The OnePlus 9 Professional (starting off at $969.ninety nine) delivers a streamlined flagship practical experience to T-Mobile and Verizon subscribers, eventually catching up to its rivals. The cellphone alone is light-weight in the hand, and the consumer experience is weightless as perfectly. The cameras just take knockout photographs in very a great deal all disorders and the built-in quickly charging is the finest we’ve seen. The Galaxy S21 Ultra scores a little bit much better in our battery and wi-fi radio testing, operates with Samsung’s fantastic S Pen stylus, and its digital camera gives killer optical zoom, so it just edges out the nine Professional to be our Editors’ Option amongst flagship smartphones. However, the OnePlus nine Pro is exceptional. If you want a best-notch, loaded cellular phone that tends to make your heart sing, you’re now spoiled for preference.
The OnePlus Promise Is At last Recognized
OnePlus was once a business that created a single excellent telephone at a time. Now it has a whole line of telephones at T-Cellular (and suppliers these types of as Google Fi, Metro, and Mint Mobile that use T-Mobile’s networks): the $969.99 OnePlus nine Professional, the $729.ninety nine OnePlus nine, the $299.ninety nine OnePlus Nord N10, and the $179.ninety nine OnePlus Nord N100. They all share the OnePlus philosophy, which means speedy, elegant program and a streamlined physical style.
Cameras have usually been the one particular position OnePlus tended to drop at the rear of Samsung and Apple, so OnePlus designed a deal with Hasselblad for color tuning and acquired a new sensor from Sony. As a consequence, the nine Pro’s rear digital camera stack stands out from the competition. It could not have incredible optical zoom like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Extremely, but it offers many a lot more prospects for innovative expression. In addition to the regular large and ultra-extensive lenses you can expect to obtain on most telephones, OnePlus additional an XPan method that makes visuals in a sixty five:24 structure.
The OnePlus nine delivers similar over-all overall performance to the 9 Pro but steps down a bit on screen, digicam, and radio excellent, and it would not combine tremendous-fast wireless charging. If you don’t mind those people downgrades, you can help you save $240 and get an even smaller and lighter cell phone. See our overview of the OnePlus 9 for all the specifics.
Gentle, Modern Style and design
The nine Pro’s foundation product has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The 12GB/256GB design fees an supplemental $one hundred. There is no memory card slot. The cellphone is perfectly sized, measuring six.42 by two.89 by .34 inches (HWD) and weighing 6.nine ounces. That’s a small wider than the 2.eight inches we use as the cutoff width measurement for compact phones, but it can be noticeably smaller sized and lighter than the Galaxy S21 Extremely, and narrower than the OnePlus 8 Pro. Of the a few, the nine Professional is the best to use with a single hand.
A few views of the OnePlus nine Pro, showing the eco-friendly and silver scenario choices.
The OnePlus 9 Professional comes in green or silver.
The layout, incredibly in tune with OnePlus’ “burdenless design” philosophy, is trim and classy. The phone’s body is rounded, with the common OnePlus mute change on the remaining side and the Hasselblad-branded digicam module on the back again. The digicam does not adhere out almost as a lot as current Samsung digicam bumps do (for the reason that it isn’t going to have a large periscopic zoom lens in it). The front-facing camera is a gap-punch on the upper remaining corner, just like on the 8 Professional.
The mobile phone has an IP68 ranking for drinking water and dust resistance, and will come in two hues. If you are not heading to place your phone in a situation, we like the matte pine inexperienced far better than the mirrored silver morning mist glass again, which draws in greasy fingerprints. Our overview unit came with a black carbon-fiber situation that manufactured that problem moot. (You will find a third, black phone, but OnePlus tells us it will not likely be bought in the US.)
The again of the OnePlus 9 Professional in silver
The mirrored back of the silver situation is a fingerprint magnet.
Compared with the Galaxy S21 Ultra and recent iPhones, your OnePlus telephone will come with a cable and a 65W charger. Luxury! You can find a cause: OnePlus makes use of proprietary USB-C chargers. Nevertheless the cellphone will demand from any USB-C supply, it’s going to only achieve its optimum charging speeds with the bundled adapter.
There is certainly no headphone jack or USB-C-to-3.5mm adapter in the box. That claimed, the nine Professional sports activities aptX, aptX Hd, LHDC, and Sony’s LDAC Bluetooth codecs for excellent wi-fi audio. If you decide for OnePlus’ Buds Pro earphones, you may get personalized tap functions along with 24-bit/96kHz audio at up to 900kbits/s. If you might be hunting at other wi-fi earbuds, seem for a pair with LDAC given that it’s a lot more greatly available and features the maximum-resolution audio sent more than Bluetooth.
As for the onboard speakers, the audio top quality is excellent. Twin stereo speakers provide audio with a peak quantity of 98dB and a shocking little bit of mid-bass. For voice phone calls, which have a most quantity of 81dB, the mobile phone supports the greatest voice codec at present obtainable, Hd voice with EVS.
A Shiny, Still Battery-Preserving Display
The brilliant and crisp 6.7-inch, 525ppi, three,216-by-one,440-pixel display can be dialed back again to 1080p in the phone’s options if you want to preserve battery everyday living. The display screen uses a reasonably new technologies identified as very low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) that lowers electricity intake and provides mobile phone producers a lot more manage around refresh premiums. It is the same technology that powers Apple’s Iphone thirteen Professional types as effectively as the Samsung Galaxy S21 sequence.
The LTPO exhibit of the OnePlus 9 Pro, exhibiting an picture of clouds
The LTPO exhibit will help conserve power.
This is a leading-of-the-line OLED show with a bonus: It is really visible in direct daylight. A screen protector is preinstalled we did not take away it from our take a look at device. In accordance to DisplayMate Labs checks, the nine Pro’s screen established to Automobile Brightness method beats the eight Pro, the Galaxy S20 series, and the newest iPhones in ambient mild, but not the Galaxy Note twenty Extremely. The 9 Professional also increases the greatest shade gamut in its vivid display method, which assists it maintain color saturation in outside lighting.
Higher brightness manner effects
Moreover in brightness and coloration, the 9 Pro’s show is not easily distinguishable from other recent top rated-of-the-line OLED panels. The real information is electrical power optimization, as the LTPO panel dynamically—and imperceptibly—changes its refresh rate from 120Hz all the way down to 1Hz to save electrical power. Check out our in-depth special for additional on the exhibit.
Coloration shift results
Remarkable Speed and Ease of Use
OnePlus phones are constantly rapid, and the OnePlus 9 Pro is no exception. It really is run by a leading-of-the-line Qualcomm Snapdragon 888. It scored a bit better than the Galaxy S21 Extremely on Geekbench, with one-main scores about 1125 and multi-core scores all over 3700. That is a 24% boost on one-core effects and a twelve% maximize on multi-core success above the OnePlus 8 Professional. None of these phones can surpass the Iphone twelve, though, which scored 1596 SC and 4049 MC with its Apple A14 processor.
The Snapdragon 888 provides a raise in graphics general performance, as well. On the GFXBench Motor vehicle Chase offscreen benchmark, the 9 Professional scored about 70fps, with 37fps onscreen in WQHD manner and 58fps onscreen in Hd mode. Which is a big bounce up from the eight Professional, which scored 51fps offscreen and either 26 or 45fps onscreen based on display screen resolution.
See How We Take a look at Phones
These benchmarks never just take into account OnePlus’ computer software, which incorporates a bunch of general performance enhancements. In our working experience with OnePlus phones, they truly feel like the speediest Android telephones, even faster than Google Pixels (in particular due to the fact Google begun applying midrange chipsets in its flagships with the launch of the Pixel five).
The cellular phone runs Android eleven with OnePlus’ OxygenOS enhancements, and OnePlus claims it’s going to get updates as significantly as Android 13 together with bi-month-to-month security updates for 3 decades. For a flagship, that is a minimal disappointing, particularly considering the fact that Samsung gives at the very least three years of software updates on its finances A sequence versions.
The 9 Professional in a charging cradle exhibiting a match.
High-end online games enjoy very well on the 9 Professional.
OxygenOS has constantly had a bunch of awesome touches, such as the means to set up two copies of social-media apps for distinctive accounts, a environment to improve display coloration centered on ambient mild, and a Zen manner that briefly disables the phone’s most distracting features. With this model, OnePlus provides RAM compression that it suggests improves the selection of applications that can keep on being in memory with saved point out. Our test device had no difficulty trying to keep 7 applications in memory, even with the big RAM-hog Genshin Impact at the back again of the line.
To take a look at cooling, which OnePlus claims it is improved more than former types, we ran a processor-pumping application identified as CPU Throttling Exam on the nine Professional, the Galaxy S21, and the eight Professional for 15 minutes. At the 10-moment stage, the eight Pro’s performance took a sharp dive to about 80% of peak. Both of those of the newer telephones ended up nevertheless preserving nearer to ninety% general performance at that time. After thirteen minutes of pumping the processor, the Galaxy S21’s performance smoothly declined to a small above eighty% of peak, whilst the nine Pro remained in the 90% array. At last, the nine Pro’s functionality declined drastically at almost accurately 15 minutes as the cellular phone attempted to interesting alone down. Through the check as a full, the nine Professional and Galaxy S21 done at 87–88% of max functionality, while the eight Professional was down at seventy eight%.
Gaming performance is amped up with a 360Hz contact response fee, but only in four applications: PUBG Cellular, Get in touch with of Duty, League of Legends, and Brawl Stars. OnePlus suggests it will operate on incorporating 360Hz contact assistance to much more game titles. That would definitely aid this characteristic rise from a curiosity to a differentiator. The Samsung Galaxy S20 telephones offer you a 240Hz touch sampling charge Samsung doesn’t give a spec on the Galaxy S21, but we consider it can be the very same.
Ultra-Super-Mega-Quick Charging
The pair of batteries in the nine Pro whole 4,500mAh. That’s small of the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s 5,000mAh, but OnePlus has a array of application tips up its sleeve to preserve the cellular phone charged—so lots of that we are not even absolutely sure all of them came into use all through our tests.
On our normal battery take a look at, functioning a YouTube movie in excess of Wi-Fi at complete display screen brightness, the cell phone lasted for eight several hours, fifty minutes in WQHD resolution and nine hrs, 40 minutes in High definition. Exhibit brightness issues a whole lot to battery daily life: Acquire the brightness down to seventy five% and those quantities jump to 12 hours, forty minutes on WQHD and 13 several hours on Hd. Which is a whole lot shorter than the Galaxy S21 Extremely (eleven several hours 20 minutes) and the Galaxy S20 FE (twelve hours thirty minutes), but you should really have no troubles acquiring by way of a day of average use.
But there’s more to this battery than fulfills the eye. To start off with, the display slows down to 1Hz when you are looking at static information, these types of as an e mail you are mulling above or a web site of an e-e book. That can be a large electric power saver. OnePlus also has a reputation for shedding significantly less energy to qualifications processes than Samsung does. If you use 75% monitor brightness most of the time, you’ll most likely get far more than a working day of battery lifestyle from just one cost.
OnePlus 9 Pro with USB-C Port in focus
The Warp Charge 65T charger can completely recharge the 9 Professional in about 30 minutes.
The 9 Pro also has by far the speediest charging speeds of any phone we’ve at any time examined. It comes with a Warp Cost 65T USB-C charger, which charges the 9 Professional from % to twenty% in six minutes and to one hundred% in just 36 minutes. Which is twice as fast as any the latest Samsung cell phone costs. If you use a 3rd-party charger, the phone will demand at up to eighteen watts, with correspondingly extended charge occasions.
The actual breakthrough is in OnePlus’ new Warp Demand fifty wi-fi charger, a $sixty nine.ninety nine accessory cradle that plugs into your current Warp Demand 65 adapter to supply fifty-watt wi-fi charging for the 9 Pro, or fifteen-watt Qi charging for any other device. In testing with the Warp Cost fifty, the 9 Pro went to 29% in eleven minutes and one hundred% in forty six minutes. Other phones, which include the nine, consider among 90 minutes and two hrs to wirelessly cost fully.
This all fits with OnePlus’ solution to phone electrical power: It may possibly not have the largest batteries in city, but it can refill them the quickest.
All the 5G Trimmings, for T-Mobile and Verizon
Like other Snapdragon 888 phones, the 9 Pro takes advantage of a Qualcomm X60 modem, which operates with all of the capabilities T-Cellular and Verizon intend to use in the up coming number of several years, like new airwaves and aggregation strategies. It has Bluetooth five.two and Wi-Fi 6 as well, but not Wi-Fi 6E (contrary to the Galaxy S21 Ultra).
T-Cell is the only carrier promoting the nine Pro, but if you buy an unlocked product from OnePlus or a retailer, it will also do the job on Verizon. If you attempt to use it on AT&T, OnePlus suggests it will only connect to 4G.
OnePlus nine (still left) and OnePlus 9 Pro (proper).
OnePlus 9 (left) and OnePlus 9 Professional (suitable)
The OnePlus nine Pro has all of the new systems getting built-in into T-Mobile and Verizon’s networks, which includes CBRS, C-band, and millimeter wave.
This is a solitary-SIM telephone, with no eSIM possibility. With a T-Cell SIM in, the cellular phone enabled Wi-Fi calling, “clever 5G” (which turns 5G on and off to conserve battery), and twin-channel network acceleration (which takes advantage of Wi-Fi and 5G at the similar time if vital). With an AT&T SIM in, as predicted, the cell phone made use of only 4G and lacked Wi-Fi calling.
The large spec difference between the 9 and the nine Pro is that the nine Professional has mmWave. T-Mobile presently only takes advantage of mmWave in 7 cities, and is most possible to roll it out in tremendous-crowded areas: sports stadiums, concert halls, convention centers, and the like. It is a might-be-pleasant, not a ought to-have. It truly is is a lot more desirable on Verizon, which has mmWave in the centers of a lot more than 70 metropolitan areas now.
We examined the nine and the 9 Pro in opposition to the Samsung Galaxy S21 with 86 rounds of exams working with Ookla Speedtest computer software in New York City, in a selection of network disorders. (Editors’ Notice: Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag’s publisher.) In excess of 17 assessments, the Galaxy S21 turned in the most effective performance, the 9 Pro received a strengthen from mmWave to appear in next, and the nine dropped to 3rd. Throughout a variety of non-mmWave exams with combined signal excellent, the Galaxy S21 arrived in first place yet again. In a standalone T-Cellular mid-band “extremely capacity” location, on the other hand, the 3 phones performed nearly identically.
If you happen to be outside a significant city, you might be almost certainly most concerned about weak-sign overall performance. In our checks, the Galaxy S21 showed the strongest 4G RSRP sign 29 periods the nine Pro was strongest 26 occasions, and the 9 was strongest 22 moments. So the Galaxy S21 wins the moment all over again, though not by a lot. More than 6 rounds of tests in a weak-signal place, the Galaxy S21 confirmed stronger signal only a few of the periods, but the 9 Pro had two sign dropouts. The Galaxy S21’s edge is slight but apparent.
Blinding You With (Color) Science
Imaging collaborations are not new for smartphone producers. Huawei has partnered with Leica for several years the Zeiss title is plastered on the back of smartphones from Nokia, Sony, and Vivo. Hasselblad’s only previous US partnership was with Motorola on its clunky but able Legitimate Zoom Moto Mod, but the nine collection brings Hasselblad back again to the smartphone market in triumphant fashion. The 9 Pro is capable of getting amazing pictures with every single lens.
The 48MP main lens has an f/1.eight aperture, optical graphic stabilization (OIS), and digital picture stabilization (EIS). There is also a 50MP ultra-huge lens with an f/two.two aperture, and a 8MP telephoto lens with an f/two.4 aperture, as properly as a 2MP monochrome sensor. You are going to locate all the regular flagship bells and whistles on the 9 Professional: twin LED flash, multi-autofocus with omnidirectional Stage Detection AF (PDAF), Laser AF (LAF), and Contrast AF (CAF). A large fifty-megapixel ultra-huge lens can take stunning lower-gentle photos. There is also 8K movie at 30fps and 4K at up to 120fps, and tremendous-slow movement at up to 480fps in 720p.
Back again of OnePlus 9 Pro with digicam in aim
A significant fifty-megapixel ultra-huge lens will take lovely reduced-gentle photos.
For the most section, the digital camera application is intuitive and uncomplicated to use. The shutter button is a Hasselblad-branded orange, and it makes a distinct Hasselblad shutter sound. Our only complaint is that we discovered Tilt Shift method a little bit clunky and hard to use.
index of rooftop with eco foliage
The OnePlus 9 Pro’s tumble update enhanced very low-light-weight effectiveness.
Some of the nine Pro’s most significant digicam options are in the computer software. Hasselblad labored carefully with OnePlus to update its colour science and produce supplemental capabilities for pro smartphone shooters. In automobile and Professional modes, colours are heat, with reds and blues finding a healthful saturation raise while yellows and greens to be a very little undersaturated. Considering that OnePlus and Hasselblad put a massive emphasis on the nine series’ shade science, we in comparison the nine Professional to a handful of other flagships and observed it stood up incredibly very well to the competitiveness.
Apple very seriously enhanced its coloration science with iOS 14 and the Iphone 12. Exactly where the 9 Pro tends to saturate reds and blues, Apple focuses additional on boosting luminance, so the Apple iphone 12’s images are likely to look a very little far more real to existence than the 9 Pro’s.
Place pictures from the nine Pro and the Galaxy S21 Extremely side by aspect and you can immediately identify the change amongst the two cameras. OnePlus requires a lighter hand with boosting saturation and other computational adjustments Samsung is considerably additional aggressive. In 1 of our take a look at pics, a dreary March sky captured on the Galaxy S21 Extremely all of a sudden became blue. The 9 Pro was considerably extra accurate in its over-all representation of the scene.
Facet-by-side images of a building less than a cloudy sky in the photo on the left, the sky appears blue
The photograph colors from the 9 Professional (right) are additional exact than the ones delivered by the Galaxy S21 Ultra (left).
In Professional method, you can alter ISO, emphasis exposure time, white equilibrium, and a range of other configurations. There is also the option to shoot in twelve-bit Raw structure, which features 64 instances the coloration data of the 10-bit Raw on other flagships.
The ultra-large 50MP lens is a Sony IMX 766 sensor that is substantially larger than the one particular in the Iphone twelve Professional Max. In our assessments the lens did a wonderful job in each vivid and lower light. Photos are crisp with superb depth of industry and strong background element.
Aspect-by-side extremely-wide-angle shots of a building
Extremely-wide-angle pictures are a main benefit for the 9 Pro (suitable), which generates a great deal a lot less edge distortion than the Galaxy S21 Ultra (left).
Our shots taken with the main lens were outstanding as well. In great light-weight, the 9 Professional holds its own against other flagships, with sensible depth of area and barely any loss of fantastic depth.
In the tumble of 2021, OnePlus sent a main update to the camera’s software. Test photographs demonstrate much more exact white balance and are crisp without the need of remaining oversharpened, a prevalent difficulty with most smartphone cameras. When we reviewed the photographs at complete size, the photos remained crisp and had considerably less noise.
The app is also speedier in common and there is considerably less shutter lag. It really is a minor adjust, but it can make a big big difference when taking photographs with movement.
A snowy rooftop with various sculptures and other objects
The most important lens usually takes top rated-notch pics even in muted mild.
But exactly where the camera really excels is in low mild. The main lens did perfectly, as anticipated. Our check shots with the tumble update remained crisp with an enhanced texture-to-sound ratio. The large enhancement, nonetheless, was with dynamic selection and total scene accuracy. The two labored in conjunction to make a more trustworthy reflection of the moment.
And although we had been especially bowled more than by the extremely-large lens’ functionality in our primary exams, the digital camera update just created matters far better. All of the advancements we found in the principal lenses were being apparent in our extremely-large test pictures. Individuals advancements, blended with the absence of distortion, helps make the OnePlus nine Pro’s ultra-extensive lens the greatest we’ve examined.
A cityscape at night, with lights reflecting off a damp road
Extremely-vast minimal-light-weight visuals are stunning, with amazingly tiny distortion.
We didn’t notice substantially advancement in our shots with the telephoto lens soon after the software update. The OnePlus nine Pro’s telephoto lens is better than what you can locate on its predecessor, but it even now doesn’t evaluate with the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra’s. At decreased zoom amounts, our test photographs experienced lots of detail, even though there was some expected decline of depth in the distance.
Side-by-side pictures of illustrated symptoms at 30x zoom.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Extremely does a a lot improved position at 30x zoom.
As we bumped up the zoom, nonetheless, we started to observe major blur and sound when in comparison with the similar picture taken on the Galaxy S21 Extremely. The unnatural sharpening we discovered in our first take a look at photographs, nevertheless, has been considerably improved.
Aspect-by-side 10x zoom illustrations or photos of a end signal
Though the Samsung Galaxy S21 Extremely has an edge at 10x zoom, the 9 Professional does a solid task with its new slide digital camera update.
Smartphone macro lenses are rarely value applying, but listed here the 9 Pro truly stands out. Our macro pictures were significantly sharper than predicted, and leagues better than pictures taken with the 8’s 2MP macro lens.
A photograph of purple and green macarons on a white plate
Macarons, in macro.
The monochrome sensor will work in tandem with the main sensor to consider gorgeous black-and-white photographs with tons of depth and inky blacks. Huawei involved a identical aspect for several years and then out of the blue eradicated it, leading to an outcry from smartphone shutterbugs. If you understood and loved that attribute, the 9 Pro’s resurrection of it will delight you.
Black-and-white picture of general public artwork installation in which a large white sculpture of a hand grabs a tree trunk
The monochrome lens usually takes solid black-and-white pics.
The major, and most extraordinary, improve to the OnePlus 9’s digicam, on the other hand, is the addition of XPan method. It’s a element that mimics Hasselblad’s now-discontinued XPan cameras to produce an impression which is reminiscent of these you would acquire with its 30mm and 45mm lenses.
The pics are cropped to a sixty five:24 component ratio. It truly is a extraordinary glance that gives you a whole new way to explain to tales, and evokes photos of film stills. There are options to shoot in shade as effectively as black and white.
It really is tough to overstate just how much area XPan provides for creativity. four:3 and sixteen:nine facet ratios are so ubiquitous, that it can take a conquer to get utilised to all the various issues you can do in the format.
Panoramic shot of a Catholic rectory at evening.
XPan mode permits you to just take dramatic photos in a special part ratio.
We examined XPan in numerous lighting eventualities and it executed perfectly. Our exam photographs ended up immersive and crisp, with outstanding dynamic selection. Depth of area is superb as very well.
Black and white impression of a mid-century developing
Monochrome shots in XPan method appear breathtaking.
Hasselblad’s exclusive color science for XPan also results in an fully various come to feel that is similar to photos shot on Kodak Ektachrome or Fuji Provia slide film. Our images showed a lot less distinction and extra normal colors that virtually appear somewhat undersaturated since we’ve grow to be so accustomed to above-saturation on smartphones.
Decommissioned switching station with festive lights
Portraits and more compact scenes seem much better with the 30mm focal-duration location in XPan manner.
On the entrance of the nine Pro, you will discover a 32MP lens. It performs particularly effectively in any lighting issue. There’s a very little track record blur in our photographs, which is to be expected. Foreground depth and depth of subject, even so, are spot on. Portrait manner functions with no a hitch as properly. Our check shots experienced a purely natural bokeh and great depth mapping in each shot.
A selfie of a bearded white gentleman in glasses and a cap
Selfies are thorough and very clear.
1 Smaller Move Shy of the Crown
The OnePlus nine Pro is an excellent cellular phone. At $970, it holds its possess in opposition to the a little bit extra costly Galaxy S21 Ultra and Iphone twelve Pro. It won’t quite match the Galaxy S21 Extremely on digicam zoom or network general performance, but it truly is lighter and sleeker, it has some exceptional digital camera tips, and there’s that renowned OnePlus speed and exquisite application. That awesome speedy charging and the battery-preserving screen also make a significant change in working day-to-day use. The 9 Professional is improved than the OnePlus eight series in just about every way, so the enhance is quickly warranted. It only fails to nab our Editors’ Preference award for the reason that the Samsung Galaxy S21 Extremely is even a lot more remarkable and can be applied on any provider. The 9 Professional and the Galaxy S21 Ultra jointly presently determine the Android point out of the artwork. Dependent on your priorities, either will provide you extremely effectively for the next several many years.
