After months and months of hype, the OnePlus 9 Pro is finally upon us. The OnePlus 9 Pro is the flagship of the OnePlus 9 series, which consists of the budget oriented OnePlus 9R, mid-tier OnePlus 9 and the maxxed out OnePlus 9 Pro. We also saw the OnePlus Watch unveiled in the event today.
OnePlus 9 Pro: Specs
But turning our attention back to the OnePlus 9 Pro, we have what is basically an assembly of the best hardware that is available for a smartphone today. To start off, the OnePlus 9 Pro has the 5 nm Snapdragon 888 CPU along with 128 or 256 GB fast UFS 3.1 storage and either 8 or 12 GB of RAM. We anticipate that all these top shelf components will combine to give excellent performance at even the most demanding of tasks and games.
OnePlus 9 Pro: Design and Build Quality
Talking about the materials used, the OnePlus 9 Pro, like all modern smartphones, is a glass and metal sandwich with Gorilla Glass 6 on the front and back. It features a modern design with a rear Quad Camera Setup on the top left and the OnePlus logo in the middle. The glass on both the front and back is curved which seamlessly transitions with the aluminium frame in the middle. OnePlus claims that they have made some refinements to the curved display panel to minimise accidental touches and light bleeding.
There are 3 colour options with the OnePlus 9 Pro and it goes deeper than skin level because all the colour options have a slightly different texture. The Morning Mist colour, which looks like silver, has a glossy back which has a slight gradient from silver to black, depending on how the light hits it. Then, we have the Pine Green option, which has a satin-like, matte finish. It is soft to the touch and should be similar to the finish on the Teal/Ultramarine Blue OnePlus 8. Finally, there is the Stellar Black color option, which is inspired from the Sandstone finish on the original OnePlus One. It is supposed to have a matte, frosted glass back with a more grippy and fingerprint resisting texture.
OnePlus 9 Pro: Display
The Display on the OnePlus 9 Pro is a 6.7”(diagonally), 120 Hz AMOLED panel with a resolution of 1440 by 3216 which gives us a brilliant pixel density of 525 PPI. OnePlus is calling it the Fluid Display 2.0. As is the theme with this phone, the display is maxed out in every way possible and should provide one of the best viewing experiences of any smartphone. There is a selfie camera cutout to the top left, similar to last year’s OnePlus 8 Pro.
The display also features LTPO technology which basically allows it to vary the refresh rate from 120 Hz to as low as 1 Hz, in order to maximise efficiency and battery life. OnePlus claims that LTPO helps them cut the power usage of the display to half that of the OnePlus 8 Pro. It also supports HyperTouch, which is a 360 Hz Sampling Rate, that will help recognise user touches faster in order to minimise any lag while gaming.
OnePlus 9 Pro: Cameras
Now, let’s get to the star of the show. The cameras on the OnePlus 9 Pro have been hyped a lot, mostly because they’ve teamed up with Hasselblad, a company that is very well reputed for their industry leading cameras. OnePlus claims that they are going to invest $150 Million in the coming years to better the camera experience on their smartphones.
For the OnePlus 9 Pro, we have a Quad Camera Setup with a 48MP Primary Camera, a 50 MP Ultra Wide Camera, an 8 MP Telephoto Camera and a Mono Camera. OnePlus is calling it the Hasselblad Camera for Mobile as it is jointly developed and refined by OnePlus and Hasselbald. The camera module even features Hasselblad branding.
Natural Color Calibration with Hasselblad is integrated in the OnePlus 9 Pro. This technology is used to refine the color capturing performance of the cameras, leading to very accurate skin tones and true to life colors.
The primary 48MP camera is a Sony IMX789 sensor which has been fine tuned by OnePlus and Hasselblad to satisfy both the beginner and the professional. It offers support for 2×2 OCL, 12 bit RAW, dual ISO and DOL-HDR.
The 50MP Ultra Wide camera is a Sony IMX766 sensor, which at 14mm, is one of the largest in any smartphones. OnePlus boasts of lower noise and almost zero edge distortions. OnePlus claims that the Ultra Wide camera is advanced and better in every way and that the results feature meticulous details, colour and contrast.
When it comes to Videography, the OnePlus 9 Pro now supports recording in 8K at 30 fps. Users can also capture great quality slow motion videos with support for recording in 4K at 120 fps. There is also support for DOL-HDR which should mean better colours in challenging scenarios with a lot of shadows and highlightsor highs and lows. Other features that have been refined are Hyperlapse, Low Light video, Focus Tracking, and Super Stabilization.
OnePlus 9 Pro: Battery and Charging
OnePlus is famous for supporting ridiculously at charging technology and they have stepped it up this time as well. The OnePlus 9 Pro has 4500 mAh battery in a new dual cell design which basically allows you to charge the phone at twice the speed. It supports the new Warp Charge 65T, which allows you to get a day’s power in just 15 minutes and goes from 0 to 100 in just 29 minutes. Those are insane numbers!
The OnePlus 9 Pro also supports the new Warp Charge 50 Wireless technology which basically makes use of the dual cell design to charge both the cells at 25 W simultaneously. This translates to the fastest wireless charging solution in the industry today with a 1 to 70 charge taking only 30 minutes. The Wireless Charger is sold by OnePlus separately and features two wireless charging coils, both charging at 25W.
The OnePlus 9 Pro also supports other Industry-wide fast charging standards like USB Power Delivery and Quick Charge so it will charge up quickly even when plugged into a non-OnePlus fast charger. The speeds will still be slower compared to the first party OnePlus charger.
Also, the Warp Charge 65T adapter and the USB cable come with the phone, in the box, which is very welcome, considering the 2 most obvious competitors, the iPhone 12 Pro Max and the Galaxy S21 Ultra only come with a charging cable.
OnePlus 9 Pro: Pricing and Availability
The OnePlus 9 Pro is a maxed out flagship, more equipped and advanced than any other OnePlus phone we have seen before. This also means that it is the most expensive OnePlus phone we have ever seen. The OnePlus 9 Pro comes in 2 storage and RAM configurations and their prices are-
The OnePlus 9 Pro is up for Pre-Order now and will be launching by April 1, 2021 although the exact dates will vary based on your region.
We are very excited to check out the OnePlus 9 Pro soon and will be getting one to do a thorough analysis of every feature, including that Hasselblad branded camera. Stay tuned for all that content!
