OnePlus 9 Pro vs iPhone 12 Pro By Jon Rettinger

How, am I going to pick a winner out of these two, I'm going to piss people off, no matter what I really like, both phones- I don't know all right. Let me see what I can do. I don't know doesn't sound right ugh. I got nothing. It's okay, john! I got this. Let me make the video for you, okay, john! It's ready for you to watch um! Okay, before we get on with the video.

I do want to give a big thank you to WIMAX for sponsoring this video and their nova short, throw 4k projector, but more on them later on. So this is the big versus I think of thus far in the year, like the best from apple, the iPhone 12 Pro and like one of the two or three top android phones on the market, with the OnePlus 9 pro and as with all of our verses like there will be a winner. There won't be any sort of cop out like whatever's best, for you give everybody a hug type answer: I'm guaranteed to piss off, probably half of you at the end of the video. So I want to go ahead and address this right at the top. The OnePlus 9 and the OnePlus 9 pro received some pretty substantial updates after its initial release.

So I'm filming this video at the end of May. So it's addressing a lot of issues that people had in their initial reviews with the phone. So there are a lot of other things in that fix, but a lot of it had to do with camera. So I thought it made sense to essentially look at the OnePlus 9 pro now and what I'm going to assume is close to its final form versus the iPhone 12. Before pro talk about that, though, because generally I love to uh, you know what time it is blind camera test time when none of your biases can show through, and you generally have to pick which one you like more so, let's see if you can tell the difference between these photos and just guess like in your head or in the comments which phone took, which picture so look at these photos here and look for general photo things right.

Look for how colors are represented. Look how white's represented how the blacks are represented, look for the saturation of certain images when it comes to portrait mode shots. Look at the blur in the back. Look at the cutout do any of these look better to your eye check out these night mode shots. Do any of these look better to you.

Do certain shots look better than other shots, or does one clearly look different? I actually had JD who's editing. This video set this up for me without me being able to know which was which, and I'm not going to lie. I got it wrong. So a way an OnePlus 9 pro and b was the iPhone 12 Pro, but be honest? Did you guess it right so, overall in every setting, no matter where you are, when you hit that shutter button to my eye, the iPhone takes better photos? It just does, and the main reason is consistency like clearly there's a technical reason here, and I'm sure this isn't the first tech video you've seen about the iPhone. I'm sure you've heard that all before, but john, what about the photo? You show the colors pop more.

The contrast is better, how can you say it? How dare you say the iPhone is better. I feel personally attacked well actually you'd be right in that particular photo. The OnePlus 9 pro does come out on top, but in the next photo the colors don't look as vibrant. They look a little more muted and the white balance is slightly different, even though it was taken at the exact same lighting conditions in the same time of day as the previous shot, the OnePlus 9 pro photos, while they look great, just aren't consistent from one photo to the next or one situation to the next, whereas the iPhone 12 Pro is consistent across every photo it takes, and whereas the OnePlus 9 pro varies from a good photo to an amazing photo. The iPhone camera system is generally some version of just a perfect picture and maybe the best photo you may get on the OnePlus 9 pro, but every time you hit that shutter button, you just don't always know what you're going to get, so it seems like OnePlus was banking like real hard on the Hasselblad partnership, letting Hasselblad handle the color science side of the phones, and I think Hasselblad did a really nice job and OnePlus appears took a backseat when it came to actually the computational side of those pictures, and perhaps that may not have been the right decision and to OnePlus is credit.

It's actually gotten a lot better on the computational side, since this launched so like, for example, some of the main things that this update fixed since initial review was a sharpening issue. Some stability upgrades to video adjustments, how the camera handled highlights and white balance between photos now saying this. I want to give perspective to OnePlus. This is a company that knows they were behind and is doing everything they can to catch up, and I would argue you see the best improvements from one genophore to the next in one plus. They are getting better year over year and camera used to be the big issue with these phones and that sort of huge gap that used to exist is getting narrower and narrower every year, and we're getting to a point where we're not that far off, I'm guessing from OnePlus having some of the best camera phones on the market.

And if you go back to our initial review of the OnePlus 9 pro some of the issues that I'm talking about didn't show themselves until later on. So I'm happy to see OnePlus realized, there was an issue and then worked to fix it with software updates. Video has been like a long-standing sticking point for android, at least until we got to sort of last year's snapdragon 865, but this year's chipset that the OnePlus 9 pros using the snapdragon 888 has brought tremendous improvements to video to the point where you could close your eyes. Look at both videos and say these are amazing. I don't have a giant preference when it comes to video, if I'm just using either of these to shoot.

Video honestly either is going to be good, and this is one of the few times I've been able to say that when it comes to the android world, so I'm excited about the future of video on android and especially what OnePlus is doing with video. So you do get significantly more zoom on the 9 pro. If you can do on the 12 pro or even 12 pro max- and you know I love my zoom, but aside from that, the iPhone just handles pictures overall, better to my eye and more consistently, and that is in no way saying the 9 pros. Camera is bad because it is clearly not, and they've shown a lot of improvements over the last couple of years. So looking forward, there's a lot of reasons to be overly optimistic.

I think about what OnePlus can do with their cameras. So the last time I saw 150-inch TV. It was back when CES was a thing you could go to, and it was going to cost you about the same as most mid-size homes. It is really expensive to get something that big into your house. This is the WIMAX nova, it's a short throw projector, so it can be like crazy, close to the wall.

It's compact, it's going to give you an up to 150 inch display. It's also gonna. Do it in 4k, it's powered by android TV, but obviously it's got HDMI. Port has three of them. Actually, so you can hook up whatever set-top box.

You want to use, and again it's not a big giant projector. It's a small compact box. That's going to give you a perfect, really solid, 4k image, and if you cross shot this with other projectors, you should clearly see that it is the best value going out there and if you hit the link down below there's also a coupon for 200 bucks off decide to pick up the WIMAX nova you're going to have a 150-inch display that you've never seen before, and it is like immersive for sports and movies gaming. Everything is just better when it's bigger and that is none clearer uh than when it comes to displays. So, aside from both being rectangles and like neither folding uh the design between these two phones, I don't think could be anymore.

Divergent apple went with a really squared off design and OnePlus kind of just went to different camera layout this time, but the main body the phone was more or less sort of their tried and true design. I love the way. The iPhone 12 Pro and 12 pro max feel in the hand, squared off edges feel perfect to me. Perhaps it's because they're different and in a world where iPhones do not change design very often just the fact that they change, maybe in my head I've sort of equate new with good, but I really like it. I know some people don't enjoy the squared off design and feel to my hand it's felt really nice.

I, like the frosted glass on the back, I'm so used to the notch. At this point it doesn't really bother me. I do really like having the face ID side there, holding the OnePlus 9 pro it just it screams nice to me, and it screams premium, even the people who have never held an OnePlus 9 phones. You can pick this up and be like. This is a good phone like I haven't, turned this thing on yet, but I'm going to guess this is a perfect phone.

Um aesthetically it looks nice. It got a great feel in the hand the screen looks obviously uh amazing, I think, from a design standpoint. It's two sides of the coin: there's no wrong choice from a design standpoint, but once you turn these phones on, then there is definitely a difference. Both screens are some version. I think fantastic.

A lot of similarities too uh both have OLA displays and stop me. If you heard this before I, like, I refresh rate, I know, I've said it. Maybe once or twice OnePlus has it apple doesn't have it for now and listen. If you watch my videos, you know I talk about high refresh rate a lot when it comes to 90 or 120 hertz, I'm going to die on that hill and when that high refresh rate does eventually come to the iPhone. Try to remember this, video and your friend john, has been telling you how amazing, high refresh rate screens are taking the refresh side out.

I did see the OnePlus 9 pro get a bit washed out in direct sunlight, where I didn't necessarily see it as drastically with the 12 pro and the 12 pro max, but this one was a blowout when it came to screens, despite both screens being perfect. I refresh all the things OnePlus 9 pro has one of the best screens outside a Samsung phone that I've seen in a long time so on the inside. What makes it work, uh, iPhone, a14, bionic, six gigabytes of ram again on the 12 pro side, flipping over to the OnePlus 9 pro side. The latest snapdragon chip set the easy to remember 888. You can be different configurations of ram either 8 or 12 depending on the model, but whatever you get they're all going to be blazing fast um.

I don't notice much of a difference. Performance-Wise between these two phones, like it's 2021, that shouldn't be surprising when you're talking about two flagship phones. At this point, you have to try like really hard to find a phone like at launch or a few months after launch that is slow or doesn't have great performance. What is different is how you unlock the phone. Obviously, the iPhone's got face ID.

It's got the big notch up there, letting you know that it's got it uh, the nine pro uses face unlock and in screen figure reader, and I love the fact. The in-screen fingerprint reader is there, but they also weirdly moved it all the way to the bottom of the screen from last gen that doesn't make for the most convenient ergonomic way to hit that sensor. I have larger thumbs. Maybe it's like unique to me, but I kept trying to hit it higher on the screen, but when I did hit it right, it unlocked almost every time, and it's gotten better since the update hit as well. OnePlus is still rolling with the optical sensor, so I don't know how you prefer, but optical versus ultrasonic, but it's there.

If you don't mind the location it works really well and better than it did at launch. So I think, aside from those things like batteries are becoming more and more important, and it's not just the tail of William hours. The iPhone 12 Pro has a measly 2 815 million power. Battery 12 pro max gets a little beefier at 36.87, but the 9 pro. It's got a big daddy, 4, 500, William hour batteries, and you think just based off of those numbers like the 9 pro is going to be better on battery life, more William hours, better life.

But it's not the case in really real world usage uh the Nam pro's battery drains a lot faster than the iPhone batteries. By like a few hours, uh that may be iOS battery optimization thing, a14 uh, but more than likely it's a third-party app, optimization, that's something that is out of OnePlus or even the whole android world's control may also be. The iPhone doesn't have that high refresh screen, which I would gladly sacrifice battery life for um for the record. But if you turn these phones on at the same time, and they're, both 100 chances are the iPhone's going to last you longer. So, while the iPhone will last longer, I'm not entirely sure that OnePlus 9 pro users really have much reason to tear OnePlus is known for they're insanely fast.

The warp charging their fast charging um and the OnePlus is 50 or 65 kilowatt-hour. Chargers can get you from zero to a hundred percent. In the 30 to 40, minute range, which is like when you actually see it happening, is seems like wizardry, and I believe that wireless option is faster than even Samsung's fast charging wired, and you compare it to apples fast charging it like it's, it's not even close. So if you can get in your charger for a few minutes uh, you can very easily beat the iPhone's battery um any day and like on the software side of things. It's its an iOS versus android.

I think oxygen. Os is quickly becoming my favorite version, flavor skin, whatever you want to call it uh of android OnePlus does an amazing job. I think, building on the core features of android in a world. Now, where android 12 is announced, we know it's coming in the fall to pixel devices, any device- that's not made by google. You don't generally know when you're going to get that software with the exception I think, generally of OnePlus.

They have a track record of getting OS updates out faster than almost any other manufacturer, so credit to OnePlus. For that on the software side, of course, being an iPhone. You know exactly when the next version iOS is going to come. It's going to come when the new iPhone comes, it's going to get announced to WWDC like it does every year, so at least you can plan, and you know, you'll get the latest version as soon as possible, with the iPhone 12 Pro and 12 pro max, but not soon after um, when it comes to the one plus side. I think that makes one plus unique, but there's still a guess like a misnomer in the android world, or maybe the iPhone purists like to sort of push this narrative that android gets laggy after a few months, and it stops working.

You need 32 gigabytes of ram to make it work. I don't think that's true anymore at all. You get amazing software experience from android, just a different one. It depends on how you want to use your phone, how you want to use your information and how you want to use third-party apps when it comes to software preference you're, either in the Apple ecosystem, you're in the android ecosystem, or if you don't have a preference and that's the beauty of, I think choice you can pick, which one is right for you. If I have to pick one and determine which one I am going to go with and have in my pocket, I'm going to pick the iPhone 12 Pro, not for software reasons, but for the more consistent camera that is generally of most importance.

I'm taking pictures of my family a lot, probably like every parent out there, and I just want the best picture without having to go into manual settings, and I'm still getting that despite missing out on my sweet baby zoom that I get better on the 9 pro consistency for me is key. If both these phones are on the table, I'm going to pick up the iPhone 12 Pro or iPhone 12 Pro max. I'm going to look real longingly at that beautiful high refresh rate on the OnePlus 9 pro.

Source : Jon Rettinger