OnePlus 9 Pro review: A killer flagship | Laptop Mag
Our Verdict
The OnePlus 9 Pro marks the finish of any affordable flagship killer Dna left in the top offer from OnePlus, this is but a great flagship telephone.
For
- Top-of-the-line performance
- Unmatched wired and wireless charging
- Brilliant 120Hz adaptive display
- Solid photographic camera experience
- Useful software optimizations
Against
- Slightly disappointing battery life
- Software update track record
- Lacks a periscope zoom lens
Laptop Mag Verdict
The OnePlus 9 Pro marks the end of any affordable flagship killer Dna left in the peak offering from OnePlus, this is simply a great flagship phone.
Pros
- +
Tiptop-of-the-line functioning
- +
Unmatched wired and wireless charging
- +
Vivid 120Hz adaptive display
- +
Solid camera experience
- +
Useful software optimizations
Cons
- -
Slightly disappointing battery life
- -
Software update rails record
- -
Lacks a periscope zoom lens
- -
- -
OnePlus nine Pro specs
Price: $969 ($1,069 as tested)
OS: Android 11 / Oxygen OS eleven
Display: 6.7-inch QHD AMOLED (3,216 x one,440)
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 888
RAM: 12GB
Rear cameras: 48MP wide (ƒ/one.8); 50MP ultrawide (ƒ/2.2); 8MP telephoto (ƒ/2.0); 2MP monochrome
Front camera: 16MP (f/2.4)
Storage: 256GB
Battery: 10:29 (60Hz); 11:44 (Smart 120Hz)
Size: 6.4 x 2.9 x 0.34 inches
Weight: 6.95 ounces
The OnePlus 9 Pro all the same manages to undercut the pricing of its flagship competitors from Samsung and Apple. Just the 1-time flagship killer definitely finds itself firmly planted in the pantheon of flagships these days with its $969 toll point, a $70 jump from the OnePlus 8 Pro.
While OnePlus has been on an upward trend in its pricing for years now, information technology's perchance a dangerous motion in a year when we saw Samsung slash the prices on the Galaxy S21 lineup by $200. A $30 price advantage on the Samsung Milky way S21 Plus and iPhone 12 Pro is pretty negligible and the company doesn't have anywhere near the marketing budget or make enshroud of its rivals.
Without that toll advantage, OnePlus 9 Pro has to just flatly beat some of the best from Samsung and Apple. And without spoiling the review, in many ways information technology absolutely does. At present information technology isn't perfect. There's some things that I would however love to see the company accost in both software and hardware. But overall the OnePlus 9 Pro is easily one of the best smartphones you can buy today.
OnePlus nine Pro: Price and configurations
The OnePlus ix Pro starts at $969 and is available in two configurations, the base model features 8GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. For an additional $100, you tin bump that upwards to 12GB of RAM with 256GB of storage.
I reviewed the Forenoon Mist model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. This colour is available on either the base or upgraded model, while the matte Pine Green color option is express to the high-stop configuration. A matte Stellar Black colorway too exists, but it is not bachelor in North America.
OnePlus 9 Pro: Design
OnePlus describes its blueprint philosophy every bit "burdenless" and while I generally agree, at that place are no glaring problems with the OnePlus ix Pro. However,it also lacks any existent distinct personality. The build quality feels first-class, information technology matches the IP68 protection of most other flagships, merely ultimately it'southward a fairly bland blueprint that blends in with dozens of others.
At 6.4 x 2.9 ten 0.34 inches and 7 ounces, the OnePlus ix Pro is slightly thicker than some of its competition, but otherwise quite similar in size. The Samsung Milky way S21 Plus (vi.4 x three x 0.31-inches, 7.one ounces) and iPhone 12 Pro (five.8 x 2.8 x 0.29-inches, six.vii ounces) don't expect outsized in either management compared to the OnePlus 9 Pro, although evidently the iPhone 12 Pro with its 6.ane-inch display is quite a chip shorter.
The curved back and display of the OnePlus 9 Pro is comfortable to handle, but it definitely suffers from a chip of slippery phone syndrome. I was quite glad to put information technology in the soft-bear upon rubber case that OnePlus sent along with the review unit of measurement. This was as well in function to cover up the fingerprint nightmare that is the Morning Mist color of my review unit. The mirror-similar finish looks beautiful until y'all take it out of the box, subsequently that information technology's a mess, I would highly recommend the matte Pine Green selection if y'all take any intention of using information technology without a case.
The OnePlus 9 Pro doesn't have many ports to speak of, just the USB Type-C and SIM card slot both located at the lesser of the phone. Information technology does nonetheless, manage to stand out against most other Android phones by offer a ringer switch in addition to the typical power (multifunction) push and volume rocker.
I may sound similar I'g coming off a bit harsh on the design of the OnePlus 9 Pro, but I want to stress that it's fine. In that location'southward zilch wrong with the ergonomics, it has a more than minimal rear camera array than nigh other flagships and so it doesn't lay too awkwardly on a table even without a case. I really dislike the Morning Mist colour choice, simply a case or the Pine Green colorway solves this trouble immediately.
My biggest trouble is that it simply fails to stand out, nosotros saw both Apple and to a lesser degree Samsung carve out a more distinctive await for their phones this twelvemonth, I'd love to see OnePlus come with some blueprint characteristic that is uniquely its own.
OnePlus 9 Pro: Brandish
The OnePlus 9 Pro features a half-dozen.7-inch, QHD (3216 x 1440) AMOLED with an LTPO display. That final detail is what allows it to offer its 120Hz adaptive refresh rate that can tedious all the way downwardly to 1Hz when y'all are viewing static content. This is one of the biggest differentiators between the OnePlus 9 Pro and the standard OnePlus ix.
Back up for HDR10+ content as usual drove me to Our Planet on Netflix, this time around I watched some of "The Coastal Seas" with the OnePlus 9 Pro in its Vivid setting. The coral reef and sea turtle were a perfect match for this screen with the starburst design on the turtle's shell popping off the screen with intense streaks of yellow cutting across its otherwise brown and orangish palette. The fine detail and more slight color differentiation in the coral show off the clarity of the brandish, while the deep blueish of the ocean in the background sets off both foreground elements nicely.
With its more than natural settings turned on, the OnePlus 9 Pro reproduced 84.nine% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. That's well alee of the Milky way S21 Plus (73.5%) and slightly edges out the iPhone 12 Pro (81.ix%). Switching the brandish settings to vivid takes y'all all the style up to 147.iv% DCI-P3 coverage, which falls just a pilus below the Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus (150.4%).
The results of the Delta-E colour accuracy exam (lower is improve) were fantabulous for the OnePlus ix Pro at 0.20 on its natural setting. The Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus (0.18) is one of the but phones we've seen better this result and it was considerably ahead of the iPhone 12 Pro (0.28).
While non the brightest phone we've ever seen, the OnePlus 9 Pro is upward there with the top contenders at 722 nits of brightness. This was behind both the Galaxy S21 Plus (747 nits) and the iPhone 12 Pro (743 nits), simply none of them are struggling in any lighting condition.
OnePlus 9 Pro: Audio
The OnePlus 9 Pro features forepart-facing stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos audio that allows you to cull between a few singled-out modes for general listening. In one case you lot connect up a pair of wireless headphones you get access to additional styles and a full equalizer.
I listened to Demi Lovato's "Dancing with the Devil," and the OnePlus nine Pro'due south stereo speakers were able to fill my 12 10 18-foot listening infinite easily. With that said, the powerful bass on the rail was completely blown out on the speakers at anything much beyond 60% volume and was tinny fifty-fifty at a more manageable volume. The at-times complex overlapping vocals and keyboard on the other hand were excellently reproduced, as was the deliberate faint crackling effect overlaid on the song.
The advanced Bluetooth v.2 support and more all-encompassing options available via headphones will still have you running for a pair of cans when yous want to actually appreciate what you are listening to. Merely for sharing a quick video or when you but don't have headphones available the OnePlus 9 Pro will concur upward just fine.
OnePlus 9 Pro: Performance
The OnePlus 9 Pro is a performance monster. It leverages the Snapdragon 888 and up to 12GB of RAM to evangelize the fastest results nosotros've seen from whatever Android phone and easily wields enough power to handle anything you are likely to throw at information technology.
OnePlus has a Pro Gaming Fashion that when enabled volition turn on whatever time you launch a supported game to both maximize functioning and block all notifications. I played several rounds of PUBG Mobile to test this out and fifty-fifty at maximum settings the game remained smooth at its max 90Hz refresh rate. At that place are, of course, a growing number of games that support 120Hz. I dipped into Alto's Odyssey and Expressionless Trigger two to experience that and again, the phone tin can handle it without dropping a frame.
In terms of more normal tasks, you aren't going to overload the OnePlus nine Pro. I launched almost 60 Google Chrome browser tabs while as well running a Netflix video in the groundwork and I didn't notice a slowdown in the browser or when jumping betwixt apps.
The OnePlus ix Pro as I said is the fastest Android phone that we've benchmarked now with a Geekbench v multi-core score of 3,685. The Asus ROG Phone v very briefly enjoyed its reign at the superlative with a score of three,672. Looking at its direct competitors information technology easily tops the Milky way S21 Plus (3,300) and shockingly fifty-fifty manages to outpace the A14 Bionic powered iPhone 12 Pro (iii,669).
Graphics wasn't every bit large a win for the OnePlus 9 Pro, scoring 35 frames per second in the Wild Life Unlimited 3DMark test. It'due south narrowly alee of the Milky way S21 Plus (33 fps) but Apple turned the tables on information technology this time with the iPhone 12 Pro (51 fps).
Our Adobe Premiere Rush benchmark saw it fall slightly further; our video transcoding examination requires the phone to convert a 4K video to 1080p. The OnePlus ix Pro completed the task in 1 infinitesimal and 3 seconds. The Samsung Galaxy S21 Pro (1:00) was merely alee and the iPhone 12 Pro (0:27) flexed on them both once more in this one.
While OnePlus did boast of some of its new cooling methods and it has ever applied some software tweaks to depict the most performance out of its flagship, it was a bit surprising to run across it take the lead over the ROG Phone 5 and even the iPhone 12 Pro. Rest assured, performance is never going to be your problem with the OnePlus 9 Pro.
OnePlus 9 Pro: Battery life and charging
The OnePlus 9 Pro includes a 4,500mAH battery, just similar the OnePlus 9, it'southward perhaps slightly shy of what you would expect from a top-tier flagship, just non terribly depression. The Galaxy S21 Plus packs a 4,800mAh battery for example, and the Galaxy S21 Ultra a full five,000mAh.
The battery life performed almost as expected based on those figures with the OnePlus 9 Pro lasting 11 hours and 44 minutes on average at its Smart 120Hz setting in our tests, which involves constant web browsing over cellular (T-Mobile) at 150 nits. Somewhat inexplicably turning the refresh charge per unit down to 60Hz dropped it to an average of ten hours and 29 minutes. Both results were ahead of the Galaxy S21 Plus (9:42 adaptive; nine:54 60Hz) and the iPhone 12 Pro (9:06).
This was the outset time where I had existent-world testing come notably shy of our benchmark results, the opposite is far more than common. I oftentimes institute myself needing to charge upwards one time at some point during the solar day in order to go far through my normal roughly 7:30 AM to ten:thirty PM schedule with review phones. During a normal solar day with a review device, I'thousand normally running Netflix and/or YouTube streaming for ninety minutes to two hours, web browsing, social media, gaming and then capturing some photos and videos.
Now I don't desire to suggest that the battery life is going to be a problem for most users, I'thousand putting phones through the wringer during testing, just information technology'southward at to the lowest degree worth considering. The reason I recall most will dismiss this completely as a problem is the other side of this section, which is battery charging.
The OnePlus 9 Pro, like the OnePlus 8T earlier information technology, supports 65W wired charging and that charger comes in the box with the phone. In our testing, it can take you from 0% upwards to 61% in but fifteen minutes and all the mode up to 99% in xxx minutes. And then when I say I needed to top up to make information technology through the day, I mean literally 5-10 minutes on the charger and there was no way I was going to end the day without at to the lowest degree 20% left.
Wireless is almost as fast at 50W, now the Warp Accuse 50 wireless charger is a separate $69.99 purchase, if y'all hate having to plug in this is worth the investment. Having a wireless charger that is twice the speed of most wired chargers on other phones is truly amazing.
I'll exist curious to see if OnePlus can improve the battery life with software updates. All the same, even if information technology tin can't, the fast charging renders this a non-effect for the vast majority of users.
OnePlus 9 Pro: Cameras
The cameras have garnered the well-nigh attention of whatever feature of the OnePlus 9 Pro due to the company'south announced $150 million dollar partnership with famed camera brand Hasselblad. Hasselblad is emblazoned on the dorsum of the rear camera array and the camera app itself shows off the Hasselblad Dna with the visitor's signature orange shutter button and custom shutter sound. That shutter audio is incredibly satisfying by the way, I volition definitely be leaving it on.
With all of that said, the partnership is still fresh with the OnePlus ix Series only getting to benefit from software-based enhancements including applying Hasselblad color science. Hasselblad's input on hardware won't likely come to bear until perhaps a OnePlus 9T in the fall or more than likely the OnePlus 10 or whatever the 2022 OnePlus flagship is called.
Returning to the nowadays, the OnePlus ix Pro features solid camera hardware with a 48MP Sony IMX789 main sensor at f/i.8, an ultra-wide 50MP Sony IMX766 sensor at f/2.ii, an 8MP three.3X telephoto at f/ii.4, and finally, a 2MP monochrome camera. The front-facing camera is a 16MP Sony IMX471 at f/ii.iv. This compares favorably to what y'all get with the Samsung Milky way S21 Plus, simply obviously lacks the outlandish meridian-end MP count or zoom range of something like the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
However, the specs aren't equally important equally simply capturing a overnice-looking image and that is where OnePlus has ofttimes fallen downward in the past. So let'southward take a expect at some samples to see what kind of impact Hasselblad has had already.
Wide-angle photographic camera
The 48MP Sony IMX789 sensor that OnePlus is using as the chief wide-angle photographic camera is a large sensor at 1/ane.43". It'south non quite up to Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra standard or the top Huawei phones, merely it is even so amidst the best available today. The Hasselblad color-tuning was the biggest change for this year and a notable flaw in the by for OnePlus cameras, and then I gave that special attention. You tin can judge for yourself of course, but overall I found the paradigm quality to be excellent and idea it handled varied environments and lighting atmospheric condition well. I occasionally encountered some oversharpening. However, it was typically in outlier cases such as the first image in the gallery below where it clearly failed to properly parse the trees in the background on the right side.
Turning to color scientific discipline, I'm a big fan. Information technology'due south more staid than what you become from Samsung and a little more hyperreal than the iPhone 12, merely I retrieve that results in a dainty middle ground that is only a slightly idealized vision of what you meet in person. The OnePlus 9 Pro does have a tendency to lean slightly common cold at times, similar to the Pixel line information technology brings up the blues a little excessively in some cases. If you desire to take matters into your own hands, this is easily done with the Pro way though giving y'all exacting control over all of the camera settings.
OnePlus nine Pro wide-angle
OnePlus 9 Pro wide-angle photographic camera sample
OnePlus 9 Pro camera sample wide-angle
OnePlus 9 Pro wide-bending camera sample
OnePlus 9 Pro camera sample wide-angle Nightscape
OnePlus ix Pro camera sample wide-angle super macro
Ultra-broad camera
The 50MP Sony IMX766 ultra-broad angle completes the i-two punch for the OnePlus ix Pro, it may have a quad-camera array, but these two are what matters. The colors hither once more were splendid in my feel, but slightly less consistent than the principal sensor for me. That wasn't always the case, but looking back through it would occasionally push slightly lighter or darker than the same prototype captured with the main sensor that seemed to always be dialed in for me. The fact that you get 50MP from the ultra-wide is awesome for capturing a large scene and being able to crop in after the fact.
OnePlus 9 Pro ultra-broad photographic camera sample
OnePlus ix Pro ultra-broad camera sample
OnePlus nine Pro ultra-wide camera sample
Telephoto photographic camera
That segues nicely into the 8MP telephoto lens. Information technology gives you nearly a 3.3x zoom, similar to what yous have on the iPhone 12 Pro Max. The colors were again quite good, but you lot tin definitely experience the limitations of this lens. Fine details in the images get dingy every bit soon as you zoom in even slightly. In about cases, I would recommend using the 48MP chief and simply cropping in rather than turning to the telephoto. Hopefully, we see OnePlus motility to a periscope zoom adjacent year as iii.3x just isn't enough reach to justify the drop off in quality.
OnePlus nine Pro camera sample telephoto
OnePlus 9 Pro camera sample telephoto
OnePlus 9 Pro photographic camera sample telephoto
Front-facing camera
OnePlus has been guilty of wild over smoothing with its front-facing photographic camera at times in the past. So I was happy to run across that appears to take been addressed with the OnePlus 9 Pro. The portrait mode likewise did a phenomenal job with separating me from the background. Information technology still has slightly more misfires on my hair than the Pixel or iPhone, simply it's much improved over past efforts.
OnePlus 9 front-facing camera sample
Video
OnePlus ix Pro offers 8K video capture at upwardly to 30fps and 4k at up to 120fps at either a 16:9 or 21:nine attribute ratio. It likewise has a couple of specialty modes like time-lapse and ho-hum-movement (1080p at up to 240fps). Information technology's non the options or quality that you lot become out of the iPhone 12 Pro Max or Milky way S21 Ultra, but I was happy with the results. Autofocus was sharp and reliable, colors looked good and while I lack an 8K panel to examination on, the output looked crisp and clean on my 4K display.
OnePlus ix Pro: Software
The OnePlus 9 Pro ships with Android eleven in the class of OxygenOS xi, the Android skin from OnePlus. OnePlus has moved away from its in one case well-nigh-stock Android experience with OxygenOS 11 now offering something more alike to Samsung's Ane UI at to the lowest degree in terms of its aesthetics. However, it avoids slowing down the Os and delivers a number of handy extra features not found in stock Android.
In fact, a number of the OxygenOS 11 additions are specifically meant to heighten the speed of Android. Features similar Turbo Heave three.0 memory optimization should allow y'all to go on 25% more apps open up and accessible in the background. Information technology certainly feels like it's working, I didn't observe any slowdowns or glitches when switching apps or navigating the Bone and the animations on the OnePlus 9 Pro look amazingly fluid equally well.
Other add-ons include Pro Gaming Manner, which blocks notifications from other apps equally well as calls and texts and maximizes the CPU and GPU to ensure the all-time high frame charge per unit gaming possible.
Customization is the other advantage of OxygenOS 11 and it's likewise deep to encompass in this review. But OnePlus gives you more than options than most any other manufacturer when it comes to theming, calibrating your display and sound, using quick gestures to launch often used apps. Somewhat reminiscent of the ROG Phone v again, if you like tinkering with the settings on your smartphone the OnePlus 9 Pro has you covered.
The i downside to OxygenOS 11, is that OnePlus has been a picayune slow on the draw when it comes to software updates. They aren't ane of the worst by any ways, only they are a calendar month or two behind on security updates at times and offer 2 years of major OS updates, which is the minimum that'south acceptable on a flagship these days. You can opt into a beta programme that will get you updates faster, but those of course can have bugs then you'll want to exist a footling cautious in that location.
Bottom line
In the ever-narrowing field of high-end flagships, information technology is largely a duopoly between Samsung and Apple. The OnePlus ix Pro isn't going to change that, but it absolutely belongs in that discussion. There are unquestionably areas where it comes up shy, just others where it obliterates Samsung and Apple tree. Fast charging is the near obvious example.
The OnePlus nine Pro cameras can't hit some of the heights of the Milky way S21 Ultra or the iPhone 12 Pro Max. However, scale that back to the Milky way S21 Plus and the iPhone 12 Pro that are its bodily cost competitors, and things are considerably closer. I am almost interested in where the visitor tin can go from here with boosted investment in hardware. But software improvements this year have absolutely made a meaningful difference. I'd be happy to apply this as my primary photographic camera and I never could say that about a OnePlus phone in the past.
The biggest hurdle that OnePlus needs to clear right now is inside its own control and that'due south the software update situation. It needs to bring this up to par with Samsung with at least three years of major Android OS updates and to hit those monthly security updates regularly. OnePlus has the hardware and in many ways the software to compete with the best. Now it needs long-term software back up to push them over the top.
Source: https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/oneplus-9-pro
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