About a year ago, OnePlus launched its new “flagship killer”, the OnePlus 9. The phone itself drew so much attention months before the official launch mainly because of the company’s new partnership with a legendary camera maker, the Hasselblad. As photography capability plays an increasingly more important role when rating a flagship, the partnership with Hasselblad seemed to be the only missing hardware piece to make the OnePlus phones more complete. So a year after, should you still get the OnePlus 9?
Hardware Key Specifications
- Size: 6.55 inches
- Resolution: 2400 x 1080 pixels 402 PPI
- Type: 120 Hz Fluid AMOLED
- CPU: Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 888
- RAM: 8GB LPDDR5
- Storage: 128GB UFS 3.1
- Battery: 4,500 mAh
- Warp Charge 65T
- Main Camera: 48 Megapixels with ƒ/1.8 aperture
- Ultra-Wide Camera: 50 Megapixels, ƒ/2.2 aperture
- Monochrome Camera: 2 Megapixels
There is no denying that the OnePlus 9 comes with specifications that would make it a potential flagship killer. However, modern smartphones don’t always need the most powerful internal hardware to provide the best experience. More often than ever, it is the software that dictates the user experience.
Personal Experience With the OnePlus 9
One year after using the OnePlus 9(128Gb+8Gb), the phone still performs like a champ, most of the time. The UI is still clean and it provides a fluid experience, especially coupled with the 120Hz display; the alert slider still remains a OnePlus exclusive which came in handy in multiple situations; battery life is still decent which regularly leaves enough juice before I have to plug in at night; cameras snap pictures speedier than my last OnePlus 6T which always had lag.
And, that’s about it when thinking about the positivity of my OnePlus 9. The irony is that what makes the phone good is also where the disappointment comes from. Remember that emphasis from the last paragraph: most of the time.
Most of the time, the phone does what it is supposed to do as a flagship killer. The UI is fluid, responsive to my touches, and easy to navigate. However, there are times I wish it was more consistent. Sometimes when swiping down from the home screen, the notification drawer won’t expand fully; the “close all” function in the “recent tasks” doesn’t “close all”; the brightness slider doesn’t always appear. As for the alert slider, when the phone is in landscape mode, placing the phone in “silent mode” would trigger the landscape keyboard, WHY???
OnePlus has always had a good reputation when it comes to software, from the ages of CyanogenMod to now the beloved OxygenOS. It is rated as one of the best versions of Android even when comparing Google’s vanilla version. However, my experience has not been very convincing. There are multiple times when the phone reboots itself without any indication. There are times I had to “hard-restart” the phone because it was stuck in “black screen” while the alert slider vibrates when switching between modes which indicates the phone was still “on”.
Lastly, let’s talk about cameras. OnePlus heavily promoted its partnership with Hasselblad which gave a lot of potential buyers hope. And according to some Youtubers’ reviews, the phone seems to be performing quite impressively. Photos I took have got great color accuracy, strong dynamic range and a macro camera come in handy when taking close-up objects. However, there was one situation that made me realize the phone still needs a lot of improvement. Every time when taking pictures at night, the photos are just too dim even when “night” mode is turned on. The picture quality drops dramatically to a point I thought my lenses were dirty. But when I started using G-Cam, though it doesn’t perform like a pixel phone, the end results were much improved. That’s when I realized I had bought into that Hasselblad Hype that OnePlus wanted me to.
Recommendation For OnePlus
The OnePlus 9 didn’t provide the best experience I had hoped for. It seems like OnePlus lost its core identity, which is pure Android, fast interface, user-focused “flagship killer”. With the anticipated release of the OnePlus 10 Pro in the western countries, OnePlus should turn its focus back to the formula which made the OnePlus a fan favorite: bring back the smooth OS that we know OnePlus phones are capable of; be a unique brand to your fans instead of trying to merge OxygenOS with ColorOS; Improve camera software since they have got flagship camera hardware; and lastly, bring back that “flagship killer” price.
