OnePlus 9 Pro Review: Giant Leap or Crash Landing? By Gadgets 360

The OnePlus 9 pro is the company's latest flagship smartphone for 2021 so far, and this time it's not really about the performance, software or even battery life. It's about the cameras! Now it's no secret! That OnePlus has struggled with consistency when it comes to its smartphone cameras, but the company aims to put an end to all this negative press with the new OnePlus 9 series. Now the cameras on the OnePlus 9 and the OnePlus 9 pro have been co-developed with Swedish camera maker Hasselblad that promises to bring its iconic color science to these smartphones. So what exactly does this new partnership entail? How are the new cameras on the OnePlus 9 pro and, more importantly, how painful is the new higher price tag? We're going to find out in my review now, if you like, the content that we produce, don't forget to hit the subscribe button and also that bell icon, so you're the first to know whenever we have a new video now, because the camera is the biggest area of focus here. Let's start with that. Now it's not uncommon to see smartphone manufacturers partner with big name camera or lens makers.

In order to boost the credibility of their products now, when done right, it can lead to some very good results that actually benefit the end user, for instance, Sony's, long-standing partnership with mass and even Huawei's partnership with Lacey, and that's exactly what OnePlus is aiming to do here with its partnership with Hasselblad on the OnePlus 9 pro and the OnePlus 9. Now, let's understand the level of involvement that Hasselblad has had in the OnePlus 9 series now you'll find the Swedish camera makers branding everywhere from the packaging to even the back of the phone now based on the way OnePlus has been marketing this partnership. It wouldn't be wrong to assume that you're getting hassle, blood, sensors or at least lenses, but this is actually not the case now on the OnePlus 9 series Hasselblad has only really helped tune: the color processing algorithms for JPEGs, when you're shooting in auto or even pro mode now the color difference is most noticeable in the photos of people, as skin tones tend to look warmer and more natural compared to the colors produced by the OnePlus 8 pro now for landscapes or other subjects. On the other hand, the difference is slightly less pronounced, is also seen in the design of the pro mode and the camera shutter button, which is now an orange dot, just like on Hasselblad cameras. However, this seems to be the extent of the benefit that you can expect from this Hasselblad partnership, at least on the 9 series.

Now there is a possibility of seeing Hasselblad hardware in future OnePlus phones, but that's to be seen. We do have some brand-new rear camera sensors in the OnePlus 9 pro, which are custom developed with Sony. The main camera has a 48 megapixel Sony, mix 789 sensors with some interesting new capabilities which we'll get into just a moment. Next up is a brand-new ultra white camera, with a 50 megapixel Sony, mix 766 sensors with a new free form lens to cut barrel distortion at the hardware level before the image is even processed. The ultra-wide camera also has autofocus, so you can use it for macrophotography.

Then you have the optically stabilized 8 megapixel telephoto camera with a 3.3 x, optical zoom and a 30x digital zoom. The OnePlus 9 pro also has a fourth monochrome camera, which is used only when you select the black and white filter now for the new features of the primary camera. This sensor now has a dual native ISO: a 2x2 on-chip lens for quicker focus and DOL HDR for better dynamic range in backlit shots for both stills and video. It can also capture 12-bit raw files instead of 10-bit for increased color information and there's also a new tilt shift, shooting mode for simulating the miniaturizing effect of a tilt shift lens. The new primary camera in the OnePlus 9 pro offers slightly improved details compared to shots taken with the 8 pro, and this quality also comes close to what current gen flagships from apple and Samsung can manage.

Close-ups have very good sharpness and colors have pleasing levels of saturation portrait mode also works very well, even though you still cannot adjust the level of background refocus. The ultra white camera captures excellent details and colors during the day, there's barely any visible distortion on objects, especially around the edges of the frame. I also noticed that objects towards the edges had slightly better details compared to the ultrawide cameras of the iPhone 12 Pro max and the Samsung Galaxy s21 ultra. Now, thanks to the use of this lens and sensor macro shots also pack in very good details, the 9 pro can also capture impressive low light photos, be it with the primary or secondary cameras. It automatically reduces the shutter speed a bit, so you don't have to switch to nights cape mode manually to get a good exposure.

The ultraviolet camera captured very good details in low light. Colors looked natural and distortion was also at a minimum. The telephoto camera on the OnePlus 9 pro has the same specs as that of the 8 pro, except for a slightly longer focal length. Images are still usable when captured at 10x zoom, but anything beyond that generally has weak details and colors in low light. The OnePlus 9 pro will actually use a telephoto camera for stills, instead of just digitally zooming in with the main camera now, autofocus is a little slower here compared to the main sensor, but the final image quality can be very good depending on the lighting compared to the new sensors.

The selfie camera is sadly quite disappointing. It's the same.16 megapixel sensor that's been used in the past few generations of OnePlus phones, skin tones generally look warmer than they do with the OnePlus 8 pro, but faces lack the natural look of say. An iPhone colors of other objects too, such as clothing are often unnaturally saturated selfies taken in low light. Look a bit of grainy textures are also not too well-defined. You still cannot use nights cape with the front camera and videos are still restricted to just 1080p.

The selfie camera was one of my main gripes with the OnePlus 8 pro and unfortunately, nothing has really been fixed. Yet now, when it comes to videos, though the OnePlus 9 pro has received a neat upgrade thanks to the more powerful snapdragon soc, you can now shoot 8k, 30fps, stabilized videos or up to 4k 120fps, and during my testing I noticed that the OnePlus 9 pro would overheat when shooting 8k videos or even 4k at 120fps. Now I initially noticed this when shooting outdoors on a hot sunny day but later on. I also noticed this issue even indoors. Now, shooting at a lower frame rate or even resolution didn't really seem to set off any alarm bells, but you need to keep in mind that when it does overheat, it won't even let you take still photos now.

This could be a bit of a problem if you plan to use your OnePlus 9 pro for a lot of video work. Now the quality of videos was very good when shooting during the day and also at night, stabilization works well at 4k, with no jitter or shakiness, even when you're shooting in low light, when shooting at 8k or 4k 60fps and above you're limited to 5 minutes per clip. You do get nights cape for video which improves the exposure in very dark situations, but this also introduces a bit of noise overall, the rear camera module is indeed a step forward, but the lack of innovation in the selfie camera department is a bit disappointing. Now, let's talk about what OnePlus smartphones have always been known for and that's performance OnePlus has picked Qualcomm's best soc, the snapdragon 888, which is built on a five nanometer process and features the latest generation x65g modem. Although keep in mind that in India, the OnePlus 9 series only supports two 5g bands compared to other regions.

Now this beast of a chipset is paired with two ram and storage options. You get one with 8gb of ram and 128gb of storage, that's priced at 64, 999, rupees and another with 12 GB of ram and 256 GB of storage, which is the one I have that's priced at 69 999 rupees. Yes, the prices have gone up by almost 10 grand this year in India. All of this hardware runs on top of the much-loved oxygen OS 11, which is based on android 11. It continues to be a joy to use and is still one of the best android skins around now my OnePlus 9 pro review unit shipped with a slightly buggy firmware.

However, I did receive an OTA update which did fix most of the issues I had. You do get a few exclusive settings for the 9 series, such as ultra-high video resolution and the camera app and hyper touch, which is said to increase the sensitivity of the screen by up to six times in select games such as Call of Duty, mobile, PUBG and League of Legends. I'm not a big mobile gamer, so I didn't notice much of a difference with hyper touch, but your experience could vary now. The quick and snappy performance of the OnePlus 9 pro should come as to no surprise given the kind of hardware it's packing. The snapdragon 888 is a very powerful soc and is paired with superfast lpddr5 memory and UFS 3.1 storage. All of this combined gives it more than enough power to tackle today's apps and games, speaking of which games ran exceptionally well, too Call of Duty mobile asphalt, 9 legends and riptide GP.

Renegade looked stunning with the graphics settings maxed out. Most of the games I tested ran at 60 fps, except for some, such as Fortnite and brawl stars, which can take advantage of the high refresh rate screen. I didn't notice any heating when playing games for short durations. However, anything over 15 to 20 minutes, and you will feel the heat along the metal frame and the glass back battery life was pretty satisfactory too. During my review period, the nitro does have a 4500mah battery, which is a similar capacity to that of the 8 pro there's also 65 watt fast charging, which, just like the OnePlus 8t charges, two smaller battery cells, instead of a single one.

Thus, allowing you to fully charge the OnePlus 9 pro in just 30 minutes. What's new, though in the OnePlus 9 pro is faster wireless charging now OnePlus has introduced its warp charge, 50 wireless charger, which, as the name suggests, can now wirelessly charge the phone at up to 50 watts thanks to two charging coils in the charger. Now I was able to charge the nine pro completely in roughly 45 minutes, which is actually faster than what most wired chargers can accomplish. Now you will need this new 50 watt wireless charger in order to achieve these speeds, which can be purchased separately for about 3990 rupees. The OnePlus 9 pro also supports reverse wireless charging, which lets you charge other cheap, compatible devices even with heavy use.

I consistently manage to get a full day's worth of battery life, which I think most people should be very happy with in our HD video loop test, the OnePlus 9 pro ran for just shy of 16 hours coming to the display. All of your interaction with the hardware takes place on this very good. Looking 6.7-inch OLED screen, it has a refresh rate of 120 hertz, but thanks to this new LPO panel, it can now scale down that refresh rate all the way to one hertz when needed. This is something similar to the tech used in the Apple Watch cd6 or even the galaxy s21 ultra now. This display panel produces rich and vibrant colors with excellent legibility and pretty much any lighting, and any input feels highly responsive.

Video content on this display is also a real treat, as the brightness is excellent and colors look lively, but when it comes to the design, OnePlus has taken a rather conservative stance. The core shape and dimensions are similar to the OnePlus 8 pro, but with a new design for the back, which will take some getting used to it's, not bad, but it's not instantly recognizable as an OnePlus phone for now. Anyway, it has an aluminum frame. You get gorilla glass on the curved front and back and this ip68 rating for destiny, water resistance. It looks and feels premium, but I strongly recommend getting any of the other colors other than the silver one.

Due to the glossy fingerprint magnet finish now comes the big question: does all of this really justify the price hike of about 10 000 rupees in India? Well, OnePlus already had a pretty solid foundation to build the 9 pro upon, which was the 8 pro. The new 5g soc, faster, wired charging, and improved cameras are all capabilities we were expecting it to have, and it definitely delivers on these fronts. The Hasselblad partnership is, of course, the main talking point for OnePlus every time it talks about the cameras, but more than that, I do think what makes these rear cameras very good has more to do with the hardware than anything else. A selfie camera is possibly the weakest link in an otherwise pretty well-rounded camera setup. However, this phone isn't without its issues.

There are a few bugs in the software that need ironing out. It also tends to overheat quite a bit with heavy camera use and perhaps a better telephoto implementation, such as a periscope lens, would have been fitting for this pro model. The price hike will definitely be a little hard to digest for many fans, but looking at the bigger picture, this is still lower than Samsung and apple's flagship pricing. Now, if you don't need things like 8k, recording and 50 watt wireless charging, the OnePlus 8 pro is still great value. Now, there's also the OnePlus 9 to consider at roughly 50 000 rupees, which could prove to be the more popular model of the two and what does OnePlus have in store for us with the OnePlus 9r, which is priced even lower.

We should have all those answers and more coming very soon, so that's been it for my review of the OnePlus 9 pro. Let me know what you think about the smartphone in the comments below. Is it a better upgrade over the OnePlus 8 pro? Let me know what you think and as always for all things, tech log on to gadget360. com. You.

Source : Gadgets 360