The OnePlus 9 Professional (starting up at $969.ninety nine) provides a streamlined flagship practical experience to T-Cell and Verizon subscribers, ultimately catching up to its opponents. The phone alone is light in the hand, and the user encounter is weightless as very well. The cameras choose knockout pictures in pretty a great deal all situations and the built-in rapidly charging is the most effective we’ve viewed. The Galaxy S21 Extremely scores a little bit superior in our battery and wireless radio testing, will work with Samsung’s great S Pen stylus, and its digicam provides killer optical zoom, so it just edges out the 9 Pro to be our Editors’ Alternative between flagship smartphones. Even now, the OnePlus 9 Professional is excellent. If you want a best-notch, loaded cellular phone that helps make your coronary heart sing, you happen to be now spoiled for decision.
The OnePlus Promise Is Finally Recognized
OnePlus was as soon as a corporation that created a single excellent mobile phone at a time. Now it has a complete line of phones at T-Cell (and suppliers such as Google Fi, Metro, and Mint Cellular that use T-Mobile’s networks): the $969.99 OnePlus 9 Pro, the $729.ninety nine OnePlus nine, the $299.99 OnePlus Nord N10, and the $179.99 OnePlus Nord N100. They all share the OnePlus philosophy, which suggests speedy, sophisticated program and a streamlined actual physical structure.
Cameras have generally been the one particular position OnePlus tended to tumble at the rear of Samsung and Apple, so OnePlus built a offer with Hasselblad for color tuning and acquired a new sensor from Sony. As a outcome, the nine Pro’s rear digicam stack stands out from the opposition. It may well not have amazing optical zoom like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, but it presents lots of much more choices for artistic expression. In addition to the common wide and ultra-broad lenses you will locate on most telephones, OnePlus additional an XPan method that creates illustrations or photos in a 65:24 structure.
The OnePlus nine offers equivalent in general general performance to the nine Pro but steps down a little bit on display, digital camera, and radio good quality, and it does not integrate tremendous-quick wireless charging. If you you should not mind those people downgrades, you can preserve $240 and get an even scaled-down and lighter cell phone. See our evaluation of the OnePlus nine for all the specifics.
Light, Modern Style
The nine Pro’s base model has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The 12GB/256GB design costs an more $100. There is no memory card slot. The cellular phone is beautifully sized, measuring 6.forty two by 2.89 by .34 inches (HWD) and weighing 6.9 ounces. That is a small broader than the 2.eight inches we use as the cutoff width measurement for modest telephones, but it is noticeably smaller sized and lighter than the Galaxy S21 Extremely, and narrower than the OnePlus 8 Pro. Of the 3, the nine Pro is the least difficult to use with a one hand.
Three views of the OnePlus 9 Pro, displaying the inexperienced and silver circumstance solutions.
The OnePlus nine Professional comes in inexperienced or silver.
The structure, quite in tune with OnePlus’ “burdenless layout” philosophy, is trim and stylish. The phone’s body is rounded, with the classic OnePlus mute switch on the still left side and the Hasselblad-branded camera module on the back. The digital camera doesn’t stick out approximately as considerably as new Samsung digital camera bumps do (since it does not have a giant periscopic zoom lens in it). The front-struggling with camera is a hole-punch on the upper remaining corner, just like on the eight Pro.
The mobile phone has an IP68 ranking for water and dust resistance, and will come in two hues. If you happen to be not likely to place your cell phone in a case, we like the matte pine eco-friendly greater than the mirrored silver early morning mist glass again, which draws in greasy fingerprints. Our assessment device arrived with a black carbon-fiber scenario that produced that concern moot. (There is a third, black phone, but OnePlus tells us it won’t be offered in the US.)
The again of the OnePlus 9 Pro in silver
The mirrored back of the silver case is a fingerprint magnet.
Compared with the Galaxy S21 Ultra and modern iPhones, your OnePlus mobile phone will come with a cable and a 65W charger. Luxury! You will find a reason: OnePlus employs proprietary USB-C chargers. While the phone will demand from any USB-C source, it’ll only reach its greatest charging speeds with the bundled adapter.
You can find no headphone jack or USB-C-to-3.5mm adapter in the box. That stated, the 9 Pro athletics aptX, aptX High definition, LHDC, and Sony’s LDAC Bluetooth codecs for great wireless audio. If you decide for OnePlus’ Buds Pro earphones, you may get custom made tap characteristics along with 24-little bit/96kHz audio at up to 900kbits/s. If you’re wanting at other wireless earbuds, look for a pair with LDAC given that it is really more widely obtainable and presents the greatest-resolution audio sent in excess of Bluetooth.
As for the onboard speakers, the audio excellent is exceptional. Dual stereo speakers deliver audio with a peak volume of 98dB and a surprising little bit of mid-bass. For voice phone calls, which have a most volume of 81dB, the cellular phone supports the most effective voice codec at this time out there, Hd voice with EVS.
A Bright, But Battery-Conserving Screen
The brilliant and crisp six.7-inch, 525ppi, 3,216-by-1,440-pixel display can be dialed back to 1080p in the phone’s settings if you want to preserve battery lifestyle. The show uses a somewhat new engineering identified as lower-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) that lessens power intake and gives phone producers much more regulate in excess of refresh premiums. It is really the exact same technological innovation that powers Apple’s Apple iphone thirteen Professional products as properly as the Samsung Galaxy S21 collection.
The LTPO screen of the OnePlus 9 Professional, displaying an graphic of clouds
The LTPO screen aids save energy.
This is a leading-of-the-line OLED screen with a bonus: It is really obvious in immediate daylight. A display screen protector is preinstalled we did not clear away it from our take a look at device. In accordance to DisplayMate Labs checks, the 9 Pro’s display screen established to Auto Brightness mode beats the eight Pro, the Galaxy S20 collection, and the most up-to-date iPhones in ambient mild, but not the Galaxy Observe twenty Extremely. The nine Pro also enhances the utmost shade gamut in its vivid show manner, which helps it retain colour saturation in outside lighting.
Superior brightness manner effects
Aside from in brightness and colour, the 9 Pro’s display screen isn’t simply distinguishable from other the latest top rated-of-the-line OLED panels. The authentic news is electric power optimization, as the LTPO panel dynamically—and imperceptibly—changes its refresh price from 120Hz all the way down to 1Hz to preserve energy. Look at out our in-depth exclusive for a lot more on the display screen.
Shade change final results
Extraordinary Speed and Simplicity of Use
OnePlus telephones are usually quickly, and the OnePlus nine Professional is no exception. It is really powered by a major-of-the-line Qualcomm Snapdragon 888. It scored a little bit far better than the Galaxy S21 Extremely on Geekbench, with one-main scores close to 1125 and multi-main scores all around 3700. That is a 24% enhance on solitary-core final results and a twelve% maximize on multi-main results over the OnePlus 8 Professional. None of these telephones can surpass the Iphone 12, though, which scored 1596 SC and 4049 MC with its Apple A14 processor.
The Snapdragon 888 supplies a elevate in graphics performance, way too. On the GFXBench Auto Chase offscreen benchmark, the nine Pro scored all around 70fps, with 37fps onscreen in WQHD method and 58fps onscreen in High definition manner. That’s a major jump up from the 8 Professional, which scored 51fps offscreen and both 26 or 45fps onscreen dependent on display resolution.
See How We Check Telephones
These benchmarks do not acquire into account OnePlus’ program, which incorporates a bunch of efficiency enhancements. In our practical experience with OnePlus telephones, they really feel like the speediest Android phones, even faster than Google Pixels (particularly considering the fact that Google started applying midrange chipsets in its flagships with the release of the Pixel 5).
The cellphone runs Android 11 with OnePlus’ OxygenOS enhancements, and OnePlus suggests it’ll get updates as much as Android 13 alongside with bi-every month protection updates for a few yrs. For a flagship, that is a small disappointing, specially because Samsung presents at the very least a few several years of computer software updates on its price range A sequence types.
The 9 Pro in a charging cradle displaying a video game.
Substantial-stop games perform effectively on the nine Pro.
OxygenOS has always experienced a bunch of pleasant touches, these kinds of as the ability to install two copies of social-media applications for unique accounts, a environment to alter screen color based on ambient light, and a Zen manner that temporarily disables the phone’s most distracting functions. With this variation, OnePlus provides RAM compression that it states improves the number of applications that can continue being in memory with saved state. Our take a look at device experienced no issue keeping seven applications in memory, even with the giant RAM-hog Genshin Impact at the back again of the line.
To check cooling, which OnePlus states it is improved around former designs, we ran a processor-pumping app called CPU Throttling Examination on the nine Pro, the Galaxy S21, and the 8 Pro for 15 minutes. At the 10-minute point, the 8 Pro’s functionality took a sharp dive to about 80% of peak. The two of the more recent telephones were being nonetheless retaining closer to 90% performance at that time. Following thirteen minutes of pumping the processor, the Galaxy S21’s effectiveness easily declined to a very little around eighty% of peak, whilst the 9 Professional remained in the ninety% variety. Last but not least, the nine Pro’s performance declined substantially at almost particularly 15 minutes as the cellular phone attempted to great itself down. All through the check as a entire, the nine Pro and Galaxy S21 performed at 87–88% of max performance, whilst the 8 Pro was down at seventy eight%.
Gaming performance is amped up with a 360Hz touch reaction price, but only in 4 apps: PUBG Cellular, Connect with of Obligation, League of Legends, and Brawl Stars. OnePlus says it will get the job done on adding 360Hz touch help to much more game titles. That would undoubtedly aid this characteristic rise from a curiosity to a differentiator. visit the website offer a 240Hz touch sampling fee Samsung doesn’t give a spec on the Galaxy S21, but we believe it’s the exact same.
Ultra-Tremendous-Mega-Quickly Charging
The pair of batteries in the nine Professional total 4,500mAh. Which is short of the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s five,000mAh, but OnePlus has a variety of program methods up its sleeve to hold the cellphone charged—so lots of that we are not even guaranteed all of them came into use throughout our tests.
On our standard battery exam, functioning a YouTube movie around Wi-Fi at full screen brightness, the cellular phone lasted for eight hrs, fifty minutes in WQHD resolution and nine hours, 40 minutes in High definition. Display screen brightness matters a great deal to battery lifestyle: Consider the brightness down to 75% and people quantities jump to twelve several hours, forty minutes on WQHD and thirteen several hours on High definition. That is a lot shorter than the Galaxy S21 Extremely (11 hours 20 minutes) and the Galaxy S20 FE (12 several hours thirty minutes), but you really should have no challenges finding via a working day of reasonable use.
But there is certainly much more to this battery than meets the eye. To begin with, the show slows down to 1Hz when you are seeking at static content, this sort of as an e mail you’re mulling about or a webpage of an e-e book. That can be a huge energy saver. OnePlus also has a status for losing a lot less power to history processes than Samsung does. If you use seventy five% monitor brightness most of the time, you will almost certainly get far more than a day of battery life from 1 demand.
OnePlus nine Professional with USB-C Port in aim
The Warp Cost 65T charger can entirely recharge the nine Professional in about 30 minutes.
The nine Pro also has by significantly the quickest charging speeds of any mobile phone we have ever tested. It will come with a Warp Demand 65T USB-C charger, which prices the nine Professional from % to 20% in six minutes and to 100% in just 36 minutes. That is two times as fast as any new Samsung cellphone rates. If you use a third-social gathering charger, the cellular phone will charge at up to 18 watts, with correspondingly for a longer period cost instances.
The true breakthrough is in OnePlus’ new Warp Charge fifty wi-fi charger, a $69.ninety nine accessory cradle that plugs into your present Warp Charge sixty five adapter to deliver fifty-watt wi-fi charging for the 9 Professional, or fifteen-watt Qi charging for any other device. In tests with the Warp Demand 50, the 9 Professional went to 29% in 11 minutes and 100% in forty six minutes. Other phones, including the nine, get concerning 90 minutes and two hrs to wirelessly demand fully.
This all matches with OnePlus’ method to cellular phone electricity: It may perhaps not have the most significant batteries in town, but it can refill them the speediest.
All the 5G Trimmings, for T-Cell and Verizon
Like other Snapdragon 888 telephones, the 9 Professional makes use of a Qualcomm X60 modem, which functions with all of the characteristics T-Cell and Verizon intend to use in the up coming handful of years, like new airwaves and aggregation techniques. It has Bluetooth five.two and Wi-Fi 6 as nicely, but not Wi-Fi 6E (unlike the Galaxy S21 Extremely).
T-Cell is the only provider selling the nine Pro, but if you purchase an unlocked product from OnePlus or a retailer, it will also function on Verizon. If you try out to use it on AT&T, OnePlus says it will only hook up to 4G.
OnePlus 9 (still left) and OnePlus nine Professional (appropriate).
OnePlus nine (remaining) and OnePlus nine Professional (proper)
The OnePlus 9 Pro has all of the new technologies remaining built-in into T-Cell and Verizon’s networks, including CBRS, C-band, and millimeter wave.
This is a one-SIM cellphone, with no eSIM possibility. With a T-Mobile SIM in, the telephone enabled Wi-Fi contacting, “wise 5G” (which turns 5G on and off to help you save battery), and dual-channel network acceleration (which works by using Wi-Fi and 5G at the identical time if vital). With an AT&T SIM in, as predicted, the mobile phone utilized only 4G and lacked Wi-Fi calling.
The significant spec big difference among the 9 and the 9 Professional is that the 9 Professional has mmWave. T-Cellular at the moment only utilizes mmWave in 7 metropolitan areas, and is most most likely to roll it out in tremendous-crowded places: sports activities stadiums, live performance halls, conference facilities, and the like. It’s a could-be-pleasant, not a need to-have. It is really is more attractive on Verizon, which has mmWave in the facilities of more than 70 cities now.
We tested the 9 and the 9 Professional versus the Samsung Galaxy S21 with 86 rounds of tests utilizing Ookla Speedtest program in New York Metropolis, in a selection of network situations. (Editors’ Be aware: Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag’s publisher.) Around 17 checks, the Galaxy S21 turned in the ideal effectiveness, the 9 Pro received a raise from mmWave to occur in next, and the 9 dropped to third. Throughout a variety of non-mmWave exams with mixed signal top quality, the Galaxy S21 came in very first put again. In a standalone T-Cell mid-band “ultra ability” region, on the other hand, the a few phones performed practically identically.
If you happen to be outside a significant city, you are likely most involved about weak-signal efficiency. In our assessments, the Galaxy S21 showed the strongest 4G RSRP signal 29 instances the nine Pro was strongest 26 instances, and the 9 was strongest 22 moments. So the Galaxy S21 wins the moment yet again, even though not by much. More than six rounds of testing in a weak-signal space, the Galaxy S21 showed much better sign only three of the occasions, but the nine Pro experienced two signal dropouts. The Galaxy S21’s edge is slight but obvious.
Blinding You With (Shade) Science
Imaging collaborations are not new for smartphone suppliers. Huawei has partnered with Leica for a long time the Zeiss name is plastered on the again of smartphones from Nokia, Sony, and Vivo. Hasselblad’s only preceding US partnership was with Motorola on its clunky but capable Genuine Zoom Moto Mod, but the nine sequence provides Hasselblad back to the smartphone market in triumphant type. The nine Professional is capable of taking outstanding images with every lens.
The 48MP primary lens has an f/1.eight aperture, optical image stabilization (OIS), and electronic picture stabilization (EIS). There’s also a 50MP ultra-huge lens with an f/2.2 aperture, and a 8MP telephoto lens with an f/two.four aperture, as effectively as a 2MP monochrome sensor. You’ll uncover all the usual flagship bells and whistles on the 9 Professional: dual LED flash, multi-autofocus with omnidirectional Section Detection AF (PDAF), Laser AF (LAF), and Contrast AF (CAF). A massive 50-megapixel extremely-vast lens normally takes lovely small-mild photos. You can find also 8K online video at 30fps and 4K at up to 120fps, and tremendous-gradual movement at up to 480fps in 720p.
Back again of OnePlus nine Pro with digicam in aim
A big 50-megapixel extremely-extensive lens usually takes beautiful small-mild photographs.
For the most aspect, the camera app is intuitive and easy 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 Change manner a little bit clunky and tough to use.
Picture of rooftop with eco foliage
The OnePlus nine Pro’s tumble update enhanced minimal-light effectiveness.
Some of the nine Pro’s most considerable digital camera features are in the software program. Hasselblad worked closely with OnePlus to update its coloration science and acquire added attributes for professional smartphone shooters. In auto and Professional modes, colors are warm, with reds and blues acquiring a wholesome saturation strengthen while yellows and greens to be a little undersaturated. Since OnePlus and Hasselblad set a massive emphasis on the nine series’ coloration science, we in comparison the nine Professional to a number of other flagships and observed it stood up exceptionally very well to the level of competition.
Apple very seriously enhanced its coloration science with iOS fourteen and the Apple iphone twelve. Wherever the nine Pro tends to saturate reds and blues, Apple focuses far more on boosting luminance, so the Iphone 12’s images are likely to look a little additional real to life than the nine Pro’s.
Spot photos from the nine Pro and the Galaxy S21 Extremely facet by facet and you can straight away figure out the variation in between the two cameras. OnePlus will take a lighter hand with boosting saturation and other computational changes Samsung is a great deal a lot more intense. In just one of our test pics, a dreary March sky captured on the Galaxy S21 Extremely out of the blue grew to become blue. The nine Professional was a lot extra precise in its over-all illustration of the scene.
Side-by-aspect photographs of a making below a cloudy sky in the photo on the remaining, the sky appears to be like blue
The photograph colors from the nine Pro (ideal) are extra exact than the kinds sent by the Galaxy S21 Extremely (left).
In Professional manner, you can change ISO, focus exposure time, white balance, and a amount of other options. There is also the option to shoot in twelve-little bit Uncooked structure, which presents 64 occasions the color info of the ten-bit Raw on other flagships.
The extremely-vast 50MP lens is a Sony IMX 766 sensor that is drastically larger than the a person in the Apple iphone twelve Pro Max. In our exams the lens did a terrific position in both bright and small light. Images are crisp with excellent depth of area and stable background detail.
Aspect-by-aspect extremely-wide-angle pictures of a building
Extremely-broad-angle pictures are a big edge for the 9 Pro (proper), which creates considerably less edge distortion than the Galaxy S21 Ultra (remaining).
Our photographs taken with the primary lens ended up extraordinary as very well. In very good gentle, the 9 Professional retains its personal in opposition to other flagships, with realistic depth of field and rarely any reduction of fine detail.
In the fall of 2021, OnePlus sent a main update to the camera’s software. Test pictures exhibit more exact white balance and are crisp devoid of remaining oversharpened, a frequent difficulty with most smartphone cameras. When we reviewed the pictures at comprehensive sizing, the pictures remained crisp and experienced fewer sound.
The application is also faster in basic and there is significantly less shutter lag. It really is a minor adjust, but it makes a huge big difference when taking pictures with movement.
A snowy rooftop with numerous sculptures and other objects
The most important lens requires major-notch pics even in muted light.
But in which the digital camera really excels is in low mild. The primary lens did effectively, as anticipated. Our take a look at photographs with the fall update remained crisp with an improved texture-to-noise ratio. The massive improvement, on the other hand, was with dynamic array and in general scene accuracy. The two labored in conjunction to generate a much more genuine reflection of the moment.
And while we were notably bowled about by the extremely-extensive lens’ overall performance in our primary tests, the camera update just manufactured items superior. All of the advancements we observed in the key lenses were being obvious in our extremely-extensive test shots. People enhancements, combined with the absence of distortion, makes the OnePlus nine Pro’s extremely-large lens the very best we’ve tested.
A cityscape at evening, with lights reflecting off a damp road
Ultra-wide small-gentle illustrations or photos are lovely, with surprisingly tiny distortion.
We did not discover considerably improvement in our pictures with the telephoto lens soon after the software program update. The OnePlus nine Pro’s telephoto lens is much better than what you can discover on its predecessor, but it nonetheless doesn’t look at with the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra’s. At reduce zoom amounts, our examination shots experienced plenty of element, even though there was some envisioned reduction of element in the distance.
Facet-by-aspect images of illustrated indications at 30x zoom.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra does a significantly much better job at 30x zoom.
As we bumped up the zoom, however, we began to observe significant blur and noise when in contrast with the similar impression taken on the Galaxy S21 Ultra. The unnatural sharpening we recognized in our initial check shots, nonetheless, has been considerably improved.
Facet-by-aspect 10x zoom illustrations or photos of a cease indicator
Whilst the Samsung Galaxy S21 Extremely has an edge at 10x zoom, the nine Pro does a reliable job with its recent fall camera update.
Smartphone macro lenses are rarely value using, but listed here the nine Pro truly stands out. Our macro shots were being a lot sharper than envisioned, and leagues better than photographs taken with the 8’s 2MP macro lens.
A photograph of pink and eco-friendly macarons on a white plate
Macarons, in macro.
The monochrome sensor will work in tandem with the main sensor to take lovely black-and-white images with tons of depth and inky blacks. Huawei integrated a identical characteristic for yrs and then abruptly taken off it, creating an outcry from smartphone shutterbugs. If you realized and loved that attribute, the nine Pro’s resurrection of it will delight you.
Black-and-white image of general public artwork installation in which a massive white sculpture of a hand grabs a tree trunk
The monochrome lens requires stable black-and-white pictures.
The largest, and most amazing, alter to the OnePlus 9’s camera, however, is the addition of XPan manner. It can be a aspect that mimics Hasselblad’s now-discontinued XPan cameras to build an graphic that is reminiscent of those you’d consider with its 30mm and 45mm lenses.
The pics are cropped to a 65:24 facet ratio. It is a extraordinary seem that offers you a full new way to convey to tales, and evokes visuals of movie stills. There are possibilities to shoot in colour as nicely as black and white.
It’s difficult to overstate just how substantially home XPan gives for creativity. 4:three and sixteen:9 aspect ratios are so ubiquitous, that it can take a beat to get applied to all the distinctive factors you can do in the structure.
Panoramic shot of a Catholic rectory at night time.
XPan method makes it possible for you to choose dramatic images in a unique component ratio.
We tested XPan in numerous lights situations and it done completely. Our check pictures ended up immersive and crisp, with superb dynamic array. Depth of discipline is excellent as well.
Black and white impression of a mid-century creating
Monochrome pictures in XPan manner appear amazing.
Hasselblad’s special coloration science for XPan also makes an solely distinctive experience which is very similar to images shot on Kodak Ektachrome or Fuji Provia slide film. Our images confirmed less contrast and far more all-natural colours that pretty much seem to be a bit undersaturated given that we have come to be so accustomed to around-saturation on smartphones.
Decommissioned switching station with festive lights
Portraits and lesser scenes seem superior with the 30mm focal-size setting in XPan method.
On the entrance of the 9 Professional, you are going to come across a 32MP lens. It performs particularly well in any lighting condition. There’s a small history blur in our shots, which is to be envisioned. Foreground element and depth of field, even so, are location on. Portrait manner performs with out a hitch as properly. Our check photographs had a all-natural bokeh and fantastic depth mapping in each and every shot.
A selfie of a bearded white person in glasses and a cap
Selfies are comprehensive and clear.
A person Tiny Phase Shy of the Crown
The OnePlus nine Professional is an outstanding cellphone. At $970, it retains its possess against the a bit far more highly-priced Galaxy S21 Extremely and Iphone twelve Pro. It isn’t going to pretty match the Galaxy S21 Ultra on digital camera zoom or network performance, but it is really lighter and sleeker, it has some exceptional camera methods, and you can find that renowned OnePlus velocity and sophisticated software program. That incredible rapidly charging and the battery-saving display also make a big variation in working day-to-day use. The 9 Professional is superior than the OnePlus 8 sequence in every way, so the enhance is effortlessly warranted. It only fails to nab our Editors’ Decision award mainly because the Samsung Galaxy S21 Extremely is even extra remarkable and can be applied on any provider. The 9 Professional and the Galaxy S21 Extremely jointly at present determine the Android condition of the art. Depending on your priorities, both will serve you extremely properly for the future couple many years.
