OnePlus’ next flagship, the OnePlus 9 series, is just days away from its official reveal. But, Pete Lau is more eager than us, and courtesy of him, we know pretty much about OnePlus’ upcoming flagship smartphones.
SO HERE’S EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT THE ONEPLUS 9 SERIES
There are three OnePlus 9 series smartphones in the pipeline, and we have seen the vanilla OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro in the official renders. But, a couple of days ago, Pete Lau confirmed the existence of the much-awaited OnePlus 9R, and it’s going to be India exclusive.
Well, that’s a lot considering OnePlus will be refreshing the lineup half a year later, and don’t forget Nord.
Let’s jump into the specifics of these three smartphones.
So to begin, let’s have a grasp of what we’re dealing with. The vanilla 9 will be OnePlus’ next flagship’s vanilla. Simultaneously, the 9 Pro will be a tad expensive variant of the 9 with a cherry on the top. In contrast, the OnePlus 9R will be a budget offering specifically available in India.
A REMINISCENT DESIGN
Well, OnePlus has made some of the aggressive design choices in the past, and it didn’t sit very well with most of its fans. This time around, the Chinese smartphone maker seems to be going with a subtle design reminiscence of the OnePlus 8T and some other Oppo smartphones, and not much has changed compared to the previous OnePlus’.
On the front, the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro sports a display with a punch-hole cutout for the camera in the top left with minimal bezels and a metal chassis around that. Meanwhile, on the back, there’s a considerably huge camera island sporting three sensors in the OnePlus 9 and four in the 9 Pro, along with ‘HASSELBLAD‘ branding. Well, if you still don’t know about the Hasselblad thing, then wait for a bit before we get there.
There are some new colours; the OnePlus 9 will be available in Stellar Black, Arctic Sky, and Winter Mist colour options, while the 9 Pro will come in Astral Black, Morning Mist, and Pine Green colours.
A+DISPLAY?
Who needs tipsters and leakers when your own boss in on a spree? Thanks to OnePlus’ CEO Pete Lau, we know a lot about the OnePlus’ upcoming flagship series, including its display. According to Lau’s tweet, atleast one of the OnePlus 9 devices and most probably the highest-end one will be featuring an LTPO panel with QHD+ resolution and dynamic 120Hz refresh rate. Also, the panel is a 10-bit display which should show more colours than a standard 8-bit display. Moreover, the OnePlus 9 series display’ is touted to have a max brightness of 1300 nits and support for MEMC and HDR10+.
Well, Lau didn’t share how large displays will be, but those tipsters I told you about didn’t go on vacation, so kudos to them for doing their job.
According to rumours, these are the expected display size of the OnePlus 9 series smartphones.
- OnePlus 9 Pro: 6.7-inch (1440p)
- OnePlus 9: 6.55-inch (1080p)
- OnePlus 9R: 6.50-inch
One thing to note is that these specs may not apply to the OnePlus 9R, but you can expect a 90Hz or 120Hz OLED panel on the 9R.
ANOTHER SNAPDRAGON 888 FLAGSHIP
Like any other 2020 android flagship, the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro will be powered by Qualcomm’s recent Snapdragon 888 SoC with a “5-layer gaming-grade cooling system.” In contrast, the 9R is expected to bring Snapdragon 870 or Snapdragon 690 onboard to save some costs.
According to Android Police’ Max Weinbach, the Snapdragon 888 inside the 9 Pro will be coupled with up to 12GB of RAM. At the same time, Geekbench results have suggested that the vanilla one will have 8GB of RAM, and according to some recent rumours, it has a 12GB variant too. As far as storage is concerned, we can expect atleast 128GB of internal memory inside both the models and a second variant with 256GB of internal storage.
THERE’S A CHARGER IN THE BOX
The upcoming 9 series OnePlus’ will come with a twin-battery design, which means that the battery will be split up into two halves to increase the charging speeds and safeguard the fast charging process.
There is no need to worry as OnePlus is not ditching chargers in favour of the environment. OnePlus’ CEO Pete Lau confirmed that the OnePlus 9 series would be coming with a charger in the box.
As for charging speeds, the upcoming 9 series smartphones will be coming with a 65W fast charger, the one introduced with the OnePlus 8T. There’s a new 50W wireless charger for the 9 Pro that will charge the 9 Pro’s 4500mAH battery in just 43 minutes.
ONEPLUS X HASSELBLAD
In case you missed it, OnePlus has teamed up with imaging giant Hasselblad for the OnePlus 9 Series and forward. This time, Hasselblad is working towards improving the colour accuracy of the OnePlus 9 camera’s.
To start, the 9 and 9 Pro will include a Hasselblad Pro Mode, which will bring a new user interface based on Hasselblad image processing software and sensor calibration to a smartphone for the first time. Users will be getting options to adjust ISO, focus, exposure times, white balance, and more, along with support for the 12-bit RAW format for more natural colours and higher dynamic range than the previous OnePlus’.
The OnePlus 9 series will bring an all-new “freeform lens”, which eliminates edge distortion. The new phones will be coming with a custom Sony IMX789 sensor, which debuted earlier this month with the Oppo Find X3 series. The custom IMX789 sensor will support a 12-bit RAW format while supporting 4K video recording at 120fps and 8K video at 30fps.
Then there’s a 50MP IMX766 sensor coupled with the new freeform lens. Well, there’s a lot more coming apart from the new sensors, such improved bokeh effect, a new tilt-shift photography mode, enhanced HDR, and a moon mode.
Thanks to T-Mobile, we know now more than Pete told us, and according to the telecom operator, 9 Pro’s quad-camera setup will consist of a 48MP, 50MP, 8MP and 2MP camera. In contrast, the vanilla 9 will ditch the 8MP camera from the 9 Pro’s setup while retaining the other three cameras.
You can know more about the OnePlus 9′ camera in Techradar’s interview with OnePlus’ CEO Pete Lau, were the peeps discussed in depth their new cameras and what’s coming in future.
WHAT’S MORE?
- There’s a watch incoming, the OnePlus Watch.
- Then, the upcoming OnePlus flagships will be 5G capable, including the budget-oriented OnePlus 9R.
ONEPLUS 9 SERIES – HOW MUCH WILL IT COST AND WHEN WILL IT BE AVAILABLE?
- The OnePlus 9 Series will be debuting globally on March 23 alongside the much-awaited OnePlus Watch.
- You can pre-order the OnePlus 9 series starting March 23.
- The OnePlus 9 Series Gift Bundle is on sale right now for ₹4,000, including an OnePlus Urban Traveler Backpack, a Bucket Hat, and an RS. 4000 voucher, which can be used to purchase the OnePlus 9 series device.
- The OnePlus Watch can be pre-ordered from the Chinese e-commerce website Jingdong for 50 yuan, which will give you a 100 yuan discount on the final price.
- We expect the OnePlus 9 series to launch at a starting price of $699, similar to its predecessor.