These are the new color variants of the OnePlus 9-series

We've been sent the Engineering Mode APK from a trustable source and found mentions of them inside
OneNormalUsername

OnePlus released the OnePlus 8T in October 2020, but since a few months already, rumours started to spread about the next flagship devices the Chinese OEM will release, namely the OnePlus 9 and the OnePlus 9 Pro. Although we did not mention it in our 8-series Android 11 Developer Preview 4 coverage, we found new device codenames in the firmware which made us curious. Said codename (lemonade) has also been posted by Max Jambor on Twitter on October 19th 2020, and he confirmed it is used for upcoming 9-series.

Based on previous OnePlus devices codenames (you can find a list of them on /r/oneplus wiki), we expect lemonade to stand for regular OnePlus 9, lemonadet for OnePlus 9 T-Mobile, lemonadev for OnePlus 9 Verizon, lemonadep for OnePlus 9 Pro and lemonadept for OnePlus 9 Pro T-Mobile. In fact, we found additional evidence of the OnePlus 9 heading back to Verizon in 8-series Open Beta 3 Settings APK and tipped it to XDA-Developers. Regarding T-Mobile variants, we did not find additional evidence of them in OxygenOS, but it would not make sense if it would not be a partner in the USA, considering OnePlus always released a carrier variant of their devices for them since the OnePlus 6T.

Anyway, to come to the 9-series color variants themselves, we got our hands on an Engineering Mode APK revealing the colors via a trustable source. Upon decompilation, we found inside that APK strings indicating what is likely to be color variants of the devices. Based on those strings available below, we expect the regular 9 to be released in three colors, the 9 T-Mobile to be released in two colors, the 9 Verizon in two colors, the 9 Pro in three colors and the 9 Pro T-Mobile in one color.

<string name="str_lemonade_color0_title">Astral Black</string>
<string name="str_lemonade_color1_title">Arctic Sky</string>
<string name="str_lemonade_color2_title">Winter Mist</string>
<string name="str_lemonadep_color0_title">Stellar Black</string>
<string name="str_lemonadep_color1_title">Forest Green</string>
<string name="str_lemonadep_color2_title">Morning Mist</string>
<string name="str_lemonadept_color0_title">Morning Mist</string>
<string name="str_lemonadet_color0_title">Astral Black</string>
<string name="str_lemonadet_color1_title">Winter Mist</string>
<string name="str_lemonadev_color0_title">Gloss black</string>
<string name="str_lemonadev_color1_title">Gloss gradient purple</string>

For your convenience, below is a table resuming above findings.

Device Codename Possible color variants
9 lemonade Astral Black, Arctic Sky, Winter Mist
9 T-Mobile lemonadet Astral Black, Winter Mist
9 Verizon lemonadev Gloss black, Gloss gradient purple
9 Pro lemonadep Stellar Black, Forest Green, Morning Mist
9 Pro T-Mobile lemonadept Morning Mist


Stay tuned for another 9-series leak in coming days!
Additionally, we will certainly make a recap sheet of the devices based on latest leaks shortly before release date.