OnePlus 9 Pro is a great flagship with the magic of Hasselblad.
OnePlus has been remaining quiet for some time ever since they launched the OnePlus 8T last year. The company's Pro models seem to do a good job when compared to the regular non-Pro models. Ever since the OnePlus 7 Pro and the OnePlus 7T Pro were launched which were well-received as they had a high refresh rate Quad HD display, faster Warp Charging, and packed in some powerful specifications.
But things did not change much as these Pro models lacked IP rating, wireless charging, and the cameras were not so good. Last year, the OnePlus 8 Pro changed most of the things as it was the first perfect OnePlus smartphone to have an IP rating, support for wireless charging, and had quite a decent set of cameras.
However, the cameras were good on their own but could not be close to the other flagships. This year with the OnePlus 9 Pro, the company has started to take things seriously as now they have partnered with a Swedish camera maker, Hasselblad to deliver almost a flagship-level camera experience.
The OnePlus 9 Pro is packed with all the powerful internals like a Snapdragon 888 chipset, a 120Hz LTPO display, 50W Warp Wireless charging, 65W fast charging, newer set of cameras tuned by Hasselblad with the flavor of OxygenOS. It does most of the things that the regular OnePlus 9 does but provides a lot of features which makes it an interesting option.
How is it good compared to the regular OnePlus 9 (Review) that was reviewed earlier and do the cameras make it a worthy upgrade over the OnePlus 8 Pro (Review)? Has OnePlus put in its best effort for bringing out such a great flagship compared to the likes of Samsung and Apple? Let's find out in the full review.
OnePlus 9 Pro Design:
The design aspect has always on the OnePlus smartphones from the past with the OnePlus One that came with a sandstone back and later OnePlus bought smartphones with great designs with each of its generations and has provided huge smartphones with Pro models that came up in 2019. The OnePlus 8 Pro launched last year had a great design like all other OnePlus smartphones.
It has a quad-camera module aligned vertically at the center whereas the OnePlus 9 Pro gets a rectangular camera module that houses the quad cameras, an LED flash, and the word "Hasselblad" in it. The OnePlus 9 Pro has a curved design both at the front as well as back and protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5, not the Gorilla Glass Victus which is found on the Galaxy S21 Ultra (Review).
The OnePlus 9 Pro is available in three colors - Morning Mist, Pine Green and Stellar Black. The Morning Mist has a reflective finish to the bottom and overall has a glossy finish which does attract fingerprints. Instead, the Pine Green has a green-colored matte finish that provides good grip and the Stellar Black has a frosted matte finish that looks premium and provides the best grip of the three.
The camera bump on the OnePlus 9 Pro is slightly less protruded compared to the OnePlus 8 Pro and another difference is the lack of the name OnePlus below at the back. The overall weight distribution is good as it just has a 4500mAh battery and weighs 197 grams. There is an IP68 rating which means water and dust resistant and also comes with support for wireless charging.
To the sides, there is a metallic rim running which is better compared to the plastic frame on the OnePlus 9, and on the left side, there are the volume buttons and to the right, there is an OnePlus signature alert slider to control notifications and also a power button. On the top, there is a secondary noise-canceling microphone only.
At the bottom, there is a USB Type-C port, a loudspeaker grille, and a dual SIM card slot. There is no hybrid slot or dedicated microSD card slot for storage expansion. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack either. On the front, there is a punch-hole display to the top left corner just like the OnePlus 8 Pro and minimum bezels both on top and bottom, and to the sides, it is curved.
The design is not something refreshing but still, the build and design are very good for a flagship smartphone.
OnePlus 9 Pro Display:
The OnePlus 9 Pro houses a massive 6.7 inches Quad HD+ (3216x1440 pixels) Fluid AMOLED display which has a screen-to-body ratio of 20.1:9. This display curves to the sides and balances accidental touches as we have seen on many curved displays on other smartphones. The display supports 10-bit color and has all the standard support for HDR10 and has Widevine L1 also.
Since this is an AMOLED display, the color reproduction and viewing angles are excellent when looking at the smartphone display from different angles. This time OnePlus has put in a brighter display as it can go as high as 1300 nits which is the highest for any OnePlus smartphone to date and almost closer to the flagships like the iPhone 12 Pro Max (Review) and Galaxy S21 Ultra that have 1200 nits and 1500 nits.
Under direct sunlight, the display has good legibility though is also the sunlight mode that spruces up the brightness, and when coming to dark, the display can go very low Since the curves are not as pronounced as on the OnePlus 8 Pro, the display does not catch any glare. The display can be set to different color temperatures from warmer to cooler and there are three different profiles of color.
Natural, Vivid, and Advanced modes are present where the Natural gives better color accuracy and Vivid shows more saturation in colors and like the OnePlus 8 Pro, there is also the Vibrant Color Effect Pro which makes the videos look more saturated on the display. Talking about the display, there are many other cool features of this display.
1. This display is an LTPO panel (Low-temperature polycrystalline oxide) which means it has a dynamic refresh rate just like we found on the Galaxy S21 Ultra and the dynamic refresh rate on the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro. This display can scale from as low as 1Hz to 120Hz depending on the content present on the display thus it means the refresh rate is adjusted dynamically.
For example, while you are not interacting with the display and watching some video, the screen will refresh at 24Hz and while gaming the refresh rate will scale up to 120Hz making the overall experience very smooth.
There are two options that include a Standard 60Hz and a Smart 120Hz where Standard 60Hz locks the display to refresh at 60Hz only whereas the Smart 120Hz refresh rate works dynamically by scaling to different refresh rates depending on on-screen content.
The only downside to this Smart 120Hz refresh rate is that many high-end games do not support a 120Hz refresh rate and can go a maximum up to 90Hz which seems a little bit disappointing and it can go low to 60Hz while not interacting with the display during gaming. The standard touch sampling rate is 240Hz.
2. Another new feature introduced with the OnePlus 9 Pro is Hyper-Touch that boosts the touch sampling rate to 360Hz. Plus there is also an Ultra-high video resolution mode which means it uses some AI enhancement sin videos. Like the OSIE visual effect on the Oppo smartphones, there is a Motions graphics option that turns videos running on 24fps to scale up to 60Hz while watching.
3. Since it covers the full 100 percent in DCI-P3, the HDR works extremely well and the 10-bit color ensures excellent color reproduction on the display.
The display has an optical in-display fingerprint scanner underneath which is located slightly to the bottom and could have been placed up where normally the finger rests while holding the smartphone. It is accurate and faster. Face unlock works well but is not as secure as that of the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Overall, this is the best display with some of the gimmicks but a good one on a flagship.
OnePlus 9 Pro Performance:
Both the OnePlus 9 and the OnePlus 9 Pro are powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset. This is an octa-core chipset that has one ARM Cortex-X1 core clocked at 2.84 GHz, three ARM Cortex-A78 Kryo 680 clocked at 2.42 GHz and another four Cortex-A55 Kryo 680 cores clocked at 1.8 GHz coupled with an Adreno 660 GPU.
This chipset provides 25 percent better CPU performance and 35 percent better GPU performance compared to the Snapdragon 865 on the OnePlus 8T and the OnePlus 8 Pro. As usual, comparing the OnePlus 8 Pro and the OnePlus 9 Pro side by side, there is not any sort of difference when it comes to app loading times or keeping apps in memory but the OnePlus 9 Pro is slightly faster in all scenarios.
All day-to-day activities felt smoother on the smartphone when it comes to scrolling through webpages, multitasking between applications, and also while playing games. All games ran buttery smooth on the smartphone due to such a powerful chipset. All heavy titles like Call Of Duty, Asphalt 9 Legends, and graphics-intensive games like Gensian Impact ran smoothly without any lag.
The frame rate is set to the highest and the graphics also. Combined with it using the Hyper-Touch does improve the touch sensitivity and thus increases the syncing speed between the display and the chipset up to almost 6 times thus reducing latency while gaming to 20-30 ms which is good and the similar touch latency we have seen on the Asus ROG Phone 3 last year.
OnePlus's Pro Gaming Mode also enhances the gaming experience which blocks notifications from certain applications, blocks calls, and shows important notifications in a floating window icon thus providing smoother gameplay. This is similar to the older Fnatic Mode that came in previous OnePlus smartphones.
After gaming for about 3-4 hours continuously, the back of the smartphone felt a bit warmer though OnePlus have provided a liquid cooling chamber to help with heat dissipation. Many users from different countries have reported that the OnePlus 9 Pro overheats while recording videos and after a certain amount of time, the video recording stops.
Well, let's talk about the Snapdragon 888 chipset. Qualcomm made a huge step forward in December 2020 to take over the Apple A14 Bionic chipset which was the most powerful chipset of 2020 found in the iPhone 12 series. The Snapdragon 888 is a small leap over its predecessor, the Snapdragon 865 that did well but could not score more than the A14 Bionic chipset in benchmarks on the iPhone 12 series.
After the Snapdragon 845, Qualcomm came up with a tri-cluster setup both with the Snapdragon 855 and the Snapdragon 865 where there was a single Prime core with the highest clock speed, another three high powered Cortex A76/A77 cores, and four lower-powered Cortex-A55 cores for power efficiency.
These chipsets had good thermals as there was no sign of overheating and the scores on benchmarks were not inconsistent. But with the Snapdragon 888, Qualcomm decided to go with the highly powerful Cortex-X1 core, and the newer Adreno 660 GPU is clocked at 824 MHz compared to 587MHz on the Adreno 650 GPU. This higher clock speed results in overheating and inconsistent benchmarks which most manufacturers have reported.
So multiple benchmarks were run like Antutu v8, the OnePlus 9 Pro scored 768803 which is great but after a certain amount of time again Antutu v8 was run and scores dipped to 723108 which is a big change from the first score. While the scores on Geekbench 5.1, were consistent as the smartphone scored 1108 and 3434 which are the best on an Android smartphone.
The OnePlus 9 Pro comes in two variants - 8GB RAM and 128GB storage and another 12GB RAM and 256GB storage where the RAM is LPDDR5 and speeds are of UFS 3.1 which is good. The overall performance remains the best but the overheating issue might create a problem that needs to be fixed.
OnePlus 9 Pro Software:
OnePlus smartphones have always provided the best software experience with their clean and no bloatware OxygenOS. There is the OxygenOS 11.2 built on top of Android 11. The user interface as expected is a lot cleaner with no third-party applications installed except for Facebook and Netflix. There are no ads and necessary notifications that we have seen on the MIUI and now Samsung is also adding some of them.
Previously, OxygenOS used to look more like Stock Android but this time the orientation is more like OneUI on Samsung smartphones. Although many of the features are retained like a customizable home screen, icons, and wallpapers. There is some newer themes built-in and there is a new Always-On display that can be customized in terms of design and clock style.
There is an improved Zen Mode that keeps you away from the normal work, a newer Turbo Boost 3.0 memory optimization that allows 25 percent more applications to open and running in the background without putting all of them into sleep mode. This is achieved by OnePlus by using the unused amount of storage as RAM by compressing the data present in the RAM.
This seems to be a great feature and we expect that many smartphones should go for this. As a result, more applications remain in memory after longer usage so RAM management is well optimized on this smartphone. OxygenOS 11 also brings in the new look to the notification shade with all the controls and to the left of the home screen there is the Google Feed instead of the Shelf.
OnePlus like all other manufacturers have used a stock Google dialer, messaging app, and contacts instead of the OnePlus's own applications. As always, OnePlus smartphones are one of the fastest in terms of security and Android updates, and that is guaranteed for two years.
However, this still puts it down when compared to Google and Samsung that provide three years of software updates and four years of security updates. With a Smart 120Hz display, switching between applications and scrolling through webpages felt smoother. So overall, the OxygenOS lifts the appeal of the OnePlus 9 Pro thus providing a rich software experience.
OnePlus 9 Pro Cameras:
The biggest hype for the newer OnePlus 9 series is the cameras as it has partnered with Swedish manufacturer Hasselblad for tuning up the cameras for three years. So what improvements does it bring to the table? With the OnePlus 9, clearly, there was not much of a difference compared to the OnePlus 8T but still, it is good on its own.
OnePlus smartphones were always criticized for an average camera set up in the past but things changed with last year's OnePlus 8 Pro where the company for the first time used the 48MP Sony IMX689 sensor similar that is found on the newer OnePlus 9. This sensor is a big upgrade over the older 48MP Sony IMX586 sensor. Has Hasselblad brought the right tuning for the cameras on the OnePlus 9 Pro?
The camera application architecture remains the same but there are certain changes like a new camera shutter button which is orange in color similar to the one found on the Hasselblad cameras. The sounds of clicking the shutter button are similar to that of the Hasselblad cameras. There are some new transitions also when you switch between different lenses.
Like the OnePlus 8 Pro, there is a quad-camera setup that includes the newer 48MP f/1.8 Sony IMX789 sensor for the main camera, a newer 50MP f/2.2 Sony IMX766 sensor for the ultrawide camera, an 8MP f/2.4 telephoto camera with 3.3x optical zoom and a 2MP monochrome sensor. On the front, there is the as usual 16MP f/2.4 Sony IMX471 sensor for the main camera.
The images from the main camera come out with excellent details and dynamic range. Colors look true to source with no saturation at all and the level of noise is also very lower. These images are a good improvement over the OnePlus 8 Pro but the OnePlus 8 Pro images have better contrast and the white balance is more accurate compared to the OnePlus 9 Pro.
However, the color reproduction is not always accurate as in indoor conditions that is some amount of oversharpening that takes place. The camera is also capable of taking 12-bit RAW images and since it uses pixel-binning, the resulting images are saved to 12MP by default. When you zoom into the images, there is clearly some noise present but still, it is better compared to the OnePlus 8 Pro.
In low-light or night, this newer IMX789 sensor proves to be much better compared to the IMX689 sensor as the images have better color saturation and dynamic range. The noise is very lower and the details in shadows are much better. OnePlus's new NightScape Mode 4.0 brings certain improvements but if you are too particular about the best night image, use this mode.
The NightScape mode reduces a lot of noise almost making it non-existing and the colors look slightly oversaturated and also inconsistent at most times. It also improves the exposure in the images but tends to overexpose a lot. When you zoom into the images, the noise is not present resulting in good images. However, the images are not as good as the ones on the Galaxy S21 Ultra and the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
The ultrawide camera is a 50MP Sony IMX766 sensor that uses a freeform lens to correct edge distortion. The images have a 120-degree field of view and around the corners, there is no noise or distortion as such. The colors look well saturated and Hasselblad tuning provides more accurate colors.
The colors are the same as on the main camera with excellent dynamic range and contrast.
This is one of the best ultrawide angle cameras for a flagship smartphone even better compared to the Galaxy S21 Ultra. At night, the images from the ultrawide camera have a good amount of details with accurate colors but there is a lot of noise present. There is some overexposure noticed at times but with the NightScape mode, the dynamic range becomes better.
The third camera is an 8MP telephoto camera that can do 3.3x optical zoom and 30x digital zoom. This telephoto camera has OIS just like the ultrawide and the main camera. The images come out with good details and the color saturation is well done here. The dynamic range though remains above average and there is some noise present.
Going to about 10x, the noise is quite present and the details are good. The dynamic range is just average and there is some softness noticed. Above 10x, the images have a noticeable amount of blur with a higher level of noise and the contrast becomes very bad something like the 100x zoom that we saw on the Galaxy S20 Ultra last year.
For the better telephoto camera, still, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is the best as it has two dedicated telephoto cameras one is a 3x and another 10x which results in much better outputs depending on the distance of the subject you can use any of these cameras. Similarly, at night, the telephoto camera on the OnePlus 9 Pro does a decent job both in terms of dynamic range and color saturation.
There is no Night Mode present which results in images having more amount of noise and poor dynamic range. At 3x, the images have excellent details and the color is well saturated but above 3x, there is overexposure noticed and the noise becomes more prominent. So clearly, the Hasselblad tuning is just to improve color accuracy and dynamic range and not for noise reduction as such.
The fourth camera is a 2MP monochrome sensor which results in some very good portraits. These portraits have good edge detection and the dynamic range here remains excellent. These portrait images are leagues ahead of other OnePlus smartphones. Other features include a black and white filter so you can play with the color science.
The background blur can be adjusted accordingly and only the main camera can take portraits where it applies 2x digital zoom to crop in the background thus reducing noise and it also improves the dynamic range. When you zoom into the portraits, the colors look natural and the subject separation from the background has been done very well.
The ultrawide camera also doubles up as a macro camera and has an autofocus that can go very close to a particular subject as close as 2cm which is much better than the other gimmicky 2-5MP fixed focus macro cameras. The details are good with excellent dynamic range and to be honest, there is no noise at all. The subjects captured look sharper with good contrast.
The main camera also doubles up as a macro camera when you go very close to a subject about six inches. This is the same implementation used by both the OnePlus 8 Pro and the OnePlus 7 Pro. Other than these there is a dedicated Pro mode, where you can set the exposure, the ISO levels, and the color saturation also.
On the front, there is a 16MP f/2.4 Sony IMX471 sensor for the main camera which seems to be a hit or miss and really what OnePlus wants to prove by using this old sensor that has been using since the OnePlus 7 that was launched in 2019. It does a decent job in terms of details and the dynamic range is average here.
The color looks natural though but when you zoom into the selfies, there is a fair amount of noise present and the contrast is not so good. The 10MP camera on the Galaxy S21 Ultra and the 12MP camera on the iPhone 12 Pro Max do a far better job in terms of details and dynamic range. The front camera also takes portraits that have adequate details and the edge detection is not so good.
The front camera does miss out on a NightScape mode, so as a result selfies have a larger amount of noise and the dynamic range is just average. The colors look consistent and there is a lot of overexposure noticed.
In terms of videos, the OnePlus 9 Pro can now record 8K videos at 30fps which is really good when compared to the Galaxy S21 Ultra that can do 8K videos at 24fps. The video footage is a lot more cleaner with no noise present and the dynamic range remains excellent. The OIS helps in maintaining good stabilization and the colors look more natural also.
The videos taken at night do have some noise but the dynamic range remains excellent and turning on the NightScape does result in videos with lower noise and also it improves the exposure and contrast in the videos. It restores highlights in shadows and the NightScape turns on by default when the camera detects the subjects at the night.
The 4K videos at 120fps remain great and also at 30fps or 60fps, the video results come out great with excellent details and dynamic range. The ultrawide camera can also record 8K video something which the Galaxy S21 Ultra lacks. The videos from the ultrawide camera have excellent details and the use of a freeform lens ensures no edge distortion and the noise is barely present there.
Similar is the case in the night, where the videos have a lower amount of noise and good dynamic range. Turning on the NightScape does result in improved dynamic range and the videos have better color saturation also. The telephoto camera does a decent job in terms of videos as there is no OIS which results in average dynamic range and the colors look muted also.
At night, the videos from the telephoto camera result in videos having more amount of noise and not so good dynamic range. This camera can also record 4K videos and it is better to use 1080p videos at 30fps or 60fps with a greater amount of details and good dynamic range. The ultrawide camera also doubles up as a macro camera for videos which is only restricted to 1080p only.
The front camera can record 1080p videos at 30fps which comes out with average details and poor dynamic range. The skin tones look natural and there is no skin smoothening applied by default. The colors look oversaturated and there are areas of overexposure with a large amount of noise. The portrait videos from the front camera have decent details and good edge detection.
Earlier just for the cameras, it was very hard to recommend an OnePlus smartphone, but with the OnePlus 9 Pro, OnePlus has put in the best sensors and the Hasselblad tuning of color science has really worked well. Surely it may not match up the Galaxy S21 Ultra which has slightly better cameras but the OnePlus 9 Pro does make a bold statement when it comes to the cameras.
For in-depth camera samples please check the video: https://youtu.be/rqFkhEesPgE
OnePlus 9 Pro Battery Life:
The OnePlus 9 Pro, like its predecessor, the OnePlus 8 Pro has a 4500mAh battery where there are two batteries of 2250mAh battery each similar to the one on the OnePlus 8T (Review). Here the battery capacity could have been higher but OnePlus claims that with a power-efficient 5nm process Snapdragon 888 and OxygenOS 11 optimizations result in good battery life.
With heavy usage and the display being set at Quad HD resolution and at 120Hz, the smartphone lasted for one single day with some battery left. The standard screen-on time at this point was around 4-5 hours and with normal usage and the display being set to 120Hz, the smartphone lasted for one single day and another day. It is better to keep the resolution at Full HD+ and display to be set at Smart 120Hz.
The standard screen-on time is around 5-6 hours with normal usage and the battery life cannot be extraordinary. What is extraordinary and the segment-best are the charging speeds. OnePlus introduced the Warp Charge 65 with the OnePlus 8T last year and this year it went a step ahead and came up with a slightly efficient Warp Charge 65T which is 20 percent better compared to Warp Charge 65.
With the newer Warp Charge 65T technology, the OnePlus 9 Pro can go from 0 to 100 percent under 30 minutes which is really good, and charging the smartphone for 15 minutes can give you a day's battery life. Another good feature now introduced with this charger is using this charger you can charge other smartphones at 45W or 25W and also even laptops can be charged quickly using USB-PD.
The OnePlus 8 Pro launched last year came up with 30W Warp Wireless charging and now this year, the OnePlus 9 Pro has taken one step ahead with the newer Warp Wireless Charge at 50W which is the fastest to date in the smartphone industry in today's date. It is much faster compared to the standard 15W on the Galaxy S21 Ultra and the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
There is also reverse wireless charging at 4.5W using which you can charge other wireless charging smartphones by just placing it on the back.
This charger takes the smartphone from 0 to 100 percent in around 45 minutes and the charging pad gets an additional cable that can be removed and like the 30W wireless charging pad, there is an in-built fan behind to dissipate the heat while charging. Overall, the battery life seems to be good nothing great as such but the charging speeds are just segment-first and better compared to any flagship out there.
OnePlus 9 Pro Audio Quality:
The OnePlus 9 Pro boasts a stereo speaker that includes the earpiece and the bottom loudspeaker grille which results in good sound with clear bass and even at the loudest settings, the sound does not feel distorted and is much better compared to the OnePlus 9 and the OnePlus 8 Pro.
However, it does miss out on a 3.5mm headphone jack but there are many wireless earphones out there that can provide sound output. There is also Dolby Atmos present for enhanced sound experience while watching a video or playing games.
Verdict:
The OnePlus 9 Pro is a complete package and is one of the best flagship smartphones of 2021. OnePlus has taken things seriously up this time and brought in some segment-first features on the smartphone to make it a compelling buy. The regular OnePlus 9 did not match up to the expectations as it had some minor upgrades but with the OnePlus 9 Pro, things have changed.
The partnership with Hasselblad has really worked well for the cameras on the OnePlus 9 Pro as the color science is more natural in all the cameras and the ultrawide camera is the best when compared to its competitors. Other things include a 120Hz LTPO display, good performance and gaming, and average battery life with excellent charging speeds.
In terms of looks, it is no more the original OnePlus design but still, it is good on its own. The display is great with that Smart 120Hz, OxygenOS provides a clean and smooth software experience and the 65W charger and 50W fast wireless charging makes up for the OnePlus 9 Pro considering the smaller 4500mAh battery. The cameras are much better now but still not as good as the flagships from Samsung and Apple.
There are very minor downsides noticed that include the smartphone tends to get overheated after gaming for longer sessions and also while recording videos for a longer amount of time. Then coming to OxygenOS which has a very good track record of providing updates is restricted to two years of Android updates whereas OEMs like Google and Samsung provide three years.
The battery capacity could have been more considering the massive Quad HD display. Other than these what you are getting is a smartphone with a good build and design, great display for media consumption, best performance and gaming, good battery life with faster charging. On top of that comes the peace provided by the OxygenOS.
So if cameras are the most important, then upgrading it from the OnePlus 8 Pro is worth it, or else the OnePlus 8 Pro is a good deal since it is cheaper now. OnePlus has stepped into the game with the OnePlus 9 Pro making a great buy. Hats off to "OnePlus".
0 Comments
Please do not enter any spam link in the comment box