Official photo shows OnePlus 6 alert slider was moved (Updated)

Update 4/11/2018 at 3:55 P.M. EST: It appears we didn’t take all the information into account before posting the article below. Examining the photo above with the official photo of the notch revealed by Carl Pei in his interview with The Verge, we can see that the OnePlus 6 alert slider was in fact moved to the other side of the device. That means the photo above depicts a OnePlus 5T lying face down on top of a OnePlus 6 also lying face down.

The article below represents a speculation on what happened to the OnePlus 6 alert slider before this connection was made.

Original Article: The hype is building and building for the imminent release of the OnePlus 6. Today, we have what appears to be our first official photograph of the device itself, and there’s one glaring detail: the alert slider appears to be gone.

If you take a look at the image at the top of this post, you’ll see a OnePlus 5T on top of what we assume is the OnePlus 6. You can see the volume rocker on both devices, but then the SIM card tray is where the OnePlus 6 alert slider should be.

What does this mean? Well, it means one of three things.

OnePlus moved the OnePlus 6 alert slider to the other side of the phone. On the OnePlus 5T, the SIM card tray is above the power button on the right side of the device. Directly across from the SIM card tray on the left side of the phone is the alert slider. Maybe for the OnePlus 6, the two hardware components are swapped?

OnePlus swapped the locations of the volume rocker and the power button. This seems far less likely than the first option but is indeed a possibility. If this is the case, then the OnePlus 6 in the image above is actually face up and not face down like the OnePlus 5T on top of it.

OnePlus removed the alert slider. This is the most unlikely option, but it isn’t out of the question. It could be that OnePlus removed the slider altogether and put the SIM card tray in its place. That would mean that on the right side of the phone is the power button and that’s it.

We won’t know for sure which of these theories is correct until we see the device in full. Luckily, that should only be a few weeks away now.

What do you think? Are you hopeful that the alert slider wasn’t taken away? Or do you not mind the removal of the feature? Let us know in the comments!

NEXT: Android is crying out for another OnePlus X