In brief: OnePlus and McLaren have formed a partnership to create a limited edition smartphone that borrows theming from iconic supercars. The OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition brings more memory and faster charging, but no other major under the hood changes.

Supercar maker McLaren and smartphone manufacturer OnePlus recently announced a partnership. At a "Salute to Speed" launch event held today, the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition is being officially unveiled.

Differences between the McLaren Edition and standard OnePlus 6T models are mostly cosmetic, but even faster fast charging is a standout feature. Warp Charge 30 is what OnePlus is calling its 30W fast charging technology. Borrowing the signature Papaya Orange paint color, OnePlus has accented the edges of the lower half on the rear of the phone.

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Although OnePlus has already crammed a 3,700mAh battery into the OnePlus 6T, the ability to gain a few more hours of screen-on time in just a few minutes is an attractive feature. OnePlus also made mention of more stringent cooling when higher rates of charging are being used.

Aside from charging, memory is given a bump up to 10GB of RAM while storage is set at 256GB. Whether or not 10GB of memory provides any advantage on a smartphone this year is somewhat suspect, but there is nothing wrong with a little extra headroom.

Sharing branding with a supercar company has its drawbacks though. The McLaren Edition will be the most expensive phone ever released by OnePlus. Arriving at a starting price of $699, the special edition model will go on sale beginning December 13 in North America and Western Europe. China, India, and Nordic countries will be able to purchase sometime in the near future.

For $700, OnePlus may have a little bit of a hard time convincing Samsung Galaxy owners or Google Pixel users to make the switch. However, all of the standard edition OnePlus 6T models still exist at or below their original price points.

Even though McLaren and OnePlus now have a clear partnership in place, McLaren employees will not be using this new special edition phone. That is not to say that another brand of phones will be used, only that there may be something else coming down the pipeline from OnePlus that has the attention of McLaren's higher ups.

 

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