OnePlus 9 Pro Is The New King Of Flagship Android Phones With Amazing Photography & Performance

Photo: © MensXP/Akshay Bhalla (Main Image)

OnePlus just announced its 9 series of smartphones and I’ve been using the ‘Pro’ variant for about 12 days to evaluate how good the phone really is. The OnePlus 9 Pro is the company’s latest flagship device that packs everything you need from a premium smartphone. In my opinion, the OnePlus 9 Pro is leagues ahead of its predecessor thanks to improved photography and performance that is currently unmatched by any Android device in the market right now. Here’s what I think about the OnePlus 9 Pro and all the features it has on offer:

Design and Display

The OnePlus 9 Pro continues the long tradition of offering a smartphone with premium build quality but for a lower cost than its competition. However, this time around, OnePlus has opted to use a glass back body that is reflective like a mirror. It’s different from the OnePlus 8 Pro’s matte finish back from last year which means the phone does end up being a fingerprint magnet. If you don’t use the smartphone without a cover, you will end up finding yourself cleaning the device every now and then.

This time around OnePlus has also changed the look of the smartphone instead of lifting a design from its previous smartphones. The camera module on the top left corner looks distinctly unique and blends in well with the rest of the body. The camera module also has Hasselblad’s branding that isn’t too jarring to look at. Overall, the back of the smartphone has a very clean look with minimal branding and gives off a classy vibe. At the front, the smartphone has a punch-hole display like the OnePlus 8 Pro which is now standard on smartphones. OnePlus still has a physical slider for managing notification sounds which I believe many more OEMs should start implementing. Additionally, the smartphone also has an IP68 rating which means the phone can survive in 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes. Lastly, much like the OnePlus 8 Pro, the 9 Pro also supports Qi Wireless charging and can be fast-charged using the ‘Warp Wireless Charger’.

In terms of the display, the OnePlus 9 Pro has a 6.7-inch QHD+ LTPO AMOLED display that has a refresh rate of 120Hz. The smartphone does utilise a variable refresh rate feature where it automatically adjusts the refresh rate according to what you are doing on the screen. It works very similar to Samsung’s adaptive refresh rate feature and works well in most cases. However, in one instance the smartphone would reduce the refresh rate down to about 5-6Hz when reading articles via Facebook which should be fixed in a future update soon. Apart from the one instance, the smartphone’s display is a dream to use with ultra-smooth scrolling, navigation and gaming.

The display itself is also of high-grade quality where colours are accurate enough for daily use. I would have liked to see the colour calibration similar to the Galaxy S21 Ultra for a bit more sharpness and colour accuracy but it is still amongst the best screens we’ve used yet. The display supports HDR10+ format and has a brightness level of 1300 nits which is enough for using the smartphone under direct sunlight. Content from OTT platforms like Netflix, Prime Video and others look extremely vivid with deep blacks and high colour accuracy. The phone does offer a true-to-life viewing experience in most cases however the display does lose a bit of contrast under sunlight. There is also some weird aliasing happening along with the curved corners of the display. There was little to no artefacting issues that we could notice with the naked eye as it only occurs on higher frequencies.

Camera

The camera performance on OnePlus smartphones in the past have been the most criticised feature however this time around it seems like the company took our criticisms seriously. The OnePlus 9 Pro has made the biggest leap in the photography department. It’s probably because the cameras have been tuned in partnership with Hasselblad and the results are quite impressive. The smartphone comes with a Sony IMX789 48MP primary camera, a Sony IMX766 50MP ultra-wide camera that can also take macro shots, and an 8MP telephoto camera.

The ultra-wide camera has seen the most improvement as the smartphone captures highly detailed images and works well in Nightscape mode too. Smartphones often don’t implement a high-fidelity ultra-wide sensor however in this case it was by far the most addicting sensor to use. The ultra-wide sensor on the OnePlus 9 Pro is worthy enough to capture picturesque landscape vistas without compromising any of the details.

In my experience, the phone was capable of handing most scenarios including low-light environments. The camera is also capable of taking impressive ‘Nightscape’ images which have been a hit and miss in the past. The only disappointing sensor was the telephoto lens as it did not capture images with enough detail and would often result in images with a lot of noise. Overall, this is the best camera performance I’ve seen on an OnePlus device up until now. Finally, OnePlus has made a smartphone that doesn’t take images as if you are using a potato. Check out some of our camera samples below to get a better idea:

Performance and Battery Life

The OnePlus 9 Pro is powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 888 chipset and has been paired with LPDDR5 RAM that goes up to 12GB. We tested the 12GB version and it is by far the one of smoothest experience we’ve had on a smartphone all year. The phone was able to handle the most graphic-intensive game like ‘Genshin Impact’ with ease. I did not face any frame-rate drops and could run the game on the highest of settings possible. The phone also has excellent thermals where we did not face any overheating and throttling problems while gaming or trying to capture 8K video.

For the 12GB variant, the OnePlus 9 Pro scored 11185 (single-core) and 3661 (multi-core) on Geekbench 5. Those numbers easily beat most Android smartphones that have launched in India as of now including the Galaxy S21 Ultra. It still does not come close to the iPhone 12 Pro's performance but then again no Android device does at the moment. As for the graphics performance, the OnePlus 9 Pro scored 5614 (best loop score) and 3160 (lowest loop score) in 3DMark’s Wild Life Stress Test. The smartphone also easily maxed out the Sling Shot Extreme OpenGL test.

In terms of battery life, the OnePlus 9 Pro could do a better job, especially when using the smartphone in QHD+ 120Hz mode. The smartphone gave me some 4.5 hours of screen-on-time which is not really great considering smartphones with the same LTPO display giving more battery backup. OnePlus should optimise the battery life in a future update as they are aware of the problem however for now it isn’t at par with the competition. At the moment, you can get more battery backup by running the display in 60Hz mode and on full HD resolution.

The OnePlus 9 Pro comes with a 4,500 mAh battery that can be fast-charging using the Warp Charge 65T power brick that comes in the box. Additionally, the smartphone also supports Warp Charge 50 Wireless where both battery cells charge at 25W wirelessly. The battery can be fully charged in about 30 minutes (wired) and 50% in 30 minutes wirelessly.

OxygenOS 11

OnePlus’ OxygenOS 11 is still my favourite Android Skin to use even though I sometimes don’t like the way it looks. Having said that, the Android Skin is extremely stable with little to no bugs that I came across during my testing period. All of my favourite features such as detailed customisation options, reverse wireless charging, zen mode, always-on display, dynamic wallpaper colour shifting amongst many others make a return.

Since most of us are still working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, OxygenOS 11 comes with a new ‘Work-Life Balance’ mode as well where you can schedule downtime for calls, internet connectivity, communication apps and emails. It’s a feature I use extensively every day after 7:00 PM to take a break from work every day and enjoy some time with my dogs. The overall experience on OxygenOS is very smooth and clutter-free which is always what I look for in an Android smartphone.

The Final Say

The OnePlus 9 Pro is my favourite flagship Android device of 2021 where it offers everything you need from a premium smartphone. With great photography, fast performance and a smooth software experience, currently there is nothing that matches the OnePlus 9 Pro. When considering the competition, the OnePlus 9 Pro is a better and more affordable alternative to the Galaxy S21 Ultra starting at Rs Rs 64,999.

By Akshay Bhalla