OnePlus 9 review

An upgraded camera system

The OnePlus 9 has a triple camera system on the back, consisting of a wide, ultra-wide, and monochrome camera.

The main wide camera sensor on the OnePlus 9 is the same Sony IMX689 borrowed from the OnePlus 8 Pro. It has a 48-megapixel resolution and 23mm equivalent lens with an f1.8 aperture. The ultra-wide camera is shared with the OnePlus 9 Pro. It's the Sony IMX766 with a 50-megapixel resolution and 14mm equivalent f2.2 7P freeform lens. This camera also does double duty as a macro camera.

The OnePlus 9 does not have a dedicated telephoto camera as all zooming is done digitally. Instead, we get a 2-megapixel monochrome camera, which we will get to later.

Unlike the OnePlus 9 Pro or even the OnePlus 8T, the OnePlus 9 does not have OIS. This means all stabilization for photos and videos is done digitally.

Like the bigger OnePlus 9 Pro, the OnePlus 9 has been blessed by Hasselblad's camera engineers The OnePlus 9 uses the new Natural Color Calibration method devised by Hasselblad and optimized for this hardware. At least, that's what it says on paper.

Camera app

The OnePlus 9 comes with a new camera app, which features some notable changes and improvements over the app found on previous-generation models. The most striking change is the use of a new camera shutter button, with OnePlus opting for the distinctive orange color as seen on the shutter buttons on Hasselblad cameras. The shutter sound has also been changed to match Hasselblad cameras.

Camera app

The bulk of the changes in the camera app are in the Pro mode. Here, we find the updated UI for the adjustment dials for parameters such as ISO, white balance, shutter speed, exposure compensation, and focus. Instead of the rotating wheel in the previous app, the OnePlus 9 Pro has a straightforward horizontal bar that can be swiped up and down. This is much easier to adjust than the rotating wheel of before and the auto mode switch is always visible rather than being at some arbitrary point on the wheel that you have to spin to.

Camera app

Unfortunately, that's pretty much the extent of the improvements in the camera UI. There are still some issues, which we would have liked OnePlus to have fixed by now. Manually adjusting the exposure in Auto mode is still a nightmare, with a tiny slider that's hard to adjust and an even tinier icon to lock it. The zoom control dial is still annoyingly finicky and getting an exact figure dialed in is a test of patience. This would have been a good time to replace with a vertical slider like for the settings in Pro mode, but that hasn't happened.

The UI also doesn't rotate when held in landscape. Trying to quickly open the settings menu while in landscape mode is a laughably bad experience, as the screen stays resolutely in portrait mode, even if you have auto-rotate enabled. The settings icon is also quite small and difficult to press.

Lastly, the Pro mode still doesn't allow you to access any other camera. This means you are strictly limited to the main wide camera on the back if you want full control or the ability to shoot in RAW. There's also no Pro mode available for video.

Daylight performance

We will start with the daylight performance of the main camera, which is perhaps the most common use-case scenario for most people.

Starting with the detail, the OnePlus 9 camera does relatively well here. The final images have a decent amount of detail considering they are only 12-megapixels. There are some textures that can occasionally turn soupy, especially in low-frequency detail areas, and the switch to a wider focal length from the 8 Pro has resulted in a slight loss in detail due to cramming in more area into the same frame. OnePlus has turned up the sharpening to compensate for that, which often looks quite unpleasant while viewing the image up close.

Daylight 12MP samples

The OnePlus 9 images can also be surprisingly noisy, even in broad daylight at the lowest ISO. This is something we saw on the OnePlus 9 Pro as well and seems to be endemic to the tuning done on these two devices. The thing is, the noise isn't even found in the RAW files so either this is an artistic decision or the sensors are being pushed too far during HDR tone mapping or other image processing. Either way, it doesn't look good, especially when you crop in.

Daylight 48MP samples

The color performance on the OnePlus 9 is decent. Under bright daylight conditions, the colors in the scene come out looking fairly neutral although the camera does have a tendency to saturate the greens under bright light. This is similar to the OnePlus 8 Pro, which the OnePlus 9 shares its camera with, but better than the OnePlus 8 and 8T, which had a much older sensor. Those devices often showed worse color performance, especially in challenging lighting conditions, but the OnePlus 9 fares a lot better in comparison.

The dynamic range performance isn't quite on par with some other devices on the market. Although the camera does well to control the highlights, the shadows are often darker than we'd have liked. This seems like a creative decision to produce more contrasty images, and some people may prefer the images this way, but we think the images should have as much dynamic range as they naturally can for maximum detail and flexibility in post-processing. It's easier to crush shadows later in post than to bring them back.

An easy fix for this, however, is to shoot in Pro mode. Even the JPEGs shot in Pro mode have much more dynamic range and shadow details and also significantly less oversharpening. For ultimate flexibility in post, you can choose to enable saving the RAW files. The RAW files from the OnePlus 9 have an impressive level of detail from the sensor and the files are quite malleable, even if you plan on pushing them aggressively in edit. There's also surprisingly less noise in the RAW files than in the standard JPEGs and even when the noise does creep in at higher ISO values, it's a more pleasing grain than the coarse grain in the default JPEGs.

We took a OnePlus 9 around the usual shooting grounds and here's how it fares.

More daylight samples, 12MP

And the same scenes taken in full-res 48MP mode.

More daylight samples, 48MP

Moving on to the ultra-wide, the OnePlus 9 uses the same new 50-megapixel sensor as the OnePlus 9 Pro. This is a vastly superior sensor than what we have seen previously on OnePlus phones and is capturing an impressive amount of detail for an ultra-wide, even though the final images are still saved in 12.5-megapixel resolution. The freeform lens design also gets rid of distortion entirely, allowing straight lines to appear straight even around the edges.

Daylight 12.5MP ultra-wide samples

Unfortunately, this camera also suffers from the same basic color calibration issues as the main camera. This means there is still a ton of noise in the images, lots of oversharpening, and the shadows are often crushed far too much for a contrasty look. This time, however, there is no Pro mode that can come to your rescue, as only the main camera is accessible in that mode.

And these are the images we got when shooting around the office.

More daylight samples, utlra-wide, 12.5MP

The OnePlus 9 does not have a dedicated telephoto lens. Instead, the camera performs a digital zoom on the main camera. The default multiplier is 2x through the quick toggle but you can just go as high as 10x.

Daylight 2x digital zoom samples

The image quality is nothing to write home about, even in the most basic 2x mode. The details are soft and the results look on par with what you'd expect if you just manually zoomed into an image while editing. The OnePlus 9 also doesn't seem to be using a crop from the center of the sensor as on the OnePlus 8T and instead is just blowing up the 12-megapixel image, which further makes the image appear fuzzy. Also, the lack of OIS on the OnePlus 9 becomes apparent the more you zoom in.

In any case, here's a batch of samples from the locations which you're more used to seeing.

More daylight samples, 2x digital zoom, 12MP

The macro functionality on the OnePlus 9 is handled by the new ultra-wide lens. We think this is ideally the way to go, as the dedicated macro cameras on most phones are rather abysmal due to their low resolution, low-quality sensors. The ultra-wide camera on the OnePlus 9 can take some really good-looking macro images. This camera cannot get as close to the subject as some of the dedicated macro cameras on the market but in most cases, that's fine, and getting too close with smartphone risks covering the subject with your shadow.

Macro samples

Lastly, there's the monochrome camera. We already covered this back with the OnePlus 8T but just to give a quick summary, the monochrome camera doesn't itself capture images but rather assists the main camera in producing monochrome images. This sensor doesn't have a color filter of its own so the camera uses the information from this image to "color" the images from the main sensor.

As we mentioned in the 8T review, the results aren't anything you wouldn't get by simply editing a standard color image or shooting in one of the other monochrome presets in the Camera app. The fact that OnePlus felt this is worth including for the second time in a row shows how desperate smartphone companies can get these days just to pad their spec sheets and have that one extra camera.

Low light performance

The OnePlus 9 has an impressive low-light performance. Even without enabling Nightscape, you can get some good results, with decent detail, exposure, and color accuracy. The results are on par with what you'd get with the OnePlus 8 Pro and much ahead of the OnePlus 8T, although the OnePlus 9 Pro is still a bit better here with more detail.

Low light main samples

With Nightscape enabled, the OnePlus 9 manages to catch up with the OnePlus 9 Pro as there's not much separating the two. Both can capture excellent low-light images with this mode enabled, with good detail, exposure, and color. In comparison, the OnePlus 8 Pro is a close second while the OnePlus 8T lags far behind with often odd-looking colors with a strong magenta color cast.

Low light main Nightscape samples

As for the new ultra-wide lens, it is significantly better than the ultra-wide on the 8 Pro and in a different league altogether compared to the anemic sensor on the 8T. While the standard mode images may not be always usable, the Nightscape images look great under most conditions.

Low light ultra-wide samples

Low light ultra-wide Nightscape samples

Like the OnePlus 9 Pro, you cannot use the zoom mode in Nightscape. Considering it is all-digital on the OnePlus 9, this isn't a big loss.

Once you're done with the real world samples, head over to our Photo compare tool to see how the OnePlus 9 stacks up against the competition.

OnePlus 9 against the Galaxy S21+ 5G and the iPhone 12 in our Photo compare tool

Portraits

The OnePlus 9 can only shoot portrait images with the main camera. The default setting is to launch the camera in a digitally zoomed-in mode that mimics the look of a 2x telephoto lens. While this will help reduce the distortion, it does result in softer images. Alternatively, you can switch to using the maximum focal length of the main lens for a wider but distorted perspective.

Portrait samples

The Portrait mode also enables the background blur on the subject. As is usual for OnePlus phones, there is no way to dial in the exact amount of blur that you want, which means the end results can often be a bit of a hit or miss affair. Sometimes the somewhat aggressive blur looks good, other times it can cause the subject to stick out too much from the background and look like a cardboard cutout.

Selfies

The OnePlus 9 has a 16-megapixel f2.4 fixed-focus camera. This is the same Sony IMX471 that has been the staple of OnePlus phones going back all the way to the OnePlus 7 Pro.

It's clear why OnePlus continues to rely on this sensor, as it provides a good level of detail, decent color performance, and adequate dynamic range for portrait images captured in daylight.

Selfie samples

Where it falls behind is in low-light performance as there's no Nightscape for the front camera. The camera also lacks autofocus and the video resolution is limited to just 1080p60. Also, while the field of view is adequate for one person, it will feel more restrictive compared to some of the wider cameras on the market, including OnePlus's own Nord that comes with a separate ultra-wide front camera and even 4K recording.

Selfie portrait mode samples

The front camera is capable of shooting in portrait mode. Once again, the lack of control over the background blur makes the results inconsistent, especially when the subject separation goofs up. We hope OnePlus starts offering these basic features in its camera app as most of its competitors have been doing for several years now.

Video

The OnePlus 9 is capable of recording video in 1080p, 2160p (4K), and 4320p (8K). The main wide camera can shoot 1080p video in 30 and 60fps, 4K video in 30 and 60fps, and 8K video in 30fps. The ultra-wide camera can shoot 1080p video in 30 and 60fps, 4K video in 30 and 60fps, and 8K video in 30fps. All zooming is done digitally.

Video in all resolutions and frame rates is shot by default in H.264 but you can optionally switch to H.265 to save some storage space without sacrificing image quality.

EIS is available in 30 and 60fps modes but not for the 120fps mode. As usual, the EIS has a massive crop in modes where it's available but there's no way to disable it.

Additionally, there are also two slow-motion modes: 1080p 240fps and 720p 480fps, which save slowed-down footage. The Super Stable mode uses the ultra-wide camera and then crops into a perspective similar to the main wide camera and then uses that to heavily stabilize the footage. The Nightscape mode enables night mode for video on the main camera. Lastly, the Portrait mode works similar to the feature available for images, isolating the subject from the background using an artificial blur. Super Stable, Nightscape, and Portrait mode all save videos in 1080p only.

The OnePlus 9 offers a feature called 3-HDR, which is a rebranding of a feature called Dynamic Video on the OnePlus 8 Pro. This feature captures three exposures at different values for every frame and then merges them for a wider dynamic range. It can be toggled on or off but is only available in 1080p 30fps and 4K 30fps modes.

The OnePlus 9 Pro does not support recording video in proper 10-bit HDR PQ video in either HDR10 or any of the other standards. As mentioned previously, there is also no pro mode for video so there's no real control over the image other than adjusting the resolution and frame rate.

Starting with the 4320p 8K video from the main camera, the image quality is unimpressive. We are talking about a 33-megapixel image here and the level of detail doesn't come anywhere close to that figure. The bitrate of a measly 150Mbps (H.264) is to blame here as is the general structure of these Quad Bayer sensors. This isn't to say there isn't any meaningful improvement over the 4K version but it's not what one would expect from a quadrupling of resolution.

The 8K video shot from the ultra-wide camera is, simply put, not real 8K. The video is most likely upscaled from a lower resolution image, and has blurry details and what looks like horizontal interlacing artifacts all over the image. This actually makes the 8K video from the ultra-wide camera look worse than even the 4K version.

Moving over to 4K, both the 30fps and 60fps videos from the main and ultra-wide cameras show good detail, dynamic range, and overall image quality. The stabilization works well most of the time but can struggle a bit when you're trying to pan and it keeps trying to stabilize the movement.

Unfortunately, the stabilization comes at a significant crop to the final image, nearly 1.5x of the full width of the sensor. This effectively turns the main camera into a telephoto lens and makes subject framing difficult at close distances.

The 3-HDR feature also works really well and would be our recommended option if you are recording outdoors under bright sunlight at 30fps. The dynamic range is much better with improved shadow detail and the image looks generally well-exposed and more natural.

The OnePlus 9 Pro also supports Nightscape and Portrait mode videos. The results from these modes are underwhelming and neither is particularly good or useful.

Camera conclusions

Unlike the OnePlus 9 Pro, which had a fairly proficient predecessor to outshine, the OnePlus 9 scores an easy victory over the mediocre OnePlus 8T. The main camera captures better colors, dynamic range, and detail across the board and the new ultra-wide camera is just light years ahead. Low Light camera performance is also vastly improved as is video performance, especially when shooting with the ultra-wide.

What we didn't see much evidence of is the new Hasselblad color science. Sure, the colors are better compared to the OnePlus 8T but that was the case with the OnePlus 8 Pro as well last year. In fact, we think that the OnePlus 8 Pro often captures better-looking images than either of the two new OnePlus 9 phones, with more accurate colors, better detail, less oversharpening, and much less noise.

We also think OnePlus needs to do more in terms of improving its camera app, with a more user-friendly design and additional features, such as a Pro mode for video, HDR10 recording, adjustable background blur for portrait mode, and a less clumsy settings menu that doesn't stay locked in portrait orientation.

Overall, the OnePlus 9 gets a solid B+ for its efforts. However, there are better cameras now on the market at a lower price.

Here's a glimpse of how the OnePlus 9 compares to rivals in our Video compare tool. Head over there for the complete picture.

OnePlus 9 against the Galaxy S21+ 5G and the iPhone 12 in our Video compare tool