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Introduction
Déjà vu: The illusion of having previously experienced something actually being encountered for the first time.
That's what it feels like reviewing the OnePlus 9R. Except it's not an illusion. We have reviewed this phone once before, just six months ago. Back then it was known as the OnePlus 8T.
It's not often that we see a manufacturer launch pretty much the same phone twice in a row, but that does seem to be what's happening here. Calling the OnePlus 9R similar to the OnePlus 8T would be an understatement. For all intents and purposes, they are almost exactly the same phone.
OnePlus 9R specs at a glance:
- Body: 161.0x74.1x8.4mm, 189g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass 5), glass back (Gorilla Glass 5), aluminum frame.
- Display: 6.55" Fluid AMOLED, 120Hz, HDR10+, 1080x2400px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 402ppi; Always-on display.
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM8250-AC Snapdragon 870 5G (7 nm): Octa-core (1x3.2 GHz Kryo 585 & 3x2.42 GHz Kryo 585 & 4x1.80 GHz Kryo 585); Adreno 650.
- Memory: 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM; UFS 3.1.
- OS/Software: Android 11, OxygenOS 11.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 48 MP, f/1.7, 26mm, 1/2.0", 0.8µm, PDAF, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 16 MP, f/2.2, 14mm, 123˚, 1/3.6", 1.0µm; Macro: 5 MP, f/2.4; Depth: 2 MP, f/2.4.
- Front camera: 16 MP, f/2.4, (wide), 1/3.06", 1.0µm.
- Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/240fps, Auto HDR, gyro-EIS; Front camera: 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS.
- Battery: 4500mAh; Fast charging 65W, 1-100% in 39 min (advertised).
- Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); NFC.
But there are a few differences. Perhaps the most important one that you should concern yourself with is the fact that the OnePlus 9R is currently exclusive to India, with no announced plans to release it elsewhere. Of course, the real conundrum is why is any country getting this phone, but we'll get to that later. Also, the OnePlus 9R is launching at a lower price than the OnePlus 8T did, starting at INR 39,999 versus the INR 43,999 of the OnePlus 8T.
The other differences are less meaningful. The OnePlus 9R runs on the new Snapdragon 870 instead of the 865. Calling it "new" is greatly exaggerating the situation, as it is essentially the same part as the 865 but with an overclock on the CPU and GPU. And finally, the OnePlus 9R has also received a slight facelift and comes in two new color options.
Is that enough for the OnePlus 9R to be a separate phone? We'll just have to find out.
Unboxing
The OnePlus 9R comes with a fairly standard OnePlus packaging, consisting of the phone, charger, cable, and a clear silicone case. The packaging is identical to the OnePlus 8T, except for one major difference.
Both the OnePlus 9R and 9T claim to come with the Warp Charge 65 charger but they are not the same models. The OnePlus 8T comes with WC065A21GB in India while the OnePlus 9R comes with WC065B22GB. The difference is that while both can send 65W of power to a compatible OnePlus device, the OnePlus 8T charger can also send up to 45W to a USB-Power Delivery (PD) and Programmable Power Supply (PPS) compatible devices.
OnePlus 8T charger on the left and OnePlus 9R charger on the right
On the other hand, the OnePlus 9R charger will fall back to standard 10W charging when connected to a non-OnePlus device. It also has a standard USB-A port unlike the USB-C port on the 8T charger that is necessary to support USB PD. This doesn't change anything for charging the OnePlus 9R itself but if you also use the charger for other devices around you, especially USB PD devices, then the OnePlus 9R charger isn't going to be anywhere as good as the OnePlus 8T charger.
Design
Considering the OnePlus 9R is basically the same phone as the OnePlus 8T, it's no surprise that the design is identical.
The key difference is in the camera bump on the back. If you look carefully, the actual camera lenses are exactly in the same spot as before but the part surrounding the lenses has been swapped. The 8T had a single large piece of glass covering all the lenses, which made it convenient to clean. The OnePlus 9R has a design that looks similar to the other OnePlus 9 series phones, with individual cutouts for the lenses with a plastic shroud.
Further down the back, OnePlus has dropped its company name from the bottom of the phone, instead now choosing to just apply its logo, which has been centered and made solid black. We prefer this less busy appearance.
The only remaining difference is in the colors; the OnePlus 9R comes in two new options, a glossy Lake Blue pictured here and a matte Carbon Black. The Lake Blue color may look similar to the Aquamarine Green of the OnePlus 8T as that color had a tendency to shift and turn blue depending on the angle of the light but it's just a plain solid blue with no optical trickery.
Apart from that, we noticed no other visual differences between the two models. The OnePlus 9R otherwise is quite reasonably sized compared to its larger siblings and the overall dimensions and weight make it much nicer to use. The overall build quality and finish are also quite premium, with the mechanical slider and buttons on the side having a firm, satisfactory feel. However, like the 8T, the OnePlus 9R lacks dust and water-resistance certification.
Display
The OnePlus 9R has the same 6.55-inch, 2400x1800 resolution 120Hz AMOLED display as the OnePlus 8T and also the OnePlus 9. The display performed similarly to that on the 8T with one notable difference. While our OnePlus 8T display has a very prominent color shift when viewed at an angle, our OnePlus 9R display did not. This could be down to panel variance and not necessarily any deliberate change in the panel being used.
Overall, this is still a very good display so we don't have much to complain about here. It's also flat, so there's not much chance of triggering something at the edge of the display while handling the phone or catching glare off-angle. The built-in optical fingerprint sensor is also located in a more sensible location compared to that on the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro, which have it right at the bottom.
Software
Our OnePlus 9R came with OxygenOS 11.2 out of the box running on top of Android 11. The software on this device is very similar to that found on other recent OnePlus phones barring a few device-specific features.
OnePlus is best known for its OxygenOS software. Over the years, the company has kept the design of its software relatively clean and simple. However, the company has moved on from having a relatively lightweight software experience to just packing in as many software features as possible.
OxygenOS 11
Some of these are useful. There's a Work Life Balance mode, which lets you pick separate device states for when you're at work or when you're home, and then depending on your location, you can pick which apps get to show notifications. The Game Space feature puts all your games in one place and also offers a bunch of tools related to games, such as how notifications are handled during gaming, display brightness control, mis-touch prevention, and haptic feedback enhancement. App locker lets you encrypt your apps and parallel apps let you have multiple accounts on the same app by creating two instances of it. You have an always-on display that can be customized and you can also set shortcuts to apps when you press and hold on the fingerprint sensor while unlocking.
Features in OxygenOS
Not all of these features will be useful to everyone but there's enough here to keep most people happy. Unfortunately, with the increase in built-in apps and features, the instances of nagging notifications have also increased. Several of the aforementioned features will throw notifications at you if you choose not to use them. Eventually, it gets annoying and the only way to get rid of them is to either set up the app or permanently disable their notifications.
OnePlus also packs in way too many Google apps these days. This could very well be mandated by Google but then again, we don't necessarily see these on other Android devices. Also, OnePlus is sticking with its decision to swap out its perfectly fine Phone and Messages apps in favor of apps made by Google. The Google apps are extremely basic and also stick out like sore thumbs in the redesigned OxygenOS UI.
But what's perhaps most concerning is the creeping monetization in the form of promoted content and brand partnerships. A lot of this is exclusive to India, which is likely why you don't hear more people talking about it but OnePlus has steadily been increasing the amount of "free" promoted content that is being funneled through its smartphones towards Indian customers.
Annoyances in OxygenOS
Most of this comes through the Red Cable Club, a membership program that requires you to make an account and then link your device. In return you get 5GB of free cloud storage and discounts from brands like Starbucks, Nike, Gaana, and more. You also get discounts on OnePlus products and an extended warranty. While this may seem fine and even beneficial but brand partnerships and discounted content is just another form of providing advertising. Also, that aforementioned free cloud storage comes from a Chinese company called HeyTap.
This can be seen in other apps as well. In Game Space, OnePlus has partnered with Cocos Play to provide free-to-play titles with ads. The company also puts game news and videos from various sources inside the app. The phone also comes with the Netflix app pre-installed and it cannot be removed. Similarly in the past, OnePlus phones sold in India would come with Amazon apps pre-installed, although that wasn't the case with our review units this year.
It's not that these practices are particularly shady or unique to OnePlus. But what's irksome about them is that first of all, they are very specific to the Indian market, which is where OnePlus has traditionally kept its prices low compared to other regions. So you're paying less to see promotional content. The other issue is that these are the sort of practices that OnePlus phones were devoid of in the past, which is what made them stand out among other Chinese brands. But clearly, that's not the case anymore.
We also have a pet peeve with the recent redesign of OxygenOS. OnePlus clearly took a lot of inspiration from Samsung's OneUI in making the title of its apps a large font size within the app and the main body of the app starting at half height for easy access. But while OneUI fully commits itself to this design, as can be seen by digging further into the menu structures, OxygenOS just uses this for aesthetic purposes at the top level of its apps. This means if you click on, say, any item in the Settings app, you no longer have items starting in the middle of the display but rather at the top as they always did, making them harder to reach. Add to this is the fact that OxygenOS is still possibly the only custom Android UI that doesn't have some form of reachability feature for making the top of the screen easy to reach.
To round things off, OxygenOS is still largely a pleasant and easy-to-use software platform. However, it isn't as clean as it once used to be and has lots of minor design annoyances that need fixing.
Performance
The OnePlus 9R features the updated Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 chipset. The primary difference between this and Snapdragon 865 is the 400MHz clock speed bump on the primary performance core and about 80MHz bump to the GPU clock speed. The 870 also supports Bluetooth 5.2 but the OnePlus 9R keeps the Bluetooth 5.1 from the 8T.
As expected, we didn't see a particularly dramatic increase in performance even in benchmarks designed to show minor differences. In Geekbench, the main improvement was in single-core performance. This should help tasks that are still lightly threaded and also for more bursty workloads. However, for some reason, the multi-core performance on the OnePlus 9R was consistently slower than the Snapdragon 865 on the OnePlus 8T. We tested this multiple times and every time the result was the same.
In the graphics benchmarks, the OnePlus 9R posted a small improvement over the Snapdragon 865 models. However, it's not going to have any noticeable improvement in performance in actual gaming, even if you factor in the CPU improvement.
As for actual usage, the performance was excellent. The combination of fast hardware, surplus memory, and a 120Hz display meant that the phone was always a pleasure to use. There's enough power here for the phone to keep feeling like new for at least a couple of years.
As for gaming, it's fine if all you're interested in is playing at 60Hz. As usual, OnePlus limits the refresh rate of most games on the Play Store to 60Hz. The only ones that can exceed that limit are a handful of whitelisted titles, such as PUBG Mobile, Fortnite, and Pokemon Go. Outside of these, even if a game does support high refresh rates on other manufacturer devices, it will still run at max 60Hz on the OnePlus 9R.
Quickly talking about the audio, OnePlus has been doing good work in this department and the speakers on the OnePlus 9R, although similar to the 8T, sound excellent. They produce a clean, clear sound and can get surprisingly loud. The two speakers are also fairly well balanced so you don't get any wobbliness in terms of volume output or frequency response.
GeekBench 5 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 9
3629 - OnePlus 8
3399 - Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro
3311 - Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
3296 - OnePlus 8T
3126 - OnePlus 9R
3117 - Realme X7 Pro
2997 - OnePlus Nord
1953 - Google Pixel 4a
1626
GeekBench 5 (single-core)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 9
1129 - OnePlus 9R
969 - OnePlus 8
919 - Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
906 - Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro
901 - OnePlus 8T
893 - Realme X7 Pro
756 - OnePlus Nord
610 - Google Pixel 4a
553
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
- OnePlus 9
715196 - OnePlus 9R
617766 - OnePlus 8T
576625 - OnePlus 8
564708 - Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro
563961 - Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
543986 - Realme X7 Pro
510317 - OnePlus Nord
312794 - Google Pixel 4a
268714
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 9
70 - OnePlus 9R
57 - OnePlus 8T
53 - OnePlus 8
52 - Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
52 - Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro
51 - Realme X7 Pro
46 - OnePlus Nord
21 - Google Pixel 4a
17
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 9
58 - OnePlus 9R
49 - OnePlus 8T
46 - OnePlus 8
46 - Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro
46 - Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
45 - Realme X7 Pro
40 - OnePlus Nord
19 - Google Pixel 4a
16
Camera
The OnePlus 9R has a quad-camera system on the back. The primary camera is a 48-megapixel f1.7 IMX586 with OIS. The ultra-wide camera has a 16-megapixel sensor with f2.2 aperture. The remaining two are a 5-megapixel macro and 2-megapixel monochrome.
Unfortunately, while the hardware is undeniably identical to the OnePlus 8T, so is the software. One would think that perhaps OnePlus would carry over some of the UI changes introduced in the OnePlus 9 series to the 9R but that isn't the case.
Camera app
While the app on the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro isn't dramatically different, it does include some nice changes, such as a redesigned control wheel for making adjustments in Pro mode. Of course, since there's no Hasselblad branding on the 9R, you also don't get the orange shutter button, new shutter sound, and the 'OnePlus x Hasselblad' watermark.
Moving on to the image, the quality is also unchanged from the OnePlus 8T. With the main camera, you can expect reasonably good detail, dynamic range, and color performance provided you shoot outdoors under sunlight.
Main camera samples
However, the issue with this camera is that the color performance can be very inconsistent in terms of accuracy, and it often takes a big hit indoors, especially under fluorescent lighting. You can expect some pretty big differences compared to what you're shooting and what the camera thinks it looks like.
For example, here's a scene with a bright red object on a bright yellow cloth under a cool LED light. The first image is actually a RAW image shot from the 9R and edited manually to represent the actual scene as closely as possible. The second image is what we got out of the Auto mode.
Edited RAW (9R) • Auto (9R) • Auto (9 Pro)
As you can see, the colors are rather off and this has been an issue with OnePlus phones for a while now. You can see in the third image shot from the OnePlus 9 Pro that this was rectified to some extent with the new color tuning but it's still not the same as the actual scene.
This scene is a bit of an extreme example but there usually is some color shift when shooting indoors. It's not something that is unsalvageable in post and as seen above, you can always just shoot in RAW and produce your own JPEGs from it. But that's a lot more work than what most people would want to put into their images.
Moving on to the ultra-wide camera, the images from this camera are not of great quality. The colors are even worse even in broad daylight and the images tend to look utterly lifeless when compared to the images from the main camera. The level of detail and dynamic range is pretty decent, however. The easiest way to improve this camera is to shoot in the vivid color filter within the camera app.
Ultra-wide angle samples
Speaking of color filters, the OnePlus 9R includes two new ones not found on the 8T or the rest of the 9 series. These are Night City and North California and made in collaboration with CD Projekt Red for Cyberpunk 2077. These are the same filters that were present in the Cyberpunk 2077 edition of the OnePlus 8T and somehow they made their way into this phone. These are pretty aggressively colored so while they may work in some instances they definitely don't work in all situations.
Standard vs Night City vs North California
The OnePlus 9R retains the monochrome camera from the OnePlus 8T. The 2-megapixel monochrome camera works with the 48-megapixel main camera to produce black and white images. This mode can be enabled by scrolling through to the final color filter called Mono.
As we have said several times in the past, the images this mode produces are nothing you can't make yourself with even a basic image editor. To think OnePlus expects you to believe that it needs a dedicated camera for this to happen and not that it's just there to pad the phone's spec sheet is laughable.
Monochrome samples
Finally, there's the 5-megapixel macro camera. The image quality is pretty decent provided there's enough light. However, the resolution is too low to get any real detail out of the images so the only real advantage of this lens is you can get closer than you can with the main camera. However, you can just shoot from further away and crop the image from the main camera, which can provide similar or even better results.
Macro samples
Moving on to low light, there's again no change compared to the OnePlus 8T. Low light images from the main camera often turn out usable even without using Nightscape, although they can get a bit soft. However, when the light gets too low, then you have to bring in Nightscape to salvage the situation.
Auto vs Nightscape main camera
For what it's worth, Nightscape often does a pretty good job. It's a bit overzealous, wherein it tends to overexpose the final shot, but at least you can see everything in the frame, including things your eyes couldn't.
Low Light performance on the ultra-wide, however, is pretty bad. Images without Nightscape are often unusable and even with Nightscape, the level of improvement isn't as dramatic as on the main camera.
Auto vs Nightscape ultra-wide angle camera
Competition
The OnePlus 9R faces some pretty severe competition, including some from other BBK brands.
The toughest competition comes from the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro. This phone has a 108MP camera, Snapdragon 865, 144Hz LCD, and a 5000mAh battery and costs less than the OnePlus 9R in India. Then there's the Mi 10T Pro, which swaps out the 108MP camera with a still fairly impressive 64MP one and costs even less.
Next is the Samsung Galaxy A72. Samsung doesn't try as hard in the specs department, with a relatively tame 90Hz display and Snapdragon 720G but it does have a 64MP main camera, a proper telephoto camera, and a 5000mAh battery. It's also a fair bit cheaper than the 9R.
The older Galaxy S20 FE is still quite a good option. It's a bit more expensive than the OnePlus 9R but it does have all the bells and whistles, including a 120Hz AMOLED display, an impressive triple camera system, Snapdragon 865, and a 4500mAh battery.
Finally, there's the Realme X7 Pro 5G. This phone is a lot cheaper than the OnePlus 9R but has a surprisingly similar spec sheet, including a 120Hz AMOLED display, MediaTek Dimensity 1000+ chipset that is fairly close in performance to the Snapdragon 870, 64MP main rear camera, and 65W fast charging.
Conclusion
The OnePlus 9R is an unusually lazy product, so much so that we are left wondering why OnePlus didn't just drop the price on the 8T and continue selling it. It's like showing up to the class with the same homework two days in a row and expecting the teacher to not notice.
It's not that the OnePlus 9R is a bad product; we thought the 8T was quite good overall and being largely the same phone, the OnePlus 9R is also a good smartphone for most users. However, it doesn't exactly push the needle forward in terms of innovation, technology, or even value.
Yes, the 9R is cheaper now than what the 8T launched for in India but after six months, that is to be expected. In the meantime, the competition has gotten much more aggressive and many of them are now better value.
Of course, OnePlus still holds an advantage in terms of the software experience over its rivals. It's something that one can only experience first-hand and not something that can be quantified on a spec sheet. However, the company has continued to push the limits of what the users might find annoying in terms of promotional content by masquerading it as value-added services. The whole host of features that were added over the course of a couple of years also tend to be quite nagging and attention-hungry. These may seem like small things, especially if you are coming from other manufacturers but when your entire brand is built on a reputation for clean and distraction-free software, it will always be the little thing that breaks the camel's back.
As lazy as it is, we do still recommend the OnePlus 9R for buyers in India as it is still a more robust complete package compared to some of its rivals. However, there's some good competition out there right now and you can't really go wrong with any of it.
Pros
- Premium build quality and finish
- Great display performance
- Excellent UI performance
- Good main camera performance in daylight
- Blazing fast charging speeds
- Great stereo loudspeakers
- Relatively clean and well-designed software
Cons
- No water and dust resistance rating
- Mediocre ultra-wide and macro camera
- Useless monochrome camera
- Outdated front camera
- Minor annoyances in software
- Most games locked to 60Hz
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