OnePlus 9 review

OxygenOS 11

OnePlus' OxygenOS has come a long way. With version 11, the UI was tweaked with large displays in mind. Many of the built-in apps and settings screens are designed with controls and tabs in the middle and lower portions of the screen to make them easier to reach one-handedly.

One new feature debuting with Oxygen OS on the 9 Pro takes place in the background. Turbo Boost 3.0 combines both RAM compression and Virtual RAM to let you keep up to 25% more apps open in the background. Virtual RAM reserves a small chunk of storage to temporarily be used as RAM when the main modules are at capacity.

The OnePlus 8T review noted all the changes (though not too major) on Oxygen OS 11. The 9 Pro launches with this same version of the OS so we'll just brush over the basics.

During setup, you'll be asked to choose between the default "Roboto" font and "OnePlus Sans". The latter is a light font with a modern look, but some may prefer the former for its superior legibility. You can change this later in the "Customization" tab under Settings.

Font choices

The fingerprint scanner is significantly lower on the display and it doesn't really interfere much with its usability. At most, it may take a couple of days to get used to its new location if you're coming from another OnePlus device.

Fingerprint setup

Home screens

With Oxygen OS 10.5, OnePlus moved the "OnePlus Shelf" from the left of the home screens to a secondary pull-down shade. The Google Feed now lives on the leftmost home screen. The home screen grids can be adjusted in the home screen settings - the default grid is 5x5. Icons can be switched from the default round to square ones as seen on Hydrogen OS, the Chinese counterpart to Oxygen OS. In more recent developments, OnePlus announced that new OnePlus devices in China will launch with a customized variant of Oppo's Color OS Android skin.

Home screen • Google Feed • Grid setting • Icons

Notification shade

The notification shade features six Quick Settings at the top, a brightness slider, and media controls if they are available. Below this top cluster is where notifications (both audible and silent) will populate. There are even more Quick Settings available to add and rearrange.

Notification shade • Quick Settings • More Quick Settings • Media Controls

The other pull-down drawer is the OnePlus Shelf and to access it, you swipe down on any area of the Oxygen OS launcher's home screens. The notification shade is accessed by swiping down from the very top.

The Shelf can be customized with preloaded tools like a step counter, weather widget, and a parking widget. Additional third-party widgets can be added here as well. Think of this as a customizable place for your favorite shortcuts and widgets that won't take up space on any of the home screens.

OnePlus shelf

The settings for Ambient Display are all in the "Customization" tab in the Settings app. Here you can change the accent color, system icons, wallpapers, font, and the Ambient Display clock.

Insight is the Ambient clock that also offers a glimpse as your phone's usage, showing you how often you unlock the screen throughout the day.

Customization: main screen • accent • tile shape • Ambient clock • Insight

OxygenOS 11 is great on the 9. It's no longer as stock as it used to be, but it looks, moves smoothly, and it's fast. OnePlus has managed to add plenty of function and features without bogging down the overall user-experience, all while keeping things clean. Settings aren't perfectly organized, but that's true of many Android skins these days.

There is still no dedicated one-handed mode in OxygenOS 11, though this is a feature that's evidently coming to the next major Android release.

Performance

The OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro are the few first devices that arrive to market with Qualcomm's latest mobile chipset built on the 5nm fabrication process. The Snapdragon 888 Mobile Platform powers both devices with an embedded X60 5G modem.

The Snapdragon 888 is an eight-core processor made up to three clusters that overperforms the Snapdragon 865 by up to 25% with better efficiency. The top cluster is a single 2.84GHz Kryo 680 Prime using ARM's Cortex-X1 design. Then there's a triple core made up of Kryo 680 Gold cores @ 2.42GHz based on Cortex-A78. Finally, there's a quad-core cluster of efficient and low-power Kryo 680 Silver cores clocked at 1.8GHz.

Powering graphics is the Adreno 660 GPU that promises a 35% increase in performance over the Adreno 650. It supports Open GL ES 3.2, Vulcan 1.1, and a new variable rate shading technology.

Both the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro come with LPDDR5 RAM that the company claims can run at speeds of up to 6,400 Mbps and UFS 3.1 storage (non-expandable).

Cool Play is another feature that's on both the 9 and 9 Pro. It introduces thicker graphite sheets, larger copper foil, and a larger vapor chamber that helps to divert heat generated from playing games into the frame where it can be dissipated from the phone's panes of glass. The 9 Pro has a "Hyper Touch" feature that syncs the digitizer to supported games faster, but this feature is absent from the OnePlus 9.

Let's get into the benchmarks!

In the first benchmark, the OnePlus 9 scored just behind the 9 Pro, though the difference is not significant. Both still find themselves behind the Asus ROG Phone 5, though ahead of the remaining Snapdragon 888-powered phones. The 9 was slightly bested by the Huawei Mate 40 Pro, albeit only with that phone's "Performance mode" enabled.

Single-core scores are nearly uniform across all the recent flagships. Apple still leads the charts with its A14 Bionic chip in both single and multi-core tests.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 12
  4067
• Apple iPhone 12 Pro
  4056
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode+ FAN)
  3745
• Asus ROG Phone 5
  3710
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
  3709
• Huawei Mate 40 Pro (perf. mode)
  3704
• OnePlus 9 Pro
  3636
• OnePlus 9
  3629
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
  3518
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  3489
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  3374
• Oppo Find X3 Pro
  3316
• Huawei Mate 40 Pro
  3275
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  3244
• Huawei P40 Pro+
  3203
• OnePlus 8T
  3126
• OnePlus 7 Pro
  2721
• OnePlus Nord
  1953
• Google Pixel 5
  1647

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 12 Pro
  1611
• Apple iPhone 12
  1605
• OnePlus 9
  1129
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode+ FAN)
  1127
• OnePlus 9 Pro
  1126
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
  1121
• Asus ROG Phone 5
  1110
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  1109
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
  1107
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  1085
• Huawei Mate 40 Pro (perf. mode)
  1020
• Oppo Find X3 Pro
  926
• Huawei Mate 40 Pro
  920
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  902
• OnePlus 8T
  893
• Huawei P40 Pro+
  781
• OnePlus 7 Pro
  720
• OnePlus Nord
  610
• Google Pixel 5
  594

The OnePlus 9's graphics performance is excellent. The ASUS ROG Phone 5 was able to squeeze a few more frames out but the difference is negligible. The ROG Phone 5 has active cooling work in its favor, though. GPU performance is right in line with the other Snapdragon 888 performers from Xiaomi and Oppo, as well as Huawei's Kirin 9000 that fell a bit further behind.

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 12
  132
• Apple iPhone 12 Pro
  132
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
  123
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode+ FAN)
  123
• Asus ROG Phone 5
  122
• OnePlus 9 Pro
  119
• OnePlus 9
  119
• Huawei Mate 40 Pro (perf. mode)
  117
• Oppo Find X3 Pro
  113
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  111
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  109
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
  107
• Huawei Mate 40 Pro
  97
• OnePlus 8T
  88
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  86
• Huawei P40 Pro+
  76
• OnePlus 7 Pro
  68
• OnePlus Nord
  38
• Google Pixel 5
  22

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
  72
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode+ FAN)
  72
• Asus ROG Phone 5
  71
• OnePlus 9 Pro
  70
• OnePlus 9
  70
• Oppo Find X3 Pro
  70
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  67
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  66
• Apple iPhone 12 Pro
  64
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
  64
• Huawei Mate 40 Pro (perf. mode)
  64
• Huawei Mate 40 Pro
  56
• OnePlus 8T
  53
• Apple iPhone 12
  53
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  51
• Huawei P40 Pro+
  44
• OnePlus 7 Pro
  41
• OnePlus Nord
  21
• Google Pixel 5
  13

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 40 Pro (perf. mode)
  6679
• Huawei Mate 40 Pro
  6170
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode+ FAN)
  5763
• Asus ROG Phone 5
  5744
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
  5740
• OnePlus 9 Pro
  5701
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
  5691
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  5673
• OnePlus 9
  5667
• Oppo Find X3 Pro
  5653
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  5547
• Google Pixel 5
  1033

On-screen tests scored in favor of the OnePlus 9 thanks to its screen's Full HD+ resolution. The Asus ROG Phone 5 showed up the other contenders.

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode+ FAN)
  104
• Asus ROG Phone 5
  103
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
  103
• Huawei Mate 40 Pro (perf. mode)
  78
• Huawei Mate 40 Pro
  64
• OnePlus 9
  60
• OnePlus 8T
  60
• Apple iPhone 12
  60
• Apple iPhone 12 Pro
  60
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
  58
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  58
• OnePlus 9 Pro
  57
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  57
• Oppo Find X3 Pro
  55
• Huawei P40 Pro+
  52
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  43
• OnePlus Nord
  34
• OnePlus 7 Pro
  33
• Google Pixel 5
  22

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Asus ROG Phone 5
  59
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
  59
• OnePlus 9
  58
• Apple iPhone 12
  58
• Apple iPhone 12 Pro
  58
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode+ FAN)
  58
• OnePlus 8T
  46
• Huawei Mate 40 Pro (perf. mode)
  43
• OnePlus 9 Pro
  36
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
  33
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  33
• Oppo Find X3 Pro
  33
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  33
• Huawei P40 Pro+
  31
• Huawei Mate 40 Pro
  25
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  24
• OnePlus 7 Pro
  19
• OnePlus Nord
  19
• Google Pixel 5
  12

The 9 performed very well in the Antutu run, scoring neck-to-neck with the powerful Asus ROG Phone 5. Both of these were still ahead of the Huawei Mate 40 Pro and the other devices powered by the same chipset.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode+ FAN)
  718864
• OnePlus 9
  715196
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
  708531
• Asus ROG Phone 5
  708216
• OnePlus 9 Pro
  691055
• Huawei Mate 40 Pro (perf. mode)
  686835
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  668722
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  657273
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
  657150
• Oppo Find X3 Pro
  656467
• Apple iPhone 12 Pro
  596244
• Apple iPhone 12
  579048
• OnePlus 8T
  576625
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  573276
• Huawei Mate 40 Pro
  531270
• Huawei P40 Pro+
  529687
• OnePlus Nord
  312794
• Google Pixel 5
  289261

There's nothing to complain about in term of performance. The OnePlus 9 packs plenty of computing power to handle graphic-intensive games and resource heavy editing apps. Add to that the UFS 3.1 storage and you have yourself a well-primed machine.

The Cool Play feature works as advertised. Though the heat does originate from the upper half of the back of the phone, heat was well dissipated throughout the phone's frame and both panes of glass. It never got uncomfortably warm, even through multiple matches.

We ran the 3D Mark Wild Life Stress Test and the OnePlus 9 showed 55.9% stability at the 120Hz refresh rate. Frame rates began to drop around the seventh loop and bottomed out at the thirteenth.