OnePlus on Tuesday announced its 2021 flagship handsets, the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro. Available starting from April 2, the phones are priced as low as $729 and $969, respectively.
Both phone feature the Hasselblad Camera for Mobile tech which promises more accurate and natural colors in photos. Moreover, they have a Hasselblad Pro Mode which lets picture takers capture 12-bit RAW content for post-processing. As we recently learned, the phone maker and camera giant have established a three-year partnership which will ultimately transition to phone sensors and optics.
The two phones run Android 11 with OnePlus’s custom touches. Known as OxygenOS, it’s largely centered around extra customization and user-defined features.
OnePlus 9
The OnePlus 9 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor with sub-6 GHz 5G support, and comes with 8GB/12GB memory options. Storage is pegged at 128GB and 256GB.
Digging deeper for a moment, the memory is LPDDR5 RAM and the internal storage is UFS 3.1, which means incredibly fast and buttery smooth performance. It’s nothing but top-tier stuff for OnePlus.
The display is a 6.55-inch FHD+ screen with 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ tech, so games will look incredible. A 4,500mAh battery is tucked inside with support for up to 65T fast charging and 15W wireless charging.
The brightness of the OnePlus 9’s display can go up to 1,100 nits with HDR10+ certification, to improve your experience when watching HDR videos. It is equipped with two ambient light sensors with 8,192 levels of brightness for smoother automatic brightness control. Comfort Tone also adjusts the color temperature of the display to match your environment for a more comfortable reading experience.
For cameras, the OnePlus 9 packs a main 48-megapixel shooter which can capture 8K video. The wide-angle camera comes in at 50-megapixels and features a “Freeform” lens that reduces edge distortion and that slight curve that plagues such shots.
That wide angle camera pulls double duty as a macro camera while the monochrome camera handles detailed and layered black and white photos.
Other specifications worth bragging about include a front-facing 16-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi 6 support, Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, stereo speakers, NFC, and an in-display fingerprint reader.
Available in Winter Mist (purple) and Astral Black, the OnePlus 9 is constructed from fiberglass-reinforced polymer.
OnePlus 9 Pro
The OnePlus 9 Pro takes everything in the standard model and tweaks it in a number of areas. It starts with its overall design, which is built from aluminum and offers IP68 water resistance.
Slightly larger at 6.7-inches, the display is also upgraded to a QHD+ resolution and features a “Fluid Display 2.0” technology. Low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) technology, which OnePlus says is the “most advanced backplane technology” used in high-end OLED screens will automatically adjust the refresh rate from 120Hz down to 1Hz, depending on the need, ensuring maximum battery life.
As for its cameras, the main 48-megapixel sensor is a custom-designed IMX789 sensor, co-developed with Sony, and features optical image stabilization (OIS). The 50-megapixel wide camera is also present, however an 8-megapixel 3.3x telephoto camera has been added and also offers OIS. The 9 Pro also features laser focusing and an extra microphone for audio zoom when shooting video.
Rounding things out, the OnePlus 9 Pro supports mmWave 5G and up to 50W fast wireless charging. The OnePlus 9 Pro be available in glossy Morning Mist (Silver) and matte Pine Green.
Availability
T-Mobile will offer the OnePlus 9 in the 8GB/128GB version in both colors, and the OnePlus 9 Pro 12GB /256 GB version in Morning Mist (Silver). Both phones are compatible with Verizon’s 4G network; OnePlus is hoping to secure 5G certification with the carrier.
Pre-orders for the phones start March 26 with full availability on April 2 from oneplus.com, T-Mobile, Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H.
| OnePlus 9 | OnePlus 9 Pro | |
| 8GB/128GB | $729 | $969 |
| 12GB/256GB | $829 | $1,069 |
