The OnePlus 9 Pro (starting at $969.99) provides a streamlined flagship encounter to T-Cell and Verizon subscribers, lastly catching up to its opponents. The cell phone by itself is light in the hand, and the user experience is weightless as very well. The cameras choose knockout images in quite a great deal all ailments and the built-in speedy charging is the most effective we’ve viewed. The Galaxy S21 Ultra scores a little bit superior in our battery and wireless radio testing, performs with Samsung’s great S Pen stylus, and its camera features killer optical zoom, so it just edges out the nine Pro to be our Editors’ Selection amongst flagship smartphones. Continue to, the OnePlus nine Professional is excellent. If you want a prime-notch, loaded cellular phone that would make your coronary heart sing, you might be now spoiled for selection.
The OnePlus Assure Is At last Recognized
OnePlus was at the time a company that created a one good cellular phone at a time. Now it has a comprehensive line of telephones at T-Mobile (and companies this kind of as Google Fi, Metro, and Mint Cellular that use T-Mobile’s networks): the $969.ninety nine OnePlus nine Professional, the $729.99 OnePlus nine, the $299.99 OnePlus Nord N10, and the $179.ninety nine OnePlus Nord N100. They all share the OnePlus philosophy, which usually means fast, elegant program and a streamlined physical layout.
Cameras have normally been the 1 place OnePlus tended to slide behind Samsung and Apple, so OnePlus built a offer with Hasselblad for color tuning and bought a new sensor from Sony. As a end result, the 9 Pro’s rear digital camera stack stands out from the competitiveness. It may possibly not have outstanding optical zoom like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Extremely, but it delivers numerous more opportunities for artistic expression. In addition to the regular wide and extremely-extensive lenses you can expect to come across on most phones, OnePlus additional an XPan manner that creates images in a sixty five:24 structure.
The OnePlus 9 offers identical total functionality to the nine Pro but techniques down a bit on display screen, digicam, and radio quality, and it will not combine tremendous-quick wireless charging. If you never mind individuals downgrades, you can conserve $240 and get an even lesser and lighter cell phone. See our review of the OnePlus nine for all the specifics.
Mild, Modern Design
The nine Pro’s foundation model has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The 12GB/256GB model expenses an extra $100. There is no memory card slot. The mobile phone is beautifully sized, measuring 6.forty two by 2.89 by .34 inches (HWD) and weighing six.9 ounces. That’s a very little wider than the 2.eight inches we use as the cutoff width measurement for tiny phones, but it is really noticeably scaled-down and lighter than the Galaxy S21 Extremely, and narrower than the OnePlus eight Professional. Of the a few, the nine Pro is the least difficult to use with a one hand.
A few sights of the OnePlus 9 Professional, exhibiting the green and silver scenario possibilities.
The OnePlus 9 Pro comes in green or silver.
The design, really in tune with OnePlus’ “burdenless design” philosophy, is slender and exquisite. The phone’s physique is rounded, with the classic OnePlus mute switch on the still left facet and the Hasselblad-branded digicam module on the back again. The digital camera does not stick out approximately as considerably as new Samsung camera bumps do (because it would not have a big periscopic zoom lens in it). The front-dealing with digicam is a hole-punch on the upper left corner, just like on the eight Pro.
The cellular phone has an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance, and comes in two shades. If you happen to be not likely to put your phone in a situation, we like the matte pine green improved than the mirrored silver early morning mist glass back, which draws in greasy fingerprints. Our critique unit came with a black carbon-fiber scenario that produced that concern moot. (There’s a third, black phone, but OnePlus tells us it won’t be marketed in the US.)
The back again of the OnePlus 9 Professional in silver
The mirrored again of the silver circumstance is a fingerprint magnet.
In contrast to the Galaxy S21 Extremely and current iPhones, your OnePlus cell phone arrives with a cable and a 65W charger. Luxurious! There is a cause: OnePlus makes use of proprietary USB-C chargers. Though the phone will cost from any USB-C source, it’ll only achieve its greatest charging speeds with the bundled adapter.
You will find no headphone jack or USB-C-to-3.5mm adapter in the box. That stated, the nine Pro sports activities aptX, aptX High definition, LHDC, and Sony’s LDAC Bluetooth codecs for outstanding wi-fi audio. If you choose for OnePlus’ Buds Pro earphones, you’ll get tailored faucet attributes along with 24-bit/96kHz audio at up to 900kbits/s. If you’re hunting at other wi-fi earbuds, appear for a pair with LDAC because it is really much more extensively offered and delivers the optimum-resolution audio shipped above Bluetooth.
As for the onboard speakers, the audio good quality is exceptional. Twin stereo speakers provide audio with a peak volume of 98dB and a shocking little bit of mid-bass. For voice phone calls, which have a utmost quantity of 81dB, the cellphone supports the finest voice codec currently readily available, High definition voice with EVS.
A Vibrant, Still Battery-Preserving Show
The vibrant and crisp six.seven-inch, 525ppi, three,216-by-one,440-pixel display can be dialed back again to 1080p in the phone’s configurations if you want to preserve battery lifetime. The show takes advantage of a somewhat new know-how known as lower-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) that cuts down energy usage and presents cellphone makers a lot more control above refresh rates. It really is the exact engineering that powers Apple’s Iphone thirteen Professional designs as effectively as the Samsung Galaxy S21 sequence.
The LTPO display screen of the OnePlus nine Pro, displaying an impression of clouds
The LTPO screen allows preserve energy.
This is a top rated-of-the-line OLED display with a reward: It really is incredibly obvious in immediate daylight. A display screen protector is preinstalled we failed to take out it from our check device. According to DisplayMate Labs exams, the 9 Pro’s screen established to Automobile Brightness method beats the 8 Pro, the Galaxy S20 collection, and the hottest iPhones in ambient mild, but not the Galaxy Note twenty Extremely. The nine Pro also enhances the maximum colour gamut in its vivid screen manner, which helps it retain shade saturation in outdoor lights.
Superior brightness mode benefits
In addition to in brightness and coloration, the nine Pro’s display isn’t really very easily distinguishable from other the latest top rated-of-the-line OLED panels. The serious news is ability optimization, as the LTPO panel dynamically—and imperceptibly—changes its refresh level from 120Hz all the way down to 1Hz to save strength. Check out our in-depth special for additional on the display.
Colour change success
Extraordinary Velocity and Simplicity of Use
OnePlus telephones are always fast, and the OnePlus nine Professional is no exception. It can be powered by a top-of-the-line Qualcomm Snapdragon 888. It scored a bit improved than the Galaxy S21 Extremely on Geekbench, with single-core scores around 1125 and multi-main scores about 3700. That’s a 24% raise on single-core outcomes and a 12% increase on multi-core outcomes above the OnePlus 8 Professional. None of these telephones can surpass the Iphone 12, while, which scored 1596 SC and 4049 MC with its Apple A14 processor.
The Snapdragon 888 provides a raise in graphics effectiveness, also. On the GFXBench Automobile Chase offscreen benchmark, the nine Pro scored about 70fps, with 37fps onscreen in WQHD mode and 58fps onscreen in Hd method. That’s a significant soar up from the eight Pro, which scored 51fps offscreen and both 26 or 45fps onscreen depending on screen resolution.
See How We Take a look at Phones
These benchmarks do not just take into account OnePlus’ software, which incorporates a bunch of performance enhancements. In our working experience with OnePlus telephones, they truly feel like the speediest Android phones, even speedier than Google Pixels (particularly given that Google began working with midrange chipsets in its flagships with the launch of the Pixel five).
The phone operates Android 11 with OnePlus’ OxygenOS enhancements, and OnePlus states it will get updates as considerably as Android thirteen along with bi-regular safety updates for three years. For a flagship, which is a little disappointing, specially because Samsung presents at minimum three many years of computer software updates on its budget A series styles.
The 9 Pro in a charging cradle displaying a sport.
High-close online games play well on the 9 Pro.
OxygenOS has usually had a bunch of great touches, these kinds of as the skill to set up two copies of social-media applications for various accounts, a placing to improve display screen color based mostly on ambient light, and a Zen manner that briefly disables the phone’s most distracting features. With this variation, OnePlus provides RAM compression that it suggests raises the selection of apps that can remain in memory with saved condition. Our take a look at device experienced no difficulty holding 7 apps in memory, even with the large RAM-hog Genshin Effects at the again of the line.
To check cooling, which OnePlus suggests it truly is enhanced above previous versions, we ran a processor-pumping app referred to as CPU Throttling Test on the nine Pro, the Galaxy S21, and the eight Pro for fifteen minutes. At the ten-moment place, the 8 Pro’s general performance took a sharp dive to about eighty% of peak. The two of the newer phones had been nevertheless protecting nearer to 90% overall performance at that time. Right after thirteen minutes of pumping the processor, the Galaxy S21’s efficiency smoothly declined to a little in excess of eighty% of peak, although the 9 Professional remained in the ninety% variety. Ultimately, the nine Pro’s efficiency declined considerably at almost just fifteen minutes as the cellphone tried to interesting alone down. During the exam as a total, the nine Pro and Galaxy S21 performed at 87–88% of max overall performance, when the 8 Professional was down at seventy eight%.
Gaming overall performance is amped up with a 360Hz touch response fee, but only in four apps: PUBG Cell, Phone of Duty, League of Legends, and Brawl Stars. OnePlus claims it will work on including 360Hz contact guidance to a lot more games. That would certainly support this attribute increase from a curiosity to a differentiator. The Samsung Galaxy S20 telephones provide a 240Hz touch sampling amount Samsung would not give a spec on the Galaxy S21, but we believe it can be the very same.
Ultra-Tremendous-Mega-Fast Charging
The pair of batteries in the nine Professional full four,500mAh. That’s quick of the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s five,000mAh, but OnePlus has a vary of application tips up its sleeve to maintain the cell phone charged—so lots of that we’re not even guaranteed all of them came into use during our testing.
On our typical battery check, functioning a YouTube video clip above Wi-Fi at whole screen brightness, the cell phone lasted for eight several hours, 50 minutes in WQHD resolution and 9 several hours, forty minutes in Hd. Display screen brightness matters a whole lot to battery lifetime: Get the brightness down to 75% and individuals numbers bounce to twelve hours, 40 minutes on WQHD and thirteen hrs on Hd. That is a good deal shorter than the Galaxy S21 Extremely (eleven hours 20 minutes) and the Galaxy S20 FE (12 several hours 30 minutes), but you should really have no problems receiving by way of a working day of reasonable use.
But there’s more to this battery than fulfills the eye. To begin with, the exhibit slows down to 1Hz when you’re seeking at static content, such as an electronic mail you might be mulling around or a website page of an e-e book. That can be a substantial electricity saver. OnePlus also has a status for getting rid of much less electricity to background processes than Samsung does. If you use seventy five% display screen brightness most of the time, you will likely get a lot more than a day of battery life from 1 cost.
OnePlus nine Professional with USB-C Port in aim
The Warp Cost 65T charger can entirely recharge the nine Pro in about 30 minutes.
The 9 Pro also has by considerably the speediest charging speeds of any mobile phone we have at any time examined. It will come with a Warp Cost 65T USB-C charger, which fees the nine Professional from % to 20% in 6 minutes and to 100% in just 36 minutes. Which is 2 times as quickly as any new Samsung mobile phone costs. If you use a 3rd-bash charger, the cellphone will charge at up to 18 watts, with correspondingly extended charge instances.
The genuine breakthrough is in OnePlus’ new Warp Demand fifty wi-fi charger, a $sixty nine.ninety nine accessory cradle that plugs into your existing Warp Cost 65 adapter to supply 50-watt wireless charging for the 9 Professional, or fifteen-watt Qi charging for any other unit. In testing with the Warp Charge 50, the 9 Professional went to 29% in 11 minutes and a hundred% in forty six minutes. Other phones, including the 9, acquire involving ninety minutes and two several hours to wirelessly demand completely.
This all matches with OnePlus’ strategy to cellular phone electricity: It may perhaps not have the biggest batteries in town, but it can refill them the swiftest.
All the 5G Trimmings, for T-Cell and Verizon
Like other Snapdragon 888 telephones, the 9 Pro uses a Qualcomm X60 modem, which will work with all of the features T-Cellular and Verizon intend to use in the following couple many years, which includes new airwaves and aggregation schemes. It has Bluetooth 5.two and Wi-Fi 6 as well, but not Wi-Fi 6E (compared with the Galaxy S21 Extremely).
T-Cell is the only carrier providing the nine Pro, but if you buy 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 states it will only link to 4G.
OnePlus 9 (remaining) and OnePlus nine Professional (correct).
OnePlus nine (left) and OnePlus nine Professional (ideal)
The OnePlus nine Professional has all of the new technologies currently being built-in into T-Cell and Verizon’s networks, including CBRS, C-band, and millimeter wave.
This is a single-SIM cell phone, with no eSIM selection. With a T-Cellular SIM in, the cellphone enabled Wi-Fi contacting, “clever 5G” (which turns 5G on and off to preserve battery), and twin-channel community acceleration (which works by using Wi-Fi and 5G at the very same time if vital). With an AT&T SIM in, as anticipated, the cellular phone used only 4G and lacked Wi-Fi calling.
The large spec difference in between the 9 and the nine Pro is that the nine Pro has mmWave. T-Mobile at the moment only employs mmWave in seven metropolitan areas, and is most very likely to roll it out in tremendous-crowded sites: athletics stadiums, concert halls, convention centers, and the like. It really is a could-be-nice, not a must-have. It can be is extra attractive on Verizon, which has mmWave in the facilities of more than 70 cities now.
We analyzed the nine and the nine Pro towards the Samsung Galaxy S21 with 86 rounds of assessments employing Ookla Speedtest application in New York City, in a assortment of network ailments. (Editors’ Observe: Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag’s publisher.) About seventeen checks, the Galaxy S21 turned in the ideal general performance, the nine Professional got a enhance from mmWave to come in 2nd, and the nine dropped to third. Throughout a variety of non-mmWave exams with mixed sign quality, the Galaxy S21 arrived in first spot once more. In a standalone T-Mobile mid-band “extremely ability” location, on the other hand, the 3 telephones executed virtually identically.
If you might be outside a main metropolis, you are likely most involved about weak-sign functionality. In our checks, the Galaxy S21 confirmed the strongest 4G RSRP sign 29 times the 9 Pro was strongest 26 instances, and the nine was strongest 22 situations. So the Galaxy S21 wins at the time once again, although not by a great deal. More than six rounds of tests in a weak-signal place, the Galaxy S21 confirmed stronger sign only three of the occasions, but the nine Pro experienced two signal dropouts. The Galaxy S21’s edge is slight but recognizable.
Blinding You With (Color) Science
Imaging collaborations aren’t new for smartphone producers. Huawei has partnered with Leica for years the Zeiss name is plastered on the back of smartphones from Nokia, Sony, and Vivo. Hasselblad’s only earlier US partnership was with Motorola on its clunky but capable Accurate Zoom Moto Mod, but the nine sequence brings Hasselblad back to the smartphone marketplace in triumphant model. The 9 Professional is capable of using incredible pics with each individual lens.
The 48MP main lens has an f/1.8 aperture, optical impression stabilization (OIS), and electronic image stabilization (EIS). There is also a 50MP ultra-broad lens with an f/two.2 aperture, and a 8MP telephoto lens with an f/2.four aperture, as well as a 2MP monochrome sensor. You will come across all the regular flagship bells and whistles on the 9 Professional: twin LED flash, multi-autofocus with omnidirectional Section Detection AF (PDAF), Laser AF (LAF), and Distinction AF (CAF). A large 50-megapixel ultra-vast lens requires wonderful reduced-mild photographs. You will find also 8K movie at 30fps and 4K at up to 120fps, and tremendous-slow movement at up to 480fps in 720p.
Back of OnePlus 9 Professional with camera in target
A substantial fifty-megapixel ultra-huge lens normally takes lovely low-light-weight images.
Oneplus 8T Popsocket Covers
For the most component, the camera app is intuitive and effortless to use. The shutter button is a Hasselblad-branded orange, and it will make a distinct Hasselblad shutter seem. Our only grievance is that we observed Tilt Change method a little bit clunky and hard to use.
Picture of rooftop with eco foliage
The OnePlus nine Pro’s drop update enhanced very low-light functionality.

Some of the 9 Pro’s most substantial digital camera options are in the application. Hasselblad labored carefully with OnePlus to update its color science and produce more capabilities for pro smartphone shooters. In car and Pro modes, shades are heat, with reds and blues finding a healthier saturation improve though yellows and greens to be a very little undersaturated. Due to the fact OnePlus and Hasselblad place a major emphasis on the 9 series’ shade science, we in comparison the nine Professional to a handful of other flagships and identified it stood up incredibly perfectly to the competitiveness.
Apple critically improved its colour science with iOS fourteen and the Iphone twelve. Where by the nine Professional tends to saturate reds and blues, Apple focuses additional on boosting luminance, so the Apple iphone 12’s pictures have a tendency to glance a minor much more correct to existence than the nine Pro’s.
Location photographs from the 9 Professional and the Galaxy S21 Ultra facet by side and you can quickly recognize the change amongst the two cameras. OnePlus can take a lighter hand with boosting saturation and other computational changes Samsung is a great deal additional aggressive. In one of our test photographs, a dreary March sky captured on the Galaxy S21 Extremely out of the blue grew to become blue. The 9 Professional was a great deal much more correct in its general illustration of the scene.
Aspect-by-side pictures of a making underneath a cloudy sky in the photo on the left, the sky seems to be blue
The image colours from the nine Professional (right) are additional precise than the ones sent by the Galaxy S21 Ultra (remaining).
In Pro method, you can change ISO, emphasis publicity time, white stability, and a range of other settings. There’s also the possibility to shoot in twelve-bit Uncooked structure, which offers sixty four times the shade facts of the ten-bit Raw on other flagships.
The ultra-huge 50MP lens is a Sony IMX 766 sensor that’s drastically much larger than the a single in the Iphone twelve Professional Max. In our checks the lens did a marvelous occupation in both shiny and low gentle. Pictures are crisp with superb depth of area and strong qualifications element.
Side-by-side ultra-extensive-angle shots of a creating
Extremely-large-angle pictures are a main advantage for the nine Professional (ideal), which results in a great deal fewer edge distortion than the Galaxy S21 Extremely (still left).
Our photographs taken with the key lens were remarkable as properly. In fantastic mild, the 9 Pro retains its very own against other flagships, with sensible depth of discipline and barely any loss of fantastic detail.
In the fall of 2021, OnePlus sent a big update to the camera’s software package. Test pictures clearly show extra accurate white stability and are crisp without staying oversharpened, a prevalent problem with most smartphone cameras. When we reviewed the pictures at complete dimensions, the shots remained crisp and experienced significantly less sound.
The application is also faster in common and there is less shutter lag. It can be a minor transform, but it helps make a massive difference when getting shots with motion.
A snowy rooftop with several sculptures and other objects
The primary lens will take best-notch pictures even in muted light-weight.
But in which the digicam truly excels is in low gentle. The key lens did nicely, as expected. Our exam shots with the drop update remained crisp with an improved texture-to-noise ratio. The large improvement, even so, was with dynamic selection and overall scene accuracy. The two worked in conjunction to build a more honest reflection of the minute.
And whilst we were significantly bowled over by the ultra-extensive lens’ overall performance in our authentic assessments, the camera update just created things improved. All of the advancements we seen in the major lenses were apparent in our extremely-extensive exam photographs. All those enhancements, combined with the lack of distortion, will make the OnePlus 9 Pro’s ultra-extensive lens the very best we’ve tested.
A cityscape at night time, with lights reflecting off a damp road
Extremely-vast minimal-gentle photographs are wonderful, with astonishingly tiny distortion.
We did not observe a great deal enhancement in our pictures with the telephoto lens following the program update. The OnePlus 9 Pro’s telephoto lens is better than what you may locate on its predecessor, but it continue to does not look at with the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra’s. At decrease zoom amounts, our exam pictures had lots of detail, although there was some predicted loss of depth in the distance.
Facet-by-facet photos of illustrated symptoms at 30x zoom.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Extremely does a significantly far better occupation at 30x zoom.
As we bumped up the zoom, having said that, we started out to notice substantial blur and sounds when in comparison with the exact impression taken on the Galaxy S21 Extremely. The unnatural sharpening we discovered in our first test photographs, nevertheless, has been appreciably enhanced.
Side-by-facet 10x zoom visuals of a cease indicator
Although the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra has an edge at 10x zoom, the 9 Pro does a reliable task with its current slide camera update.
Smartphone macro lenses are not often worthy of making use of, but below the 9 Pro truly stands out. Our macro pictures were being a lot sharper than envisioned, and leagues improved than pics taken with the 8’s 2MP macro lens.
A photo of pink and eco-friendly macarons on a white plate
Macarons, in macro.
The monochrome sensor performs in tandem with the principal sensor to get gorgeous black-and-white pictures with loads of depth and inky blacks. Huawei included a comparable feature for years and then instantly eliminated it, causing an outcry from smartphone shutterbugs. If you knew and cherished that function, the nine Pro’s resurrection of it will delight you.
Black-and-white photograph of public artwork installation in which a huge white sculpture of a hand grabs a tree trunk
The monochrome lens normally takes strong black-and-white pictures.
The major, and most spectacular, modify to the OnePlus 9’s digital camera, having said that, is the addition of XPan method. It is really a function that mimics Hasselblad’s now-discontinued XPan cameras to generate an impression that’s reminiscent of these you would get with its 30mm and 45mm lenses.
The photographs are cropped to a sixty five:24 aspect ratio. It truly is a extraordinary glimpse that provides you a complete new way to inform stories, and evokes pictures of film stills. There are options to shoot in shade as well as black and white.
It truly is tough to overstate just how considerably area XPan presents for creative imagination. four:three and sixteen:9 facet ratios are so ubiquitous, that it usually takes a conquer to get utilised to all the distinctive items you can do in the structure.
Panoramic shot of a Catholic rectory at night time.
XPan manner allows you to just take spectacular photos in a unique factor ratio.
We tested XPan in many lighting eventualities and it performed flawlessly. Our test photographs ended up immersive and crisp, with exceptional dynamic vary. Depth of industry is outstanding as nicely.
Black and white picture of a mid-century developing
Monochrome shots in XPan manner glimpse spectacular.
Hasselblad’s one of a kind coloration science for XPan also produces an totally different come to feel which is similar to pictures shot on Kodak Ektachrome or Fuji Provia slide movie. Our images showed significantly less distinction and far more purely natural shades that practically appear a little bit undersaturated since we have develop into so accustomed to more than-saturation on smartphones.
Decommissioned switching station with festive lights
Portraits and more compact scenes glimpse greater with the 30mm focal-size environment in XPan manner.
On the entrance of the 9 Professional, you will come across a 32MP lens. It performs particularly nicely in any lights problem. There’s a tiny background blur in our photos, which is to be expected. Foreground detail and depth of industry, having said that, are spot on. Portrait method is effective without a hitch as very well. Our examination shots experienced a purely natural bokeh and ideal depth mapping in each and every shot.
A selfie of a bearded white person in eyeglasses and a cap
Selfies are specific and apparent.
A person Modest Stage Shy of the Crown
The OnePlus 9 Professional is an exceptional cell phone. At $970, it retains its very own from the somewhat additional costly Galaxy S21 Ultra and Apple iphone twelve Professional. It will not really match the Galaxy S21 Extremely on digital camera zoom or community efficiency, but it is really lighter and sleeker, it has some one of a kind digital camera tips, and you will find that renowned OnePlus speed and sophisticated software program. That remarkable rapidly charging and the battery-saving show also make a large variation in day-to-day use. The nine Pro is improved than the OnePlus eight sequence in each and every way, so the up grade is very easily warranted. It only fails to nab our Editors’ Selection award since the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is even much more superb and can be applied on any carrier. The 9 Pro and the Galaxy S21 Extremely together now outline the Android point out of the artwork. Relying on your priorities, both will serve you pretty very well for the upcoming handful of a long time.