. It launched at the same Rs. 16,999 and today costs about Rs. 1,000 more. For that you get 5G, a 6nm Dimensity 6400 Ultimate, 45W charging into a 6,500mAh cell, a 50MP main camera and an 8MP front camera, while keeping IP64, a headphone jack, microSD expansion to 2TB, and adding an IR blaster. It gives up 500mAh of capacity. Our Tecno Spark 50 5G review covers it.

POCO C85x, Rs. 13,500 to Rs. 15,000: cheaper, and 5G, with a 6,300mAh cell at the same 15W, a 6.9-inch 120Hz screen and a headphone jack. It has only IP52, so it is less tough. See our POCO C85x review. realme sells a lighter take on the N6 Lite's own 4G recipe, the C100i, with 6,500mAh and an 8MP camera, and our realme C100i 4G review weighs it up.

For the wider picture in this band, our guide to the best smartphones under Rs. 20,000 ranks what is worth buying today.