The OnePlus 9 Professional (starting up at $969.99) delivers a streamlined flagship experience to T-Mobile and Verizon subscribers, last but not least catching up to its competitors. The cell phone by itself is gentle in the hand, and the person encounter is weightless as well. The cameras get knockout images in fairly significantly all conditions and the built-in quick charging is the finest we’ve seen. The Galaxy S21 Ultra scores a bit greater in our battery and wireless radio tests, will work with Samsung’s great S Pen stylus, and its camera offers killer optical zoom, so it just edges out the 9 Pro to be our Editors’ Option between flagship smartphones. Nevertheless, the OnePlus nine Pro is excellent. If you want a prime-notch, loaded mobile phone that can make your coronary heart sing, you might be now spoiled for decision.
The OnePlus Guarantee Is Ultimately Realized
OnePlus was after a company that designed a solitary excellent cellular phone at a time. Now it has a complete line of phones at T-Mobile (and vendors such as Google Fi, Metro, and Mint Mobile that use T-Mobile’s networks): the $969.99 OnePlus 9 Pro, the $729.ninety nine OnePlus nine, the $299.ninety nine OnePlus Nord N10, and the $179.99 OnePlus Nord N100. They all share the OnePlus philosophy, which suggests fast, tasteful application and a streamlined physical style.
Cameras have normally been the just one put OnePlus tended to tumble powering Samsung and Apple, so OnePlus manufactured a deal with Hasselblad for shade tuning and purchased a new sensor from Sony. As a result, the 9 Pro’s rear digital camera stack stands out from the level of competition. It may perhaps not have unbelievable optical zoom like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Extremely, but it gives quite a few much more alternatives for resourceful expression. In addition to the typical huge and extremely-vast lenses you are going to obtain on most phones, OnePlus extra an XPan manner that generates photographs in a sixty five:24 format.
The OnePlus nine gives identical over-all efficiency to the 9 Pro but measures down a bit on display screen, digital camera, and radio high quality, and it won’t combine super-quick wi-fi charging. If you do not head these downgrades, you can help save $240 and get an even smaller and lighter cellphone. See our evaluate of the OnePlus nine for all the information.
Light-weight, Smooth Style and design
The nine Pro’s base model has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The 12GB/256GB product expenses an additional $100. There is no memory card slot. The cell phone is properly sized, measuring 6.forty two by 2.89 by .34 inches (HWD) and weighing six.9 ounces. Which is a small broader than the 2.eight inches we use as the cutoff width measurement for little phones, but it is significantly lesser and lighter than the Galaxy S21 Ultra, and narrower than the OnePlus 8 Professional. Of the a few, the nine Pro is the most straightforward to use with a single hand.
A few views of the OnePlus 9 Pro, demonstrating the eco-friendly and silver scenario solutions.
The OnePlus 9 Professional will come in eco-friendly or silver.
The style and design, extremely in tune with OnePlus’ “burdenless structure” philosophy, is slender and exquisite. The phone’s physique is rounded, with the classic OnePlus mute change on the left aspect and the Hasselblad-branded camera module on the back again. The digicam doesn’t adhere out virtually as significantly as modern Samsung camera bumps do (because it will not have a large periscopic zoom lens in it). The front-struggling with camera is a gap-punch on the higher left corner, just like on the eight Pro.
The cell phone has an IP68 score for drinking water and dust resistance, and arrives in two colors. If you are not heading to set your mobile phone in a situation, we like the matte pine green far better than the mirrored silver morning mist glass back again, which attracts greasy fingerprints. Our evaluation device came with a black carbon-fiber situation that produced that situation moot. (There’s a third, black cellphone, but OnePlus tells us it would not be bought in the US.)
The back of the OnePlus 9 Pro in silver
The mirrored again of the silver case is a fingerprint magnet.
In contrast to the Galaxy S21 Extremely and current iPhones, your OnePlus cellular phone comes with a cable and a 65W charger. Luxury! You can find a reason: OnePlus uses proprietary USB-C chargers. Though the telephone will cost from any USB-C source, it’s going to only obtain its best charging speeds with the bundled adapter.
You will find no headphone jack or USB-C-to-three.5mm adapter in the box. That claimed, the 9 Pro sports aptX, aptX High definition, LHDC, and Sony’s LDAC Bluetooth codecs for fantastic wireless audio. If you opt for OnePlus’ Buds Pro earphones, you’ll get custom made tap capabilities together with 24-bit/96kHz audio at up to 900kbits/s. If you are hunting at other wi-fi earbuds, seem for a pair with LDAC considering the fact that it’s more greatly readily available and gives the maximum-resolution audio sent over Bluetooth.
As for the onboard speakers, the audio good quality is outstanding. Twin stereo speakers deliver audio with a peak quantity of 98dB and a stunning bit of mid-bass. For voice calls, which have a utmost volume of 81dB, the phone supports the greatest voice codec at this time available, High definition voice with EVS.
A Brilliant, However Battery-Conserving Exhibit
The brilliant and crisp 6.seven-inch, 525ppi, 3,216-by-1,440-pixel display can be dialed back to 1080p in the phone’s settings if you want to preserve battery lifetime. The screen uses a comparatively new know-how called very low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) that decreases electricity use and presents cell phone makers a lot more management in excess of refresh prices. straight from the source is the identical engineering that powers Apple’s Iphone 13 Pro styles as perfectly as the Samsung Galaxy S21 series.
The LTPO display of the OnePlus nine Pro, exhibiting an picture of clouds
The LTPO display screen allows help you save energy.
This is a major-of-the-line OLED show with a reward: It can be incredibly noticeable in direct daylight. A display screen protector is preinstalled we didn’t remove it from our examination device. According to DisplayMate Labs tests, the 9 Pro’s display set to Car Brightness manner beats the eight Professional, the Galaxy S20 series, and the hottest iPhones in ambient light-weight, but not the Galaxy Notice 20 Extremely. The 9 Pro also improves the maximum shade gamut in its vivid display mode, which allows it maintain coloration saturation in outside lights.
Large brightness method benefits
Moreover in brightness and color, the nine Pro’s display screen isn’t really easily distinguishable from other latest best-of-the-line OLED panels. The real news is energy optimization, as the LTPO panel dynamically—and imperceptibly—changes its refresh amount from 120Hz all the way down to 1Hz to help save vitality. Test out our in-depth exclusive for much more on the show.
Color shift success
Outstanding Pace and Ease of Use
OnePlus phones are always fast, and the OnePlus nine Pro is no exception. It is really run by a major-of-the-line Qualcomm Snapdragon 888. It scored a bit better than the Galaxy S21 Extremely on Geekbench, with one-main scores close to 1125 and multi-core scores all-around 3700. That is a 24% improve on single-core effects and a twelve% raise on multi-main final results more than the OnePlus eight Professional. None of these phones can surpass the Iphone 12, while, which scored 1596 SC and 4049 MC with its Apple A14 processor.
The Snapdragon 888 supplies a lift in graphics general performance, far too. On the GFXBench Car or truck Chase offscreen benchmark, the nine Professional scored all over 70fps, with 37fps onscreen in WQHD mode and 58fps onscreen in Hd mode. That is a significant bounce up from the 8 Professional, which scored 51fps offscreen and possibly 26 or 45fps onscreen depending on monitor resolution.
See How We Check Phones
These benchmarks will not choose into account OnePlus’ application, which incorporates a bunch of functionality enhancements. In our working experience with OnePlus telephones, they experience like the speediest Android phones, even quicker than Google Pixels (specifically since Google begun using midrange chipsets in its flagships with the release of the Pixel five).
The cellular phone runs Android 11 with OnePlus’ OxygenOS enhancements, and OnePlus suggests it will get updates as considerably as Android 13 together with bi-every month safety updates for 3 yrs. For a flagship, which is a minor disappointing, in particular considering that Samsung provides at minimum 3 yrs of software package updates on its spending plan A sequence types.
The 9 Professional in a charging cradle displaying a video game.
Higher-conclusion game titles play very well on the nine Professional.
OxygenOS has always had a bunch of pleasant touches, these types of as the capacity to install two copies of social-media apps for various accounts, a placing to transform monitor shade primarily based on ambient mild, and a Zen method that temporarily disables the phone’s most distracting functions. With this edition, OnePlus adds RAM compression that it states boosts the variety of applications that can continue to be in memory with saved condition. Our take a look at device had no difficulty keeping seven apps in memory, even with the huge RAM-hog Genshin Effect at the again of the line.
To examination cooling, which OnePlus claims it’s improved above preceding products, we ran a processor-pumping application called CPU Throttling Take a look at on the nine Professional, the Galaxy S21, and the 8 Professional for fifteen minutes. At the 10-moment position, the 8 Pro’s general performance took a sharp dive to about 80% of peak. Both of the newer telephones were nevertheless sustaining nearer to 90% functionality at that time. Immediately after thirteen minutes of pumping the processor, the Galaxy S21’s overall performance smoothly declined to a small about eighty% of peak, when the 9 Professional remained in the ninety% range. Lastly, the nine Pro’s functionality declined noticeably at pretty much specifically 15 minutes as the cellular phone attempted to cool itself down. In the course of the test as a total, the nine Professional and Galaxy S21 executed at 87–88% of max general performance, whilst the eight Professional was down at 78%.
Gaming efficiency is amped up with a 360Hz contact response level, but only in 4 apps: PUBG Cellular, Phone of Responsibility, League of Legends, and Brawl Stars. OnePlus suggests it will work on adding 360Hz touch assistance to far more games. That would unquestionably assistance this element increase from a curiosity to a differentiator. The Samsung Galaxy S20 telephones present a 240Hz touch sampling price Samsung does not give a spec on the Galaxy S21, but we imagine it is really the similar.
Ultra-Tremendous-Mega-Quick Charging
The pair of batteries in the 9 Professional full four,500mAh. That is quick of the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s 5,000mAh, but OnePlus has a range of software package tips up its sleeve to hold the cellphone charged—so lots of that we are not even guaranteed all of them arrived into use throughout our tests.
On our regular battery examination, working a YouTube video about Wi-Fi at entire monitor brightness, the telephone lasted for 8 hrs, 50 minutes in WQHD resolution and nine hrs, 40 minutes in Hd. Exhibit brightness issues a whole lot to battery daily life: Take the brightness down to 75% and those people figures bounce to 12 hrs, 40 minutes on WQHD and 13 hrs on High definition. That’s a great deal shorter than the Galaxy S21 Extremely (11 hours 20 minutes) and the Galaxy S20 FE (twelve hrs 30 minutes), but you ought to have no issues finding by way of a working day of moderate use.
But you can find far more to this battery than satisfies the eye. To begin with, the screen slows down to 1Hz when you might be hunting at static content, these kinds of as an e-mail you might be mulling about or a web page of an e-e-book. That can be a enormous ability saver. OnePlus also has a name for getting rid of less electrical power to qualifications processes than Samsung does. If you use seventy five% screen brightness most of the time, you can expect to likely get much more than a working day of battery lifestyle from a person demand.
OnePlus nine Pro with USB-C Port in focus
The Warp Demand 65T charger can wholly recharge the nine Pro in about 30 minutes.
The nine Professional also has by considerably the swiftest charging speeds of any telephone we have ever tested. It will come with a Warp Cost 65T USB-C charger, which fees the nine Professional from % to 20% in six minutes and to one hundred% in just 36 minutes. That’s twice as fast as any current Samsung cell phone charges. If you use a third-social gathering charger, the phone will charge at up to eighteen watts, with correspondingly longer demand occasions.
The actual breakthrough is in OnePlus’ new Warp Demand 50 wireless charger, a $sixty nine.ninety nine accent cradle that plugs into your current Warp Cost 65 adapter to deliver 50-watt wireless charging for the 9 Pro, or 15-watt Qi charging for any other product. In tests with the Warp Cost fifty, the 9 Pro went to 29% in 11 minutes and 100% in 46 minutes. Other telephones, which includes the 9, acquire in between 90 minutes and two several hours to wirelessly demand fully.
This all fits with OnePlus’ approach to telephone ability: It may perhaps not have the major batteries in town, but it can refill them the speediest.
All the 5G Trimmings, for T-Mobile and Verizon
Like other Snapdragon 888 phones, the 9 Pro takes advantage of a Qualcomm X60 modem, which will work with all of the capabilities T-Mobile and Verizon intend to use in the next handful of yrs, which includes new airwaves and aggregation techniques. It has Bluetooth five.2 and Wi-Fi six as well, but not Wi-Fi 6E (not like the Galaxy S21 Ultra).
T-Cell is the only carrier marketing the 9 Pro, but if you buy an unlocked model from OnePlus or a retailer, it will also perform on Verizon. If you check out to use it on AT&T, OnePlus states it will only join to 4G.
OnePlus nine (still left) and OnePlus nine Professional (ideal).
OnePlus nine (still left) and OnePlus 9 Professional (appropriate)
The OnePlus 9 Pro has all of the new systems currently being integrated into T-Mobile and Verizon’s networks, which include CBRS, C-band, and millimeter wave.
This is a one-SIM cellphone, with no eSIM option. With a T-Cell SIM in, the telephone enabled Wi-Fi calling, “smart 5G” (which turns 5G on and off to save battery), and twin-channel network acceleration (which works by using Wi-Fi and 5G at the similar time if needed). With an AT&T SIM in, as predicted, the cellular phone used only 4G and lacked Wi-Fi contacting.
The huge spec big difference concerning the 9 and the 9 Professional is that the nine Professional has mmWave. T-Cellular currently only utilizes mmWave in 7 metropolitan areas, and is most most likely to roll it out in tremendous-crowded destinations: sports stadiums, live performance halls, convention centers, and the like. It can be a may possibly-be-wonderful, not a will have to-have. It is is extra appealing on Verizon, which has mmWave in the facilities of extra than 70 cities now.
We tested the nine and the 9 Professional in opposition to the Samsung Galaxy S21 with 86 rounds of exams using Ookla Speedtest application in New York City, in a array of network ailments. (Editors’ Take note: Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag’s publisher.) Around 17 exams, the Galaxy S21 turned in the greatest functionality, the nine Professional got a raise from mmWave to appear in second, and the 9 dropped to 3rd. Across a variety of non-mmWave exams with mixed sign top quality, the Galaxy S21 arrived in initially position again. In a standalone T-Cell mid-band “ultra capacity” space, on the other hand, the three telephones carried out practically identically.
If you might be outside the house a big town, you are likely most concerned about weak-sign overall performance. In our exams, the Galaxy S21 showed the strongest 4G RSRP sign 29 situations the nine Pro was strongest 26 occasions, and the nine was strongest 22 periods. So the Galaxy S21 wins at the time once again, even though not by considerably. In excess of six rounds of tests in a weak-sign location, the Galaxy S21 confirmed stronger sign only three of the times, but the nine Professional experienced two signal dropouts. The Galaxy S21’s edge is slight but obvious.
Blinding You With (Shade) Science
Imaging collaborations aren’t new for smartphone brands. Huawei has partnered with Leica for yrs the Zeiss name is plastered on the again of smartphones from Nokia, Sony, and Vivo. Hasselblad’s only previous US partnership was with Motorola on its clunky but capable Legitimate Zoom Moto Mod, but the 9 collection delivers Hasselblad back again to the smartphone market in triumphant type. The nine Professional is capable of getting amazing photographs with each and every lens.
The 48MP key lens has an f/1.eight aperture, optical picture stabilization (OIS), and digital image stabilization (EIS). There’s also a 50MP ultra-broad lens with an f/2.two aperture, and a 8MP telephoto lens with an f/two.4 aperture, as well as a 2MP monochrome sensor. You will discover all the typical flagship bells and whistles on the 9 Pro: twin LED flash, multi-autofocus with omnidirectional Section Detection AF (PDAF), Laser AF (LAF), and Distinction AF (CAF). A big fifty-megapixel extremely-extensive lens can take stunning very low-gentle photographs. There is also 8K video clip at 30fps and 4K at up to 120fps, and super-slow movement at up to 480fps in 720p.
Back again of OnePlus 9 Professional with digicam in concentrate
A significant fifty-megapixel extremely-extensive lens requires attractive reduced-light pics.
For the most section, the digital camera application is intuitive and uncomplicated to use. The shutter button is a Hasselblad-branded orange, and it would make a unique Hasselblad shutter audio. Our only complaint is that we discovered Tilt Shift manner a little bit clunky and challenging to use.
Photograph of rooftop with eco foliage
The OnePlus nine Pro’s fall update improved minimal-gentle efficiency.
Some of the nine Pro’s most major camera functions are in the application. Hasselblad labored carefully with OnePlus to update its colour science and create supplemental features for pro smartphone shooters. In auto and Professional modes, hues are heat, with reds and blues getting a healthy saturation raise whilst yellows and greens to be a minor undersaturated. Because OnePlus and Hasselblad put a massive emphasis on the nine series’ colour science, we in comparison the nine Professional to a few other flagships and uncovered it stood up extremely effectively to the competitiveness.
Apple severely enhanced its colour science with iOS 14 and the Apple iphone 12. Where by the nine Professional tends to saturate reds and blues, Apple focuses extra on boosting luminance, so the Iphone 12’s shots tend to seem a minor additional legitimate to daily life than the 9 Pro’s.
Area pics from the nine Professional and the Galaxy S21 Extremely aspect by facet and you can straight away figure out the distinction concerning the two cameras. OnePlus normally takes a lighter hand with boosting saturation and other computational adjustments Samsung is considerably additional intense. In one particular of our exam photos, a dreary March sky captured on the Galaxy S21 Ultra all of a sudden turned blue. The 9 Pro was much additional correct in its total representation of the scene.
Aspect-by-aspect shots of a creating underneath a cloudy sky in the photo on the remaining, the sky looks blue
The photograph colors from the nine Professional (ideal) are additional exact than the kinds delivered by the Galaxy S21 Ultra (still left).
In Pro method, you can adjust ISO, target exposure time, white harmony, and a number of other settings. There’s also the choice to shoot in twelve-little bit Raw format, which presents 64 periods the shade details of the ten-little bit Uncooked on other flagships.
The ultra-wide 50MP lens is a Sony IMX 766 sensor which is drastically larger than the one particular in the Apple iphone twelve Professional Max. In our tests the lens did a marvelous work in the two bright and reduced light-weight. Photos are crisp with fantastic depth of field and solid history element.
Aspect-by-facet ultra-broad-angle images of a setting up
Extremely-large-angle photographs are a important advantage for the nine Pro (correct), which makes a lot significantly less edge distortion than the Galaxy S21 Ultra (remaining).
Our pictures taken with the most important lens had been spectacular as very well. In fantastic light, the nine Professional retains its have against other flagships, with realistic depth of area and barely any decline of fine depth.
In the fall of 2021, OnePlus delivered a key update to the camera’s program. Take a look at pictures show additional correct white harmony and are crisp with no staying oversharpened, a common problem with most smartphone cameras. When we reviewed the pictures at complete dimension, the pics remained crisp and experienced fewer sound.
The app is also a lot quicker in typical and there is significantly less shutter lag. It really is a minor modify, but it will make a large variance when getting pictures with movement.
A snowy rooftop with various sculptures and other objects
The principal lens will take prime-notch images even in muted mild.
But where the digital camera really excels is in minimal light. The main lens did nicely, as anticipated. Our exam pictures with the fall update remained crisp with an enhanced texture-to-sound ratio. The massive enhancement, nonetheless, was with dynamic vary and in general scene accuracy. The two worked in conjunction to build a additional sincere reflection of the moment.
And although we had been especially bowled more than by the extremely-huge lens’ overall performance in our first exams, the digital camera update just designed things far better. All of the improvements we found in the major lenses were being apparent in our extremely-broad test photographs. Those advancements, combined with the absence of distortion, helps make the OnePlus 9 Pro’s ultra-large lens the finest we have examined.
A cityscape at evening, with lights reflecting off a moist avenue
Extremely-extensive very low-mild illustrations or photos are gorgeous, with amazingly minimal distortion.
We didn’t notice much improvement in our shots with the telephoto lens soon after the computer software update. The OnePlus nine Pro’s telephoto lens is much better than what you are going to discover on its predecessor, but it even now does not assess with the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra’s. At decreased zoom levels, our exam photographs had a great deal of detail, however there was some expected loss of element in the length.
Side-by-facet images of illustrated indications at 30x zoom.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra does a a lot greater job at 30x zoom.
As we bumped up the zoom, nonetheless, we began to discover considerable blur and noise when compared with the very same image taken on the Galaxy S21 Ultra. The unnatural sharpening we seen in our authentic take a look at pictures, even so, has been significantly enhanced.
Side-by-aspect 10x zoom visuals of a halt indication
Even though the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra has an edge at 10x zoom, the nine Professional does a sound position with its current slide digital camera update.
Smartphone macro lenses are not often worthy of utilizing, but in this article the nine Professional actually stands out. Our macro photographs have been a lot sharper than expected, and leagues superior than photos taken with the 8’s 2MP macro lens.
A photo of purple and inexperienced macarons on a white plate
Macarons, in macro.
The monochrome sensor will work in tandem with the major sensor to acquire gorgeous black-and-white images with lots of depth and inky blacks. Huawei incorporated a related attribute for several years and then suddenly taken off it, producing an outcry from smartphone shutterbugs. If you realized and cherished that feature, the 9 Pro’s resurrection of it will delight you.
Black-and-white photo of community artwork set up in which a large white sculpture of a hand grabs a tree trunk
The monochrome lens requires stable black-and-white shots.
The greatest, and most amazing, improve to the OnePlus 9’s digicam, nonetheless, is the addition of XPan mode. It is a element that mimics Hasselblad’s now-discontinued XPan cameras to build an picture that’s reminiscent of people you’d get with its 30mm and 45mm lenses.
The pics are cropped to a sixty five:24 aspect ratio. It’s a remarkable appear that presents you a whole new way to tell tales, and evokes photographs of movie stills. There are choices to shoot in shade as very well as black and white.
It can be tough to overstate just how significantly room XPan features for creativeness. four:three and sixteen:nine part ratios are so ubiquitous, that it normally takes a beat to get made use of to all the distinctive things you can do in the format.

Panoramic shot of a Catholic rectory at night time.
XPan manner makes it possible for you to just take spectacular shots in a exceptional part ratio.
We examined XPan in numerous lights scenarios and it carried out properly. Our exam shots ended up immersive and crisp, with superb dynamic variety. Depth of subject is great as well.
Black and white impression of a mid-century building
Monochrome pics in XPan mode seem breathtaking.
Hasselblad’s unique coloration science for XPan also generates an completely distinctive sense that’s identical to photographs shot on Kodak Ektachrome or Fuji Provia slide movie. Our photos confirmed significantly less contrast and a lot more natural hues that just about seem somewhat undersaturated because we’ve turn out to be so accustomed to above-saturation on smartphones.
Decommissioned switching station with festive lights
Portraits and scaled-down scenes appear improved with the 30mm focal-duration placing in XPan mode.
On the entrance of the 9 Pro, you’ll uncover a 32MP lens. It performs really nicely in any lighting affliction. There is a small qualifications blur in our pictures, which is to be envisioned. Foreground depth and depth of discipline, nevertheless, are location on. Portrait manner functions without a hitch as nicely. Our examination shots experienced a purely natural bokeh and ideal depth mapping in each individual shot.
A selfie of a bearded white man in eyeglasses and a cap
Selfies are in-depth and apparent.
One Little Stage Shy of the Crown
The OnePlus nine Professional is an excellent cellphone. At $970, it retains its individual towards the slightly more high priced Galaxy S21 Ultra and Apple iphone twelve Pro. It won’t rather match the Galaxy S21 Extremely on digicam zoom or community general performance, but it is lighter and sleeker, it has some unique digital camera methods, and there is that renowned OnePlus speed and elegant application. That awesome rapidly charging and the battery-preserving display also make a big big difference in day-to-working day use. The 9 Pro is far better than the OnePlus 8 series in each and every way, so the improve is easily warranted. It only fails to nab our Editors’ Choice award because the Samsung Galaxy S21 Extremely is even a lot more fantastic and can be used on any carrier. The 9 Professional and the Galaxy S21 Extremely alongside one another presently outline the Android condition of the art. Relying on your priorities, possibly will serve you incredibly perfectly for the upcoming couple many years.