OnePlus 9 Review: A Good Camera Phone with Some Drawbacks

The OnePlus 9 is a well-rounded smartphone that offers excellent performance, impressive camera capabilities, and a sleek design. However, it also has some drawbacks that may deter buyers from making a purchase.

Nightscape Mode and Ultra Wide Angle Photos

The nighttime ultra-wide angle photos on the OnePlus 9 are quite good, but they can be slightly over-saturated. This is similar to the images taken with the primary camera, which can also lean towards the saturated side. The daytime ultra-wide angle photos are also pretty close to those of the primary camera, but they still have some minor differences.

Portraits and Selfies

OnePlus has done a great job with portraits on the OnePlus 9. The subject focus is nice and edge detection is good as well. However, there is one notable difference between the two phones - the skin tone. On the OnePlus 9 Pro, it's a bit yellowish, while on the OnePlus 9, it's more pinkish. Despite this difference, both phones produce high-quality portraits.

Selfies from both cameras turn out similar, courtesy of the same 16-megapixel sensor. However, there is one instance where the OnePlus 9 doesn't perform as well - in dimly lit or low-light situations. In these scenarios, the lack of optical image stabilization (OIS) can lead to slight shakiness, while the Pro version manages relatively stable output.

Video Capabilities

The video capabilities of the OnePlus 9 are almost identical to those of the Pro model, except for one key difference - the absence of a 4K 120fps option. While this isn't a major issue in most cases, it's noticeable when recording fast-paced content. The Pro version also has an 8K 30fps mode, which is not available on the standard model.

In terms of video quality, both phones produce impressive footage, with the Pro version offering slightly better highlights and more detailed colors. However, the difference isn't drastic, and in most cases, the standard model performs admirably.

Selfie Video

The selfie video capabilities on the OnePlus 9 are similar to those of the Pro model, except for one key aspect - resolution. While both phones can record at an AtP (average temporal processing) rate of 30fps or 60fps, the Pro version has a higher resolution option. This is an oversight that might be jarring for buyers who expect more from their smartphone.

Field of View and Audio

The field of view in selfie videos on the OnePlus 9 is not as wide as one might expect, requiring the user to stretch their hands to capture the full frame. However, the audio pickup from the microphone is good enough for vlogging and other content creation applications.

Battery Life

One of the most significant drawbacks of the OnePlus 9 is its battery life. Under typical usage with a screen refresh rate set to 120Hz and ambient display turned on, we managed to squeeze out just five hours of screen-on time from the phone's 4500 milliamp battery. This translates to less than a day's endurance for us.

The lack of LTPo (Low-Temperature Poly silicon) backplane technology is also partly responsible for this drain. Unlike the Pro model, which can dynamically toggle between screen refresh rates between 1Hz and 120Hz, the standard model only goes up to 120Hz. This results in unnecessary power consumption when interacting with static content.

The phone's ambient display also causes a significant battery drain - around seven to ten percent per night. While this isn't an issue for most users, it's something to be aware of, especially those who prioritize battery life.

Fast Charging

However, the OnePlus 9 makes up for its battery life with fast charging capabilities. The phone can jump from 0 to 100 in around 30 minutes, thanks to dual 2250 milliamp cell batteries.

Wireless Charging

Unfortunately, the Indian variant of the OnePlus 9 loses wireless charging capabilities altogether, while the global model features a relatively mediocre 15W wireless charging speed. This is a disappointment, especially considering that similar phones like the Xiaomi ICO 7 Legend and Mi 11X Pro offer better wireless charging speeds.

Verdict

Overall, the OnePlus 9 is a good camera phone that offers impressive performance, excellent video capabilities, and a sleek design. However, it also has some significant drawbacks - including inferior color shadow processing, inconsistency across lenses, and lackluster battery life.

While the phone's price point might be attractive to buyers on a budget, we think it's priced too high for what you get. The Pro model is still an option if you want more features like OIS, LTPo technology, and a telephoto lens.

Ultimately, our verdict on the OnePlus 9 is that it's a solid choice for those who prioritize performance and camera capabilities. However, buyers should be aware of its limitations before making a purchase.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys i hope you have been doing well in this video i'm going to be sharing our long-term review of the oneplus 9 while i've been busy testing so many mid-range phones that i've launched in 2021 so far one of our team members who's also a oneplus enthusiast was tasked with using the oneplus 9 as his daily driver for how long exactly okay so in all this time it has received several updates from oneplus that's fixed a lot of issues and i think this is a good time for us to share our experiences with you guys so let's get straight into it okay let's start with the performance side of things and as expected the company has not made any compromises here as compared to the more expensive oneplus 9 hence it delivers as good a smartphone experience as relatively more expensive devices yet it feels like oneplus has cheaped out a little bit in terms of its vibration motor as its haptics is not as good as the 9 pro regardless we are yet to encounter even the slightest hint of starter in the snapdragon 888 powered beast no matter what the intensity of the workload is plus it does not heat up as much as the 9 pro either i don't mean to say that the oneplus 9 stays cool in every condition but i have experienced its cooling solution to be slightly more effective than the oneplus 9 pro while playing games or shooting 4k videos and such moving on as with other phones with this flagship chipset the oneplus 9 is able to handle even the most graphic intensive titles like gentian impact smoothly in the default settings but cranking up the settings to 60 fps the gameplay is still fairly smooth although it introduces few jitters every now and then however the bigger caveat here is that the phone heats up beyond 42 to 43 degree surface temperature under this so we recommend you stick with the default setting in general impact for a stable and more comfortable gaming experience we've also played our fair share of pubg mobile on this phone here the oneplus 9 maintained a stable 40fps in the highest of settings and thanks to the incredibly low touch latency of 240hz the gameplay on this phone is further elevated however to differentiate it from its pro model the company has skipped on the hyper touch feature here that bumps the screen's touch response all the way to 360 hertz well such petty compromises from oneplus have really become common in the past couple of years so i can't say that i'm really surprised anyways before moving forward let me give a quick shout out to the sponsor of today's video skillshare with the ongoing lockdown presenting us with the perfect opportunity for remote learning skillshare is where you'd want to be personally i've been taking the advanced video editing class by jordy vanderpud and thanks to this you've probably noticed few improvements in the quality of our recent videos already plus its free to download mobile app means i can learn on the go as well and right now skillshare is offering a free trial of their premium membership for the first thousand people to sign up using our link all the links will be given in the description so be sure to check them out and now back to the review on top of the discounted dot sampling rate oneplus has also failed to bring 90 fps gameplay in pubg mobile on this year's flagship phones as a result the oneplus 9 can only hit a maximum of 60 fps in extreme frame rates and hdr graphics which is strange because the older oneplus 8 series could hit 90 fps plus as i mentioned earlier the oneplus 9 does heat up while gaming a couple of recent updates have minimized the issue to some extent but it seems like the snapdragon 888 is the bigger culprit here okay gaming aside normal day to day task on this 120 hertz refresh rate screen has been a great experience the company's oxygen os is really well implemented and we've had no issues concerning sluggishness or stutters by scrolling multitasking and the likes here the only thing that i'm slightly disappointed by is that oneplus has been pretty slow with monthly updates on its phones since both the oneplus 9 and 9 pro are still running on maze security patch while we're already halfway past june in comparison samsung has been doing incredibly well in this regard and i desperately hope that oneplus raises its software update game besides this the company has also made other compromises here for instance the indian variant of the oneplus 9 only supports two 5g bands at a time when cheaper phones like the real me x7 max bring seven 5g bands to note the global variant that we have with us supports well over 10 5g bands i think this regional variation is most likely to keep the prices lower in india since the global variant is 20 to 25 pricier than what oneplus 9 costs in india and not to forget that it does not have any ip rating either well that's not entirely accurate the frustratingly exclusive truth here is that the oneplus 9 buyers in us who purchase it from t-mobile are indeed privy to ip68 certification and no market else on top of this it comes with plastic frames which i think is yet another letdown considering comparatively affordable phones like the iq7 legend and the mi 11x pro brag metal frames now don't get me wrong the oneplus 9 does have a really ergonomic design it's handy and with the flat display we've had no issues regarding accidental or ghost touches here either also it's quite lightweight too so unlike other bulkier phones it's not a struggle using the oneplus 9 for a longer duration despite all this if i had to rate its looks i would only give it a b plus that's because it does not look and feel like a premium device instead it looks like any other mid-range phone out there especially this arctic black color variant that we have oneplus seriously could have done so much better in this regard also like the oneplus 9 pro the company has gone with the older gorilla glass 5 protection on both the front and back instead of the gorilla glass victors which is corning's latest and greatest offering our unit has not suffered from scratches yet but i think they could have at least settled for gorilla glass 6 if not the victis anyway we have little to complain about the display though while it does not get as bright as that on the 9 pro it is bright enough under any kind of harsh lighting situation do note that this 6.5 inches amoled screen is not qhd yet its full hd resolution is still top quality plus with the ever so optimized software we have never faced lag ui transition or jerky interface which we have frequently encountered on xiaomi and realme phones this i think is one of the few things great about oneplus phones however it misses out on dc dimming feature which was present on the oneplus 8 series regardless watching videos on this phone has been an enjoyable ride plus its stereo speakers are as good as the ones on the oneplus 9 pro which further adds to the content consumption experience they are loud with really balanced mids and highs this amoled screen is also housed to an optical in-display fingerprint sensor which is expectedly fast and accurate still oneplus could have placed the sensor a little higher but over time i think you'll get used to it all right now let's talk about the cameras i have already emphasized at length how oneplus created unnecessary hype around its partnership with popular camera company hasselblad in my review of the oneplus 9 so i am not going to do that again anyhow this phone borrows a 48 megapixel sony imx689 primary sensor from the oneplus 8 pro but the good news is that it gets the same 50 megapixel ultra wide angle freeform lens like the 9 pro and completing the setup is an underwhelming 2 megapixel monochrome sensor now because the oneplus 9 introduces the same hasselblad color calibration compared to its pro sibling normal daytime images look almost similar in some instances the oneplus 9 has a slightly saturated output but most of the time you'll have a difficult time pointing out the differences the level of detail and dynamic range is pretty similar too however since this phone does not have ois there are certain instances when it does not behave as well as a point to shoot camera should so if you're shooting a moving subject the oneplus 9 fails to lock focus quickly thereby resulting in blurred artifacts which is not the case with the oneplus 9 pro likewise during night time due to the lack of ois and a slightly inferior sensor low light images look muddy and grainy when zoomed in as evident from these photos the oneplus 9 pro's normal nighttime shots retain better details and less noise with the nightscape mode turned on details improved significantly though still most of the time the oneplus 9 pro does a better job okay ultra wide angle nighttime images from both phones have similar performance be it under normal or nightscape mode the daytime ultra wide angle photos are also pretty close but just like the images from the primary camera sometimes it leans a bit more on the saturated side okay moving on to the portraits well we've liked what oneplus has done here the subject focus is nice and edge detection is good as well the only difference lies in the skin tone which is a little yellowish on the oneplus 9 pro and pinkish on the oneplus 9 but regardless of the color tone both look pretty good in my eyes okay selfies from both the phones turn out similar too courtesy of the same 16 megapixel sensor this is just us nitpicking but the oneplus 9 pro does maintain highlights slightly better still there is nothing much distinguishable in most instances however there have been a few occasions when the oneplus 9 was not able to manage exposure like in this picture here at the back its video capabilities are almost identical to the 9 pro except for a 4k 120fps option which is absent here it still features 8k 30fps mode though and the quality is almost similar on both the phones surprisingly the 4k 60fps videos also result in similar performance so that's great but sometimes the lack of ois is dearly missed in dimly lit or low lighting situations where it falls victim to slight shirts while its pro sibling manages to deliver relatively stable output okay about the selfie video just like the oneplus 9 pro you can either shoot at an atp 30 or 60 fps resolution the footages look stable and the quality is good enough but i think for a premium phone like this one oneplus should have offered a higher resolution option as well um also the field of view is not quite wide you need to stretch your hands in order to get a full view of yourself nonetheless the audio pickup from the microphone is good enough for vlogging and such overall i must say that the oneplus 9 is a good camera phone it is more or less similar to the more expensive oneplus 9 pro but still the problem here is that despite the hasselblad partnership aspects like inferior color shadow processing and inconsistency across lenses is still prevalent here even after more than two months of the release of these phones oneplus has failed to fix these issues so what did we miss yeah the battery life uh well under a typical usage with the screen refresh rate set to 120 hertz and ambient display turned on we managed to squeeze out just five hours of screen on time from the oneplus 9's 4500 milliamp battery this translates to less than a days endurance for me and that strictly average battery life in my books one of the reasons for this could also be from the lack of ltpo backplane technology you see unlike the pro variant the oneplus 9 can not dynamically toggle between the screen's refresh rate between 1 to 120 hertz what this ultimately means is that the screen is unnecessarily taking up more power even when you're interacting with static content as compared to the oneplus 9 pro that can dial it down to one hertz for more optimum power consumption also you will notice quite a significant battery drain with the ambient display turned on during our usage we noticed around seven to ten percent battery drain overnight so if you prioritize battery life more you should consider turning it off but since it supports 65 watt fast charging like the 9 pro the oneplus 9 dual 2250 milliamp cell jumps from 0 to 100 in around 30 minutes only however i was quite annoyed to see the phone's indian variant losing wireless charging capability altogether while its global model features a mediocre 15 watt wireless charging speed i think they could have at least offered a 30 watt wireless charging support though okay time to wrap things up and as you might have guessed our verdict on the oneplus 9 is that it's a pretty good phone for the price and i would probably pick it over the oneplus 9 pro because it's more value oriented and that's what oneplus is all about having said that i feel like oneplus has priced this phone 10 to 15 higher than what feels justifiable for instance this phone lacks ois telephoto lens uh ltpo technology ip rating and it has got plastic frames so because of this buyers might be tempted to go with cheaper alternatives like the ico 7 legend and the mi 11x pro which practically offers similar specs as the oneplus 9. so guys that's all for this video if you liked it do not forget to give it a thumbs up and i will also be coming up with a detailed comparison between the oneplus 9 and the me 11x pro so uh stay subscribed to our channel till then i'm pratim adikairi and thank you so much for watching and stay safehey guys i hope you have been doing well in this video i'm going to be sharing our long-term review of the oneplus 9 while i've been busy testing so many mid-range phones that i've launched in 2021 so far one of our team members who's also a oneplus enthusiast was tasked with using the oneplus 9 as his daily driver for how long exactly okay so in all this time it has received several updates from oneplus that's fixed a lot of issues and i think this is a good time for us to share our experiences with you guys so let's get straight into it okay let's start with the performance side of things and as expected the company has not made any compromises here as compared to the more expensive oneplus 9 hence it delivers as good a smartphone experience as relatively more expensive devices yet it feels like oneplus has cheaped out a little bit in terms of its vibration motor as its haptics is not as good as the 9 pro regardless we are yet to encounter even the slightest hint of starter in the snapdragon 888 powered beast no matter what the intensity of the workload is plus it does not heat up as much as the 9 pro either i don't mean to say that the oneplus 9 stays cool in every condition but i have experienced its cooling solution to be slightly more effective than the oneplus 9 pro while playing games or shooting 4k videos and such moving on as with other phones with this flagship chipset the oneplus 9 is able to handle even the most graphic intensive titles like gentian impact smoothly in the default settings but cranking up the settings to 60 fps the gameplay is still fairly smooth although it introduces few jitters every now and then however the bigger caveat here is that the phone heats up beyond 42 to 43 degree surface temperature under this so we recommend you stick with the default setting in general impact for a stable and more comfortable gaming experience we've also played our fair share of pubg mobile on this phone here the oneplus 9 maintained a stable 40fps in the highest of settings and thanks to the incredibly low touch latency of 240hz the gameplay on this phone is further elevated however to differentiate it from its pro model the company has skipped on the hyper touch feature here that bumps the screen's touch response all the way to 360 hertz well such petty compromises from oneplus have really become common in the past couple of years so i can't say that i'm really surprised anyways before moving forward let me give a quick shout out to the sponsor of today's video skillshare with the ongoing lockdown presenting us with the perfect opportunity for remote learning skillshare is where you'd want to be personally i've been taking the advanced video editing class by jordy vanderpud and thanks to this you've probably noticed few improvements in the quality of our recent videos already plus its free to download mobile app means i can learn on the go as well and right now skillshare is offering a free trial of their premium membership for the first thousand people to sign up using our link all the links will be given in the description so be sure to check them out and now back to the review on top of the discounted dot sampling rate oneplus has also failed to bring 90 fps gameplay in pubg mobile on this year's flagship phones as a result the oneplus 9 can only hit a maximum of 60 fps in extreme frame rates and hdr graphics which is strange because the older oneplus 8 series could hit 90 fps plus as i mentioned earlier the oneplus 9 does heat up while gaming a couple of recent updates have minimized the issue to some extent but it seems like the snapdragon 888 is the bigger culprit here okay gaming aside normal day to day task on this 120 hertz refresh rate screen has been a great experience the company's oxygen os is really well implemented and we've had no issues concerning sluggishness or stutters by scrolling multitasking and the likes here the only thing that i'm slightly disappointed by is that oneplus has been pretty slow with monthly updates on its phones since both the oneplus 9 and 9 pro are still running on maze security patch while we're already halfway past june in comparison samsung has been doing incredibly well in this regard and i desperately hope that oneplus raises its software update game besides this the company has also made other compromises here for instance the indian variant of the oneplus 9 only supports two 5g bands at a time when cheaper phones like the real me x7 max bring seven 5g bands to note the global variant that we have with us supports well over 10 5g bands i think this regional variation is most likely to keep the prices lower in india since the global variant is 20 to 25 pricier than what oneplus 9 costs in india and not to forget that it does not have any ip rating either well that's not entirely accurate the frustratingly exclusive truth here is that the oneplus 9 buyers in us who purchase it from t-mobile are indeed privy to ip68 certification and no market else on top of this it comes with plastic frames which i think is yet another letdown considering comparatively affordable phones like the iq7 legend and the mi 11x pro brag metal frames now don't get me wrong the oneplus 9 does have a really ergonomic design it's handy and with the flat display we've had no issues regarding accidental or ghost touches here either also it's quite lightweight too so unlike other bulkier phones it's not a struggle using the oneplus 9 for a longer duration despite all this if i had to rate its looks i would only give it a b plus that's because it does not look and feel like a premium device instead it looks like any other mid-range phone out there especially this arctic black color variant that we have oneplus seriously could have done so much better in this regard also like the oneplus 9 pro the company has gone with the older gorilla glass 5 protection on both the front and back instead of the gorilla glass victors which is corning's latest and greatest offering our unit has not suffered from scratches yet but i think they could have at least settled for gorilla glass 6 if not the victis anyway we have little to complain about the display though while it does not get as bright as that on the 9 pro it is bright enough under any kind of harsh lighting situation do note that this 6.5 inches amoled screen is not qhd yet its full hd resolution is still top quality plus with the ever so optimized software we have never faced lag ui transition or jerky interface which we have frequently encountered on xiaomi and realme phones this i think is one of the few things great about oneplus phones however it misses out on dc dimming feature which was present on the oneplus 8 series regardless watching videos on this phone has been an enjoyable ride plus its stereo speakers are as good as the ones on the oneplus 9 pro which further adds to the content consumption experience they are loud with really balanced mids and highs this amoled screen is also housed to an optical in-display fingerprint sensor which is expectedly fast and accurate still oneplus could have placed the sensor a little higher but over time i think you'll get used to it all right now let's talk about the cameras i have already emphasized at length how oneplus created unnecessary hype around its partnership with popular camera company hasselblad in my review of the oneplus 9 so i am not going to do that again anyhow this phone borrows a 48 megapixel sony imx689 primary sensor from the oneplus 8 pro but the good news is that it gets the same 50 megapixel ultra wide angle freeform lens like the 9 pro and completing the setup is an underwhelming 2 megapixel monochrome sensor now because the oneplus 9 introduces the same hasselblad color calibration compared to its pro sibling normal daytime images look almost similar in some instances the oneplus 9 has a slightly saturated output but most of the time you'll have a difficult time pointing out the differences the level of detail and dynamic range is pretty similar too however since this phone does not have ois there are certain instances when it does not behave as well as a point to shoot camera should so if you're shooting a moving subject the oneplus 9 fails to lock focus quickly thereby resulting in blurred artifacts which is not the case with the oneplus 9 pro likewise during night time due to the lack of ois and a slightly inferior sensor low light images look muddy and grainy when zoomed in as evident from these photos the oneplus 9 pro's normal nighttime shots retain better details and less noise with the nightscape mode turned on details improved significantly though still most of the time the oneplus 9 pro does a better job okay ultra wide angle nighttime images from both phones have similar performance be it under normal or nightscape mode the daytime ultra wide angle photos are also pretty close but just like the images from the primary camera sometimes it leans a bit more on the saturated side okay moving on to the portraits well we've liked what oneplus has done here the subject focus is nice and edge detection is good as well the only difference lies in the skin tone which is a little yellowish on the oneplus 9 pro and pinkish on the oneplus 9 but regardless of the color tone both look pretty good in my eyes okay selfies from both the phones turn out similar too courtesy of the same 16 megapixel sensor this is just us nitpicking but the oneplus 9 pro does maintain highlights slightly better still there is nothing much distinguishable in most instances however there have been a few occasions when the oneplus 9 was not able to manage exposure like in this picture here at the back its video capabilities are almost identical to the 9 pro except for a 4k 120fps option which is absent here it still features 8k 30fps mode though and the quality is almost similar on both the phones surprisingly the 4k 60fps videos also result in similar performance so that's great but sometimes the lack of ois is dearly missed in dimly lit or low lighting situations where it falls victim to slight shirts while its pro sibling manages to deliver relatively stable output okay about the selfie video just like the oneplus 9 pro you can either shoot at an atp 30 or 60 fps resolution the footages look stable and the quality is good enough but i think for a premium phone like this one oneplus should have offered a higher resolution option as well um also the field of view is not quite wide you need to stretch your hands in order to get a full view of yourself nonetheless the audio pickup from the microphone is good enough for vlogging and such overall i must say that the oneplus 9 is a good camera phone it is more or less similar to the more expensive oneplus 9 pro but still the problem here is that despite the hasselblad partnership aspects like inferior color shadow processing and inconsistency across lenses is still prevalent here even after more than two months of the release of these phones oneplus has failed to fix these issues so what did we miss yeah the battery life uh well under a typical usage with the screen refresh rate set to 120 hertz and ambient display turned on we managed to squeeze out just five hours of screen on time from the oneplus 9's 4500 milliamp battery this translates to less than a days endurance for me and that strictly average battery life in my books one of the reasons for this could also be from the lack of ltpo backplane technology you see unlike the pro variant the oneplus 9 can not dynamically toggle between the screen's refresh rate between 1 to 120 hertz what this ultimately means is that the screen is unnecessarily taking up more power even when you're interacting with static content as compared to the oneplus 9 pro that can dial it down to one hertz for more optimum power consumption also you will notice quite a significant battery drain with the ambient display turned on during our usage we noticed around seven to ten percent battery drain overnight so if you prioritize battery life more you should consider turning it off but since it supports 65 watt fast charging like the 9 pro the oneplus 9 dual 2250 milliamp cell jumps from 0 to 100 in around 30 minutes only however i was quite annoyed to see the phone's indian variant losing wireless charging capability altogether while its global model features a mediocre 15 watt wireless charging speed i think they could have at least offered a 30 watt wireless charging support though okay time to wrap things up and as you might have guessed our verdict on the oneplus 9 is that it's a pretty good phone for the price and i would probably pick it over the oneplus 9 pro because it's more value oriented and that's what oneplus is all about having said that i feel like oneplus has priced this phone 10 to 15 higher than what feels justifiable for instance this phone lacks ois telephoto lens uh ltpo technology ip rating and it has got plastic frames so because of this buyers might be tempted to go with cheaper alternatives like the ico 7 legend and the mi 11x pro which practically offers similar specs as the oneplus 9. so guys that's all for this video if you liked it do not forget to give it a thumbs up and i will also be coming up with a detailed comparison between the oneplus 9 and the me 11x pro so uh stay subscribed to our channel till then i'm pratim adikairi and thank you so much for watching and stay safe\n"