Hey Guys, My name is Nipun (Some of you may know me as Nipu_1998 from the community). I am so excited and honoured to be a part of the OnePlus LAB Programme. I am a medical student from India who is also interested in gadgets and tech. Before jumping into the review, I would like to thank @Crystal Z. @Eric X. @dsmonteiro and all other OnePlus staff and mods for selecting me and making my dream of becoming an OnePlus LAB reviewer come true.
Throughout this review, I would be mentioning the OnePlus 9 pro Morning Mist (Indian Unit) with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of Storage
CONTENTS
Unboxing
Design
Display
Battery and charging
Performance
Audio and connectivity
Oxygen OS
Camera
Specifications and UI
Photos
Videos
conclusion
Summary & verdict
1/11
UNBOXING
OnePlus products are well known for their premium Unboxing Experiences. The OnePlus 9 pro is not an exception either.
The experience starts with the minimalist OnePlus Red box.
The box is constructed with soft-touch packaging materials and feels premium from the very first touch. The top part of the box houses the 'OnePlus 9 pro 5G' and the 'Hasselblad' branding printed in golden-red letters. The OnePlus and Hasselblad logos can be seen on either side of the packaging. The bottom of the box contains all the safety labels and device information printed on it.
Opening the lid, you will be greeted by the gorgeous OnePlus 9 pro.
In my case, it is the morning mist variant, wrapped in the safety wrapper.
Let's keep the device aside and look at what else do we get inside the box.
Inside the box we have
warp charge 65 adapter
Iconic Red charging cable
Welcome letter
Quick start guide
Safety information
OnePlus sticker set
Sim tray ejector tool
Red cable club membership card
SAR value information
A grey colored Opaque TPU case
Pre-applied screen protector.
[Charger is included in the box. That too a 65W fast charger]
OnePlus have done a commendable job in making the unboxing experience a premium one. The use of high-quality packaging material and the attention to details such as the subtle brandings and the resistance offered by the box while lifting the lid are small things that make a huge difference in the end-user experience.
The device comes with a pre-applied screen protector which can protect the device from minor accidental scratches. But, the quality of the screen protector is just okayish and it can be easily scratched and is a fingerprint magnet. So I would highly recommend replacing it with a good quality aftermarket tempered glass ( OnePlus has not yet released an official tempered glass for the OnePlus 9 pro. So it would be a tedious job to find a perfectly fitting one for the curved screen)
The grey-colored opaque TPU case seems to be a well-thought inclusion. The case owing to its opaque nature is expected to solve the yellowing problem faced by clear TPU cases.
The case has a prominent NEVER SETTLE branding which gives it a character and also helps to increase the grip. The case provides ample protection and an added grip to the slippery device.
While unboxing, the code PID-50Q printed in the packaging caught my attention.
Upon googling, I found that it was the code name for the Partnership of OnePlus with Hasselblad. The Hasselblad effect is so evident all over the packaging with Hasselblad logos and brandings of the collaboration. This increases my excitement to test the cameras of the OnePlus 9 series co-developed with Hasselblad.
That's all for today.
I Will be coming up with the rest of the review on this thread.
Do let me know how you felt about the review and also what all features you want me to be tested in the coming days.
You can also reach me out via Community Chat, Twitter and Instagram with your queries.
2/11
DESIGN
said:
OnePlus has gone with a minimalistic and burdenless design for the OnePlus 9 Pro. The design of the phone is not something that stands out from the rest of the flagships out there. The OnePlus 9 Pro’s design seems to have taken cues from that of the OnePlus 8 pro and the 8T with slight tweaks and improvements.
The device has a 6.7 inch curved AMOLED screen with a single punch hole to the top left corner and has minimal bezels surrounding the screen. OnePlus has trimmed down the curvature of the screen when compared to the OnePlus 8 pro and this helps in solving the issues like discoloration at the edges and ghost touches to a large extent.
[The 6.7 inch gorgeous fluid AMOLED display]
The device with its flagship sized display has a pretty big footprint with its dimensions measuring 16.32 cm x 7.36 cm x 0.87 cm and weighs 197 g. Regardless of those big numbers, the device offers a great in-hand feel. The well-engineered weight distribution and sleek design make the device comfortable to hold even for a long period.
The device comes with a solid glass and metal sandwich build with Gorilla Glass 5 to the front and the back. OnePlus has gone with Gorilla Glass 5 instead of the Gorilla Glass Victus. So you may miss out on some extra grades of shatter resistance.
The OnePlus 9 pro is available in 3 different colours and finishes namely, the Morning mist, pine green and Stellar black spotting glossy, matte and sandstone finishes respectively. The device I have been testing is the Glossy Morning Mist variant. The Morning Mist has a beautiful gradient finish shimmering from silver to black depending upon the angle of vision. Even though the device looks and feels premium, the glossy finish comes with its caveats -The back panel, being a glossy one, tends to attract a lot of fingerprints and smudges and require constant wipes to keep it clean. The glossy back also tends to make the phone slippery at times. I would suggest getting the other 2 finishes if you are planning to rock the device without a case just like MKBHD or else it's better to use the device with a case slapped on.
[These tiny dots creates the gradient pattern of the finish]
The back of the phone is clean and elegant with the OnePlus branding at the centre and a fairly large camera module in the top left corner. The Camera module houses a 48 MP primary camera, a 50MP ultrawide camera, a 3.3x 8MP telephoto camera, a 2 MP monochrome sensor, a laser AF module, dual-tone LED flash, video microphone and the iconic Hasselblad branding. The Main and the ultrawide lenses with their prominent silver ring adds a bit of character to the back of the device. The phone does wobble when kept on flat surfaces due to the camera bump.
Speaking of the ports, the bottom part of the device houses the secondary speaker grill which completes the dual stereo speaker setup, a primary microphone, a Type C 3.1-Gen 1 port and the sim tray ( my device being the Indian variant has support for dual sim cards). The device does miss out on a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a Micro SD expansion slot.
The frame houses the volume rockers to the left, the alert slider and the power button to the right. The top houses the secondary noise-cancelling microphone.
The buttons are constructed from metal and are ergonomically placed such that they won’t interfere with the usability of the device in landscape orientation. The buttons offer great tactile feedback and the alert slider has got an ample amount of resistance and is an added convenience to the user.
The In-display fingerprint sensor has been shifted to a much lower position when compared to the OnePlus 8 series and will require some retraining of your muscle memory to get used to. Luckily, the change doesn’t affect the ergonomics and usability of the device. The fingerprint sensor is also fast, accurate and reliable.
The OnePlus 9 Pro do have all those bells and whistles of a flagship device like support for 50 W wireless charging, reverse wireless charging and an official IP 68 water and dust resistance rating.
3/11
DISPLAY
The display of a device is the portal through which the user interacts with the device and it forms the key determinant in the user experience. OnePlus has always focused on delivering leading-edge displays in its devices. OnePlus 9 Pro follows the legacy and delivers one of the most advanced displays with top of the line hardware and software features. said:
The device has a gorgeous and vibrant 6.7 inch, QHD+, 10- bit LTPO AMOLED display with minimally curved edges that slowly blends with the frame. The curve has been skillfully toned down to minimize the off-axis and accidental touches. The curved screen offers an immersive viewing experience and also makes the swipe gestures a lot smoother too. Even though I am a fan of flat-screen panels, I love the implementation in the OnePlus 9 Pro.
OnePlus has opted for a Samsung made E4 AMOLED panel for the device. The panel is based on the new E4 LTPO technology from Samsung and is fairly power efficient, thin, colour accurate and can also get fairly bright up to 1300 nits. The display has the top of line features like a maximum supported resolution of 3216 x 1440 pixels with a pixel density of 525ppi. The new LTPO (Low-temperature polycrystalline oxide) panel supports the new Fluid Display 2.0 from OnePlus and this enables the device to dynamically adjust the refresh rate from 1 Hz to 120 Hz depending upon the content on the display. The transition from 1 Hz to 120 Hz is smooth and unnoticeable for the most part, but occasionally i noticed some stutters and lags in the UI while switching from static to dynamic content especially when the device was running warm. The panel has a peak brightness of 1300 nits at the automatic settings and is also a Display mate A+ graded panel with a native 10-bit colour depth, HDR10+ certification. The panel produces excellent calibrated colours and is one of the most accurate panels with natural colour reproduction.
Keeping all those specs aside, the display is crisp, vibrant, smooth and colour accurate. I enjoyed watching a lot of content on this gorgeous panel. The HDR performance is top class with contrast levels and peak brightness. Everything looked so accurate and detailed on the display.
The display offers good daylight visibility and viewing angles. The panel with its efficient 8192 levels of adaptive brightness levels, managed to remain fairly visible even under the harsh mid-noon sun. On the other extreme, the panel can also get fairly dim and I had no issues using the device in a dark room.
The display also has some software features up its sleeve like comfort tone, MEMC, ultra-high Res video, vibrant colour effect pro and Hyper touch feature.
The comfort tone feature uses the RGB ambient light sensor in the device to detect the colour temperature of the room and dynamically adjusts the screen’s colour temperature accordingly. This feature along with the adaptive brightness offers an excellent viewing experience regardless of how harsh the lighting conditions can get.
MEMC (Motion Estimation Motion Compensation) is a feature that helps for a smooth viewing experience. This feature uses frame interpolation and upscaling techniques to convert the normal 24/30 fps videos to 60fps and this makes the content appear smoother while watching content on supported apps like Netflix, YouTube, Amazon prime video and the In-built gallery app. In my experience, I found that the MEMC at times can interfere with the feel of a movie by pumping in those extra frames and can also result in ghosting of frames. The software manipulated frames can also cause a reduction in the sharpness and clarity too. Lucky for us, OnePlus has included a toggle to turn off this feature and also lets the user know whenever the system starts to manipulate the frames with a pop-up warning on the screen.
The Ultra Hi-Res video is another software feature that uses AI to enhance video clarity in apps like Instagram.
The Vibrant colour effect pro feature enables the conversion of normal SDR tone to HDR tone. This helps in increasing the colour vibrancy.
The Hyper-touch feature is a gamer-centric feature that reduces the touch response time of the screen and elevates the gaming experience. When the setting is enabled, the touch response rates are bumped up from 240hz to 360 Hz in supporting titles like COD, League Of Legends, Brawl stars and PUBG mobile.
The other display features like vision comfort, reading mode and a system-wide dark mode are also seen in the device. The vision comfort mode helps to reduce the blue light emissions from the screen and is helpful while using the device in dimly lit environments.
For those who are concerned about the quality of the panel, I am happy to report that the OnePlus 9 Pro’s display has no concerning issues like discolorations, tinting, black crush, hole-punch banding.
OnePlus also offers a good level of customisation in the display settings like the ability to switch between the colour profiles, set the resolution and refresh rates.
In the refresh rate settings, we only get the option to choose between smart 120 Hz and normal 60 Hz. There are no options to set the refresh rate at a constant 120 Hz or to a refresh rate like 90 Hz.
Overall the OnePlus 9 Pro has the best display available on any smartphone right now in terms of quality and the features.
4/11
BATTERY LIFE AND CHARGING
The OnePlus 9 PRO comes with a 4500 mAh dual-cell battery which is composed of 2 individual cells each with a capacity of 2250 mAh. said:
BATTERY LIFE
Battery life is the only thing that is not so pro about the OnePlus 9 pro. The battery life can be called a one-day battery life for medium usage conditions including casual browsing, social media usage, and camera usage. But if you are a heavy user who plays demanding titles and shoots a lot of photos and videos, you are gonna need a quick top-up of the battery to power you till the end of the day.
With my usage case involving browsing the web, social media including WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, a couple of hours on YouTube, and camera usage, I managed to get about 4-5 hours of SOT and ended the days with almost 10% of battery left in the tank. During my period of testing, the device was set on Smart resolution ( Automatically switching between FHD+ and QHD+ depending upon the content ), Smart refresh rate (the refresh rate switching from 1 Hz to 120 Hz depending upon the content), and the Adaptive brightness and comfort modes were also turned on during the entire period.
I was expecting the 9 Pro to have a better battery life than my OnePlus 8T which used to give around 6-7 hours of SOT on similar usage scenarios considering the power-efficient SD 888 chipset and LTPO panel which claims to consume about 50% less power than conventional AMOLED panels.
CHARGING
OnePlus 9 Pro is one of the fastest charging phones available to the masses right now. The device ships with a 65 W fast charger in the box which OnePlus calls the WARP CHARGE 65T and is an improved version of the WARP CHARGE 65 technology that we saw in the OnePlus 8T. Even though the charging bricks are identical, OnePlus claims that the OnePlus 9 Pro could achieve faster-charging speeds than the OnePlus 8T, owing to the new cell design which has a lower internal resistance value and can pump more current thereby increasing the charging speeds.
In my testing, I got a 0-100% charging time of 36-38 minutes with the OnePlus 9 Pro and this is an improvement over the 40-43 minutes of the OnePlus 8T.
The charging temperatures are also kept under normal values. Strangely the internal thermal sensor data shows "OVERHEATING" in the CPU-Z and DevVCheck applications ( this may be due to the early software builds the device is running on or due to problems in the optimization of these applications for the model. Will update the thread after the next software patch)
The device also has support for 50W wireless charging, which is a considerable leap over the 30 W wireless charging which we saw on the OnePlus 8 Pro. The device also supports reverse wireless charging and will come in handy to quickly top up your wearable devices and other wireless charging supported devices on the go. ( I was not able to test the wireless charging feature due to the lack of stock of the 50W wireless charger on the OnePlus online store).
OnePlus has implemented its Optimized charging feature to the device and this feature when enabled will help to save the battery health by preventing overcharging.The feature uses AI algorithms to adjust the charging speeds according to your daily routine. I feel that OnePlus could have implemented some other features like the charge level limiter similar to what we saw on the ROG phones and some other flagships last year. This would have been an added layer of protection to the battery.
The Warp Charge 65T compensates for the average battery life and has got your back whenever you need a quick top up.
5/11
PERFORMANCE
The OnePlus 9 Pro is a true flagship when it comes to performance. The device is powered by the latest and greatest Snapdragon 888 which is fabricated on the new 5nm process from Samsung. The SD 888 is an octa-core CPU that has a single ARM Cortex-X1 core clocked at up to 2.84 GHz, three Cortex-A78 cores clocked at up to 2.41 GHz, and four Cortex-A55 cores clocked at up to 1.80 GHz. The processor also features the Adreno 660 GPU. As per claims the SD 888 is said to have 25% faster CPU performance and 35% better GPU performance compared to the Snapdragon 865 which we saw on the OnePlus 8 series devices. The device which I was testing was the top-of-the-line variant equipped with 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256 GB of fast UFS 3.1 storage.
SYNTHETIC BENCHMARK TESTS
To push the device to its limits and analyze the performance, I used a couple of synthetic benchmark applications like AnTuTu V9.0.1-0B, Geek Bench 5, and PC Mark.
Here are the results
(crossing the AnTuTu score of 8 lakh with active cooling under artificially made testing condition Ps: The device does not come with active cooling)
(Holds the peak performance well under extended CPU load)
(The UFS 3.1 storage in action)
These benchmarks could only test the raw performance of the device and gives a rough idea about the capacity of the hardware inside. The true flagship experience is completed by the magical tough from OnePlus in the form of those optimizations that make their phones feel the fastest among other android flagships out there.
REAL WORLD USAGE
The OnePlus 9 pro is a solid performer when it comes to handling day-to-day tasks. The device with its sheer power was able to handle even heavy tasks like video editing, rendering, file compression, and gaming without even breaking a sweat. The SD 888 combined with fast RAM and 120 Hz fluid AMOLED screen makes everything feel as smooth as butter. The app opening times and switching between apps felt instantaneous. The addition of new features like RAM virtualization and Turbo boost 3.0 helps a lot in keeping even the most demanding titles in memory along with a long row of apps. The thermal performance of the device is also pretty good except for a weird heating issue while using the camera (On continuous usage of the camera app for more than 10 minutes in outdoor conditions, the phone shows overheating warnings and refuses to click pictures or record videos. The device also gets extremely warm around the camera module and during these episodes, the UI feels extremely laggy and shows signs of stutter).
The issue may be due to some weird bug in the camera app since the device was able to hold its peak performance in stress tests for an extended period and with only a slight dip in performance.
The device was able to play titles like COD at the maximum graphics and frame rate settings without any hiccups.
(default settings in COD mobile )
The gameplay was really smooth and i really enjoyed playing my favourite titles on the device. The new hyper-touch feature helps in reducing the response time and gives us an advantage over the opponents especially during close combats sessions. The new cooling system does its job well and even though the gets a little warmer ( not something to worry about) after multiple COD sessions, the heat was evenly distributed and no major performance drops were noticed. But on my testing, I have noticed the device showing higher CPU and battery temperature values when compared to other devices like the OnePlus 8T during regular day-to day usage. If you are a semi-pro gamer, the OnePlus 9 Pro would be a great choice for you and can run almost all games and you won’t be disappointed by its performance.
The dedicated Pro Gaming Mode (rebranded Fnatic mode) helps in blocking notifications from apps, calls, and other distractions so you can play your favourite titles without any interruption.
The haptics in this device is also class-leading and I felt it to be more refined than the already good haptics of the OnePlus 8T. OnePlus has carefully integrated the fine-tuned haptic feedbacks all over the UI and it adds to the user experience of the device.
6/11
Audio
The OnePlus 9 Pro has a dual stereo speaker setup with the earpiece doubling up as the secondary loudspeaker. The setup can get pretty loud and the stereo separation is also good. But, owing to the fact that there is no dedicated stereo speaker at the top, the imbalance in the outputs between both speakers is evident at higher volumes. The device also supports Dolby Atoms with 3 custom profiles. I used the device with my OnePlus Buds and the audio output was a fairly enjoyable one.
Connectivity
The OnePlus 9 Pro is equipped with Qualcomm's new X60 5G modem and is said to offer low-latency 5G mobile speeds with support for carrier aggregation. I could not test the 5G Network performance as 5G is still not available here in my country. Also, the OnePlus 9 Pro supports only the N41 and N78 5G bands here in India and hence 5G support will remain an unanswered question till the 5G band auctions take place. OnePlus could have added support for a couple more 5G bands to its premium flagship device, as even midrange phones are now launching with support for more than four 5G bands. On my testing on Jio 4G connection, the device performed well and no call drops or connectivity issues were faced. The device also supports carrier aggregation.
The device has support for WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 ( with support for aptX. aptX HD, LDAC, and AAC codecs), and NFC.
7/11
Oxygen OS
The OnePlus 9 Pro ships with Oxygen OS 11, which is the latest iteration of oxygen OS. OOS 11 is built on top of Android 11 with an ample amount of productivity customization features.
Oxygen OS 11 has been a controversial change and design decisions taken by OnePlus, attracted mixed opinions from the users. The benefits of the new UI overhaul done by OnePlus comes for your help on a tall device like the OnePlus 9 Pro. The UI is optimized for one-handed use and this makes the overall usability of the device a lot better when compared to the conventional android UIs optimized for 16:9 screens. The changes like large headers and shifting of the most frequently interacted UI elements to a far more reachable position improves the usability of the device.
(Big bold changes)
OnePlus have carefully optimized its UI for modern-day hardware, meanwhile keeping the pure and bloat-free android experiences as its foundation.
The OOS 11 also comes with a handful of customization features like customizable AOD & ambient display, lock screen, system accent colours, icons, fonts and a lot more.
OOS 11 also has support for digital well-being features like the work-life balance mode, focus assist, and the iconic OnePlus Zen mode which will help you to isolate yourself from all digital distractions and stay focused on your goals. The skin also brings productivity features like parallel app support, lockbox, gesture controls, quick launch, quick reply and plenty others.
(Phone down..life On)
OnePlus 9 Pro comes with the Google Communication suite, consisting of Google Dialler, Messaging app, and Google duo for video calls.
The OOS11 was pretty aggressive on battery optimizations and this caused a delay in notifications from apps like Gmail, Slack, and telegram messenger during my usage. I had to remove these apps from the battery optimization settings to solve the issue.
OnePlus has also ditched the File dash option from the file manager of the OnePlus 9 pro and now you have to resort to nearby sharing to share files between android devices or some 3rd party offerings to send files from your phone to your laptops and other non- android devices.
screenshots of file managers from 8T and 9 pro
8T
9 pro
8/11
CAMERAS
OnePlus phones were solid performers in the hardware and software front and could stand alongside their flagship counterparts in terms of performance. But, despite having good camera hardware, the OnePlus phones were not able to deliver good camera performance and lagged behind the competition in terms of their image quality and consistency. OnePlus has finally listened to the users and has announced their partnership with the renowned flagship camera brand in a move to improve the camera performance of their device and give it the flagship touch that was missing. In this review, we will be talking about the new camera hardware and analyzing the camera performance of the device in detail.
Camera Specifications
Let’s first speak about the camera specs of the OnePlus 9 Pro.
If you are already familiar with the camera specifications and modes, feel free to CLICK HERE and jump directly into the camera review section.
Primary camera
- 48 MP
- Custom-made Sony IMX789 sensor with a Sensor Size of 1/1.43”.
- Pixel size - 1.12 μm in full Res shots and 2.24 μm in pixel binned shots.
- Optically stabilized 7P lens
- Focal length - 23 mm
- Aperture of f/1.8
Ultrawide camera
- 50MP
- Sony IMX766 sensor with a Sensor Size of 1/1.56”.
- Freeform lens
- Focal Length -14mm
- Aperture - f/2.2
- The ultrawide camera also doubles up as a macro camera with a minimum focusing distance of 4cm.
Telephoto
- 8 MP
- Optically stabilized with 3.3X zoom
- Pixel size – 1.0 μm
- Aperture – f/2.4
Monochrome sensor
- 2 MP
- To increase the detail levels in B&W photos captured by the main camera.
Front camera
- 16 MP
- Sony IMX 471
- Pixel size – 1.0 μm
- EIS
- Fixed focus
- Aperture – f/2.4
Camera UI
The OnePlus camera UI is simple yet feature-rich. All the camera modes are neatly arranged in the bottom tab and can switch between them by a simple swipe gesture to the sides or by swiping up from the bottom of the viewfinder for the neatly arranged camera mode menu.
The camera shutter button is replaced by the iconic Hasselblad Orange shutter button and the shutter sound has been changed to Hasselblad leaf shutter sound.
The camera modes include
- Photo – includes the toggle to switch between Main, UW, and telephoto lenses with support for HDR on all three lenses. The ultrawide camera automatically switches to super macro mode for clicking close-up macro shots. The UW and main camera can capture 50 MP and 48 MP hi-Res shots respectively.
- Portrait – Uses the main sensor to take portraits, not the telephoto
- Nightscape – OnePlus’s home tuned night mode is supported both on the Main and UW lenses.
- Hasselblad Pro mode – The pro-mode with Hasselblad color tuning and gives manual control over ISO, Shutter speed, Exposure, White Balance, and Focus with support for focus peaking and histogram. The pro mode also supports 12-bit RAW support.
- Tilt-shift mode –helps to create a miniature effect
- Panorama
- Time lapse – supports 4K time lapse at up to 480 X speed on all three lenses and also supports for 5X hyper lapse on the main camera.
- Video – The main camera has support for 8K @30 fps, 4K @120/60/30 fps,1080P @60/30fps, and also supports nightscape video and portrait video modes. The UW has support for 4K @60/30 fps and 1080P @60/30 fps. Also supports focus tracking and super steady modes(capped at 1080P/30 and 4K/30)
- Slow motion- The slow-motion videos can be captured at 1080P @240 fps and 720P @480 fps.
9/11
Now let's look how much does the HASSELBLAD HYPE transforms into real world usage.
Before jumping into the review, please note that in order to meet the upload limits of the forum, the images used for the review are compressed using YalmCo image compressor by @hennes .(A google drive with all camera samples will be linked HERE and will be updated regularly)
MAIN CAMERA
(Image shot on the main camera in 12MP)
The daylight shots produced from the camera have a good amount of detail, sharpness, contrast and accurate colours. The colour reproduction in the images is also on point and close to natural in most shots, but I sometimes an inconsistency in the saturation levels of different colours can be noticed. The colours, sometimes looks a bit muted or sometimes, the output has boosted reds and blues.This won't be a major issue for most users, but if you are someone who loves natural colour and needs to edit them on post, you may need to revisit the shot before wrapping up your shoot.These are minor inconsistencies in the software and can be easily solved via updates in future.
(Detailed with true to life colours)
The image processing algorithm in the OnePlus 9 Pro is a considerable improvement over the previous OnePlus devices, but still it still lacks the finishing which we expect from a flagship camera. The top-notch hardware is yet to be utilized to its full potential and I believe OnePlus can bring more improvements to the camera with this excellent hardware.
The camera system has an improved HDR performance comparing to its predecessors and does a good job in producing balanced images and is able to pull ample details from the highlights and shadows. But, the HDR has also got issues in delivering consistent and reliable performance. The HDR performance is good in 8/10 instances but in the remaining 2/10 conditions, the algorithm messes up and sometimes fails to bring out details from the shadows and also in some other shots, smoothens out the details in highlighted parts of the image. These are minor inconsistencies in the HDR and can be fixed via an update if OnePlus wishes to improve the performance further.
The main camera is also capable of producing good quality images in indoor lighting conditions. The sensor owing to its sheer size is capable of absorbing a lot of light in dim-lit environments and can produce usable images without the help of a dedicated night mode. The images come out great with a good amount of detail and the colours are good too.
The camera shines when you give it ample light, even in indoor lighting conditions.
Despite the camera having a laser autofocus module, In my usage, I felt the camera was slow to lock the focus and has some focus hunting issues for smaller and closer subjects and I had to manually set the focus by tapping the screen on multiple occasions to get the subject under focus.
This issue was only noticeable while clicking photos, but the videos had no focusing issues.
Another issue that concerns me is the shutter lag of the camera and this makes it difficult to shoot fast subjects like children pets and birds. The images that are produced post-processing are entirely different from the viewfinder view at the time of taking the shot. This also creates a ghosting effect for a fast-moving subject and can ruin the shot at times.
(two birds multiplied by the camera into six)
The nightscape mode opts for longer exposure times, thereby capturing more details, textures and brings up more details from the shadows.
The nightscape mode improves the low-light capabilities of the camera and makes the camera an good low-light shooter. The images produced in nightscape mode do tend to have a warmer tone especially when the scene has a light source in it.
( Nightscape off)
(Nightscape ON)
(Indoor samples at artificial lighting with Nightscape OFF and ON)
Overall, I would call the main camera a good shooter and is an improvement over the previous generations in terms of overall image quality, post-processing, HDR performance and low-light capabilities. The camera gets a thumbs up from me.
ULTRAWIDE
The device has a large ultrawide sensor combined with the free form lens with a large field of view, which helps to capture a different perspective of subjects. The images produced from the ultrawide in good lighting conditions have a good amount of detail, sharpness and dynamic range.
The freeform lens helps in reducing the distortion along edges to a certain extent and it is beneficial while shooting architectures. The ultrawide images produce good colours similar to the main camera, but the images do tend to have a warmer tone and this creates an inconsistency between the main and the UW cameras.
(UW vs Main camera- Notice the ultrawide having a warmer tone and the main camera boosting the blue sky)
(UW vs Main camera : UW having a warmer tone and the main camera boosts the blue of the sky)
The ultrawide falls short of the main camera in terms of low-light performance and the images have higher noise levels and are also soft. The nightscape does improve the low-light performance but it still falls behind the main camera nightscape shots.
(UW low light, nightscape OFF)
(UW low light, nightscape ON)
The UW camera on the OnePlus 9 Pro can be comfortably called one of the best ultrawide cameras on a mobile device and is a solid performer in well-lit environments.
The UW camera also doubles up as a macro camera and it is capable of shooting pretty good closeup shots of subjects. The macro shots were detailed and had good colour signs too.
(Main camera)
(Main camera)
(UW super Macro 2X)
TELEPHOTO
The telephoto camera is the same as what we saw in the OnePlus 8 Pro but it's paired with a 3.3 X Zoom lens. The images from the telephoto are average. The photos from the telephoto have a darker tone and the image processing is entirely different from the other 2 lenses. The noise levels in the telephoto shots are also higher. The 3.3 X zoom factor can be a little bit irritating while setting up a frame and takes some time in getting used to it.
UW vs Main vs Telephoto samples
UW sample
UW sample
Telephoto sample
UW sample
Main camera sample
Telephoto Sample
MONOCHROME CAMERA
As expected, it's just a marketing gimmick. I don’t think that there is a need for a dedicated lens to capture B&W images since image-editing softwares are so progressed and anyone can turn a regular image into good looking monochrome one by just applying a filter.
FRONT CAMERA
The front shooter maintains decent skin tones and details but has poor HDR and low-light performance. The camera also has a focusing issue when multiple subjects are included in the frame. The front camera video recordings are capped at 1080P @30/60 fps and it’s a bummer considering the competition and even OnePlus’s midrange line-up offers the ability to shoot 4K videos from the front shooter.
The front portrait mode is a hit-or-a-miss
Overall, the front shooter is an average performer in terms of photo and video quality.
REAR CAMERA PORTRAITS
The OnePlus 9 Pro, despite having a telephoto camera, resorts to the main sensor and crops into it for taking portrait images. The portrait images have natural skin tones and an ample amount of background blur. The edge detection is also good for the most part, but it does struggle sometimes to detect the frames of spectacles and hair contours.
FRONT CAMERA
The front shooter maintains decent skin tones and details but has poor HDR and low-light performance. The camera also has a focusing issue when multiple subjects are included in the frame. The front camera video recordings are capped at 1080P @30/60 fps and it’s a bummer considering the competition and even OnePlus’s midrange line-up offers the ability to shoot 4K videos from the front shooter.
The front portrait mode is a hit-or-a-miss
Overall, the front shooter is an average performer in terms of photo and video quality.
REAR CAMERA PORTRAITS
The OnePlus 9 Pro, despite having a telephoto camera, resorts to the main sensor and crops into it for taking portrait images. The portrait images have natural skin tones and an ample amount of background blur. The edge detection is also good for the most part, but it does struggle sometimes to detect the frames of spectacles and hair contours.
CAMERA APP STABILITY AND OTHER ISSUES
Device tend to overheat while using the camera outdoors.
The camera app shows an overheating warning and refuses to click pictures or record video for a while.
The shooting could be continued only after keeping the device aside and waiting for it to cool down.
The overheating issue causes the entire device to slow down and stutter.
UPDATE on 9/4/2021 : The Oxygen OS 11.2.3.3 version update has improved the overall stability of the camera app and but i still see some overheating issues in the camera.
10/11
VIDEO PERFORMANCE
The main sensor can shoot 8K videos at 30 fps and It’s a cool feature to play with, but do keep in mind the enormous storage space the footage would occupy
Coming to the more practical resolutions, the main sensor can shoot up to 4K @ 120 fps. The 4K 120 when slowed down could produce excellent slow-motion videos with a good amount of detail.
The videos from the main camera have good amount of details and the dynamic range performance is good too. The footages are well stabilized in the normal modes- thanks to the OIS and EIS and the super stable mode adds an extra layer of smoothness but at the expense of cropping into the frame.
It will also sometimes produce some jitteriness in the video and will be capped at 30 fps.
VIDEO SAMPLES
Main Camera
- 4K 60 fps
- 4K 30 super stable
Ultrawide Camera
- 4K 60 fps
Telephoto Camera
- 1080p 30fps
Slow Motion
- 1080p 240 fps
- 720P 240 fps
- The cameras have improved a lot terms of the overall image quality and colour reproduction, over the previous offerings from OnePlus.
- The camera has close to natural colour reproduction in 8/10 instances.
- The Ultra wide camera is one of the best offerings on any smartphone in terms of the image quality, HDR performance and colours.
- The Macro mode has good clarity and colours. It is a solid improvement over the dedicated 2 MP/5 MP macro sensor.
- Excellent video performance from main and the ultra wide cameras, The HDR performance has also improved with DOL-HDR .
- The camera app is simple to use and is user friendly with all the basic functionalities. But, lacks some pro features like Pro video modes and ability to record streams from multiple cameras at the same time.
- The camera needs a some improvement in terms of the HDR performance, colour and temperatures consistencies between the lenses, zoom capabilities and camera app features.
- The front selfie shooter needs improvement in HDR and low light performance.
- I am disappointed with the downgraded telephoto video capabilities of the 9 Pro when compared to the OnePlus 8 Pro. The telephoto camera of the 9 Pro is only capable of recording videos at 1080P/30 fps whereas, the 8 pro was able to capture 4K videos on all three lenses. Also, portrait mode is no longer supported for the telephoto camera ( Not sure why, may be due to a downgraded sensor).
BY Nipu_1998
