OnePlus 9 Review!: The Android Value King! By What the Tech

Hey guys what's up, this is what the tech- and this is, the OnePlus 9 equals 10. All right. Let's check the math okay now for reals, this is the plus nine OnePlus is offering in the hyper competitive mid-range segment. This really is a nice alternative, and not just this phone, but the entire mid-range segment in general is a great offer for those who just don't accept the idea that you have to pay a thousand dollars for a great smartphone experience. Okay, so what's the mission the OnePlus 9? Well, if OnePlus was about having flagship killers, then, instead of looking at the OnePlus 9 pro, the OnePlus 9, probably is the true standard-bearer of that regard. This is actually so good in value that it makes it hard to justify again the OnePlus 9 pro, but before we really get to the meat of it all.

Let's always start off. First with design, the OnePlus 9 carries the same design language as its pro sibling, albeit with some cheaper materials. The side railing is plastic instead of metal, but contrary to what it looks like, the backing is actually made of glass too. There's one last camera hole and the display is flat versus having a slight curve and, above all else, it still looks like it's well put together with no visible seams of up close inspection. Also, what's interesting to note here is that the size difference between the 9 pro and the 9 is actually very small.

We're looking at 6.55 inches here at diagonal against 6.7 inches diagonal with the pro, usually with the step-down model. We tend to see that the phones run a bit smaller, but this muddies the water a bit because the sizing is really close on the back. Furthermore, we have the camera bump on the upper corner and predominantly stamped right in there is the Hasselblad logo. In terms of I o, we have just one USB c port in the bottom, with no headphone jack on the topic of the Hasselblad logo, OnePlus is marketing will make you believe this is a giant leap in mobile photography, but really it's just some software color tuning all the nines come in some glossy finish, I believe so. There's no matte version to try to make it look a little more upscale.

Okay, so the actual hardware that builds this camera system here is actually pretty much the same as the OnePlus 8 pro. The current OnePlus 9 has the same Sony mix 689 sensors inside it, as opposed to the nine pro 789 sensors. Now, let's move on to the photos now because in this hyper competitive mid-range segment, it's about figuring out where you can concede and where you can focus on, and we're going to see what OnePlus did here. Luckily, in this phone over its pro companion, there isn't much over sharpening, but that's for a much worse reason. The photos we have here are similar in color profile to the pro series, which makes sense they both benefit from the Hasselblad tuning, but something that I've noticed was more hit or miss, especially in this versus nine pro is that the OnePlus 9 seems to miss the colors sometimes with initial testing.

I was kind of surprised that the photos kept coming out soft as well as a bit drab, but then I noticed when I held the phone really tight or placed it on a tripod. That's when the camera really did its best, and I had to look it up turns out. This phone does not have optical image stabilization, where the OnePlus 9 does a really well job in, like its pro companion, is in his ultra-wide camera. It packs the same large 50 megapixel sensor, which is really nice to play around with. We do lose out on having a telephoto lens here, but altitude I'd rather have an ultra-wide, especially one of this caliber.

Usually ultrawide are an afterthought, but when you put it on this value orientated device, it's really nice to have the colors on the ultrawide tend to be more true to life. But the issue is it's taking a lot more things, a lot more data into the sensor, you're slight, shaking from a lack of an is, really could throw off the entire picture. Humans are imperfect, we shake we move with jitter and that tends to produce a softer image. Overall solutions based and software just don't hold up well, and I suppose it's one of those areas where OnePlus tries to convince people to pay up to jump more into the pro version. Lack of is just holds the overall camera system back, and it clearly is the differentiating factor here, especially when you compare it to other competitors that do have is now, with pictures aside, let's get into the specs and daily usage.

The specs we have here is the snapdragon 888 processors, a 6.55 inch display at 2400 by 1080p, with 120hz refresh rate, eight gigabytes of ram in this unit, 128 gigs of storage, a camera module housing, a 48, megapixel, wide angle, shooter and a 50 megapixel ultrawide, with a 2 megapixel, monochrome camera and in the front we have a 16 megapixel selfie shooter. There is Bluetooth, 5.2 support, Wi-Fi six 5g mid-band ultra-wide depending on your carrier, and it has a 4 500 William hour battery. Now those specs on the table. It really makes you go wow, that's a pretty good phone and paper and honestly, it kind of was I found myself not lacking for, wants or needs, especially when you first open up the phone and get introduced to oxygen, OS 11 based off of android 11. For those who don't know, you can really appreciate on this value-oriented device, or at least more value oriented, as opposed to pro you get the amazing OnePlus software experience, which was just super buttery, smooth and paired with 120 hertz display, which is becoming more of an industry standard now, which is great to have.

Everyone can appreciate that the faster refresh rate just makes everything feel a lot better when playing around with the phone literally just doing everything and anything is just a more enjoyable experience. Something I was also surprised with is that the speakers on this is actually pretty good as well stays nice and clear until you almost top it out in terms of volume, and if you want just to walk around with chores and having it play out loud, you can definitely use it for that now, something that tremendously sucks about this phone is actually having in the hand. Now it completely is one handable. I think it's a pretty good size for that, and the issue is like because the side railing is plastic, it feels remarkably cheap, and it really isn't OnePlus fault, because I'm pretty sure they did it as a cost. Saving measure here having this plastic railing is the thing you're going to touch the most, especially when you're grabbing on your pocket right.

Here's the pocket right there having that cool metal touch just makes it feel more premium, and when you factor in how light it is, it feels like a cheap light phone when it really isn't. The fingerprint reader is fast and accurate a bit lower than I like on the display. It's not really human friendly when you're trying to lock this phone since it is like, as I said, one handed ball, but you have to wiggle around to unlock your phone when you fumble around in your pocket. That's fine! But when you fumble around with the phones out, there's a good chance, you may drop it, especially with something as slippery as the back coating now look into battery life. There's one thing: that's really weird about this phone, and I'm pro this OnePlus 9 has the exact same size battery as a 9 pro a 4 500 William hour battery.

I found it capable of going all day under my normal usage, and one nice thing to throw into the ring is that this technically has a slightly larger battery than the s21 out of the box. It has the same fast charging 65 warp chargers, which you again get for free OnePlus claims that in just 15 minutes you can get a full day's worth of charge, so not exactly 100, but around 80 is what I've noticed, or you can charge it from 1 to 100 in under 29 minutes. What my personal routine was, I do my morning routines and take a shower, and by the time I get out, this phone is ready to go at 100 charge each and every time it's something really nice to have and incorporate into your life, especially if you don't want to keep your phone charging overnight, because that does kind of drain your battery, a bit nice thing to know is if this phone never gets close to dead, I can just pop it into its fast charger, and it'll. Give me plenty of juice now, as always, when you use 5g on this you're, most likely knocking a full days of battery now to quickly touch on 5g. I don't have ultra-wideband support due to my carrier, but I do get the mid-band and what I've noticed that battery does take a slight zap, but it survives all day, although it ends at a lower rate.

I think around 11 or 10, which I don't like, because personally I don't charge my phone overnight so take that into consideration. Also, before we move past the subject, generally speaking, 5g in the future or 5g. If it wants to be more successful in handheld needs more efficient, modems or phones with just larger batteries, and at this point this doesn't have the same thousand milligram batteries, the s21 ultra- it's not competing against it, so I'm not going to hold that against it, but that was the only real phone I use where I used 5g, and I didn't see appreciable drop in battery life because in terms of modem efficiencies for 5g antennas, we're just not there yet, so I defaulted 4g LTE, which is pretty good at the moment. Okay now so, where does this put us, and is this worth recommending take stock of what this phone is going against and then compare now OnePlus 9 versus OnePlus 9 pro this phone loses out on its metal frame, optical image, stabilization, a telephoto lens and a higher res display, and also 50 watt fast charging. Personally, I find those mostly niceties to have, and I would also just toss off the 50 watt fast charging, because I don't use that in my life and out of the people.

I know they don't use fast charging all too much either in terms of wireless fast charging. But one thing I do consider myself: a complete necessity is optical image stabilization because that can really make or break some pictures, especially you know, like I said humans, we're finicky. We suck we're, not computers, we'll move a lot and a lot of these images that showed earlier leaned more soft just because it had no is. Now looking past its own internal competition, we got gotta, compare this to what the others are offering in this again hyper competitive segment. OnePlus is going against veterans here, we're talking about the Samsung, the apple, the Google, the lg oops too soon, but yeah those three, and they're offering some pretty compelling um offerings.

Here you have the s21, you have the pixel 5, and you have the iPhone 12 or 12 mini if we're trying to crack what the mythical code is and how to make a good midi range. What we tended to see is that you got to put the latest processor inside it, so it has the same fast experience, and you got to put a pretty decent camera in there, if not the same camera that you're launching on your traditional flagship. So with that in mind, we merely knock out the pixel 5. It has last year's mid-range soc, which is kind of good for most things, but what I've noticed in my pixel 5 review was that I think I said I knew it wasn't going to age well and that a lot of things weren't transcribed, live in terms of photos so plus in comparison, the OnePlus and the Samsung s21. They both have the 888 processor.

So we know that's gonna, just age better. I guess one last kicking on the floor. The pixel 5 camerae isn't even the best anymore, so it was a sad fall from grace. Okay, now competitively, we now have the s21 and the iPhone 12 or 12 mini, and if you're watching an OnePlus video review, you probably weren't going to buy an iPhone anyways people who get OnePlus tend to be pretty android. So let's just knock that off.

So now we have OnePlus versus Samsung. Now both of these are even though I'm not a big fan of this design. They look premium and at least they have a great build quality, as in as no open seams. It feels really solid in the hand if you ignore the weight a little, but you can tell that these were made with effort and intent. However, the OnePlus decision to opt for plastic as opposed to metal it does make you feel a tad bit cheaper, especially since the s21 goes for the full metal approach wraps around and goes up to the camera module.

Now. The backing for the s21 is plastic, as opposed to this one's glass, but the metal side railing. It tells the whole story in your palm. So, if anything, let's call that a draw and as begrudgingly as always it looks like it comes down to software, and even though these are both android devices, they take a distinctly different approach when it comes to of their take on android on Samsung, we have one UI and in one plus we have oxygen OS and out of those two I have to be honest. I like oxygen OS more, it just feels lighter and has less visible, bloatware overall, and I'm not like I'm one of those that goes.

We must have stock android, but what I can say is out of the two. This was the most enjoyable experience, because what the OS really did well was is that it got out of my way, and I was less cumbersome to buy it. If that made sense. Now, in the realm of software support, this used to be an error that OnePlus, particularly one, was more value orientated. You led the way they were ahead of the pack, but now it's kind of standard, because Samsung has committed to three years of software generation support for its flagship and its most popular phones.

That puts it right about in line here and with that we can't give OnePlus a resounding win here. So in a pure value per dollar assessment, I would actually say the OnePlus 9 eats out the s21, and I would probably recommend this over the OnePlus 9 pro and I try to get people to get this over the s21 because well it's different, but you just get more for it. Honestly. When you compare this to the s21, you have many of the sames to be. First, you have the same 120 hertz display you have the latest 888 processors inside it.

But after that you are sacrificing a bit of overall, a more competent camera system, and that's where you have to draw the line. If you want, like you, really want to have a good camera, but you don't want to pay for like a thousand bucks, you kind of do have to go to the s21, but if you're, okay, with how the camera quality was on this, you could get away with the OnePlus 9. Plus, I feel like it has to be said. You get a charger out of the box of this phone, a perfect, 65 watt, fast charger too, and outside that this costs less. So it really is just value per dollar driven here, but just to make something clear just because I would recommend the OnePlus 9 over the s21 doesn't mean that OnePlus really won this battle, handily either the need is shoes, either add is or give this a metal railing, because that really does matter a lot.

I prefer is more, because I think you could convince people hey. You know what if it's the mid-ranger it's going to have plastic deal with it, but everyone else has optical image stabilization and in this hyper competitive field, it makes no sense not to at least be on that same level and focus elsewhere. Secondly, from that OnePlus, what they really need to do is to as the same as the OnePlus 9 pro video. You need to dedicate yourselves to longer software support. I'm talking four to five years here, beat google their own game, show that you're better at Samsung.

In this regard, you need to convince customers when they buy your phone to stay with your phone, so to keep them loyal to the OnePlus brand, and you need to let others who aren't OnePlus customers know that hey how come I'm only getting three years support, while they're getting five years, and they're paying for less overall. This is a great area to add overall value to the device without adding too much cost on the end user again outside from that OnePlus 9 is really close to the nine pro because it shares a lot of the same things, but I feel, like OnePlus, purposely dropped some features in or differentiated more. So that's where I stand on it. OnePlus 9 is a good phone, it's a great mid-ranger, and it's in a hyper-competitive segment, and I think it performs really well in this hyper-competitive segment. Thanks for watching folks I'll see you next one peace, you.

Source : What the Tech