With Jared having reviewed the OnePlus 9 and generally being impressed, the larger OnePlus 9 Pro has a few more tricks and goodies under its sleeve that make for a more attractive proposition. As the first Pro model since last year's OnePlus 8 series, the OnePlus 9 Pro is a welcome return to offering a true flagship, although the $969/£899 price tag may be a dealbreaker for some.
Design
Boasting a metal and glass design like most modern flagships, the OnePlus 9 Pro's outward appearance is a prime example of understated class. The Morning Mist colorway of the review unit starts as black and finishes like silver and is stunning to gaze at once you've polished off your fingerprints. Yup, it's something of a fingerprint magnet, so you'll probably want to slip it into the transparent case that is included in the retail box. In or out of the official case, the OnePlus 9 Pro is comfortable in hand with the curved edges, helping to ease any strain caused by the larger display. It's a slick smartphone in more than one way, and I would suggest using a case due to the phone being a tad slippery.
The volume rocker sits on the left-hand edge with the power button on the right, sitting just below the handy alert slider that I'd love to see more brands include. Sporting Hasselblad branding, the camera housing protrudes from the rear panel noticeably but surprisingly doesn't snag when the phone is removed from a trouser pocket. As you can see in the image above, the display has a punch-hole selfie camera located in the top-left corner.
The build quality is superb. The OnePlus 9 Pro doesn't feel like a OnePlus smartphone, which is my way of saying that the company has nailed the finer nuances of premium construction materials and design. That being said, it doesn't feel quite as sturdy as the Galaxy S21 Ultra, but that's likely because it feels like Samsung built its flagship like they thought it might be used as a tungsten-tipped anti-tank round. It's a seriously chunky unit in comparison to the svelte-looking OnePlus 9 Pro.
Hardware
| Specifications | OnePlus 9 Pro |
|---|---|
| Announced | March 23, 2021 |
| Software | Android 11, OxygenOS 11 |
| Display | 6.7″ 1440 x 3216 120Hz (525 ppi, LTPO, adaptive from 1-120Hz, 10-bit, Gorilla Glass) |
| Processor | Snapdragon 888 Octa-core |
| Memory | 8/12GB, LPDDR5 |
| Storage | 128/256GB, UFS 3.1 |
| MicroSD Support | No |
| Rear Cameras | 48MP primary, 50MP ultrawide, 8MP Telephoto, 2MP Monochrome, |
| Front Camera | 16MP |
| Video | 8K video at 30fps 4K video at 30/60/120 fps 1080p video at 30/60 fps Super Slow Motion: 1080p video at 240 fps, 720p video at 480 fps Time-Lapse: 1080p at 30fps, 4k at 30fps Video Editor |
| Front Camera | 16MP |
| Battery | 4,500mAh, Warp Charge 65T (65W) |
| Wireless Charging | Warp Charge 50 Wireless (50W) |
| IP Rating | IP68 |
| Audio | Dual Stereo Speakers |
| Audio Jack | No |
| Dimensions | 163.2 x 73.6 x 8.7mm |
| Weight | 197g |
| Colors | Pine Green, Morning Mist, Stellar Black |
| Price | From $969/£899 |
Performance
The AMOLED display on the OnePlus 9 Pro is top quality, as you might expect from a panel procured from Samsung. It's plenty bright enough, with vivid colors, crisp text, and a joy to use, even in direct sunlight. Thanks to the 120Hz adaptive refresh rate and the Hyper Touch feature that increases touch response, the OnePlus 9 Pro is perfect for viewing content or improving your K/D ratio on fast-moving games such as Call of Duty Mobile.
The general user experience is pretty slick, with apps opening up in a split second without the need for apps to be redrawn when multi-tasking, which is undoubtedly helped by the combination of the Snapdragon 888 processor, 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and UFS 3.1 storage.
Audio is also pretty good, with Dolby Atmos ramping up the sound quality a touch, adjusting to the game, movie, or song that you are playing at the time. The in-display fingerprint sensor is accurate and quick to unlock the phone, a process that is even faster when face unlock is enabled. It's virtually seamless as you lift the phone to look at it.
In a nutshell, the OnePlus 9 Pro is ready for just about anything you might want to throw at it. We've run the phone through some benchmarking apps with the results embedded below:
Battery
After an extended period with the OnePlus 9 Pro, I've accepted that it's a phone that needs to be charged every night, without fail. I struggled to get to bedtime with more than single digits of battery life remaining, whether I set the phone to 120Hz adaptive refresh rate and QHD+ resolution or 60Hz and FHD+. I often found myself needing to top-up the battery around supper time, which came as a surprise. Having the same 4,500Mah battery as the regular OnePlus 9, combined with a slightly larger display with higher resolution and refresh rate, it's somewhat understandable that battery life would take a hit on the 9 Pro.
Thankfully, topping up takes just a few minutes, whether you connect the phone to the Warp Charge 65T wall charger or the almost as quick 50W Wireless Charger from OnePlus. When I say a few minutes, I mean that literally as just 30 minutes would get you a full battery. It's so speedy that switching to a phone with 33W charging feels like you are stuck in the mud.
Software
Running on OxygenOS 11, the OnePlus 9 Pro is easy to navigate around. It is generally a pretty light overlay, although there are still some complaints that it's perhaps a little too close to Samsung's One UI. Personally, the changes in the design language of OxygenOS 11 are a good thing, bringing increased levels of customizability to the user. There's little in the way of bloat thanks to the general reliance on Google's apps and services, with the main improvement for me being the Discover feed that is now the default left-most screen. If you miss the OnePlus Shelf, you just need to swipe down on display to activate it.
We've mentioned customization, but the slideshow above will give you an idea of just much you can personalize the OnePlus 9 Pro using the built-in options of OxygenOS 11.
Camera
The OnePlus 9 Pro sports the same rear cameras as on the regular OnePlus 9, consisting of a 48MP main sensor, a 50MP ultra-wide, a 2MP Monochrome sensor, plus an 8MP telephoto lens that brings added optical zoom. The partnership with Hasselblad adds a more natural tone to images. However, that's pretty much the extent of the camera brand's input at this time, which has concentrated on tuning the camera software.
Unlike previous OnePlus handsets, the 9 Pro can take shots with vibrant colors that don't look washed out in the slightest. The camera shutter is much quicker, thanks to the laser focus having improved over older models. The addition of speedier HDR capture times lets you take the next picture that split second quicker than before.
Low-light photography is pretty good, with the Nightscape function being quicker to snap an image, making it a feature that is more likely to be used. The 50MP ultra-wide lens produces wide-angle images with less noise and distortion and a much-improved dynamic range, although fine details are sometimes slightly vague. The 50MP sensor pulls double duty as a macro lens, and straight away, I can tell you that it's galaxies ahead of those nasty 2MP macro lenses that are present on so many of today's smartphones. It's actually very useful and can take really sharp images.
Is it worth it?
Unlike the regular OnePlus 9 that is somewhat overshadowed by the value posed by the OnePlus 8T and the deals that are already available on the Galaxy S21 series, the OnePlus 9 Pro has some neat features to call its own. Combining 65W wired charging and 50W wireless charging means that you are never more than a couple of minutes away from a meaningful top-up.
Having had my hands on most recent OnePlus phones, I can honestly say that the OnePlus 9 Pro is the first flagship from the brand that I've really enjoyed using. Other than average battery life, there's little to quibble with about the OnePlus 9 Pro that has an excellent display, slick performance, solid software, and perhaps for the first time in my experience with OnePlus's premium series, a rear camera setup that can be classed as flagship quality although perhaps not quite at the S21 Ultra's level.
At $969, the OnePlus 9 Pro isn't what one would call cheap, seeing as it's possible to grab a Galaxy S21 Ultra for a similar price during one of Samsung's many promotions. It does, however, boast vastly superior charging speeds, wired and wirelessly, and it's certainly a much more svelte design than the chunky S21 Ultra.
The brand may no longer be pushing the old “Flagship Killer” slogan in its advertising, thanks to the ever-increasing pricing strategy. Still, OnePlus has arguably created a “Killer Flagship” in the form of the OnePlus 9 Pro.
OnePlus 9 Pro | $969/£899 | OnePlus Store, T-Mobile, Amazon, Best Buy
No SDCard support is stupid….
With continuing increase in camera image file size you will always run out of space & the lack of expandable storage prevents you from carrying any music archives.