OnePlus 9 Pro Review – Everything you need to know

The OnePlus nine Pro (starting at $969.ninety nine) delivers a streamlined flagship expertise to T-Mobile and Verizon subscribers, ultimately catching up to its rivals. The telephone itself is light in the hand, and the user working experience is weightless as properly. The cameras take knockout photos in rather a great deal all disorders and the built-in quickly charging is the greatest we have noticed. The Galaxy S21 Extremely scores a little bit far better in our battery and wireless radio screening, functions with Samsung’s superb S Pen stylus, and its digicam offers killer optical zoom, so it just edges out the nine Pro to be our Editors’ Alternative amongst flagship smartphones. Nevertheless, the OnePlus nine Pro is fantastic. If you want a major-notch, loaded cellphone that would make your coronary heart sing, you might be now spoiled for choice.
The OnePlus Assure Is Ultimately Understood
OnePlus was when a enterprise that built a single terrific cellular phone at a time. Now it has a total line of phones at T-Cell (and companies this sort of as Google Fi, Metro, and Mint Cellular that use T-Mobile’s networks): the $969.99 OnePlus nine Pro, the $729.99 OnePlus nine, the $299.ninety nine OnePlus Nord N10, and the $179.99 OnePlus Nord N100. They all share the OnePlus philosophy, which indicates fast, stylish application and a streamlined actual physical style.
Cameras have constantly been the just one area OnePlus tended to slide guiding Samsung and Apple, so OnePlus made a deal with Hasselblad for colour tuning and acquired a new sensor from Sony. As a result, the nine Pro’s rear digital camera stack stands out from the competition. It may well not have extraordinary optical zoom like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, but it gives numerous additional alternatives for inventive expression. In addition to the regular huge and ultra-vast lenses you are going to find on most telephones, OnePlus added an XPan mode that generates photographs in a sixty five:24 format.
The OnePlus 9 delivers identical total performance to the nine Pro but techniques down a bit on screen, digital camera, and radio high quality, and it won’t combine super-rapid wi-fi charging. If you will not intellect people downgrades, you can save $240 and get an even smaller and lighter cellphone. See our critique of the OnePlus 9 for all the details.
Light, Sleek Structure
The 9 Pro’s base product has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The 12GB/256GB design charges an added $100. There is no memory card slot. The cell phone is completely sized, measuring 6.forty two by two.89 by .34 inches (HWD) and weighing six.9 ounces. That is a small wider than the two.8 inches we use as the cutoff width measurement for smaller phones, but it’s significantly smaller sized and lighter than the Galaxy S21 Extremely, and narrower than the OnePlus 8 Professional. Of the 3, the nine Pro is the best to use with a solitary hand.
Three sights of the OnePlus 9 Pro, displaying the environmentally friendly and silver case solutions.
The OnePlus 9 Professional will come in inexperienced or silver.

The structure, really in tune with OnePlus’ “burdenless design and style” philosophy, is slim and elegant. The phone’s physique is rounded, with the classic OnePlus mute switch on the still left facet and the Hasselblad-branded digital camera module on the back again. The digicam does not stick out nearly as considerably as latest Samsung camera bumps do (since it won’t have a large periscopic zoom lens in it). The front-facing digital camera is a gap-punch on the higher remaining corner, just like on the 8 Professional.
The phone has an IP68 rating for h2o and dust resistance, and will come in two hues. If you are not going to place your cell phone in a circumstance, we like the matte pine eco-friendly improved than the mirrored silver early morning mist glass back, which draws in greasy fingerprints. Our evaluation unit arrived with a black carbon-fiber scenario that built that problem moot. (There’s a third, black telephone, but OnePlus tells us it is not going to be marketed in the US.)
The back of the OnePlus nine Professional in silver
The mirrored again of the silver scenario is a fingerprint magnet.
In contrast to the Galaxy S21 Ultra and current iPhones, your OnePlus cellphone comes with a cable and a 65W charger. Luxurious! There is certainly a explanation: OnePlus works by using proprietary USB-C chargers. However the telephone will demand from any USB-C supply, it will only reach its optimum charging speeds with the integrated adapter.
You will find no headphone jack or USB-C-to-3.5mm adapter in the box. That claimed, the 9 Pro sporting activities aptX, aptX High definition, LHDC, and Sony’s LDAC Bluetooth codecs for superb wi-fi audio. If you opt for OnePlus’ Buds Professional earphones, you are going to get custom-made faucet capabilities along with 24-bit/96kHz audio at up to 900kbits/s. If you happen to be on the lookout at other wireless earbuds, seem for a pair with LDAC due to the fact it really is a lot more broadly available and features the highest-resolution audio delivered in excess of Bluetooth.
As for the onboard speakers, the audio high quality is fantastic. Dual stereo speakers provide audio with a peak quantity of 98dB and a shocking bit of mid-bass. For voice phone calls, which have a highest volume of 81dB, the mobile phone supports the best voice codec at present offered, Hd voice with EVS.
A Bright, Nonetheless Battery-Saving Exhibit
The dazzling and crisp six.7-inch, 525ppi, 3,216-by-1,440-pixel display screen can be dialed back again to 1080p in the phone’s configurations if you want to preserve battery daily life. The show makes use of a fairly new technology referred to as minimal-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) that decreases electrical power usage and gives mobile phone brands additional handle more than refresh charges. It’s the same technological know-how that powers Apple’s Iphone thirteen Pro models as properly as the Samsung Galaxy S21 sequence.
The LTPO exhibit of the OnePlus 9 Pro, exhibiting an graphic of clouds
The LTPO screen allows help you save electrical power.
This is a top rated-of-the-line OLED display with a bonus: It’s extremely seen in direct daylight. A monitor protector is preinstalled we didn’t take away it from our exam unit. In accordance to DisplayMate Labs exams, the 9 Pro’s show set to Automobile Brightness method beats the 8 Professional, the Galaxy S20 sequence, and the hottest iPhones in ambient gentle, but not the Galaxy Observe twenty Extremely. The 9 Pro also enhances the optimum color gamut in its vivid display screen method, which assists it keep color saturation in outside lighting.
Large brightness manner outcomes
Apart from in brightness and coloration, the 9 Pro’s show is just not simply distinguishable from other new best-of-the-line OLED panels. The serious information is ability optimization, as the LTPO panel dynamically—and imperceptibly—changes its refresh charge from 120Hz all the way down to 1Hz to help you save electrical power. Verify out our in-depth distinctive for extra on the exhibit.
Colour shift success
Impressive Pace and Relieve of Use
OnePlus telephones are normally speedy, and the OnePlus 9 Pro is no exception. It’s driven by a best-of-the-line Qualcomm Snapdragon 888. It scored a little bit superior than the Galaxy S21 Ultra on Geekbench, with one-main scores about 1125 and multi-main scores all over 3700. Which is a 24% boost on single-main effects and a twelve% improve on multi-main effects over the OnePlus 8 Pro. None of these phones can surpass the Apple iphone 12, however, which scored 1596 SC and 4049 MC with its Apple A14 processor.
The Snapdragon 888 gives a raise in graphics effectiveness, also. On the GFXBench Auto Chase offscreen benchmark, the 9 Professional scored all over 70fps, with 37fps onscreen in WQHD method and 58fps onscreen in High definition mode. That is a big soar up from the eight Pro, which scored 51fps offscreen and either 26 or 45fps onscreen based on screen resolution.
See How We Check Telephones
These benchmarks you should not consider into account OnePlus’ software, which incorporates a bunch of performance enhancements. In our experience with OnePlus phones, they really feel like the speediest Android telephones, even a lot quicker than Google Pixels (primarily since Google started out using midrange chipsets in its flagships with the launch of the Pixel five).
The cell phone runs Android 11 with OnePlus’ OxygenOS enhancements, and OnePlus claims it’s going to get updates as significantly as Android 13 alongside with bi-regular monthly safety updates for three a long time. For a flagship, that’s a tiny disappointing, primarily considering that Samsung provides at least three yrs of application updates on its finances A series versions.
The 9 Professional in a charging cradle displaying a recreation.
Superior-close online games play perfectly on the nine Pro.
OxygenOS has normally experienced a bunch of pleasant touches, these kinds of as the means to install two copies of social-media apps for distinct accounts, a placing to transform screen colour dependent on ambient gentle, and a Zen mode that temporarily disables the phone’s most distracting features. With this version, OnePlus adds RAM compression that it suggests boosts the number of applications that can continue to be in memory with saved point out. Our examination unit had no problem keeping seven applications in memory, even with the giant RAM-hog Genshin Impact at the again of the line.
To take a look at cooling, which OnePlus says it is improved in excess of past models, we ran a processor-pumping app known as CPU Throttling Check on the 9 Pro, the Galaxy S21, and the 8 Pro for fifteen minutes. At the ten-moment stage, the 8 Pro’s performance took a sharp dive to about eighty% of peak. Equally of the newer telephones were being even now sustaining closer to 90% effectiveness at that time. Immediately after thirteen minutes of pumping the processor, the Galaxy S21’s effectiveness effortlessly declined to a little more than 80% of peak, while the nine Professional remained in the 90% assortment. Lastly, the 9 Pro’s effectiveness declined considerably at just about specifically 15 minutes as the telephone tried to great itself down. Through the examination as a whole, the 9 Pro and Galaxy S21 done at 87–88% of max effectiveness, whilst the 8 Professional was down at seventy eight%.
Gaming efficiency is amped up with a 360Hz contact reaction fee, but only in four applications: PUBG Cellular, Call of Obligation, League of Legends, and Brawl Stars. OnePlus says it will function on introducing 360Hz touch support to more online games. That would unquestionably help this element rise from a curiosity to a differentiator. The Samsung Galaxy S20 telephones supply a 240Hz contact sampling rate Samsung isn’t going to give a spec on the Galaxy S21, but we think it’s the similar.
Ultra-Tremendous-Mega-Speedy Charging
The pair of batteries in the 9 Pro complete 4,500mAh. That is quick of the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s 5,000mAh, but OnePlus has a range of computer software methods up its sleeve to preserve the cell phone charged—so lots of that we are not even sure all of them came into use during our tests.
On our normal battery test, working a YouTube online video more than Wi-Fi at whole monitor brightness, the telephone lasted for eight hrs, fifty minutes in WQHD resolution and 9 hrs, 40 minutes in High definition. Show brightness issues a ton to battery lifetime: Take the brightness down to seventy five% and people quantities bounce to twelve hrs, 40 minutes on WQHD and thirteen several hours on High definition. That is a lot shorter than the Galaxy S21 Ultra (eleven hours twenty minutes) and the Galaxy S20 FE (12 hrs 30 minutes), but you should really have no troubles receiving by means of a working day of moderate use.
But there’s a lot more to this battery than satisfies the eye. To begin with, the screen slows down to 1Hz when you’re seeking at static content, these as an e mail you’re mulling over or a web page of an e-guide. That can be a substantial electrical power saver. OnePlus also has a status for losing significantly less electric power to qualifications processes than Samsung does. If you use 75% display screen brightness most of the time, you will almost certainly get extra than a day of battery existence from a single demand.
OnePlus 9 Professional with USB-C Port in concentration
The Warp Demand 65T charger can completely recharge the nine Pro in about 30 minutes.
The nine Professional also has by considerably the swiftest charging speeds of any cellphone we’ve at any time examined. It will come with a Warp Charge 65T USB-C charger, which expenses the nine Professional from % to twenty% in 6 minutes and to a hundred% in just 36 minutes. Which is two times as quick as any latest Samsung cell phone charges. If you use a third-social gathering charger, the telephone will demand at up to eighteen watts, with correspondingly longer charge occasions.
The real breakthrough is in OnePlus’ new Warp Demand 50 wireless charger, a $sixty nine.99 accessory cradle that plugs into your current Warp Charge 65 adapter to present 50-watt wireless charging for the nine Professional, or 15-watt Qi charging for any other machine. In screening with the Warp Demand 50, the 9 Pro went to 29% in eleven minutes and a hundred% in 46 minutes. Other telephones, which includes the nine, consider among 90 minutes and two hours to wirelessly cost absolutely.
This all matches with OnePlus’ technique to cell phone electrical power: It may not have the major batteries in town, but it can refill them the speediest.
All the 5G Trimmings, for T-Mobile and Verizon
Like other Snapdragon 888 phones, the nine Pro utilizes a Qualcomm X60 modem, which operates with all of the features T-Cellular and Verizon intend to use in the subsequent handful of decades, which includes new airwaves and aggregation techniques. It has Bluetooth five.two and Wi-Fi six as perfectly, but not Wi-Fi 6E (as opposed to the Galaxy S21 Extremely).
T-Mobile is the only carrier marketing the 9 Pro, but if you invest in an unlocked design from OnePlus or a retailer, it will also operate on Verizon. If you try to use it on AT&T, OnePlus states it will only connect to 4G.
OnePlus 9 (left) and OnePlus nine Pro (suitable).
OnePlus 9 (still left) and OnePlus nine Professional (appropriate)
The OnePlus nine Pro has all of the new systems getting integrated into T-Cell and Verizon’s networks, which includes CBRS, C-band, and millimeter wave.
This is a solitary-SIM cell phone, with no eSIM choice. With a T-Cell SIM in, the cellular phone enabled Wi-Fi contacting, “wise 5G” (which turns 5G on and off to preserve battery), and dual-channel network acceleration (which takes advantage of Wi-Fi and 5G at the similar time if required). With an AT&T SIM in, as envisioned, the phone applied only 4G and lacked Wi-Fi calling.
The large spec change concerning the 9 and the 9 Professional is that the nine Pro has mmWave. T-Cellular at the moment only employs mmWave in seven cities, and is most likely to roll it out in tremendous-crowded sites: sports stadiums, concert halls, conference centers, and the like. It can be a may possibly-be-awesome, not a ought to-have. It can be is additional desirable on Verizon, which has mmWave in the facilities of more than 70 cities now.
We analyzed the 9 and the 9 Professional versus the Samsung Galaxy S21 with 86 rounds of checks employing Ookla Speedtest software program in New York Town, in a variety of network conditions. (Editors’ Observe: Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag’s publisher.) Over seventeen checks, the Galaxy S21 turned in the very best performance, the 9 Professional got a increase from mmWave to occur in next, and the 9 dropped to third. Throughout a selection of non-mmWave assessments with mixed sign high-quality, the Galaxy S21 arrived in initial location yet again. In a standalone T-Mobile mid-band “extremely ability” location, on the other hand, the three telephones performed pretty much identically.
If you might be exterior a main town, you’re most likely most anxious about weak-sign overall performance. In our exams, the Galaxy S21 confirmed the strongest 4G RSRP sign 29 times the 9 Pro was strongest 26 moments, and the nine was strongest 22 occasions. So the Galaxy S21 wins as soon as yet again, while not by a lot. Above 6 rounds of screening in a weak-signal region, the Galaxy S21 showed more robust signal only a few of the moments, but the nine Professional had two sign dropouts. The Galaxy S21’s edge is slight but visible.
Blinding You With (Coloration) Science
Imaging collaborations usually are not new for smartphone companies. Huawei has partnered with Leica for a long time the Zeiss title is plastered on the back of smartphones from Nokia, Sony, and Vivo. Hasselblad’s only preceding US partnership was with Motorola on its clunky but able Legitimate Zoom Moto Mod, but the 9 sequence delivers Hasselblad again to the smartphone sector in triumphant type. The 9 Professional is able of having extraordinary pics with every single lens.
The 48MP main lens has an f/1.8 aperture, optical image stabilization (OIS), and electronic picture stabilization (EIS). There’s also a 50MP extremely-wide lens with an f/two.two aperture, and a 8MP telephoto lens with an f/two.4 aperture, as nicely as a 2MP monochrome sensor. You are going to locate all the usual flagship bells and whistles on the nine Pro: dual LED flash, multi-autofocus with omnidirectional Period Detection AF (PDAF), Laser AF (LAF), and Contrast AF (CAF). A significant 50-megapixel extremely-huge lens usually takes beautiful low-light images. You will find also 8K video clip at 30fps and 4K at up to 120fps, and tremendous-gradual movement at up to 480fps in 720p.
Back of OnePlus 9 Pro with digicam in concentrate
A huge fifty-megapixel ultra-broad lens requires lovely low-light-weight shots.
For the most component, the digital camera application is intuitive and quick to use. The shutter button is a Hasselblad-branded orange, and it helps make a distinctive Hasselblad shutter sound. Our only grievance is that we uncovered Tilt Change manner a little bit clunky and complicated to use.
Photograph of rooftop with eco foliage
The OnePlus nine Pro’s fall update enhanced low-light-weight overall performance.
Some of the 9 Pro’s most substantial digicam capabilities are in the software program. Hasselblad worked intently with OnePlus to update its colour science and acquire more options for professional smartphone shooters. In car and Professional modes, hues are heat, with reds and blues getting a healthier saturation enhance though yellows and greens to be a little undersaturated. Since OnePlus and Hasselblad put a massive emphasis on the 9 series’ colour science, we compared the 9 Pro to a couple other flagships and identified it stood up really nicely to the level of competition.
Apple significantly enhanced its colour science with iOS fourteen and the Apple iphone twelve. Where the 9 Pro tends to saturate reds and blues, Apple focuses far more on boosting luminance, so the Apple iphone 12’s pictures tend to look a little a lot more true to life than the nine Pro’s.
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Spot photographs from the nine Pro and the Galaxy S21 Ultra aspect by side and you can right away recognize the change involving the two cameras. OnePlus usually takes a lighter hand with boosting saturation and other computational changes Samsung is a lot extra aggressive. In one of our exam photos, a dreary March sky captured on the Galaxy S21 Ultra quickly became blue. The nine Professional was significantly a lot more correct in its over-all representation of the scene.
Aspect-by-facet images of a setting up under a cloudy sky in the photograph on the left, the sky appears to be blue
The photo colours from the nine Professional (suitable) are a lot more correct than the ones delivered by the Galaxy S21 Extremely (remaining).
In Professional mode, you can modify ISO, aim exposure time, white equilibrium, and a selection of other options. There’s also the alternative to shoot in twelve-little bit Uncooked format, which offers 64 times the coloration information of the ten-little bit Raw on other flagships.
The extremely-large 50MP lens is a Sony IMX 766 sensor that’s appreciably greater than the just one in the Apple iphone 12 Pro Max. In our checks the lens did a terrific career in the two dazzling and minimal gentle. Photos are crisp with excellent depth of industry and stable history depth.
Side-by-facet ultra-wide-angle pictures of a making
Extremely-extensive-angle photographs are a important edge for the nine Pro (appropriate), which creates substantially considerably less edge distortion than the Galaxy S21 Ultra (remaining).
Our pictures taken with the primary lens were being spectacular as effectively. In fantastic mild, the 9 Professional retains its own against other flagships, with realistic depth of area and rarely any reduction of wonderful depth.
In the tumble of 2021, OnePlus delivered a key update to the camera’s software. Examination shots clearly show extra correct white balance and are crisp without having getting oversharpened, a prevalent challenge with most smartphone cameras. When we reviewed the pictures at entire measurement, the shots remained crisp and had much less noise.
The app is also faster in typical and there is less shutter lag. It really is a insignificant transform, but it can make a massive distinction when having shots with motion.
A snowy rooftop with many sculptures and other objects
The principal lens will take best-notch images even in muted mild.
But exactly where the camera really excels is in low mild. The key lens did perfectly, as predicted. Our check pictures with the drop update remained crisp with an improved texture-to-noise ratio. The massive improvement, on the other hand, was with dynamic assortment and total scene precision. The two labored in conjunction to develop a a lot more genuine reflection of the minute.
And although we had been specially bowled about by the extremely-large lens’ functionality in our first assessments, the digicam update just produced matters superior. All of the advancements we recognized in the major lenses were being apparent in our extremely-broad test shots. Individuals advancements, mixed with the deficiency of distortion, makes the OnePlus 9 Pro’s ultra-wide lens the best we’ve examined.
A cityscape at evening, with lights reflecting off a damp road
Ultra-broad very low-gentle photographs are attractive, with surprisingly minor distortion.
We failed to see a great deal advancement in our shots with the telephoto lens after the software package update. The OnePlus nine Pro’s telephoto lens is better than what you can locate on its predecessor, but it nonetheless doesn’t review with the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra’s. At reduced zoom amounts, our take a look at pictures experienced a good deal of detail, though there was some predicted decline of element in the length.
Facet-by-side photos of illustrated indications at 30x zoom.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra does a considerably far better job at 30x zoom.
As we bumped up the zoom, however, we begun to notice major blur and sounds when as opposed with the same graphic taken on the Galaxy S21 Extremely. The unnatural sharpening we noticed in our authentic test photographs, even so, has been significantly enhanced.
Aspect-by-aspect 10x zoom visuals of a prevent indication
Though the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra has an edge at 10x zoom, the 9 Professional does a reliable career with its recent drop digital camera update.
Smartphone macro lenses are rarely truly worth utilizing, but here the 9 Pro definitely stands out. Our macro photographs were much sharper than anticipated, and leagues improved than photographs taken with the 8’s 2MP macro lens.
A photo of red and green macarons on a white plate
Macarons, in macro.
The monochrome sensor is effective in tandem with the key sensor to choose beautiful black-and-white pictures with loads of depth and inky blacks. Huawei bundled a identical feature for many years and then all of a sudden taken out it, triggering an outcry from smartphone shutterbugs. If you knew and loved that function, the nine Pro’s resurrection of it will delight you.
Black-and-white image of general public artwork set up in which a massive white sculpture of a hand grabs a tree trunk
The monochrome lens can take strong black-and-white pics.
The most significant, and most extraordinary, transform to the OnePlus 9’s digicam, having said that, is the addition of XPan mode. It is a element that mimics Hasselblad’s now-discontinued XPan cameras to develop an image which is reminiscent of people you’d choose with its 30mm and 45mm lenses.
The shots are cropped to a sixty five:24 facet ratio. It truly is a dramatic look that gives you a full new way to notify stories, and evokes images of movie stills. There are alternatives to shoot in colour as well as black and white.
It really is challenging to overstate just how considerably place XPan gives for creativity. four:3 and sixteen:9 facet ratios are so ubiquitous, that it takes a conquer to get utilised to all the distinct things you can do in the format.
Panoramic shot of a Catholic rectory at evening.
XPan mode allows you to just take dramatic pics in a one of a kind aspect ratio.
We tested XPan in numerous lights eventualities and it carried out properly. Our examination photographs had been immersive and crisp, with outstanding dynamic array. Depth of subject is excellent as very well.
Black and white graphic of a mid-century constructing
Monochrome pictures in XPan manner seem gorgeous.
Hasselblad’s unique coloration science for XPan also produces an completely diverse experience that is identical to shots shot on Kodak Ektachrome or Fuji Provia slide film. Our pictures confirmed a lot less contrast and additional all-natural shades that practically seem to be a little undersaturated considering the fact that we have turn out to be so accustomed to about-saturation on smartphones.
Decommissioned switching station with festive lights
Portraits and smaller sized scenes look better with the 30mm focal-size environment in XPan manner.
On the entrance of the nine Professional, you are going to discover a 32MP lens. It performs extremely effectively in any lighting problem. There’s a minimal track record blur in our photos, which is to be envisioned. Foreground detail and depth of industry, however, are place on. Portrait manner operates without the need of a hitch as well. Our take a look at pictures experienced a pure bokeh and perfect depth mapping in each individual shot.
A selfie of a bearded white person in eyeglasses and a cap
Selfies are comprehensive and apparent.
One Compact Move Shy of the Crown
The OnePlus 9 Pro is an superb phone. At $970, it holds its very own towards the a little extra pricey Galaxy S21 Extremely and Apple iphone twelve Professional. It would not really match the Galaxy S21 Extremely on digicam zoom or network general performance, but it truly is lighter and sleeker, it has some one of a kind digicam tips, and there is certainly that renowned OnePlus pace and sophisticated computer software. That astounding speedy charging and the battery-preserving display screen also make a big difference in working day-to-day use. The nine Professional is superior than the OnePlus eight collection in each and every way, so the up grade is effortlessly warranted. It only fails to nab our Editors’ Alternative award because the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is even a lot more excellent and can be utilised on any provider. The 9 Professional and the Galaxy S21 Extremely collectively at this time determine the Android state of the artwork. Depending on your priorities, either will provide you really perfectly for the following handful of years.