OnePlus 9 & 9 Pro REVIEW - What you need to know! By The Tech Chap

Nope stop everything. This is not a tick-tock video, but this is the OnePlus 9 pro, and it's in this very fancy morning, mist color, which is supposed to look like the fog on a mirror, fading away. To be fair. I think that's pretty spot on, so I've got both new OnePlus 9 phones with me here in their unique tall red boxes, and you can see they're both 5g and have the new Hasselblad camera branding. I've got the 9 in this winter, mist color, which has a really nice purple gradient to it. Each phone has three color options, but I think they both look perfect.

In the box we get the usual nubbins of some paperwork, a simple case, USB-C, cable, and I'm happy to say we're still getting a power adapter bundled in the box, and it's the latest warp charge, 65t charger. How much do you ask? Well the OnePlus 9 costs this much and the 9 pro will set you back this much, which is not bad. Actually, yes, OnePlus phones keep getting more expensive and the 9 pro is about 30 pounds more than last year's 8 pro. But this is their flagship phone, and it's in the same ballpark as the standard, iPhone 12 and the s21, and if you consider the galaxy s21 ultra costs 320 pounds more than this. While it is expensive for a traditional OnePlus, I think it's perfect value for money.

Although I'll get to this at the end, I think the OnePlus 9 may actually be the one to go for so for this video, I'm focusing on the 9 pro and I think, there are four big upgrades really. Firstly, it's faster with the latest snapdragon triple a processor and together with oxygen OS 11 on top of android 11. I think this may actually be my favorite phone to use it's just so slick and fast, while still offering a good amount of customization, it's kind of like stock android, but with the extra bits that you want. Oh, and you can also now turn a photo into a canvas drawing for your always on display. It is a bit weird if you use your own face, though, and it also doesn't like cats for some reason.

Secondly, we've got this new design. As I say, I've got this morning, mist version, but it also comes in pine, green and stellar black. We get grille glass 5 on the front and back not the latest Vitus. Unfortunately, aluminum frame, ip68 water resistance, there's a corner, hole, punch, selfie camera with a notification light next to it, which also helps you see where to look at when you're, taking selfies we're still getting OnePlus's handy alert, slider on the right hand, side, dual sim card tray on the bottom 5g, of course, although no micro SD support, and we're also getting improved stereo speakers. Actually, if I bring in last year's 8 pro you can see, this is quite a departure from what we're used to we're back to a glossy finish and now, with a much beefier camera module in the corner.

The 9 pro is actually a little smaller, as well with a 6.7-inch screen versus 6.78 inches. Although I think a more significant change is, the curved screen is now well less curved, which I know a lot of people will prefer. The third big upgrade is this screen. It is still a quad HD, plus 120 hertz AMOLED same as the pro, but it's now using a LPO panel, which not only gives us faster response times for gaming, but crucially, it also supports variable refresh rates between 1 and 120 hertz, so it can dynamically adjust based on what's on screen and OnePlus says this cuts the screen's power use by up to 50, but actually, I think the biggest upgrade with the 9 series, particularly the pro is the camera, and also this OnePlus is partnership with Hasselblad. Now, every year we say how great the OnePlus phones are, but again and again, they just can never quite keep up with the latest pixel galaxy or iPhone.

Now OnePlus knows this, so they've finally had put some proper effort into stepping up their camera game, and so they got into bed with Hasselblad. Hopefully Mrs Hasselblad is okay with that, but it's exactly the right move and not just because we now have an orange shutter button that makes this classic Hasselblad camera sound. The million-pound question, though, is what makes a good photo now, I'm not a professional. I will admit that I think you guys probably know, but what I do know is that it's the combination of hardware so megapixel sensor size and the software, the processing and the color science. Let's do an experiment, let's see in a blind test, if you will be able to pick out the difference between the OnePlus 8 pro and the 9 pro.

So here's a couple of photos, no edits or filters straight out of the camera, one from the 8 pro and the other from the nine pro, but which one do you prefer? How about this one in tricky lighting I mean there's pretty big differences between them and finally, a selfie now to be clear. A and b are the same camera throughout here I'm not switching them up, but do you reckon you know which is which well, let me know if you got this right in the comments, but an is the eight pro and b is the nine pro I think for this portrait shot, it's a pretty clear win for the nine sharper, much more natural colors, and you can also see we're getting a slightly wider field of view. As well, this nights cape photo was a little harder to call, but I think, aside from a slightly flatter look, it is the more realistic white balance and colors that stand out and finally, the selfie- and I think, there's definitely a pattern emerging that the biggest difference between them is the color from the green t-shirt to my skin tones. Now, if you said you preferred an on all of them, then maybe OnePlus and Hasselblad need to go back to the drawing board. But if you're like me, then b was a clear winner.

So what's different well on a hardware level we're getting an all new 48, megapixel main lens, which is pixel bin down to 12 megapixels, but it uses a brand-new custom, Sony, iMac 789 sensors and that's alongside a 50 megapixel mix 766, ultra-wide lens, which also doubles as a macro, we're also getting an 8 megapixel telephoto with a 3.3 times, optical zoom and finally, a 2 megapixel monochrome sensor, which gives you better quality native black and white shots. If you're feeling a bit artsy and this new sensor brings with it faster, focusing dual native ISO, 12-bit raw photo support and together with the new ISP and the snapdragon chip when it comes to video, we're now getting 8k at 30 frames per second and my personal favorite 4k 120, which is the first time I've seen this on a phone. But the new hardware is only half the story, and actually it's the software processing. That's just as important and a big reason why the pixels and the iPhones are so good, although they do also have millions of photos uploaded to google photos and iCloud that they can train their algorithms from OnePlus doesn't, but by asking Hasselblad to help and developing a new natural color calibration as they're calling it. The idea, at least, is we'll get more well natural photos.

Now. OnePlus have said that this is a three-year partnership and with the 999 pro Hasselblad have helped tune the software, but there's no hardware changes. So I am excited to see what comes next, but for now I can certainly see an improvement, and you can see here with my super professional color scene setup. The 8 pro is a little over saturated, especially the red box, and actually, if I bring in a photo from my Sony, a7 iii camera. While there are still differences looking at the table and the banana, the colors on the 9 pro are closer to the more professional camera and then in low light shots.

Not only are we getting better dynamic range, but the whole scene is better exposed and the cooler white balance is more true to life, and it's not just the main lens. That's had an upgrade. The 50 megapixel ultra-wide has an all new sensor, and it uses a new free form lens which reduces distortion. So you get less of that. Fish eye look for me.

The only thing the cam was missing other than maybe a second zoom lens like we get on the s21. Ultra is night mode for selfies. Now, speaking of modes, we're also getting a revamped pro mode. Uh with that Hasselblad look and feel where you can tinker and get a fine control over the camera and there's also this new tilt shift mode, which gives you a cool miniature feel to photos. What I'm more excited about, though, is swiping over to video you'll see we get 8k, 30 and 4k 120.

So what's the point of 4k at 120? Well: firstly, because we have a 120 hertz screen, you can watch it back on the phone in hyper, smooth, 120, fps or what I like to do is slow it down to 25 speed in your video editing, app of choice. I use premiere rush, and then you get this really cool 4k, slow motion. It's not something you'll use every day, but it's a nice extra, as is the support for ak-30, which is handy if you want to pull out a high-res 32 megapixels still, so the camera is definitely a step-up. Although I am working on a big nine pro versus s21 ultra versus iPhone 12 Pro max camera comparison to see how it really stacks up against those guys so make sure you're subscribed. So you don't miss it.

Okay, moving on and let's talk about battery life, because usually the pro model gives you the best of everything right, but in this case, since they both have the same size, 4 500 million power battery. Actually the standard OnePlus 9 lasts a little longer. After an hour of gaming, YouTube and Instagram, the 9 had 57 of its battery left versus 55 on the pro that's a full HD with 120 hertz, so the 9 does benefit from the smaller screen, although it doesn't have the LPO panel on the 9 pro which offsets the difference a little and also reduces the impact of switching up to quad HD. I wouldn't say it's best in class battery, but it's still pretty good and that quad HD and 120 hertz, which is how I tend to use it. I'm finishing the day at 11 pm with about 30 of my battery left, and we're looking at about 6 hours, 15 minutes or so of screen on time.

But we are also getting faster charging. The 8 pro from last year only offered 30 watt charging. Although the 8t introduced 65 watt, but both the 9 and the 9 pro support warp charge, 65 t which has the same maximum speed as the 8t, but it can sustain it for longer because the battery is now a dual cell design, so not to 100, takes 29 minutes plus on the pro we get 50 watt wireless charging, which is faster than most wired charging on a lot of phones, and it takes 43 minutes to go from zero to a hundred. So there's lots to like here, but as with anything, there's always room for improvement and uh. I guess it would have been nice to see the latest gorilla glass Vitus.

As I say, we've got five on the front and back um. This also doesn't support Wi-Fi 6e, which is a shame also. This isn't something I'd normally talk about, but the screen protector, which is on this by default, is a lot thicker than I'm used to with your nail. You can really feel it's a bit squidgy compared to other phones, and I have found this made me miss a key press or two on the edge of the phone. As I mentioned earlier, a night mode for the selfie camera would be good to see and also selfie.

Video still tops out at 1080p we're not getting a 4k option, and I've also found the auto brightness a bit frustrating. It always seems to be a little too dim. So I found myself manually upping the brightness during the day, but this is mostly nitpicking. None of these are dealbreakers, so that's the 9 pro, but what about its little brother, the standard OnePlus 9, which one should you go for? Well? I think this deserves a full video by itself, but the main differences are it's a little smaller with a 6.55-inch screen, which is also flat rather than slightly curved. It is still 120 hertz, but we don't get the quad HD resolution or the LPO panel.

Importantly, though, they share the same ram, same storage, processor and battery and also the same fast wired charging. But I think the biggest difference is the camera. It's still a 48 megapixel main lens, but it's using last year's imx689 sensor, although we are still getting the Hasselblad software and color improvements, but we are also missing out on the telephoto lens, but I think considering the standard. Nine is 200 pounds less than the nine pro starting at 6.29. If I was going to recommend one of these to a friend, or you know you guys you're, my friends, that sounds very lonely, but I would probably suggest going with OnePlus 9.

Yes, quad HD is nice, as is the slightly newer main sensor. The telephoto lens faster wireless charging, but now those, I think, fundamentally changes the way you use your phone. So for me, I would go with the OnePlus 9, but because OnePlus kindly sent both I'm probably gonna, stick with the nine pro. But what about you? Which one would you go for the nine or nine pro or none of the above? Let me know in the comments below, but I do still think that the likes of the s21 ultra and the iPhone 12 Pro max, which of course are a lot more expensive- do still outperform the nine pro when it comes to the camera. But I am working on that big camera comparison also a full battery rundown test so make sure you have subscribed and stay tuned for that if you've got any questions or anything you'd like me to test.

Let me know in the comments below, and I'll see you guys next time right here on the tech chat thanks for watching.

Source : The Tech Chap