The OnePlus 9 Pro presents a formidable opponent to the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, and for significantly less money.
The OnePlus 9 Pro has been announced, which means we can finally square up one of the first big all-Android royal rumbles of 2021. How does it fare against the mighty Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra? We reckoned the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra to be the best smartphone on the market when it landed in early 2021. But if anyone knows how to give the great and mighty of the smartphone industry a bloody nose, it’s OnePlus. What’s more, the OnePlus 9 Pro has a few smart tricks of its own to stir into the mix. So let’s see how two of the biggest phones of 2021 fare in a straight fight. The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra made an earlier-than-expected appearance on January 29,2021. The entry-level 128GB model starts at $1,199 / £1,149 / AU$1,849, while the 256GB model costs $1,399 / £1,349 / AU$2,149. The 512GB model increases that price to a staggering $1,599 / £1,549 / AU$2,449. All of which makes the OnePlus 9 Pro seem almost reasonably priced, despite the fact that it’s more expensive than last year’s OnePlus 8 Pro. The 8GB of RAM / 128GB model will set you back $969 / £829, while pushing to 12GB/256GB with cost $1069 / £929. This means that the top OnePlus 9 Pro model will cost you less than the bottom Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. That’s worth taking into consideration while we dive through the comparative specs. We described the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra in our review as “one gorgeous-looking smartphone”. While the OnePlus 9 Pro is a well put together piece of kit, it simply isn’t interesting enough to warrant the same level of praise. It’s very much business as usual after 2020’s sleek, professional OnePlus 8 Pro. You get a similar glass and aluminum build, with subtly rounded edges to the display and the rear panel. OnePlus has tinkered with the camera module, making it stick out less before squaring it off and repositioning it in the left hand corner. It’s a more elegant solution, but it’s nothing like as imaginative or downright attractive as the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s swooping, smoothly integrated camera unit. There’s much to be said for the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s signature Phantom Black finish, too. Not only its it stealthy and classy-looking, but its matte finish minimizes fingerprints and smudges. By contrast, the OnePlus 9 Pro’s headline Morning Mist finish has a hyper-reflective aspect that soon picks up greasy prints. It’s quite cool how this reflective effect lessens towards the top of the rear section, though. You can also grab the OnePlus in Forest Green and Stellar Black, which are more matte shades. The Galaxy S21 Ultra, meanwhile, offers up a wider selection of Phantom Silver, Phantom Titanium, Phantom Navy, and Phantom Brown options. While it might be easier on the eye, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is a lot heavier on the pocket. And we’re not referring to that higher price tag. The OnePlus 9 Pro measures up at 163.2 x 73.6 x 8.7mm, while the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is 165.1 x 75.6 x 8.9mm. That’s not a massive difference, but far more consequential is the weight gap. At 228g, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is a total lump, while the OnePlus 9 Pro just about feels manageable at 197g. One other design win for the OnePlus lies with its signature physical alert switch, with sits on the right edge. Being able to change between silent, loud, and vibrate without messing around in the menus is an all-too-rare provision on Android. Both phones have an IP68 rating, so they’ll stand up to water immersion and dust ingress equally well. It’s always difficult when comparing two of the best phones on the market. How do you separate the fantastic from the superb — or in this case, the Pro from the Ultra? The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra screen is ever so slightly larger at 6.8-inches versus 6.7-inches for the OnePlus 9 Plus. But they’re both punchy AMOLEDs, and they both run to both 120Hz and a QHD resolution simultaneously. Both phones apply LTPO technology in order to apply a variable refresh rate. This means that they can conserve power by scaling back from 120Hz when viewing static images or text. But while the Galaxy S21 Ultra can drop to 10Hz, the OnePlus 9 Pro can drop as low as 1Hz.
