When companies like Samsung, Sony, and Apple are releasing their flagship smartphones with a price tag above 1 Lac, OnePlus is trying hard to remain to its people-given-tagline “True Flagship Killer” with their latest flagship smartphone “OnePlus 9”. In the OnePlus 9, they included many great high-level things here and there and also succeeded to keep its price just around Rs 50k. There are three variants this year too: the OnePlus 9, OnePlus 9 Pro, and OnePlus 9 R. While the Pro version will get all the spotlight, I am here holding the OnePlus 9 and will tell you how good this year’s flagship killer is.
So let’s start this Review with specs; So the onePlus 9 shares many of the same features as the Pro variant, starting with a 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera, Snapdragon 888 SoC, Hasselblad color tuning, LPDDR5 RAM, and UFS 3.1 flash storage. The Phone comes in 3 Color variants i.e. Astral Black, Arctic Sky, and Winter Mist. It also comes in two memory variants i.e. 8 GB RAM + 128 GB Storage (₹49,999) and 12 GB RAM + 256 GB Storage (₹54,999).
The Smartphone also features stereo speakers, NFC, Wi-Fi 6, and all the basic sensors, a very responsive in-display fingerprint sensor. However, the display is a bit different in it, it is a flat-edged display with full-HD+ resolution and a maximum of 120Hz refresh rate. The visual looks crisp and vibrant but it is not as brighter as the Pro variant, and it also misses some software features. However. It is still a great display panel.
If we talk about the camera setup then the Oneplus 9 features a great camera setup at the back. The company upgraded its camera from the OnePlus 8 Series. Now the back panel sports a main camera of 48-megapixel resolution with Sony IMX689 sensor along with the 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera and a 2-megapixel monochrome sensor. People may miss the macro camera or telephoto camera here and the 2-megapixel camera only comes into action when you use a specific filter.
One more surprising thing is that the main camera doesn’t have optical stabilization, which may disappoint a lot of OnePlus fans. With the OnePlus 9 you still get an 8K video recording option, but there is no 120fps mode for the 4K recording option which is available on the 9 Pro. At the front, there is a 16-megapixel selfie camera and as per details, it is the same camera as the OnePlus 8 Series and onePlus 9 Pro so there is nothing new here.
Read also: OnePlus 7 Finally Launched At The Starting Price of INR 32,999
OnePlus 9 also doesn\'t have wireless charging and an IP rating for variants sold in India, but the variant sold in North America and the European region is said to support 15W Qi wireless charging. Spoiler alert! We will get the charger in the box and the phone supports 65W wired charging though.
To cut the price the company used the polycarbonate body instead of aluminum, which looks good but the good news is that there is still Corning Gorilla Glass on the front and backside of the phone. Meanwhile, I also felt that the phone is easy to grip and also good for one-hand use.
The company OnePlus is known for offering value for money smartphones. Their smartphones are also considered to feature flagship-like specifications and the price of a mid-range phone, and it is still true with the OnePlus 9. The Phone features a new rear camera setup, and by including Snapdragon 888 SoC they are also providing top-level processing power. However, people may complain about the polycarbonate frame and the Old front camera but the phone is still good and feels solid in hand.
So after knowing all the good and bad things, what do you think about this phone, and does all the specifications justify its price, tell me using the comment section below.