OnePlus 9 Professional Overview: The mature flagship

My opinion on the OnePlus 9 Professional briefly

The OnePlus 9 Professional is clearly not the primary try by OnePlus at making a flagship. It has been a minimum of two years since OnePlus started its transfer upmarket. This 12 months, nonetheless, {the catalogue} additionally appears to have roughly ‘stabilized.’ For us the west, OnePlus’ choices are easy: The ‘primary’ OnePlus 9 begins at 699 EUR and the OnePlus 9 Professional begins at 899 EUR. This is identical value at which the corporate introduced the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Professional final 12 months. For these of you studying this in India, there’s a third handset – the OnePlus 9R which a minimum of in the interim might be restricted to India.

Coming again to the OnePlus 9, the specs on the factor is correct up there with the perfect. Snapdragon 888, Fluid AMOLED QHD+ display screen with 120 Hz refresh fee, quad 48+50 MP digicam module and 4500 mAh battery – you title it. The telephone has it. As you might need guessed, these are some severe flagship specs proper there. And at a beginning value that’s nearly equal to the Galaxy S20, the OnePlus 9 Professional absolutely cries on your consideration.

On paper, due to this fact, the OnePlus is already trying to be a excellent worth for cash flagship – identical to the Xiaomi Mi 11. However that is nothing new. So allow us to now discover out what the large deal is with the OnePlus 9.

Traditionally, the digicam efficiency exhibited by earlier OnePlus flagships all the time labored towards the corporate. And this time, the corporate appears to be decided to repair the issue.

Neat design however approach too typical?

The OnePlus 9 Professional has a reasonably basic design for a flagship and sports activities the ordinary curved display screen/shiny glass again/metallic edges theme that we’ve got begun to affiliate wit flagships today. 

Briefly, I appreciated:

• the silver Morning Mist color and the mirror impact it offers off
• the curved display screen
• the relatively skinny digicam module
• IP68 certification

I didn’t like:

• the truth that there is no such thing as a MicroSD slot
• the truth that the design may be very ‘typical’

For this evaluation, OnePlus despatched us the Morning Mist color choice. It is a good color that offers off silver and black tones and the reflections create a really good mirror impact. At sure angles, the rear panel offers off an opaque look, a bit like a morning mist. In any case, the impact may be very convincing. As anticipated, the OnePlus 9 Professional will get a curved show (an choice that’s now not as common because it was). That being mentioned, the diploma of curvature is kind of inside ‘tolerable’ limits. The smartphone is in any other case fairly skinny and fairly mild for a OnePlus at 192 grams (in comparison with 199 for the OnePlus 8 Professional).

The digicam module on the again follows the design of the earlier OnePlus 8/8 Professional/8T collection. The extremely wide-angle and fundamental sensors are perched on prime of one another vertically whereas the monochrome sensor and telephoto lens are aligned horizontally slightly below, topped with the “Hasselblad” brand.

I did not discover any play as I ran my fingers over the quantity and energy buttons, the “Alert Slider” click on is agency and crisp, and what can I say concerning the haptic suggestions besides that it is delightfully (sure, to every his personal, do not choose) exact. I additionally recognize that the telephone will get IP68 certification however a MicroSD port continues to be ignored.

Total, the design of the OnePlus 9 Professional is admittedly good.  Albeit some components are slightly an excessive amount of for my style. I do not really feel sufficient variations from final 12 months’s iterations. However the very good color and its metallic results are fairly worthy of a premium smartphone.

A smoother, extra energy-efficient Amoled LTPO display screen

The OnePlus 9 Professional packs a 6.7-inch Fluid AMOLED show with QHD+ decision (1440 x 3216 pixels), within the 20:9 side ratio. The panel additionally helps 
120Hz refresh fee (adaptive) and a most brightness of 1300 nits. The telephone additionally boasts of 360Hz contact sampling fee.

Briefly, I appreciated:

• the 120 Hz refresh fee
• the Hyper Contact sampling fee of 360 Hz
• the height brightness worth of 1300 nits

I did not like:

• The “sensible” adaptive refresh fee.

Because the case has been with OnePlus flagships, the AMOLED display screen is superb. This time round, the OnePlus 9 Professional advantages from an replace to Fluid Show expertise in its second technology. The most important addition is the mixing of LTPO (low-temperature polycrystalline oxide) expertise that has a constructive affect on the battery. If that wasn’t all, the show is claimed to be extra responsive and secure by way of framerate.

I’ve to say that the OnePlus 9 Professional’s display screen was fairly fluid and the looking and gaming expertise was nice. The latter notably due to the 360Hz contact sampling fee.

Then again, I am slightly extra sceptical concerning the adaptive refresh fee. By activating the native FPS counter of Android 11, I might see that we went from 120 Hz on Name of Obligation: Cell to 60 Hz on Youtube or Netflix. However OnePlus says it will probably go as little as 1 Hz for studying textual content or viewing images.

The issue? I could not attain these values. In reality, the bottom fee I used to be capable of get right down to was 30 Hz and that was solely after I was utilizing the keyboard in some messaging apps or simply in search bars on Google, Maps, Spotify or Youtube.

OnePlus often makes use of Samsung panels for its shows, that are all the time among the many brightest in the marketplace. The 1300 nits scores posted by OnePlus helps it make it to the top quality, though the Samsung Galaxy S21 Extremely ‘s display screen is brighter at1500 nits.

The OnePlus 9 Professional’s display screen additionally comes with an entire host of options like MEMC (including frames to easy the show), HDR10+, 10-bit color depth, ambient mild detection and so on… So many options that I can not consider with the means and time at my disposal.

Total, I discovered the display screen of the OnePlus 9 Professional to be wonderful. I am not satisfied by all of the advertising and marketing across the sensible adaptive refresh fee. However the multimedia expertise is among the many smoothest in the marketplace.

Snapdragon 888 is a beast!

The OnePlus 9 Professional packs the Snapdragon 888, the newest high-end 5G SoC from Qualcomm.
We discover the tri-cluster construction with one Cortex-X1 clocked at 2.84 GHz, three Cortex-A78 clocked at 2.42 GHz, and 4 Cortex-A55 at 1.8 GHz.

Briefly, I appreciated it:

• for enjoying some video games at 90 or 120 FPS
• due to the uncooked energy of the Snapdragon 888

 I didn’t like:

• the Fnatic mode that doesn’t considerably enhance efficiency
• the unstable framerate after half-hour of play

As with the Xiaomi Mi 11, some graphics benchmarks do not work since they’re outdated.

I truly ran 3 take a look at periods with out and three with the “gaming professional” and Fnatic modes, that are supposed to enhance efficiency. The benchmark I used confirmed no noticeable distinction. I’ve already written about it in additional element, however other than Huawei’s efficiency mode, I discover little use for the varied choices that promise to “enhance” your gaming expertise.

I do, nonetheless, welcome the contextual menu of the gaming professional mode, which will be introduced up in the midst of a recreation by swiping from the highest left nook of the smartphone when in panorama mode. The flexibility to create clips retroactively, after an epic gameplay section, is a really good addition. Then again, you will have to clarify to me how helpful it’s to have the ability to view WhatsApp, Telegram and even Instagram in windowed mode whilst you’re enjoying.

Whereas most of 3DMark’s exams did not work on the OnePlus 9 Professional as a result of it was too highly effective, 3DMark’s Wild Life and Wild Life Stress Take a look at benchmarks did.

These two exams simulate intense gaming use of the smartphone over a brief time frame (1 minute) for Wild Life and over an extended session (20 minutes) for Wild Life Stress Take a look at. The concept is to see how nicely the smartphone is ready to preserve a relentless stage of efficiency in an “excessive” situation within the brief and long run.

And on the 1-minute Wild Life take a look at, the efficiency of the OnePlus 9 Professional was blended to say the least by way of stability. A framerate that fluctuates between 24 and 42 FPS whereas the temperature remained just about fixed and under the overheating threshold shouldn’t be loopy. Particularly when OnePlus prides itself on being one of many solely producers to will let you play sure video games in 90 and even 120 FPS.

On the Wild Life Stress Take a look at benchmark of 20 minutes, we will observe an abrupt drop in efficiency from the fourth loop of take a look at (so 4 minutes). If you happen to have a look at the infographic in the midst of the illustration under, you possibly can see that the distinction between the primary take a look at loop (inexperienced curve) and the sixteenth (purple curve) is admittedly noticeable.

Because the temperature rises, issues worsen and the framerate goes all over and drops to twenty FPS when the smartphone is barely above 40°C. 

OnePlus, nonetheless, has taken the fundamentals of the OnePlus 8T for the cooling system by enlarging the vapor chamber and utilizing thicker graphite layers in addition to bigger copper movies to raised handle temperature management.

Unimaginable as it’s to confirm these claims since I’ve not disassembled the smartphone however I go away this merciless however essential process to the specialists that you simply all most likely already know. Particularly, the OnePlus 9 Professional doesn’t overheat an excessive amount of however appears to have pushed the sensitivity of its thermal throttling slightly an excessive amount of.

Relaxation assured, I did not really feel any slowdown throughout my lengthy every day gaming periods that on common final 1.5 hours. I additionally did not discover any severe framerate drops with my very own eyes. Once more, I remind you that these Wild Life benchmarks simulate an unrealistic and actually intense utilization that almost all customers is not going to observe anyway.

The OnePlus 9 Professional is due to this fact clearly a high-end smartphone among the many strongest in the marketplace. The gaming professional mode is superfluous for my part, other than its retroactive clips function and the temperature management is maybe a bit too harsh in limiting efficiency too rapidly or too early.

The cameras: Particular enhancements!

The OnePlus 9 Professional packs a quad digicam module co-developed with Hasselblad with the next specs:

• 48 MP wide-angle prime lens: Sony IMX789, 1/1.43″ (sensor dimension), 2.24μm (pixel dimension with 4-in-1 binning), EIS/OIS, f/1.8 aperture, 23mm equal
• 50 MP ultra-wide angle lens: Sony IMX766, 1/1.56″ (sensor dimension), freeform lens, f/2.2 aperture, 14mm equal
• 8 MP telephoto lens: f/2.4aperture, 1.0μm (pixel dimension)
• 2 MP monochrome sensor

On the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Professional, the collaboration with Hasselblad is by way of software program solely (as is the case between Huawei and Leica.) So we keep on the identical Sony IMX689 fundamental sensor that we’ve got already seen on the OnePlus 8, 8 Professional and 8T. The OnePlus 9 Professional, nonetheless,  advantages from a more moderen sensor referred to as the Sony IMX789.

The spotlight of this Hasselblad digicam module is the colorimetry. OnePlus guarantees that its new pure colour calibration resolution, which relies on Hasselblad’s experience, will end in extra correct, and due to this fact extra real looking, images.

Briefly, I appreciated:

• the distinction and dynamic vary with the broad angle digicam
• the flexibility of the extremely broad angle+broad angle+telephoto combo

 didn’t like:

• that the zoom vary continues to be too restricted
• colour inconsistencies between totally different lenses

The images of the OnePlus 9 Professional with the principle sensor

The spotlight of the 48 MP fundamental sensor is the help for native twin ISO, 12-bit RAW which is seemingly the brand new buzzword for photophiles, and DOL-HDR. DOL stands for “Digital Overlay” and consists of taking a number of photographs with totally different publicity values after which combining them to optimize the dynamic vary.

And in daytime photographs, I need to say that I used to be relatively stunned by the excellent administration of the advanced dynamic ranges. Check out the picture under to see what I’m saying.

I nonetheless discover that the digicam module tends to make the greens look ‘much less inexperienced’. But it surely’s not the purest, most real looking rendering both. Which I do not care about personally so long as the colorimetry would not look too synthetic, which is way from being the case right here.

The primary sensor helps 4-in-1 pixel binning with Sony’s 2×2 OCL expertise, which entails layering a single micro-lens on prime of every group of 4 pixels as an alternative of getting one per pixel. This makes focusing sooner and extra correct.

You might have the choice of taking pictures at full decision, which is 48 MP as an alternative of 12 MP. However I did not really feel the necessity or the need to take action, because the publicity was a lot much less nicely managed.

The extent of element continues to be passable and, though you possibly can see some movement blur artifacts associated to the water on the backside heart of the picture under, I discover the floor of the Sprée to be adequate and due to this fact the digital noise stays very contained.

Normally, earlier OnePlus flagships had this annoying tendency to attract a veil over photographs, largely attributable to overly aggressive smoothing. The AI was clumsily making an attempt to scale back the digital noise, nevertheless it was making the photographs lose their roughness. That is maybe the most important enchancment I’ve seen on this digicam module, this smoothing haze is nearly gone, for my part.

The OnePlus 9 Professional’s ultra-wide angle images

There’s additionally a 50 MP Sony IMX766 ultra-wide-angle lens on each the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Professional, which can be an “improve” from the 48 MP OnePlus 8 Professional sensor. The primary distinction is the inclusion of so-called “freeform lenses.”

These are a number of lenses with an irregular floor and superimposed asymmetrically with respect to their axis. The concept is to direct the captured mild in such a approach as to restrict the distortion impact typical of huge FOV optics.

Right here, OnePlus guarantees to include the distortion impact to lower than 1%. A determine that doesn’t imply a lot as it’s, however the freeform design on an extremely wide-angle lens has already confirmed itself on the Huawei Mate 40 Professional, for instance.

I am not going to get into absurd share measurements, although my colleague Stefan will most likely slap me on the wrist with a scientific formulation that’s apparent. I am basing myself on my emotions and my observations with the bare eye.

I can not inform you that the distortion on the edges of the picture is lower than 1%, however I can say that it’s restricted sufficient that I do not discover it.

Then again, one should clearly observe a lower within the stage of particulars which is logical on this type of lenses. I additionally remorse a scarcity of coherence by way of publicity and colorimetry between the wide-angle and ultra-wide angle lenses.

The picture under illustrates this inconsistency completely. Take a look at the blue of the sky and the ochre of the constructing, the colours are far more bland in extremely broad angle and the shot appears nearly overexposed unbalancing the dynamic vary and the distinction.

OnePlus 9 Professional zoom photographs

As soon as once more, the OnePlus 9 Professional retains the exclusivity of the devoted telephoto lens. This lens (77mm equal) is able to a x3.3 optical and digital zoom as much as x30. It additionally options optical stabilization (OIS) to restrict movement blur.

So long as you keep on the crushed path of x3.3 optical magnification, the lack of element is proscribed. I attempted to push to x10 which is the restrict of what the telephoto lens can produce with out being unusable. We instantly see that the photographs are noisier however they continue to be fairly appropriate in my eyes.

For all that, we’re clearly not on the niceau of a Huawei or Samsung photophone. I additionally seen that the main target might be a bit fickle as soon as the x3.3 magnification was exceeded.

The x30 photographs are nearly all unusable and completely coated with a bunch of pixels with none element. Granted, not many individuals have enjoyable doing x30 zoom photographs from proper to left and I’ve most likely stored my spoiled youngster habits after I used the Galaxy S21 Extremely and its extremely versatile x5 and x10 zoom.

However I feel it is a disgrace to not have an optic with the next decision and a sooner aperture like f/2.0 as an alternative of f/2.4 to seize extra mild and due to this fact extra particulars. Check out the picture under and observe the distinction in colorimetry and publicity between the 2 images on the prime left (broad angle) and proper (x3.3 zoom). The white steadiness is far cooler and it feels just like the lens is not capturing as a lot/adequate mild.

The OnePlus 9 Professional images at night time

At night time, I discovered the OnePlus 9 Professional to carry out fairly nicely. The devoted night time mode, NightScape, solely works with the ultra-wide angle and fundamental broad angle lenses. However in good mild situations, with city lighting, it would not drive the publicity an excessive amount of and the photographs stay “naturally” nighttime.

I discover that the OnePlus 9 Professional handles robust mild sources relatively nicely by stopping city lighting from completely burning out the picture, for instance. Digital noise is clearly current and the sharpness due to this fact takes successful.

Then again, once you shoot a darker scene, the night time mode will are likely to overexpose the shot even when it means nearly fully dropping its “night time” look.

This 12 months, I discovered that OnePlus has made some very clear progress in images. I actually appreciated the distinction, the broad dynamic vary and the extent of element supplied by the principle sensor. The extremely broad angle and devoted telephoto lens carry versatility that I recognize, though the zoom shouldn’t be the perfect in the marketplace. I discovered the nighttime rendering to be worthy of the highest of the road Android telephones.

I am positive OnePlus will profit extra from pushing its collaboration on {hardware}, designing particular elements with Hasselblad after which calibrating them collectively. Because it stands, the OnePlus 9 Professional is an excellent picture smartphone, although I nonetheless would not put it on the extent of a Samsung Galaxy S21 Extremely.

Spectacular battery life, after which there may be 50W wi-fi charging!

The OnePlus 9 Professional packs a 4500mAh dual-cell battery and helps Warp Cost 65T quick wired charging and Warp Cost Wi-fi quick charging  50 Watts.

Briefly, I appreciated:

• the strong battery life regardless of the 120Hz AMOLED QHD+ show
• the Warp Cost 65T charging

I didn’t like:

• the 4500 mAh battery might have been larger on the Professional mannequin
• the 50 Watts quick cost is unique to the Professional mannequin

4500 mAh, for a flagship in 2021 it isn’t ridiculous nevertheless it’s nonetheless a bit disappointing particularly because the primary model and the Professional mannequin have the identical charging capability. You’d assume that with an even bigger display screen and the next price ticket of 200 euros, the OnePlus 9 Professional would deserve an even bigger battery.

However that is solely 100 mAh lower than the Xiaomi Mi 11’s battery, and definitely, lower than the 5000 mAh on the Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus/Extremely – besides these additionally price much more.

In conclusion, it isn’t dangerous however I’d have appreciated slightly extra. On a day-to-day foundation, the OnePlus 9 Professional lasted between 10 and 12 hours earlier than dropping under the 20% remaining battery life mark. A greater than respectable rating whereas I used to be utilizing the smartphone for my benchmark and picture exams with the QHD+/120 Hz display screen.

The Warp Cost 65T wired quick charging has already debuted on the OnePlus 8T, which additionally has the identical 4500 mAh dual-cell battery. I used to be capable of cost the OnePlus 9 Professional from 0 to 100% in half-hour or barely much less, on common.

As for the Warp Cost Wi-fi 50 Watts, I sadly and really stupidly forgot to retrieve the wi-fi charger left on the workplace to carry it dwelling. The producer declares that it will probably cost the 2 cells of the battery in 25 Watts every and on the similar time, permitting to move from 1 to 100% of battery in 43 minutes.

A really good promise that, on paper is much more fascinating than some wired expenses and that I’ll attempt to take a look at after which replace this text.

Wi-fi charging on OnePlus flagships is now not large information because the producer has FINALLY supplied it on the OnePlus 8 final 12 months. Besides this 12 months, not solely will it now not be unique to the Professional mannequin, however it’ll even be extra highly effective.

Total, I discovered the battery life to be strong sufficient for its battery whereas the latter is way from spectacular on paper. The Warp Cost 65T is pretty much as good as ever, and wi-fi charging takes an enormous step ahead from final 12 months’s OnePlus 8 Professional.

OnePlus 9 Professional specs

Conclusion