OnePlus 9 Pro Review: Powerhouse of features

The OnePlus 9 Pro is the company's continued effort to establish that it can produce smartphones that not only pack the most ridiculous specs, but also squeeze the most out of it. This year's highlights include the Snapdragon 888 SoC paired with 12GB of LPDDR5 memory, Hasselblad branded cameras and a 1440p display with a refresh rate of 120Hz. while the Snapdragon 888 is overpowered for most use cases, chances are, you're going to be able to use this smartphone for several years to come. The Hasselblad collaboration is in its first stage, and while on the OnePlus 9 Pro doesn't feel like much, we feel that with time, this camera is only going to get better. The display on the OnePlus 9 Pro left us very surprised with its impeccable accuracy and gamut coverage for both sRGB and DCI-P3 colour gamuts, making it one of the best displays on a smartphone in the market right now. The phone's 4500mAh battery can get you anywhere between a day to a day and a half of use depending on how much you tax it, but thanks to the 65W Dash Charge, you should be able to top it up in no time.

The OnePlus 9 Pro has been a hotly anticipated smartphone for a number of reasons. Perhaps the top-most anticipatory aspect of the phone is the result of the Hasselblad-OnePlus collaboration. Other things include curiosity about how the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 performs and in general, what new things does OnePlus 9 Pro bring to the table. We’ve spent a generous amount of time with the OnePlus 9 Pro and here’s everything you need to know.

OnePlus 9 Pro Specifications and Features

The OnePlus 9 Pro continues the tradition of sporting the latest and the greatest hardware. You get the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC, which in itself is quite a special chip. It features four Kryo 680 cores based on the Cortex A55 cores, three Kryo 680 cores based on the Cortex A78 and 1 Kryo 680 core based on ARM’s big boy X1 core. The X1 core was announced last year, and at the time, ARM had stated that the X1 core was likely going to be reserved for higher-end devices such as laptops. Well, here we are, with the X1 being part of a smartphone SoC. Our unit also comes with the higher 12GB of RAM and in case that wasn’t enough, OnePlus has also figured out how to use the storage as Virtual RAM. On the PC side of things, this would be referred as a Pagefile. Personally, I’m not sure who in this world thinks that 12GB RAM on a smartphone isn’t enough and neither have I met anyone getting upset over not being able to hold 20+ apps open in the background. Other heavy hitting specs of the phone include a QHD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate and there’s no denying you’re going to love this. There’s also a 4500mAh battery that supports 65W fast charging. Then, we’ve also got the camera stack, which features a custom Sony IMX 789 sensor with a resolution of 48 Megapixels. The ultra-wide camera is a Sony IMX 766 module, with a 50 megapixel resolution and 14mm field of view. The third is a telephoto camera with a 3.3x hybrid zoom factor and also a 2 megapixel monochrome camera. There is no denying that the OnePlus 9 Pro has a spec sheet on steroids, something that’s been a staple for the company since its original smartphone, the OnePlus 1. We’re keen on seeing how much of this raw power translates to user experience and most of all, is even usable by the smartphone.

OnePlus 9 Pro Performance

Tales of OnePlus smartphones’ performance are now reaching mythical standards. Every phone the company launches quickly climbs to the very top of the benchmark charts and the OnePlus 9 Pro is no different. We see the OnePlus 9 climb right to the top of our AnTuTu charts, a popular benchmark targeted by brands trying to show off their performance chops. Surprisingly though, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 paired with 12GB of LPDDR5 memory is not able to beat the iPhone 12 Pro Max, with its A14 Bionic processor and 6GB RAM. In fact, we see this behaviour span the entire range of synthetic benchmarks, with the OnePlus 9 Pro falling behind in 3DMark Wildlife and the trio of GFXBench tests as well. While synthetic benchmarks paint one picture, the real-life usage of the smartphone paints an even better one.

The first thing we looked to test out was gaming performance. Using Gamebench to measure the critical components of gaming performance, we fire up CoD Mobile and Asphalt 9 to see how the OnePlus 9 handles them. At their most demanding graphic settings, we get to play CoD Mobile at 60fps median frame rate and 99 percent stability. Asphalt 9 delivers 60fps median frame rate and 100 percent stability. This is incredible gaming performance, and once we’ve come to expect from flagships. What was particularly interesting was how little the Snapdragon 888 has to flex in order to run these games at their peak numbers.  For example, while playing CoD Mobile the four small cores run sync’d up at variable clock speeds, while the three big cores follow the same behaviour. The last, X1 core fires only intermittently, stying out of the game for most of the duration of our gaming sessions. The result of this intelligent frequency scaling between cores results in super optimised battery usage, with the game sipping only 9mAh of the battery capacity for one round of CoD Mobile’s multiplayer match. This is excellent and is definitely attributable to the insanely fine-tuned OxygenOS, but more on that later.

For those of you who are non-gamers and looking for a smartphone that won’t give up on you for the next four years, the OnePlus 9 Pro is a no brainer. You can abuse this phone’s hardware with as many apps, renders, games, photo edits as you want and it just wont slow down on you.

OnePlus 9 Pro Camera: Hasselblad to the rescue

It is no secret that in the otherwise perfect smartphone that is a OnePlus device, the camera has always been the weak link. The company tried something rather unique with the OnePlus 8 Pro, giving its ultra-wide camera a 48MP sensor and then using the binned result as the output. This delivers a level of quality in UWA photos never before seen from Android smartphones, a feat that still continues to hold true. The OnePlus 9 Pro continues to use its older learning’s, but now the company is also leaning on the Hasselblad brand name to bolster confidence in its camera offering. Sadly, it does fall short of the promise. Here’s why.

Note: All images below have been resized for the web. To view the original, full-resolution JPG files, please head over to our Flikr Gallery

Before we get into the aspect of individual image quality, I do want to address the area where the disappointment begins; the app. Shooting using the stock camera app is a rather laggy experience, with the shutter taking a split second to fire the shot from when it is pressed. As observed, this delay isn’t to lock focus, which makes the experience a little annoying. If you have a hyper-active infant or a over-energetic pet, chances are, you’re going to miss the moment by a hair. Then there are the random app-freezes due to the system “processing” the image, a problem that is greatly compounded when shooting in night mode. Thankfully, all these issues are purely software based and can be fixed via updates, a tactic that OnePlus heavily relies on to keep improving user experience. Now, let’s talk about image quality.

The primary camera on the OnePlus 9 Pro that we received for review produced images with mixed results. During the day time while shooting backlit subjects, we noticed the shadow areas being crushed completely due to increased contrast. The result is what is colloquially referred to as “reduced dynamic range.” In comparison, the iPhone 12 Pro Max lowers the contrast notable in order to preserve shadow detail, a move that is much preferred and here’s why. You can always add contrast back into the image, at levels you feel that balances shadow details with contrast. IF there’s already too much contrast added into the file, no amount of editing can recover the detail in the crushed shadows. Again, just a tuning issue, one which can easily be fixed via a software update. Other than that, the daytime photos look incredible. They’re sharp, and the colours are definitely wonderful.

The ultra-wide camera is really where OnePlus makes a name for itself. They company has used a Sony IMX 766 50megapixel sensor for this camera, and you have to wonder, why is everyone else not doing the same? The other feature OnePlus claims as impressive is the absence of barrel distortion that’s typical of ultrawide lenses. This part is only half true. Yes, there is significantly reduced barrel distortion, but you’re also losing a few millimeters of focal length. By using a 50 megapixel sensor to generate a 48MP primary image, the extra 2MP of resolution is what gets chopped off, so as a users, you don’t really lose the resolution. It’s a very clever trick to be honest and shows to the ingenuity shown by the engineers in the OnePlus Camera labs. The low light output from the ultra-wide camera is also incredibly impressive, given that its doing what most smartphones do with their primary cameras, so there’s no two ways about the fact that this is the best ultra-wide camera on a smartphone for now.

The third camera on here is a telephoto camera with an output resolution of 8MP, and a focal length of 3.3x. OnePlus clearly states that the 3.3x factor is hybrid zoom, and not optical, having learnt from their past mistakes. During the days leading up to the launch of the OnePlus 9 smartphones, the company was pushing out a number of “moon” related teasers, leading me to believe that there would be a 100x zoom type situation, but turns out, all the mooning was only for the Hasselblad branding. It's okay though, because the telephoto lens is still a decently usable appendage. Its best used outdoors, in strong light where the f/2.4 aperture can pull in enough light. Once the light starts to dip or you move indoors, the OnePlus will switch over to the primary camera to deliver the telephoto result.

The current state of the OnePlus-Hasselblad partnership is the software tuning, where Hasselblad has allegedly shared the principals of its colour science with OnePlus. This is indeed a great endeavor, except for one minor problem; there’s no easy way to verify that claim. Additionally, when it comes to colours, there really wasn’t any particular problem with them in the last few years. In any case, for those who are sticklers for colour reproduction, you’re better off shooting RAW anyway. For JPG shooters, better colour accuracy is always welcome, but there really hasn’t been any issues with colour reproduction from high-end smartphone cameras in the last few years. We’d really like to see a hardware-based manifestation of the Hasselblad-OnePlus collaboration though, since that could significantly boost the OnePlus camera’s quality over what it is right now.

OnePlus 9 Pro Display

As if the camera wasn’t enough of an attraction for the OnePlus 9 Pro, the display, personally, takes the cake. Youre getting a 1440p Super AMOLED display with LTPO layer for improved power efficiency. You also get 120Hz refresh rate and a touch polling rate that will please even the most ardent of gamers. But these aren’t the only things that nmake the display special; its also the panel’s calibration. The display section offers five colour profiles, two automatic and three which lock the display to adhere to specific colour spaces. The Natural and Vivid colour profiles are perfect for those who don’t care about colour accuracy, but if you have specific needs, then the sRGB, Display-P3 and AMOLED Wide Gamut profiles are where you’d want to turn your attention. We use Calman Ultimate paired with their C6 HDR2000 colourimeter to analyse display panels.

sRGB Colour Profile

When the display is set to the sRGB colour profile, the colour space is restricted to conform to the BT.709/sRGB space, with the gamma being set to 2.2. The colour temperature of the display (white balance) in this space should conform to the D65 value (6500K). According to Calman readouts, the average DeltaE error for the sRGB colour space on the OnePlus 9 Pro is 0.8, with the maximum DeltaE error being 2.2. These are out-of-the-box numbers for the smartphone and easily rival some of the best professional monitors. Our colour volume analysis reveals that in the sRGB colour profile, the panel covers 98 percent of the sRGB colour space, a more than acceptable amount. There are no notable variances in any colour shades or those of skin tones as dictated by the Colourcheckr SG patterns. This colour profile is best suited for those of you who need to stick to the sRB colour profile, scuh as photographers and video producers, since most photos and videos still adhere to the sRGB colour space.

Display P3 Colour Profile

When we switch over to the Display P3 colour profile, we expect the panel to represent 100 percent of the P3 colour profile, while maintaining a gamma curve of 2.2 and a colour temperature of 6500K, just like the sRGB profile. Here, the Calman analysis shows that the gamut is increased to cover 98.4 percent of the P3 colour profile, with the sRGB colour space coverage increasing to 146.884 percent. The recorded gamma does meet the 2.2 number, but we see a slight drift in the colour temperature, departing from 6500 to 6600. This yields a slightly higher DeltaE error than what we saw in the sRGB colour space, with the average being 1.9 and max DeltaE being 3.9, still super impressive by every measure.

AMOLED Wide Gamut Profile

The AMOLED Wide Gamut profile is a weird one, which expands the colour gamut coverage even further, but at the cost of accuracy. In this profile, the DCI-P3 gamut coverage is expanded to 129 percent, but the colour accuracy and white point take a hit. The average DeltaE error for this colour profile sits at 4.6, with a maximum DeltaE error of 10. The white point jumps up to 7386, with a significant boost in the blue spectrum. While the profile does offer more colours, and hence a more “saturated” feel, we don’t particularly recommend it.

OnePlus 9 Pro Battery Life

The OnePlus 9 Pro packs a 4500mAh battery, and one common question around the lab has been, “isn’t that too less for a phone with this kind of hardware?” Well, yes and no. If you max out the power hungry features on this phone, that is, you use dual sim, set the display to QHD+ resolution and keep it in the 120Hz mode, then you’re barely going to make it to the end of the day. This is also if you’re streaming more than an hour’s worth of HDR content off of Netflix, or playing over an hour of CoD Mobile (or any other demanding game). Throw in 3-4 hours worth of phone calls and checking of social media for 10 minutes every hour, you’re going to be reaching for the charger sooner than you think. From here on, you can tweak your settings the way you like, such as, lowering the display resolution to FHD+ to get improved nubers, but frankly, all this won’t matter. The OnePlus 9 Pro now supports 65W Dash Charging, meaning that in under 40 minutes, your phone can go from 0 to 100. You can alternatively opt to plonk it on the new OnePlus wireless charger which supports 50W fast charging (also supported by the OnePlus 9 Pro). Don’t have 40 minutes to spare? Then just go take a 10 minute walk to burn off all that junk food you’ve been eating, and come back to a OnePlus 9 charged adequately to get you through your journey. Frankly, given how fast this phone charges back up, you shouldn’t really have to worry about the battery life. And let’s say that you find yourself in the awkward position of not having access to power, then just reduce the refresh rate to 60fps, set your resolution to FHD+ and switch over to dark mode for optimum battery use. This will easily get you well into the next day, provided you are not using the OnePlus 9 Pro as a portable gaming console or entertainment device.

OnePlus 9 Pro Build and Design

Saving the simplest for the last, and if you’ve made it this far into this review, I’d say stop reacding and go buy th phone, because you’re clearly into it. When it comes to the design, there’s nothing very special going on here. Our Morning Mist variant has a glossy finish, with a dual-tone treatment on the back which goes from silver to black. It also holds onto fingerprints with rapid ferver and I for the life of me can’t figure out why OnePlus didn’t send out the matte black version or the pine green colour of the OnePlus 9 Pro, which are said to be more resilient in this area.

In terms of ergonomics, the phone does feel nice to hold, and grips rather easily. In my usage, I didn’t have issues with the phone slipping out of my hands, although I did put the phone in its supplied case for the majority of the duration of my testing. You get the power button and sound profile switch on the right side of the frame while the volume rocker is placed within comfortable reach on the left. The dual SIM tray can be located at the bottom, to the left of the USB-C port. The phone continues to sport an IP68 rating which should please those with an adventurous streak.

Verdict

The OnePlus 9 Pro continues to build upon a certain image that the brand has set; that it will always rock the most power-packed spec sheet. With the combination of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, 12GB LPDDR5 memory and UFS3.1 storage, you do get just that. The Hasselblad collaboration doesn’t seem to really do much for the OnePlus 9 Pro’s cameras, which in our testing still require some tweaking in terms of how the RAW image is processed into the final JPG. The camera app itself could also use some work, as ours was notably laggy. Where the phone outstrips the competition is the display, which is legit one of the very best in the business at the moment. The battery life will vary depending on your usage and settings, but the 65W super-fast charging has you covered. The OnePlus 9 Pro is definitely a solid option to buy, given that it goes toe-to-toe with the likes of the iPhone 12  Pro Max and even the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, two phones that cost way more.

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OnePlus 9 Review: Hitting almost all the right notes

Sandwiched between the OnePlus 9 Pro and the OnePlus 9R, the OnePlus 9 appears to be a very different proposition from its predecessors. The OnePlus 9 does not simply play second fiddle to the more expensive Pro OnePlus device. Instead, it now exists as the middle-child attempting to strike a fine balance between price and premium features. As a consequence of its price, the OnePlus 9 will also face far greater competition than the previous generation non-pro OnePlus phones. 

The OnePlus 9 is finally here. Launched alongside the OnePlus 9 Pro, this latest upper mid-range flagship from the company is one of the most anticipated devices from the company this year. And, as such, there's already a lot of interest in it. 

While the OnePlus 9 Pro and OnePlus 9R will fight in segments that still remain untamed for the company, the OnePlus 9 shoulders the responsibility of maintaining OnePlus' dominance in a segment that it has been the king of for a few years now. However, with the competition heating up, the road ahead for the OnePlus 9 will be more difficult than it has been for most of its predecessors. 

Yet, it'll also have the unique advantage of using the learning gained from the previous generation OnePlus devices. But will it be enough? Will the OnePlus 9 emerge victorious in the days to come? Well, that's something only time can tell. For now, we can take a deeper look at the device to help you with your buying decision. So read on for our full review of the OnePlus 9. 

(Photo credit: Prateek Khatri/Digit)

OnePlus 9 review: Design 

To begin with, let's start with the design of the OnePlus 9. The basic element used for the machining of the phone is glass. The company sent us the Winter Mist colour for review which uses an unspecified version of Gorilla Glass sheet to protect the gradient effect flaunting glass back. 

The back panel features very little in terms of distractions, with OnePlus deciding to go for a clean and simple look. The glossy gradient finish is complemented by the OnePlus logo plastered in the middle of the panel and the vertically placed triple camera module that despite protruding a little only ends up adding to the design value of the device. 

(Photo credit: Prateek Khatri/Digit)

Much like the OnePlus 8 and 8T phones, the OnePlus 9 is also built using the company's burden-free design language. As such, you have sleek curves on the back to improve the ergonomics and in-hand feel of the device. OnePlus has also used a reinforced fiberglass polymer frame, instead of metal to keep the weight of the phone in check. However, to OnePlus' credit, because of the use of a new metallization process, the finish on the frame feels more like metal, than plastic.  

The frame also houses all the buttons and ports, with the alert slider and the power button placed on the right of the device. The volume rocker is placed at the opposite side, with the SIM tray, Type-C jack, and the speaker grille all placed on the bottom end of the frame. 

(Photo credit: Prateek Khatri/Digit)

OnePlus 9 review: Display

Moving on to the front, the display is one of the biggest talking points of the OnePlus 9, with the phone using a 6.55-inch AMOLED panel. The panel can process visuals in up to Full HD+ resolution and at a decent enough pixel density of 402ppi. 

As has been the case with OnePlus phones in the recent past, the OnePlus 9's display also supports high refresh rates -- 120Hz to be precise. However, it's not an adaptive display so the phone can be set to work at either 120Hz or 60Hz refresh rate. As such, we noticed a steep increase in battery drain when the phone was set to process visuals at a fast refresh rate. 

OnePlus 9's panel has been given the DisplayMate A+ rating which generally translates to pretty much the best visual experiences you can achieve on a smartphone display. Is that the case for the OnePlus 9 also? Well, the answer is a yes. 

This HDR10+ display on the OnePlus 9 is equally good for playing games as it is for watching movies and streaming shows on the go. The expansive display is tuned for accurate colours and as such is a treat for consuming multimedia content on it. It's super slick when set to work on the fast refresh mode, making UI animations and supported games feel an absolute delight. 

Calman ColorChecker Analysis (sRGB)

Interestingly, this observation was also backed by the results of the tests we ran to test the OnePlus 9's display. Calman's display analysis showed the phone's panel to be extremely colour accurate across both sRGB and HDR colour profiles. For the former, the phone managed to keep the colour accuracy error to very low levels -- average deltaE of 0.9 and a maximum deltaE of 2.2-- and even impressed with the results of the tricky DCI-P3 colour profile -- average deltaE of 2 and a maximum deltaE of 2.8.

Calman ColorChecker Analysis (HDR)

In terms of its range, the OnePlus 9's display was once again among the best we've tested so far. Testing it in the sRGB colour profile, the display managed to cover 99.172% of the BT.709, 66.465% of the DCI-P3 and 44.959% of the BT2020 colour gamuts. Set to the more vibrant HDR colour profile, the display managed to hit even more colours as it covered well over 100% of the BT.709 colour space, and a very good 96.75% of the DCI-P3 gamut. 

Calman Colour Volume test (sRGB)

Calman Colour Volume (HDR)

OnePlus 9's display is claimed to reach high levels of peak brightness while watching HDR content. The company claims the AMOLED panel can reach 1100nits of peak brightness. While this can only be achieved on certain areas of the display and that too only while watching HDR content, we found the panel to achieve good peak brightness even during normal use -- 767nits. Our tests showed the panel can also get very dark and drop down to a minimum brightness of 4nits.

OnePlus 9 review: Specifications and performance

Underneath the display, the OnePlus 9 hides some really interesting hardware to ensure it can handle anything and everything you throw at it. This is because the latest OnePlus 9 device brings with itself only the most powerful hardware that can be found on an Android smartphone at the moment.

At the heart of the device is Qualcomm's top-of-the-line Snapdragon 888 SoC paired to as much as 12GB RAM and 256GB of fast UFS 3.1 storage. This chipset is the successor to the Snapdragon 865-series chipsets from last year. However, it's built using a more advanced fabrication process which helps it pack a significantly greater number of transistors on the silicon. 

Qualcomm claims this chipset brings significant gains in both CPU and GPU performance, all while being more power-efficient than before. For the former, we have Qualcomm’s 3-tier Kryo 680 CPU cluster, which consists of one Cortex-X1 core clocked at 2.84GHz, three slightly slower, but still quite powerful, Cortex-A78 cores clocked at 2.4GHz, and finally, four low power Cortex-A55 cores running at 1.8GHz. 

Working in tandem, these cores help the  Snapdragon 888 chip achieve a 25 per cent uptick in CPU performance over the previous generation. For graphics, the chipset houses an Adreno 660 GPU, which again claims to offer a 35 per cent increase in performance over last year's Adreno 650 GPU when it comes to graphics rendering. 

The chipset also packs Qualcomm's Snapdragon X60 5G modem to deliver 5G connectivity across global networks and Qualcomm Spectra 580 ISP for handling cameras. Qualcomm claims that the latter is 35% faster than the previous generation imaging processors, and also uses a new low-light architecture to help cameras capture brighter images in dark environments. 

But we'll discuss the camera performance later. For now, let's take a look at how the core hardware handles apps of daily use, synthetic benchmarks, and yes, games. OnePlus sent us the 12GB RAM and 256GB storage variant for review. Running a copy of Oxygen OS 11 -- based on Android 11 -- our review unit of the OnePlus 9 worked as expected, and gave us very little to complain about. 

Outside the realm of synthetic benchmarks, the general performance of the OnePlus 9 is good. The device handles heavy-duty games -- including Call of Duty: Mobile and Asphalt 9 Legends -- as well as handles apps of daily use such as Facebook, Amazon and Instagram. The phone's 120Hz display working in tandem with the powerful chipset and high amount of RAM -- which the system can also improve virtually by allocating a chunk of ROM for system processes -- also helps improve the gaming experience on the phone, making the phone feel fast, and responsive. 

Call of Duty Mobile: Median FPS and stability

The power of the device's flagship-grade hardware was also visible when we tested it using our suite of benchmark tests. To begin with, the OnePlus 9 clocked an impressive score of 708100 points on AnTuTu 8.0, and also scored a very good 1125 points and 3629 points respectively in the single-core and multi-core tests of Geekbench 5. It also impressed when tested using 3DMark Wildlife -- a score of 5682 points -- and GfxBench. 

For gaming, we tested the device using our trusted Gamebench service and the results were in line with what we had expected. We tested Call of Duty Mobile and Asphalt 9 Legends at the highest possible graphics settings, and the former managed to reach a median FPS of 60 with a stability of 86 per cent. Asphalt 9 Legends clocked ran at a median FPS of 59 frames at stability of 98 per cent. These are pretty good results, and as such, translating to stable and good gameplay at the highest possible graphics settings on the device. 

(Photo credit: Prateek Khatri/Digit)

OnePlus 9 review: Cameras

Moving to the camera department, there's a lot to digest here about the OnePlus 9. Unlike the OnePlus 9 Pro, this one comes with a three-lens module at the back which comes with the Hasselblad branding. However, the lenses populating the module have not been developed in partnership with the Swedish camera manufacturer. Instead, with the OnePlus 9, the partnership sees Hasselblad provide camera tuning inputs to help the OnePlus 9 output more "life-like" colours. Do note that the below samples have been resized for web and that you can see the original, full-resolution JPG files in our Flickr Gallery.

At the heart of the set-up is a primary 48-megapixel Sony IMX689 sensor with an F/1.8 aperture. This is sat next to a 50-megapixel ultra-wide IMX766 lens with an F/2.2 aperture and a third 2-megapixel monochrome lens for adding extra detail to portrait shots.

OnePlus claims the above-mentioned lenses working in tandem with the Hasselband tuned camera software helps the OnePlus 9 take a "giant leap forward in mobile photography." However, as we found out, this appears to be more of a giant marketing claim than anything else.  

While the overall camera performance of the device is good, it's still not out of the ordinary. The primary lens captures decent day-time shots. When fed with a good amount of light, this lens clicks some really well-detailed pictures. The pictures clicked using the main camera also show the good dynamic range and colour accuracy to help the phone take on the competition in the segment. 

With the OnePlus 9, the company has also vastly improved the ultra-wide capabilities of the camera set-up. This mostly because of the presence of powerful hardware in the form of the 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 sensor. This is a curved freeform lens that greatly reduces edge-distortion in ultra-wide images to improve the end result. And, because of its high megapixel count, the lens also manages to capture images with a decent amount of detail and very little noise. 

The phone also uses this lens to click super macro shots from as close as 4 cm away from the subject. During our review, we found the lens to also be good at clicking macro shots, with such pictures coming out with rich detail and good depth effect.

Both the primary and ultra-wide lens also offer good low-light performance, which appears to be marginally better than what we saw on the previous generation OnePlus devices. The Nightscape mode's performance also appears to have gone up a bit, with the computational photography algorithms providing good results even in very low-light scenarios. The mode brings the overall low-light performance of the OnePlus to a more than satisfactory level and is generally fast and responsive. 

However, that's not the case for the overall camera experience of the device. On the software side of things, there still appear to be a few bugs, with the phone's camera software feeling a little sluggish at times. While the phone offers good shutter speed, the tap response for clicking pictures from the software side is a little delayed -- something that can be an issue if you are trying to click a burst of quick shots. 

Apart from this, the other major thing of note about the OnePlus 9 photography experience is the presence of a standalone Hasselblad Pro Mode. Under this mode, OnePlus provides an interesting UI and a number of advanced options to test out your photography skills. Based on Hasselblad’s image processing software, this mode gives users the ability to manually adjust ISO, exposure time, white balance, focus and more. Additionally, there's also the option to capture 12-bit RAW images for improved details, colour and higher dynamic range. 

OnePlus 9 review: Battery

Keeping the lights on the device is a big 4500mAh battery pack on the device which promises good battery life. As a daily driver, the OnePlus 9's battery should be big enough to get most users through the day. In fact, light to moderate users may even get more than a day's worth of use on a single charge from the device. 

As found during our review, the OnePlus 9 managed to last over 14 hours in our video loop test and also handled gaming well by recording a battery drain of 24 per cent after an hour-long session of Call of Duty: Mobile. And even when the phone does run out of charge, it's not really a problem as the phone supports the company's Warp Charge 65T. This enables it to complete a full charge using the phone's included 65W charger in around 60 minutes. However, what's more interesting is the fact that the first 50 per cent of the battery can be charged in just 16 minutes.

(Photo credit: Prateek Khatri/Digit)

OnePlus 9: Conclusion

Sandwiched between the OnePlus 9 Pro and the OnePlus 9R, the OnePlus 9 appears to be a very different proposition from its predecessors. Unlike the OnePlus 8 -- and also the OnePlus 8T -- the OnePlus 9 does not simply play second fiddle to the more expensive Pro OnePlus device. Instead, it now exists as the middle-child, attempting to strike a fine balance between price and premium features. This step-up in positioning has also seen the OnePlus 9 launch at a significantly higher price point than what we saw for the vanilla variants up until last year. 

Starting at Rs 49,999 for the 8GB+128GB variant, with the 12GB RAM+256GB storage one going up to Rs 54,999, the OnePlus 9 is now a premium flagship that demands greater scrutiny than ever before. As a consequence of its price, the OnePlus 9 will now also face far greater competition than previous generation non-pro OnePlus phones. While it's too early to say how it'll fare against the competition, we can definitely comment on the OnePlus 9's credentials as a smartphone in isolation of the prevailing market conditions. 

In our time with the phone, we found the OnePlus 9 to be an extremely well-rounded device. From display to performance and even cameras, there's plenty to like about the OnePlus 9 as the phone covers pretty much all bases, and generally lives up to the tall claims made by the marketing folks at OnePlus. It almost hits all the right notes, and as such, should be good for pretty all users. So, if you are in the market for a new phone, or want to upgrade from your old OnePlus to a new one, the OnePlus 9 should definitely be getting your consideration.

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OnePlus 9, OnePlus 9R and OnePlus 9 Pro launched in India: Price specifications and availability

OnePlus 9, OnePlus 9R and OnePlus 9 Pro have officially launched in India. The successors to the OnePlus 8 series from last year, the OnePlus 9 series has been unveiled alongside the OnePlus' first smartwatch, the OnePlus Watch. OnePlus 9, 9 Pro and 9R are some of the much-awaited smartphones and tonight marks the culmination of the hype-train that began after the launch of the OnePlus 8T last November.

OnePlus CEO Pete Lau described the OnePlus 9 series as their “greatest achievement yet, our best combination of hardware and software and our biggest leap forward in camera quality.” OnePlus has aimed for the moonshot with the OnePlus 9 series, and it has received assistance from the legendary camera-maker Hasselblad. OnePlus announced that it has inked a three-year partnership with Hasselblad to co-develop the cameras on OnePlus smartphones starting from the OnePlus 9 lineup. 

The cameras on the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro have been optimized according to Hasselblad’s colour science and feature Natural Colour Calibration for producing accurate colours in a picture. In the future, OnePlus plans to work on hardware development with Hasselblad to improve its sensors and optics performance. We have tested out the cameras on the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro and you can check those out in our detailed reviews.

OnePlus 9, OnePlus 9R and OnePlus 9 Pro price and availability

The OnePlus 9 is priced starting at Rs 49,999 for the base 8GB+128GB storage variant and Rs 54,999 for the 12GB+256GB option.

Meanwhile, the OnePlus 9R is priced starting at Rs 39,999 for the 8GB+128GB variant and Rs 43,999 for the 12GB+256GB storage option.

As for the OnePlus 9 Pro, it is priced starting at Rs 64,999 for the 8GB+128GB variant and Rs 69,999 for the 12GB+256GB storage option. 

OnePlus 9R specifications

The OnePlus 9R features a 6.55-inch Full HD+ resolution AMOLED display with a punch-hole cutout for the selfie camera. The display also supports a 120Hz refresh rate and is topped with a layer of 2.5D Gorilla Glass. It is being offered in two colours: Lake Blue and Carbon Black. 

The OnePlus 9R is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 processor which was announced earlier this year as a follow-up to the Snapdragon 865 series of chipsets. This is paired with upto 8GB RAM and up to 256GB storage options to choose from. 

OnePlus 9R has quad cameras on the back headlined by a 48MP primary camera that uses Sony IMX586 sensor with OIS support, a 16MP ultra-wide-angle camera with 123-degree field-of-view, a 5MP macro camera and a 2MP monochrome camera. There’s a 16MP selfie camera on the front, housed within the notch cutout.

The OnePlus 9R is equipped with a 4,500mAh battery that supports Warp Charge 65 fast charging out-of-the-box.

OnePlus 9 specifications

The OnePlus 9 features the same display as the OnePlus 8T in that it is a flat 6.55-inch screen with a Full HD+ (2400 x 1080 pixels) resolution AMOLED panel. The display has a punch-hole cutout for the selfie camera and supports a 120Hz high refresh rate. It is topped with a layer of Gorilla Glass for added protection against drops.

OnePlus 9 measures 8.1 millimetres in thickness and weighs 183 grams. The chassis is made from fibreglass-reinforced polymer so it's not exactly a metal frame. It is being offered in three colourways: Winter Mist with a gradient finish, Arctic Sky with a matte finish and Astral Black with a glossy finish. The rear panel is protected by a layer of 3D Gorilla Glass.

OnePlus 9 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor that has an octa-core CPU and is paired with up to 12GB LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB UFS3.1 storage options to choose from. It runs on OxygenOS which is based on Android 11 out-of-the-box.

The OnePlus 9 has triple cameras on the back featuring a 48MP primary camera that uses Sony IMX689 sensor with an f/1.8 aperture and EIS support. There is a secondary 50MP ultra-wide-angle camera based on the IMX766 sensor with a free form lens that produces a picture with a 140-degree field of view. This is followed by a 2MP monochrome camera that works in tandem with the primary camera to create crisp black and white pictures.

Some new features include a Tilt-Shift mode, Hasselblad Pro mode and the rear cameras can record in 8K at up to 30FPS and 4K UHD at up to 60FPS. On the front, there is a 16MP selfie camera that uses the Sony IMX471 sensor. The OnePlus 9 has a basic set of connectivity features including 5G support, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC and more. It also has dual stereo speakers with noise cancellation support and an in-display fingerprint reader.

The OnePlus 9 is equipped with a 4,500mAh battery that supports Warp Charge 65T fast wired charging. OnePlus claims that the phone can be charged from 1-100% in 29 minutes tops. Additionally, the OnePlus 9 for North America and Europe also supports 15W Qi wireless charging.

OnePlus 9 Pro specifications

The OnePlus 9 Pro has an aluminium-glass build that measures 8.7 millimetres in thickness and weighs 197 grams. It is also IP68 rated making it resistant to dust and water ingress. The OnePlus 9 Pro is offered in three colours: Morning Mist with a glossy finish, Pine Green with a double layer matte finish and Stellar Black with frosted matte glass that is reminiscent of the Sandstone finish of the OnePlus One.

OnePlus 9 Pro features a 6.7-inch QHD+ (3216x1440 pixels) resolution AMOLED curved display with LTPO backplane technology and supports a 120Hz refresh rate. The LTPO technology allows the OnePlus 9 Pro to consume lesser power and gives dynamic refresh rate control ranging from as low as 1Hz to 120Hz. Furthermore, the display offers upto 367Hz touch sampling rate which comes in handy when gaming on the 9 Pro. The screen has a punch-hole cutout for the selfie camera, is certified for HDR10+ playback with MEMC and has Gorilla Glass protection.

Like the OnePlus 9, the 9 Pro is also powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor and is paired with upto 12GB LPDDR5 RAM and upto 256GB UFS 3.1 storage options to choose from.

The OnePlus 9 Pro has quad cameras on the back headlined by a primary 48MP camera with a Sony IMX789 sensor that has an f/1.8 aperture and supports EIS. The 50MP ultra-wide-angle camera and a 2MP monochrome camera is the same as the standard OnePlus 9. The 9 Pro gets an additional 8MP telephoto camera that offers 3.3x optical zoom. On the front, there is the same 16MP selfie camera as on the OnePlus 9.

The rear cameras can record in 8K at 30FPS and 4K UHD videos at upto 120FPS with features like super macro, UltraShot HDR, Tilt-shift mode, 12-bit RAW mode, Nightscape video, focus tracking and more. 

The OnePlus 9 Pro has the same 4,500mAh battery as the OnePlus 9 with Warp Charge 65T support but it also offers Warp Charge 50 fast wireless charging support.

 

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Nintendo Super Switch is reported to be using a new Nvidia chip to boost GPU and CPU performance

As we reported earlier, The new version of the Switch could come with a Samsung OLED display. Now, there are rumours that state Nintendo is looking at implementing DLSS support for its new Nvidia chip. Nintendo has not announced anything on the topic as yet, so we should take all this news with a grain of salt. With the new Switch, Nintendo could be looking at how well the next generation of consoles have fared and maybe that factored into its decision. 

New Nintendo Switch could come with support for DLSS

According to a new report on Bloomberg, the new Switch will come with a new Nvidia chip. This chip will supposedly boost GPU and CPU performance on the console. The Nvidia chip will also come with support for DLSS. The report also states that the chip will give the Switch the ability to output 4K visuals when connected to a television. As of right now, Nintendo has not made any announcements regarding the addition of the Nvidia chip, nor has it confirmed DLSS support. This is a much-needed boost as it will give the Japance game company equal footing when it comes to next-gen consoles. 

As far as the Switch’s OLED display is concerned, the 7-inch screen is definitely larger than the 6.2-inch on the original system. That alone should be enough for an upgrade, but we could see Nintendo overhauling the console for a fresher upgrade. The Switch is definitely still going strong as more people are buying the little console that could. It's even taken on the likes of the PS4 and Xbox One X, all while carving out a niche of its own. Games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey are some of the best video games ever made, so it’s clear why Nintendo are still in the game, decades later. With a ton of new games like the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, the Breath of the Wild sequel and the mysterious Metroid 4 in development, Nintendo are definitely here to stay. So, if you're thinking of buying a Switch, we've got five reasons why you should, right here.

 

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