OnePlus 9 (rumour) round-up

Everything that you need to know so far about this device, that will likely be released mid-March
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Small side-note: in this article we'll only talk about the OnePlus 9. There'll be another article about the OnePlus 9 Pro. There'll also be a detailed general round-up later.

OnePlus announced their 8T-smartphone a bit more than two months ago, but the rumour mill about the OnePlus 9-series is already an on-going thing since a few months. The company will likely release the 9-series earlier than usual: halfway March already, instead of the usual May/July. This is probably because OnePlus wants to compete more closely with bigger brands like Samsung (who usually announce their devices in Q1 as well.)


Specifications

According to a source, reporting to 91Mobiles, the OnePlus 9 (codename "Lemonade" with model numbers "LE2110", "LE2217" and "LE2219") will have the latest and greatest hardware: the Snapdragon 888 SoC, combined with 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage. This corresponds to what was seen on a Geekbench benchmark. At the moment of writing, it is unknown which version of LPDDR and UFS they will use. We personally expect that it'll be LPDDR5 along with UFS 3.1.

This time, the "basic" model will have wireless charging - just like the 8 Pro. The 4500mAh battery is able to charge wireless with 30W. As with wired charging, this will be 65W, just like the 8T. It's not known yet how fast reversed charging on the OnePlus 9 will be. On another note: many news websites are reporting that this is the first OnePlus device that will support reversed wireless charging. This is not true: the OnePlus 8 Pro already supported (3W) reversed wireless charging.

With what we know now, it seems like the OnePlus 9 is a hardware mix of the OnePlus 8 Pro and 8T. Also because the OnePlus 9 will have a flat display, just like the 8T.

Earlier this week, a Twitter-user called "Teme" claims that OnePlus will collaborate with Leica for the OnePlus 9-series. Leica is a German company that manufacturers a wide-range of camera products. Since 2016, they have a collaboration with Huawei, which probably helps them improving the output of an image. In an interview with InputMag, Pete Lau (CEO OnePlus) said that OnePlus will be "looking at improving camera photography with a bigger focus on software and hardware". 91Mobiles recently reported that the OnePlus 9 will feature a 50MP, 20MP and 12MP camera. The 50MP camera is a primary sensor, whereas the 20MP sensor will be a wide-angle. The 12MP is a telelens. OnePlus always used 48MP sensors for their flagships. However, the amount of MegaPixels aren't the only metric that counts; sensor size also matters. The selfie camera will likely be a 16MP one.

Images of the cameras have been leaked as well, showing three cameras on the back.

Source: 91Mobiles

Earlier this month, PhoneArena showed photos of the OnePlus 9's front and back. Specs were also revealed. More pictures can be found in the article of PhoneArena.

Source: PhoneArena

Here, we can see that the camera lay-out on the back looks very similar to the one that was posted by 91Mobiles.

PhoneArena also reports that the OnePlus 9 will feature a flat 6.55" 1080p display with a refresh rate of 120Hz. The aspect ratio is 20:9. However, the back of the phone will have curved edges. An official IP-rating is not present this time. The photos that were posted also correspond with the CAD-renders, published by 91Mobiles.

Specs of the OnePlus 9, in a clear table

Component Specification
SoC (System-on-Chip) Snapdragon 888
RAM 8GB (likely LPDRR5)
Storage 128GB (likely UFS 3.1)
Cameras rear 50MP primary, 20MP wide-angle, 12MP tele
Camera front 16MP
Screen 6.55", 2400 x 1080p, 20:9, 120Hz
Battery & charging 4500mAh, 30W wireless charging, 65W wired charging. Support for reversed wireless charging
Price ~$600 (approx Rs 44,200)
Availability Around mid-March

Prices and availability

The latest report has a source which says that the OnePlus 9 will be priced around $600 (approx Rs 44,200). Multiple sources have reported that the OnePlus 9 will be announced somewhere in the middle of March 2021.

As mentioned earlier, we will write another round-up for the 9 Pro in the future.


Also, happy holidays from the Oxygen Updater team!