Does the OnePlus 9 deserve your attention or will it be forgotten like the OnePlus 8?

Over the past few generations, OnePlus non-Pro smartphones have often been ignored in favor of the Pro models. The difference in functionality between the OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro is the best example to date. Things improved a bit with the 8 Series, but the higher prices also meant that the non-Pro models didn’t offer the same value for money. With this year’s 9 Series, OnePlus’s highly acclaimed Hasselblad partnership extends to OnePlus 9 and is not limited to 9 Pro, which is great.

Add to that the improved sensors, the same charging speed and display refresh rate as the 9 Pro, and the OnePlus 9 looks like a great upgrade to the OnePlus 8. However, for its new, higher starting price of Rs. 49,999, is it a better value than OnePlus’ 8T and 8 Pro? How does it fare against the competition from other brands? Time to find out.

 

Price of OnePlus 9  and variants

OnePlus sent me the 12GB RAM variant (with 256GB of storage), priced at Rs. 54.999. There is also a variant with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage priced at Rs. 49.999. The OnePlus 9 has the same LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 memory as the 9 Pro. There are three colors available: Astral Black, Arctic Sky and Winter Mist, but the latter is only available if you choose the high-end variant. The Winter Fog upholstery pastel lilac shade looks pretty, but the glossy finish attracts fingerprints very easily.

OnePlus 9 Design

In my first editions of the OnePlus 9, I mentioned the first time the company used a polycarbonate frame for its flagship number series. We recently saw Samsung make the same compromise as building its flagship non-Plus or non-Ultra smartphones. I wouldn’t mind if the OnePlus 9 was priced similar to the launch price of the OnePlus 8T, but it doesn’t, which makes it hugely disappointing. It’s troubling why a brand aspiring to make a name for itself in the premium smartphone segment is taking such a step back.

That said, the OnePlus 9 still feels solidly built and the plastic frame feels like metal, even if it’s not. The only bright side here is that it is much lighter (183g) and thinner (8.1mm) than the 9 Pro and even the 8T. The warning slider and buttons have good tactile feedback, similar to the 9 Pro’s feedback. OnePlus has retained Corning Gorilla Glass for the front and back of the phone. At the bottom, you get a USB Type-C port, dual-SIM tray, and speaker.

The OnePlus 9 has a 6.55-inch AMOLED display similar to that of the 8T. It’s not an LTPO OLED screen like the 9 Pro, which is fine considering the much lower cost. It has Full HD + resolution, is HDR certified and supports a 120Hz refresh rate. You also get a fingerprint sensor on display, which despite its awkwardly low setting works very well. The 9’s display is flat, unlike the curved edges of the 9 Pro, but the edges are uniformly thin all around. There is a selfie camera hole in the top left corner.

The rear camera bump is not very noticeable and is similar in shape to the 9 Pro, without some sensors. The OnePlus 9 doesn’t look much different from the 9 Pro overall, which is a good thing now that we’re all used to it. The plastic frame worries me still, considering how much it costs, and it’s something that shouldn’t have been compromised. The contents of the box are similar to the contents of the 9 Pro, except for the case, which is transparent rather than opaque.

OnePlus 9 specifications and software

The OnePlus 9 uses the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G SoC as the 9 Pro and, in India, only supports two 5G bands compared to the rest in other regions. Apart from that, the stepmother’s treatment is once again rearing its ugly head. In India, the OnePlus 9 does not receive an IP rating for dust and water resistance, nor does wireless charging. OnePlus continues to retain these features for its Pro model in India, but not all over the world.

The OnePlus 9 sold in Europe and North America supports 15W Qi wireless charging, which also makes it a bit thicker and heavier than the model sold in India. If you are in the US and buy OnePlus 9 through T-Mobile, it will have an IP68 badge. The Indian model also has a rubber seal around the SIM tray, which seems to show a certain level of protection from entering water, but do it how you want.

I think OnePlus should have given the 9 an official IP rating and at least basic wireless charging in India, if not 30W wireless charging like the 8 Pro. I might as well have agreed with this if the price was lower, but it is not.

The other features are similar to those of the 9 Pro. Both models are equipped with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, multiple sensors and satellite navigation systems, stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos, an updated haptic engine and enhanced cooling for the SoC. They also have the same 4,500mAh battery plus a fast charging 65W.

The software is run by OxygenOS 11 which is based on Android 11. My unit has received some updates after launch and overall the experience has been better than the 9 Pro which has few bugs still in need of repair. Hyper-Touch, which brings the 360Hz display’s touch response to some games, is one of the few features missing in the 9, but otherwise the software is pretty much the same as a response the 9 Pro.

OnePlus 9 performance and battery life

Performance was very solid from the outset. The OnePlus 9 is a more comfortable phone to live with than the 9 Pro or even the 8T. The lower weight and thickness help to get a better feel in the hand, and the flat display almost excludes accidental touches.
The 120Hz refresh rate makes all gestures catchy and fluid. It will drop to 60Hz in some apps, to save power. The display is excellent: the colors are vibrant, the brightness is very good and the viewing angles are more than satisfactory.

The earpiece and bottom speaker offer great stereo effect and volume level is good. The sound quality is similar to what I’ve heard from the 9 Pro, which makes using games and video a real treat. Just like the OnePlus 9 Pro, the OnePlus 9 can handle even the most challenging games in the Google Play Store.

It doesn’t overheat, as everything is rendered in full-HD + and not QHD + like on the 9 Pro. Titles like Asphalt 9: Legends and Call of Duty: Mobile looked great on the phone display.

The OnePlus 9 offers excellent battery life; a little better than the 9 Pro actually in my opinion. Our HD video battery loop test also lasted an extra hour, clocking in at almost 17 hours.
With typical usage, which included a bit of gaming, watching videos, and occasional use of social and Chrome, I could easily go a full day and more before needing to charge this phone.

You can run out of battery in less than a day with a heavy camera and gaming use, but in most cases it’s safe to assume you will have a full day of use on a single charge. Even when you run out of power, the OnePlus 9 charges incredibly fast thanks to the 65W charger.

OnePlus 9 Cameras

The OnePlus 9’s cameras are a major upgrade over its predecessor mainly thanks to better sensors. Of course there’s a whole Hasselblad partnership too, but for the 9 series, the advantage lies mainly in the color adjustment of the JPEGs and not much else.

The 48-megapixel main sensor is taken from the OnePlus 8 Pro, with the added benefit of Hasselblad color science. However, OnePlus has got rid of the optical stabilization, which in my opinion was an odd choice.
The 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera has the same sensor and lens configuration as the 9 Pro, while the third camera is a 2-megapixel monochrome sensor. The OnePlus 9 does not have a telephoto lens, meaning all magnifications are fully digital.

Landscape photos taken during the day are full of fine detail and colors and often match the quality of the photos taken with the OnePlus 9 Pro.
The ultra-wide camera also captured excellent detail, with little distortion around the edges. However, unlike the 9 Pro, the camera app does not automatically activate the wide-angle camera when you get close to a subject. You will need to manually enable macro mode.

The intimacy also had good clarity and color, but from time to time I noticed that the subject had a soft focus or that the area in question was not exactly what I had chosen when shooting. It’s a bit of a random event and hopefully this can be fixed through a software update. Both rear cameras do a good job in low light with landscape shots, but close-ups take some effort to capture well as there is no stabilization to compensate for small hand tremors. The details and colors are a bit weaker than those produced by the 9 Pro.

The selfie camera is the same one used for the OnePlus 9 Pro, and it’s decent but not great. You can get some nice daytime selfies if you tilt the camera the right way, but overall the images look pretty ordinary and the quality drops further in low light.

With most of the OnePlus flagship in the past, the cameras have improved slightly after a few software updates, and the OnePlus 9 has already received a lot since it launched. After updating the 9 and 9 Pro to the latest Oxygen 11.2.2.2 OS (at the time of this review), here’s what I observed. The OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro have continued to sharpen textures, which causes some distortion along the edges of objects if you zoom in on images fully.

The OnePlus 9 produced slightly better detail in landscape photos than the 8 Pro, though it has the same sensor. However, closeups stayed a bit fine with the OnePlus 9, because while it may seem like you have a good looking frame, the final picture may not match that.

The OnePlus 9 has similar video capabilities to the 9 Pro. It can shoot at 8K 30fps, but 4K recording is limited to 60fps and not 120fps like on the 9 Pro. Video quality is good during the day and also shoot in low light conditions they are clean and relatively noiseless.

However, the electronic stabilization does cause some sharpness in the video, which is more noticeable at night. The OnePlus 9 can shoot HDR video as well, but this has to be enabled manually, unlike the 9 Pro which can automatically activate it based on the scene.

The OnePlus 9 gave me an overheating warning while shooting 8K video, but this was after recording a third clip in a row (8K videos are limited to five minutes per clip). Eventually, the phone stopped recording during the fourth clip; slightly better than the 9 Pro, which usually stopped midway through the second clip.

Verdict

From the OnePlus 7 series, all non-Pro OnePlus models were meant to please mainstream buyers, while the Pro model is for those who want it all, with the appropriate prices. With the 9 series starting at Rs. 50,000, it appears that both models are now for the premium segment.
OnePlus has gone so far as to introduce a third model this year for the Indian market, the lower priced OnePlus 9R, which comes to bridge the “value” gap between OnePlus North and OnePlus 9. So you should spend your money on OnePlus 9?

If you only crave the latest Qualcomm SoC, the price isn’t too bad. Other phones with Snapdragon 888 SoCs like the Asus ROG Phone 5 also start for the same price. Compared to the OnePlus 8T, the OnePlus 9 has better ergonomics and rear cameras, which for some would be worth the premium.

If you had to choose between OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 8 Pro for Rs. 5,000 more, I’d go with the 8 Pro. The latter may not be as thin or light as the 9, and its ultra-wide camera performance is a bit weaker in some cases, but it has a sharper, aluminum body display. , an optically stabilized main camera, IP68 protection and 30 W. wireless charging. The OnePlus 8 Pro also looks and feels much more premium than the OnePlus 9.

I can’t help but feel a keen sense of déjàvu after reviewing OnePlus 9, as this is the same feeling I experienced after testing OnePlus 8.

The 9 is a good smartphone in its own right, but hard to recommend when you have the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G and OnePlus 8 Pro on sale for the same price. Also, with the OnePlus 9R in the picture, the OnePlus 9 seems to be stuck in limbo for the time being.