When the OnePlus 9 comes out in early 2021, here’s what we know and what we want to see in the new phone.
We’re expecting the OnePlus 9 and the OnePlus 9 Pro to be the next top phones to come from the company, after the recent unveiling of the OnePlus 8T, the OnePlus Nord N10 5G, and the OnePlus Nord N100. Here at TechRadar we’re huge phone fans, and we can’t help but look to the future, to the handset we’d expect OnePlus will launch as its main device for 2021. The OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro were great phones, but not perfect ones, and we’re excited to see what’s next from OnePlus. That’s why we’ve come up with this constantly updated collection of official news and unofficial rumors around the OnePlus 9 phones – and we’ve also added our own wish list of features and changes we’d like to see in the new model. The leaks and rumors are only just starting to come through for the device, but we also wanted to put out a few requests of our own, so we can see if the OnePlus 9 manages to live up to our expectations. When more information becomes available about the OnePlus 9, we’ll update this article, and we’re going to put our release and pricing speculation below as well, to give you some context. Latest news: We’ve seen leaked photos of a OnePlus 9 prototype device, a device which has since briefly appeared in an eBay listing. We haven’t heard much release information for the OnePlus 9, but like many phone makers OnePlus is a company of habit, so we’d expect the launch to be around April or May 2021. OnePlus typically teases its phones in advance of the launch though, so maybe we’ll hear something about the launch date in March. The release date of the phone will likely be a week or two after the launch. That said, one source has told Android Central that the OnePlus 9 will be launching earlier than expected in March 2021. An exact date isn’t clear from that source, but this is our best information yet. We’ve also now heard from a second source that March might be on the cards. In terms of price, that’s hard to tell, especially because each successive OnePlus phone creeps into the premium pricing territory more and more, and because the OnePlus Nord means the OnePlus 9 doesn’t need to cater to people on a smaller budget. The OnePlus 8 started at $699 / £599 (around AU$1,100) and went up to $799 / £699 (around $1,372) for more RAM and storage, and the OnePlus 8 Pro started at $899 / £799 and went up to $999 / £899. Those are some high prices — not Samsung Galaxy S-level eye-watering costs, but pricier than OnePlus phones used to be. And given the Nord wasn’t a thing when the 8-series was launched, we could see the OnePlus 9 phones get pricier than that. There’s growing talk that a OnePlus 9 Lite or a OnePlus 9E model is going to be introduced at some point too, which would perhaps offer a more affordable way into the 2021 range from OnePlus. One recent leak to reach us involves a set of real world photos and captured screenshots showing off the look of the OnePlus 9 – these would appear to be the genuine article, so see what you think of them. According to the screenshots, the OnePlus 9 is going to come running the Snapdragon 888 processor, with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage on board, which matches up with other whispers we’ve heard. This device has since showed up on eBay too. The first OnePlus 9 leak was around the codename — ‘Lemonade’.
