Smart Boost on the OnePlus 6T: Does It Work As Advertised?

Even though there are a ton of flagship Android devices in the market today, boasting of high-end specs at a variety of price points, the flagship devices from OnePlus are in a league of their own when it comes to performance. The OnePlus 6, which was launched earlier this year, is a great smartphone in itself, offering one of the best, if not the best, performance for the price and the recently launched OnePlus 6T is no different.

The new OnePlus 6T builds up on the legacy of the OnePlus 6 and claims to offer even better performance than its predecessor. While the device features the same SoC and the same amount of RAM, it brings a new software technology which, OnePlus claims, will improve app launch speeds by 5 to 20 percent.

OnePlus is calling it Smart Boost and it makes use of the system RAM to improve app launch times and OnePlus claims that it works best with frequently used apps that require large amounts of input/output data. The new Smart Boost technology is currently applied to a bunch of gaming apps, with OnePlus promising more compatibility, updates and improvements in the near future.

While all of that sounds pretty amazing (or not, depending on who you ask), it won’t make a difference unless there’s a significant improvement in app launch times. In order to test that, we compared the app launch times of the OnePlus 6T with the OnePlus 6 and we didn’t find much of a tangible difference between the app launch times from a cold start.

In order to test out the Smart Boost technology we ran popular games like PUBG Mobile, Asphalt 9 and Shadowgun Legends, and in all cases the older OnePlus 6 managed to keep up with the OnePlus 6T. Just take a look at the video below and see for yourself:

Since we aren’t really sure about the apps OnePlus has optimized for the Smart Boost technology, we can’t be sure if the feature is even working with the games we tested. But since OnePlus has promised support for more apps, we might see the difference when the phone reaches users. Right now, Smart Boost on the OnePlus 6T seems to have no real effect on the app experience.