OnePlus 9 Pro leak gives us our first real look at the upcoming flagship
OnePlus 9 Pro camera may have some flashy new branding
While the OnePlus 9 has had its far share of leaks already, it has been unclear in previous leaks whether we were actually seeing the OnePlus 9, the OnePlus 9 Pro or the OnePlus 9 Lite.
The latest leak comes courtesy of YouTuber Dave2D, and it puts these questions to rest with an extensive look at what is allegedly the OnePlus 9 Pro. The leak includes a slightly different quad-camera array than we have seen previously and prominent Hasselblad branding (via Android Central).
- OnePlus 8T review
- iPhone 12 vs. Galaxy S21: Which $799 powerhouse is the best?
- Best smartphones in 2021
OnePlus has been hinting repeatedly at dramatic improvements to its camera with the OnePlus 9. And while the leak doesn't offer any sample photos from the cameras, it does give us quite a bit more to go on when it comes to the hardware.
At the top, you have the typical wide-angle and ultra-wide lenses, although notably larger than in previous years perhaps pointing to an upgrade there. Below is a zoom lens, possibly 3.3x based on what is seen in the camera app, a slight step up from the 3x on the OnePlus 8 Pro. But as others have indicated, there will be no periscope super zoom lens. The fourth is likely a macro lens again, one of my least favorite spec padding features of the current smartphone era, but it isn't called out specifically as such in the leak.
Finally, we have the Hasselblad branding. For those unfamiliar with the brand, it's a Swedish company that makes mostly incredibly expensive ($6K to $30K and up) medium format cameras and it has a pretty rabid fanbase. While the company has had some partnerships with phone manufacturers in the past, it's been quite a while, the last notable example being the Moto True Zoom mod in 2016 that attached to compatible Moto Z phones.
Suffice it to say, the company doesn't just license its name out for anyone to use on their phones. So there's reason to hope that this means we'll see some meaningful improvements to the performance in the OnePlus 9 Pro at least. Whether this will also trickle down to the rest of the OnePlus 9 line is far from certain.
A few other notable features from the leak are the return of a curved display for the OnePlus 9 Pro, all previous leaks had just shown flat displays. That display will also be capable of 120Hz at its full QHD+ resolution as previous rumors suggested, but again no adaptive refresh rate. Finally, it may include 11GB of RAM and 256GB of storage according to the settings screen, although it seems more likely that it is 12GB and just not displaying properly.
Stay in the know with Laptop Mag
Get our in-depth reviews, helpful tips, great deals, and the biggest news stories delivered to your inbox.
With the OnePlus 9 launch expected sometime next month, we expect to see the volume of leaks keep escalating, so keep an eye on our OnePlus 9 rumors page for all of the latest until then.
Sean Riley has been covering tech professionally for over a decade now. Most of that time was as a freelancer covering varied topics including phones, wearables, tablets, smart home devices, laptops, AR, VR, mobile payments, fintech, and more. Sean is the resident mobile expert at Laptop Mag, specializing in phones and wearables, you'll find plenty of news, reviews, how-to, and opinion pieces on these subjects from him here. But Laptop Mag has also proven a perfect fit for that broad range of interests with reviews and news on the latest laptops, VR games, and computer accessories along with coverage on everything from NFTs to cybersecurity and more.