Yesterday’s OnePlus event covered the high-end 9 and 9 Pro, but outside of that spotlight, the company has quietly revealed a smartly specced, less-expensive model: the OnePlus 9R. CEO Pete Lau confirmed last week that the 9R was on the way and would launch in India. It’s now listed on the company’s Indian website starting at ₹39,999, which is about $550. That’s an attractive price indeed, especially considering you’ll get one useful camera feature here that the $729 OnePlus 9 doesn’t have: optical image stabilization.
The 9R doesn’t include the Hasselblad-branded cameras on the 9 and 9 Pro, which isn’t actually a big loss. The 9 and 9 Pro offer newer hardware with features like bigger pixels and a higher-res ultrawide, so you do miss out on some nice upgrades, but the Hasselblad-developed color tuning is nothing special. You do, however, get a stabilized 48-megapixel main camera, which helps reduce blur from camera shake in lower lighting conditions. It’s unfortunately missing from the 9, though it is included on the $969 OnePlus 9 Pro.
Other cameras on the 9R include a 16-megapixel ultrawide, a 5-megapixel macro, and a 2-megapixel monochrome sensor. This system is borrowed from the OnePlus 8T, which is wholly capable of good image quality, even though its macro and monochrome cameras aren’t very useful.
There’s a 6.55-inch 1080p OLED with fast 120Hz refresh rate — same as the OnePlus 9 — and a Snapdragon 870 processor with either 8GB or 12GB of RAM. It’s not quite as powerful as the top-notch 888 processor on the 9 and 9 Pro, but it should be more than adequate to keep day-to-day tasks running quickly and smoothly. The 9R is equipped with a 4,500mAh battery with 65W fast wired charging, a handy OnePlus signature feature that delivers a full charge in just under 40 minutes. Wireless charging, however, isn’t offered. Oh, and there’s 5G support, of course.
All told, it looks like a series of smart trade-offs for almost $200 less than the flagship model. Right now, the phone is only confirmed to launch in India, but we’re hopeful that it will make its way to European and North American markets. While OnePlus brought its good $300 Nord N10 5G to the US earlier this year, the midrange Nord never made it stateside. The 9R looks like an excellent candidate to fill in a wide gap between the budget N10 and the basic flagship model.
In the meantime, customers in India can preorder the 8GB RAM / 128GB version for ₹39,999 (~$550) or the 12GB RAM / 256GB model for ₹43,999 (~$600).
Officially launching in the UK today, the Realme 8 Pro is a budget device that’s one of the first to use the new Samsung ISOCELL HM2 108-megapixel sensor in its main camera. While similar high-res sensors have been more common in pricier phones like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, this chip is designed for lower-cost devices like the 8 Pro.
This 108-megapixel chip isn’t the same one used in the S21 Ultra or even last year’s S20 Ultra. It’s a smaller sensor — 1/1.52-inch versus 1/1.33-inch — with slightly smaller 0.7μm pixels. However, it uses the same binning approach to improve light-gathering abilities by combining neighboring pixels into a less noisy 12-megapixel image.
The Realme 8 Pro offers a 6.4-inch OLED screen, a Snapdragon 720G processor with 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 4,500mAh battery that supports 50W fast charging. The back of the device, which comes in blue and black variants, features some intense Realme branding with the company’s “Dare to Leap” slogan in large fluorescent lettering that — the company claims — glows in the dark. Realme also says the design will appeal to “a new generation of younger users,” which we’ll have to take its word for.
The 8 Pro will go on sale on March 31st in the UK for £279 (about $380).
(Pocket-lint) – 2020 was the year of the ultra-premium super phones – among other things – with more than one manufacturer now offering a big, spec monsters. They also started becoming far more expensive than previous generations of flagship.
For Samsung, that beast was the S20 Ultra. For Huawei, the P40 Pro+ led the lineup. Unfortunate naming perhaps, but one that makes sure we know it’s not just Pro, it’s extra Pro.
With a spec sheet that reads like a tech nerds wish list, does Huawei’s all-singing all-dancing smartphone compete with the best?
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Design
S20 Ultra: 166.9 x 76 x 8.8 mm
P40 Pro+: 158.2 x 72.6 x 9 mm
Both IP68 dust/water resistant
S20 Ultra comes in grey and black glass finishes
P40 Pro+ available with white/black ceramic options
The design of a smartphone can often make or break an experience using it, and when building big, spec-heavy behemoths it’s important to make ergonomics a focus. Both Huawei and Samsung take similar approaches in this regard, with both featuring slim metal edges, and glass that curves around the sides. Styling is a little different, but the ethos is the same.
Interestingly, Samsung opted to only release two colours (or non colours) of Ultra edition: black and grey. Huawei has a few different coloured glass finishes, including white, black blue, ‘blush gold’ and ‘silver frost’ as well as ceramic options. This last finish is designed to be shiny but ultra durable. The other glass finishes are either glossy glass or matte/frosty glass. So there’s no shortage of colours or textures.
Both have quite large rectangular protrusions on the back where the camera systems are housed, both are also water and dust resistant up to IP68 certification.
With Samsung having the larger display, the phone is noticeably larger than Huawei’s.
Display
S20 Ultra: 6.9-inch AMOLED, QHD+
P40 Pro+: 6.58-inch, QHD+
S20 Ultra: 120Hz refresh
P30 Pro_: 90Hz refresh
If what you want is the biggest display possible, the Samsung is going to be the best option here. The S20 Ultra features a 6.9-inch QuadHD+ resolution panel built using one of the company’s own Dynamic AMOLED panels.
Similarly, Huawei’s phone also has a QuadHD+ resolution screen, but measuring 6.58-inches diagonally, which means technically it will appear slightly sharper because it has a similar number of pixels in a smaller space.
Both have quite high refresh rates too, with Samsung offering up to 120Hz (as long as you use it in a lower resolution mode) and Huawei offering 90Hz. It should mean they both feel fluid and fast, with no lag in the interface or gaming animations.
Both feature hole-punch cutouts in the display to make space for the front facing camera, but Samsung’s a really small singular cutout in the centre. Huawei’s has a dual-coutout placed in the left corner.
Both of the phones also have invisible in-display fingerprint sensors, but using different technologies. Huawei uses an optical scanner, which means it uses a camera to take a picture of your fingerprint, while Samsung uses ultrasonic technology which doesn’t need a light to flash, and is technically more accurate since it measures depth.
Cameras
P40 Pro+ has five cameras
S20 Ultra has four
P40 Pro+ offers 10x optical zoom
S20 Ultra has 10x hybrid optical zoom
P40 Pro+ primary sensor is 50MP
Samsung primary is 108MP
Huawei has gone all in on the cameras for the P40 Pro+. The primary camera is 50MP built on a 1/1.28-inch sensor, making it one of the largest smartphone camera sensors around for better detail, light capture and dynamic range. Samsung’s primary camera 108MP on slightly smaller 1/1.33-inch sensor.
Curiously, Huawei has gone with two optical zoom cameras for the P40 Pro. One’s a traditional 8-megapixel 3x optical zoom, the other is an 8-megapixel 10x periscope camera. Samsung has a 48-megapixel periscope zoom too, offering 10x hybrid zoom.
Of course, the both have ultra-wide cameras as well, with Huawei opting for a 40-megapixel sensor in that one, and Samsung going with 12-megapixels.
The additional sensor on both phones is a depth sensing background camera. You can’t take pictures with it, but it helps the cameras get a better understanding of depth and distances to help produce those portrait shots with blur.
Both manufacturers also have their own versions of post processing and analysing to decide which effects to apply to a particular shot. Whether that’s making skies more blue, or plants more green and so on.
Hardware and performance
Both 5G
Huawei: Kirin 990 processor
Samsung: Exynos 990 or Snapdragon 865
Huawei: 4,200mAh battery w/40W wired or wireless charging
Samsung: 5,000mAh battery w/45W wired and 15W wireless
Both these phones are about as powerful as you can get right now. Huawei uses its own custom processor called the Kirin 990 with built-in 5G capabilities. Similarly, Samsung has either the Exynos 990 or Snapdragon 865. They’re all octa-core processors built on 7nm processes.
What that means for the every day user is that the phones both feel fast and fluid and won’t struggle to launch even the most demanding games and apps.
As for battery size, Samsung clearly has the advantage here with 5,000mAh capacity compared to Huawei’s 4,200mAh. Huawei is known for its efficient battery optimisations in its software, so actually battery life will still be very good.
Charging speed is similar when you use a cabled connection. Samsung can accept 45W power to charge up quickly, although it only ships with a 25W adapter. Huawei ships with 45W, and is also able to charge wirelessly at a similar speed. Samsung’s wireless charging is much slower.
Conclusion
A big reason to choose one of these phones over the other may end up just being software. Huawei has been forced to try its own route, using the open source version of Android that doesn’t come with Play Store or Google Play Services. That means hoping your most-used apps are on the Huawei AppGallery. While it’s improving every week, not all the most popular apps are on there yet.
From a hardware perspective, Huawei’s cameras seem to offer more, especially with the extra zoom capabilities, but Samsung’s display being noticeably bigger and having a much smaller punch-hole camera means there’s less intrusion.
In the end – although the situation is improving all the time – it’s still difficult to recommend any Huawei phone without Google Play Services, and so Samsung will still give you the most complete experience, even if Huawei’s hardware is fantastic.
(Pocket-lint) – The first generation Mavic Air and the DJI Spark were the two smallest drones in the company’s profuct offering when they first launched. They’ve since been replaced by the Mini and the Air 2, but if you’re looking to get into droning with something small and easy, you could still do worse than picking up one of the older models used.
With DJI having launched the massively popular and very portable Mavic Pro in the second half of 2016 and the palm-sized smaller Spark followed a year later, it was hard to see where the Chinese drone king was going next. Of course, we’ve now seen the Mavic Mini and Air 2 bring the foldable Mavic design down to Spark size.
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DJI Spark vs. DJI Mavic Air: Design
Mavic Air is foldable, Spark is not
Spark weighs 300 grams
Mavic Air weighs 430 grams
Spark measures 143 x 143 x 55 mm
Mavic Air measures 168 x 184 x 64 mm unfolded (168 x 83 x 49 mm folded)
There are a number of differences in design between the Spark and Mavic Air, but the most important is undoubtedly the foldable arms. Like the bigger Mavic Pro, you can collapse all four of the arms on the Air, while the small Spark has completely rigid arms.
Due to being foldable, the Mavic Air is far easier to carry around in the side pocket of a rucksack – or stowed away in an inner bag compartment – than the Spark. It’s much narrower and thinner than the Spark when folded, but is bigger when unfolded. That said, at 430 grams, it’s heavier than the 300 gram Spark.
Colour choices are less varied with the Mavic Air however, with only Alpine White, Onyx Black and Flame Red available at launch. Spark’s range is more colourful, with Sky Blue, Lava Red, Meadow Green and Sunrise Yellow available alongside the Alpine White.
DJI Spark vs. DJI Mavic Air: Performance
Mavic Air 21 min flight time
Spark 16 min flight time
2km range vs. 4km range
It may have a more portable design, thanks to those foldable arms, but that doesn’t mean the Mavic Air skimps on performance. In fact, in most measurable ways, the Mavic is superior.
DJI’s latest portable drone has an impressive maximum flight time of 21 minutes. That’s a notable upgrade on the 16 minutes you got with the Spark. You can fly it further too. Its 4km remote control transmission range means you can fly it twice as far as the Spark, which has a 2km range.
It’s a similar story with maximum altitude. Mavic Air’s maximum ceiling above sea level is 5,000 metres, while the Spark climbs as high as 4,000 metres and then can’t go any further.
As for speed, you guessed it, the Mavic Air’s top speed is higher than the Spark’s. Mavic Air can get up to speeds of 42mph in Sport Mode. That’s 11mph more than the Spark’s maximum 31mph. Both devices can fly in winds up to 22mph and stabilise themselves.
DJI Spark vs. DJI Mavic Air: Features and Control
Enhanced obstacle avoidance on Mavic Air
ActiveTrack on both
Two new QuickShot modes on Mavic Air
Both drones feature obstacle avoidance systems to stop you from flying head first into trees, or buildings. DJI Spark can detect obstacles up to five meters away using its front facing sensor system. Yet again here, the Mavic Air outperforms the Spark and offers obstacle detection that can reach up to 20 metres away, using the forward and backward dual camera vision systems.
As a bonus, the Mavic Air also has something called an Advanced Pilot Assistant system that helps you avoid or bypass obstacles automatically in more complex environments with more obstacles. Its FlightAutonomy system is upgraded to version 2.0, which means it uses seven onboard cameras and infrared sensors to build a 3D map of its environment. This enables more precise hovering and better performance in flight.
Both drones feature QuickShot video modes, offering predefined flight patterns that keep the subject in the frame to offer cinematic video effects. As you’d probably already guessed, the Mavic Air has more of them. Two more in fact: one called Asteroid and another called Boomerang.
ActiveTrack is another DJI staple, and is featured on both drones, enabling you to set the drone to automatically track a person or object. On the Mavic Air, DJI says that’s it’s been improved and can now automatically detect multiple subjects, and is better at keeping a track on people moving quickly (running/cycling).
DJI Spark vs. DJI Mavic Air: Camera
Spark has 1080p video capture
Mavic Air shoots 4K at 30fps
Spark has 12MP stills and f/2.6 aperture
Mavic Air also with 12MP f/2.6, but with HDR
2-axis gimbal vs. 3-axis
As well as a clear upgrade on design and features, the optics are massively improved on the Mavic Air. In fact, it offers video recording and stills that are up to the same level as some of its much more expensive consumer drones.
The Spark maxes out video recording at full HD resolution, while the DJI Mavic Air can record 4K resolution at 30 frames per second, and with a maximum bitrate of 100Mbps. It can also shoot slow motion 1080p video at 120 frames per second.
As for still photography, both are similar as far as resolution goes. They both have 1/2.3″ sensors, both capable of shooting up to 12-megapixel stills and both with f/2.6 aperture lenses. The big difference is that the Mavic Air has an advanced HDR mode.
Improved optics aren’t the only upgrades made to the camera system. The three axis mechanical gimbal system adds an extra axis, for more stable footage too.
DJI Spark vs. DJI Mavic Air: Price
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With them both having launched a few years ago now, neither drone will cost too much if you’re happy to go looking for old stock and scour the internet for used versions in good condition.
The Spark is the cheaper of the two usually, but the Air does offer a lot more practicality and shoots better quality video.
DJI Spark vs. DJI Mavic Air: Conclusion
Looking at all the specifications and the features and then comparing prices definitely makes it seem like the Mavic Air is much better value for money than the Spark was when it launched. Considering the Fly More combo with the Spark originally cost £895, while the Mavic Air Fly More combo – despite its much higher performance – was just £949.
You might find there’s not a huge amount of difference between the two price-wise anymore and Mavic Air is a vastly better experience for new flyers.
The best drones: Top rated quadcopters to buy, whatever your budget
(Pocket-lint) – OnePlus started off as that limited, small batch phone-maker that only insiders knew about, before growing into a proper big-time brand. And yet, despite being available through proper partner carriers and in real stores, it’s still not a company you’d consider hugely mainstream. It certainly doesn’t have that mindshare that Apple and Samsung have enjoyed for years.
Counting all the ‘T’ versions, however, we’re now into the 13th generation OnePlus flagship. And in all of those generations it’s always nailed the speed, performance and fluidity. The cameras, however, have always raised questions, never quite delivering to the same degree as the competition. To try and conquer this final frontier OnePlus has brought in some outside help from a partnership with Hasselblad.
So does the OnePlus 9 Pro, Hasselblad riposte at the ready, succeed in flying us to the moon and back?
So shiny
Finishes: Morning Mist, Forest Green, Stellar Black
Dimensions: 163.2 x 73.6 x 8.7mm / Weight: 197g
IP68 water- and dust-resistant rating
Stereo speakers
OnePlus has three different finishes for the OnePlus 9 Pro. We’ve been using the silver coloured Morning Mist version, which is oh so shiny. At least, the bottom third of the back is. It’s reflective enough that you can see your face in it (which also makes photographing it a real pain – not that this would be a concern to 99 per cent of the people who buy one).
This reflective surface subtly gradients into a more misty, foggy look at the top. The surface of the glass on the outside is glossy and slippery, so attracts fingerprints like nobody’s business. All in all meaning you may just want to use the case, or pick up the frosted glass Forest Green variant instead.
Still, there’s plenty to like about the 9 Pro’s design. For one, the camera housing has a look about it that says the designers really cared about how it turned out. It’s not just a characterless rectangle stuck onto the back. It’s colour-matched to the back and each of the two main cameras has a metallic ring around the lens, making it stand out against the background. It’ll certainly make it stand out from the crowd.
The rest of the design is very familiar for anyone who’s used a OnePlus phone over the past year. The glass curves on the back towards the edges, making an otherwise quite large phone feel a bit more comfortable than it would if it were completely flat and square.
It’s not the lightest phone around, but in its size category, squeezing in below 200 grams is a good thing. It makes it perfectly bearable to use day in day out. Plus, all the buttons being within easy thumb reach means there’s not too much over-stretching going on to locate the alert slider or the volume rocker.
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While we’re on the subject of practicality, the Pro has IP68 rating against water and dust ingress. So when this slippery fish does inevitably slip out of your hand into a sink full of water, it won’t get damaged (well, not from the water anyway!).
Unlike the standard ‘non-Pro’ version, the OnePlus 9 Pro doesn’t have a completely flat panel, but the curves on the screen are definitely smaller than in previous iterations. That does mean the phone feels a bit chunkier than 7 Pro from two years ago, but it means it’s less prone to accidental touches. Plus, the bezels are really skinny, giving an almost edge-to-edge screen with only a neat little selfie camera punching its way through the top corner.
Display and software
6.7-inch AMOLED display
QHD+ resolution (1440 x 3216 pixels; 525ppi)
Adaptive frame rate up to 120Hz
Oxygen OS 11 (over Android 11)
It’s not just in physical button placement where OnePlus has attempted to make its large phone comfortable to use. The software, Oxygen OS, went through a massive refresh for its Android 11-based version – which first launched on the OnePlus 8T. This update didn’t just radically change the entire look and feel of the previously Google stock-like experience, it was designed so that the bits you need to reach with your thumb are easy to get to. Buttons and controls are shifted down, so you don’t have to awkwardly stretch across to the top corner.
The thing that works against this somewhat is that OnePlus has fewer of its own apps than it used to. It’s gone all-in with Google, so apps like Messages and the Phone app are Google; similarly, as we saw with the 8T in 2020, the Shelf that used to live on the left of the Home Screen has been replaced by Google’s Discover feed.
None of these moves are bad, as Google’s Discover is far more useful and more relevant than Shelf. That in itself hasn’t disappeared completely, though, as you can get to it by swiping down on the Home Screen. It could be useful for things like getting quick access to favourite contacts, or remembering where you parked the car. We didn’t find it all that useful, so we just changed the setting so that a swipe on the Home Screen dropped down notifications instead.
As for the screen, it’s one of the best available on the market. It’s a 6.7-inch AMOLED panel that has a top refresh rate of 120Hz, meaning it cycles through 120 refreshes per second to give the sense of smoothness.
Like Samsung’s latest flagships – the Galaxy S21 Ultra at the top of the stack – the OnePlus also has adaptive refresh rate capabilities. Here, however it can go all the way down to just 1Hz when it detects a static page, which will help save battery life. It also means it’s pretty much identical to the screen on the Oppo Find X3 Pro.
It’s really bright and vivid, and – once you’ve enabled its maximum sharpness within the settings – it’s crisp to the eyes too. One clever little feature actually enables you to toggle on a battery saver mode when you choose the QHD+ resolution, which means the screen can switch to a lower resolution if it’s appropriate to do so.
As usual, there are plenty of additional features, such as the ability to tune the appearance to your preferences: be that dark mode for night time, comfort tone for automatically adjusting the white balance based on the ambient light, or reading mode for, um, you guessed it, reading.
On the whole, it’s a mighty fine display. Colours pop, bright areas are almost searing, and animations are smooth. There’s perhaps a bit too much contrast, while auto-brightness dims the output a bit much – as to not retain balance of highlights, shadows and colours – but most of the time we were impressed by it.
For those who want it there’s plenty of customisability too. The display settings menu lets you adjust the overall look of the screen, making it more or less vibrant and adjusting colours and white balance.
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So to the all-important cameras. Both the primary and ultra-wide cameras use high-end Sony sensors – which is OnePlus showing off that it’s sourcing the best core kit for the job. For the most part, these sensors deliver good pictures.
The primary sensor looks like it’s had the most love from Hasselblad’s partnership, delivering natural-looking colours with good detail. Likewise, the ultra-wide sensor can take great pictures – and that’s no surprise given it’s the same sensor used by the Oppo Find X3 Pro in both of its two main cameras.
In good light you’ll get sharp mostly noise-free pictures, while the freeform ultra-wide lens will ensure you don’t get lots of curving and distortion at the edges. In fact, it’s very level and doesn’t suffer from that fish-eye effect you sometimes see from such lenses. It’s not as good in low-light situations as the primary sensor, neither is perfect once light levels drop. You’ll start to see image noise introduced when it gets a bit darker, particularly in greys and blues in any shadows.
The only inescapable problem isn’t with either camera individually. It’s when you compare them to each other. At some points it looks like results are from two different phones. Not in terms of angle of view, as that’s inevitable, but with the final aesthetic. The ultra-wide often boosts warmth and saturation to give a really vivid (almost more orange feel), while the primary lens delivers a more neutral, cooler image where blues are more standout.
You can see this difference when switching to Macro mode – which automatically switches to the ultra-wide sensor to perform the close-up shot – as well as when you shoot at night time using the Nightscape mode.
Nighstscape mode seems to have improved from previous generations of OnePlus phones, though, with the 9 Pro able to draw in decent light. We did sometimes struggle to get results looking sharp though, with finer details and edges blurring – not an out-of-focus blur, more like a motion blur as if the camera’s optical stabilisation can’t quite compensate for hand-shake enough.
It wasn’t the only time the phone’s camera struggled with detail either. Using the telephoto zoom lens – which is 3.3x that of the main camera, and can reach up to 30x digitally – we found that detail simply lacked. It’s not a great optical zoom.
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: Ultra-wideUltra-wide
If you scroll through the gallery above – which cycles through the cameras at ultra-wide, 1x, 3.3x, 5x, 10x and 30x – you’ll see how the tree branches in the 3.3x shot turn into a weird-looking mush. And once you zoom past 3.3x the detail becomes increasingly ropey with the images at the top end looking more like an oil painting than a photograph.
As for macro mode, that’s pretty strong in good light. Details are sharp and in-focus, while the background blur adds depth and doesn’t suffer from unnatural and nauseating bokeh like some dedicated macro lenses do. That’s likely down to the fact the OnePlus 9 Pro is using the ultra-wide sensor, rather than have a poor low-resolution macro camera.
On the whole, then, the 9 Pro’s cameras are a bit of a mixed bag. It performs well, but the difference in colour balance between the primary and ultra-wide is confusing, especially given OnePlus’ insistence on using Hasselblad’s ‘strict’ tuning standards. The optical zoom lens is quite poor when it comes to detail, and night mode suffers a little with motion blur.
The primary lens is great for the most part, but we’d just love to see that consistency between the different lenses. It’d turn this system into one that truly competes with the market leaders. The hardware is obviously there, we just need to see attention to detail on balance still.
Speed, I am speed
Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 platform, 5G connectivity
RAM: 8GB/12GB LPDDR5
Storage: 128GB/256GB (UFS3.1)
4,500mAh battery (2x 2250mAh cells)
Warp Charge 65T flash charging (1-100% in 28 minutes)
Warp Charge 50 wireless charging (1-100% in 43 minutes)
If there’s one thing you can virtually guarantee from OnePlus when it comes to its flagship phones: they’re all fast and fluid. For years the company has used whichever is Qualcomm’s latest top-tier processor. For 2021 that’s the Snapdragon 888.
In all areas, the OnePlus 9 Pro performs like a proper flagship should. It’s fast and smooth, loading any games and apps without stopping to think about it. We had no instances of stutter or delay. Part of that is also down to the screen’s refresh rate, but also its touch sampling rate – which can read your fingers taps and swipes at a rate of 240 times per second. The animation on screen responds virtually immediately, making it feel nimble and instant.
Even simple and mundane tasks like refreshing a Twitter feed or loading a web page is hassle-free. Plus, if you live in an area with 5G signal, you get that goodness too, for speedy cellular downloads.
During our testing there were moments where – after an hour or so of gaming – the phone became a little warm, but it didn’t feel uncomfortable. That’s likely down to having an efficient vapour chamber and graphite-based cooling system inside, making this the most non-gamer gamer phone on the market.
As for battery life, with the screen cranked up to its highest resolution and frame rate settings, the 4500mAh capacity is more than capable of pushing through a full day. Even on quieter ones, however, we never quite got the sense it’d make it through two full days.
On our heavier days with a three or more hours of screen time, we got to bed with somewhere around the 30 per cent mark left over. Here’s the thing though: battery anxiety is never an issue because when it comes to charging few phones compare to the OnePlus 9 Pro.
If you use the included 65W wired charger, you can get the battery from dead to 100 per cent in just 28 minutes. That’s a full charge in less than half an hour, which is mind-boggling. Plug the phone in for 10 minutes and that’ll provide enough to get you through a good few hours.
But there’s more: it charges fast wirelessly too. Using OnePlus’ latest Warp Charge Wireless stand (an optional extra, at your expense), you can get a full charge in 43 minutes. Of course, if it’s by your bed and you charge overnight you don’t need those speeds, but it can be programmed to go into bedtime mode which charges slower and, crucially, quieter. The fan it uses to keep itself cool during the faster charging speeds is shut off to allow you to get to sleep.
The Warp Charge Wireless is so quick that we’d often just leave the 9 Pro off charge at night, then put it on the stand while getting ready in the morning. It’s a bit of a game-changer.
It’s worth noting that – even though it charges quickly – OnePlus has kept its battery optimisation features in play, which ensure the device’s battery isn’t harmed by such speedy refills. It learns your charging routine and does the first chunk of charging quickly, before leaving it and then finishing the charge right before you wake up in the morning – which is good for battery health and longevity over an extended period of time.
Verdict
The OnePlus 9 Pro attemps to address the series’ historically biggest issue: the cameras. However, even with support from Hasselblad, it still doesn’t quite hit the mark in that regard. But the core of the phone impresses, with fast wireless charging a truly brilliant feature, and the display being top notch too.
While it’s possible to get great photos from the 9 Pro’s cameras, the imbalance of colour between the two main sensors – with photos often looking like they’ve come from two different phones – and the poor results from the telephoto zoom just don’t quite add up to what we’d expect. More hassle than Hasselblad, eh?
It’s also worth pointing out that the 9 Pro’s price has crept higher still, edging ever closer to the four-figure mark and, in so doing, sitting closer to other premium flagship competitors. That does mean it’s still more affordable than some of the other top tier phones out there, but it’s no longer the instant buy the series once was.
Overall, the OnePlus 9 Pro continues to deliver on the series’ well-established strengths. Its fast and fluid, has a cracking screen, mind-boggling impressive fast-charging, and all for a price that undercuts the established elite. But it continues the series’ ongoing weaknesses too, as those cameras still just aren’t class-leading.
Also consider
Oppo Find X3 Pro
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In a lot of ways, the Oppo is very similar to the 9 Pro, offering similar hardware in terms of screen, battery size, charging and processing power. Where it differs is with a more consistent camera experience and a more refined designed.
Read our review
Samsung Galaxy S21+
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Pricing isn’t all that much between Samsung’s S21+ and OnePlus’ latest top tier phone. It may have a plastic back, but its performance is strong in all the important ways. The cameras are a tad disappointing however.
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1More has absolutely flooded the true wireless earbud market, and it’s confident enough in its new ComfoBuds Pro noise-canceling earbuds to proclaim them as superior to the AirPods Pro — for a fraction of the price. They slot in between the company’s flagship True Wireless ANC earbuds ($200) and less expensive options like the $50 PistonsBuds and the standard ComfoBuds, the latter of which has an open-style design. 1More says with the Pro model, it’s “sure to bring the fight to Apple and give their loyal fanbase a serious dilemma in choosing what pair of earbuds are right for them.”
I don’t think forcing such a direct comparison was the right move because, despite 1More claiming that it offers “so much more” than Apple’s flagship buds, the ComfoBuds Pro can’t match up with the AirPods Pro in all areas — as is expected with such a price discrepancy — but they’re still an excellent product in their own right. The sound is fantastic for the money, they have several useful noise cancellation modes to switch between, and the fit certainly delivers on the “comfort” part of their name.
The ComfoBuds come in either gunmetal gray or white, and they lay flat in their elongated, capsule-shaped carrying case. This makes for a compact, pocketable design, but the trade-off is that removing them from the case isn’t so simple: you’ve got to press down on the stem, which pushes up the main earbud portion, and then pluck that out of the case. Once you’ve done it a few times, you’ll have it down.
Removing the ComfoBuds Pro from the case takes a bit more effort than some other earbuds.
LEDs hidden at the bottom of the teardrop stem indicate pairing and charge status, and there’s also a light on the case’s exterior so you know when they’re fully topped off. Battery life is rated at 6 hours with ANC enabled, which outlasts the 4.5-hour AirPods Pro. The case has enough extra juice for you to reach 20 hours of total listening time. It charges over USB-C but doesn’t offer wireless charging.
1More also beats out Apple on the scale, with each ComfoBud Pro weighing 5.2 grams compared to the 5.4-gram AirPods Pro. In your ears, they feel similarly light and barely there. This results in comfort that lasts over extended stretches, which can’t always be said of heavier options like the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds (8.5 grams) and Jabra Elite 85t (7 grams). Four sets of silicone tips come in the box, with an extra small size thrown in alongside the standard small, medium, and large. I’d have appreciated an XL option, as even the largest size took some adjustment for a snug seal.
Instead of any actual buttons, the ComfoBuds Pro have a touch-sensitive area on the outer stem. It works well enough, even if it’s not obvious exactly where you should be tapping. The most confounding thing about 1More’s controls is there’s no single-tap action. You can choose what happens with a double tap, long press, or triple tap, but the single-press option — commonly used by other manufacturers to play / pause — just doesn’t exist here. So although 1More lets you customize the controls that are here, you’re a bit limited.
By default, two taps is pause, three activates a voice assistant, and a long press toggles between the noise-canceling modes. I ended up switching the three-tap gesture to track controls, but that meant settling for no direct volume access. Each earbud has an IR sensor on the outside for auto-pause if you remove them. They reliably resumed the music whenever I put them back in my ears.
1More has a good reputation for delivering on sound quality, and I think the ComfoBuds Pro might set a new bar for what to expect if you’re on a $100 budget. They’ve got excellent clarity without the bass bloat that’s common in this price bracket. Everything gets its ample space in the mix; the many layered vocal tracks by Taylor Swift and Justin Vernon on “Exile” are all distinct and come through with clarity. The funky groove of Lake Street Dive’s “Hypotheticals” is a good demo for the punchy bass these earbuds are capable of. Usually, there’s one genre or even a style of music production that will expose the weaknesses of a particular set of earbuds, but I struggled to find that with the ComfoBuds Pro. They can adapt to pretty much anything without coming off as harsh or thin. 1More doesn’t include any options for EQ customization, so what you get is what you get. Either earbud can be used standalone.
You control the ComfoBuds Pro with tap gestures on the stem.
But do they sound better than the AirPods Pro? You could make the case they do, yeah. I think some people will prefer the deeper low tones and how much wider 1More’s earbuds can feel; vocals stay planted in the center, but you’ll hear a ton of detail out of the left and right channels. Still, there’s something to be said for the no-nonsense, straightforward audio reproduction of the AirPods Pro that so many people find pleasing across all sorts of different audio. 1More’s pricier True Wireless ANC also sound a bit fuller and more precise since they have a dual-driver design compared to the single 13.4-millimeter driver in the ComfoBuds Pro.
These earbuds offer a few different levels of noise cancellation intensity. There’s the default “strong” option, which goes the furthest in quieting outside noise. But 1More also includes a less powerful mode it says is suitable for “chatty” environments like cafes and offices, plus another that’s meant to avoid wind noise, which is common with noise-canceling earbuds since they constantly use the exterior microphones to sample ambient sound. If you’re outside on a windy day, that could be a good trick to lean on. (These latter two modes require the 1More mobile app to activate.) Finally, there’s a full-on transparency mode for getting a clear sense of everything happening around you. 1More’s active noise cancellation worked pretty well when I was sitting outside at a Brooklyn coffee shop, but this is one area where the AirPods Pro pull ahead. They don’t have the same variety of modes, but Apple’s premium earbuds do a better overall job of bringing down the volume of the outside world, which is what’s most important.
The case is compact but lacks wireless charging.
Even so, all of these things make the ComfoBuds Pro a great value. But the AirPods Pro still rank above in several respects. First, the ComfoBuds Pro case doesn’t support wireless charging. Second, Apple’s transparency mode still sounds more natural and airy than 1More’s. And 1More can’t match the software flexes (automatic switching, spatial audio, seamless pairing, audio sharing, etc.) that exist between AirPods and other Apple devices. That’s a huge part of what makes them so popular. Again, we’re talking about quality-of-life conveniences that you’d rightfully expect from a $250 product. And these cost nowhere near that. But if 1More is going to make the comparison, the differences are worth pointing out. Despite putting a huge focus on voice mic performance, 1More also winds up behind the AirPods Pro there — as does everyone else. It’s a draw on sweat resistance, with both sets of earbuds rated IPX4.
1More has put together a fantastic pair of budget earbuds with the ComfoBuds Pro. I wish the company had focused on the sheer value you get in exchange for your $99 instead of trying to take down the AirPods Pro, which just isn’t realistic. Despite matching them on comfort and edging them out in other areas like battery life, there are still valid reasons why many iPhone owners will go right for Apple’s buds. It’s hard to put a price on those exclusive Apple ecosystem features and the superior noise cancellation. But if you’ve only got around $100 to put toward earbuds, the ComfoBuds Pro are a standout pair that won’t leave you missing much else. Only thing is, the AirPods are far from the only competition they’ll need to stand out from.
(Pocket-lint) – The Xiaomi Mi 10 was the flagship phone series from Xiaomi.
Launching in early 2020, it was then updated with the Mi 10T versions, which you can find a comparison of right here. But if you’re looking at the Mi 10 or the Mi 10 Pro, there’s still plenty to consider.
So which is the phone for you?
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What’s the same?
Sticking the to the Mi 10 models, we’re going to start by telling you what’s not different – i.e., those parts that are the same on both these devices.
Same size and weight
Same design, build
Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, 8GB RAM
6.67-inch AMOLED display, 90Hz
Both 5G
Both have in-display fingerprint scanner
Both support 30W wireless charging, and reverse wireless charging
Both have a 108MP main camera and 20MP selfie camera
There’s a lot that the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro have in common. The overall design and finish of the phones is the same, both with the same dimensions and weights (according to the spec sheets), as well as having the same size, resolution and refresh rate on the display.
Both phones also have the same core hardware with Snapdragon 865, supporting 5G, with 8GB RAM. Both will come with 256GB storage, although there’s also a 128GB version of the Mi 10 (there may be some regional differences here).
Both also support 30W wireless charging and that’s reversible too, so can charge other devices.
Both have a headline-grabbing 108-megapixel main camera and both have a 20-megapixel front camera in a punch hole.
So what’s actually different?
These devices are a lot closer related than some other “pro” versions, but there are a few remaining areas that are very different. Here’s how the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro differ.
Cameras
Xiaomi Mi 10:
108MP main with 7P lens
13MP ultra-wide camera
2MP macro camera
2MP depth sensor
Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro:
108MP main with 8P lens
20MP ultra-wide camera
12MP telephoto camera
8MP telephoto camera
960fps slow-mo
There’s a huge difference in the cameras on the Mi 10 models. While both have the same 108-megapixel sensor – with exactly the same specs – the lens is different, with the Pro getting an eight element lens. This could improve the quality.
There’s then a complete departure in camera specs. Both have an ultra-wide camera, but it’s a different sensor. The regular Mi 10 has a lower resolution sensor, but a wider field of view and larger pixels. Exactly how different the quality will be is hard to tell – we suspect on wide-angle photos it won’t make much difference.
The Mi 10 then offers a dedicated macro lens – something the Mi 10 Pro doesn’t have – and a depth sensor – which is generally nothing to be excited about.
The Mi 10 Pro by comparison gets two telephoto lenses, one claiming 2x optical zoom, which is more like a portrait lens and a second offering 10x hybrid zoom to be used for the long range stuff – it also offers 50x digital zoom.
That means that the Mi 10 Pro is offering telephoto options that the Mi 10 simply doesn’t have.
Battery and charging
Mi 10: 4780mAh, 30W charging
Mi 10 Pro: 4500mAh, 50W charging
While both offer the same wireless charging, the Mi 10 Pro gets faster 50W wired charging – but it also has a slightly smaller battery. That’s because Xiaomi needed to reduce the battery size in the Mi 10 Pro to support the faster charging rate.
The Mi 10 on the other hand gets a 4780mAh battery, so might last you a little longer. It’s not as fast to charge, but the difference probably won’t be huge. There’s one other difference here too: the Mi 10 Pro comes with a 65W charger in the box, compared to the 30W charger in the Mi 10’s box – although this might differ depending on where you buy the phone.
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The price
Mi 10: €799 (at launch)
Mi 10 Pro: €999 (at launch)
There’s a pretty big difference in price between these two models, with the Mi 10 coming in at €799 and the Mi 10 Pro at €999. While both offer great value for money, you’re getting a lot in the Mi 10 with that display and main camera – while the Mi 10 Pro will obviously offer more across the entire camera experience.
Summary
The differences between the two phones are minor, falling into the camera, and battery and charging areas only. What difference will that really make? The Mi 10 Pro is the more exciting camera offering with those telephoto options. The lens on the main camera and the change to the ultra-wide don’t actually make a huge difference, apart from putting bigger numbers on the specs sheet.
The battery is different too, but not hugely so and in the long run doesn’t make much of a difference. With the same display, the same power and the same overall design and build, if you choose the cheaper Mi 10 then you’re not missing out on a huge amount.
The real question will be how much you want those telephoto cameras.
(Pocket-lint) – OnePlus announced the OnePlus 9 and the 9 Pro during an event on 23 March.
You can read how the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro compare to each other in our separate feature, but here we are looking at how the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro compare to the Samsung Galaxy S21, S21+ and S21 Ultra.
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Design
OnePlus 9: 160 x 74.2 x 8.7mm, 192g
OnePlus 9 Pro: 163.2 x 73.6 x 8.7mm, 197g
S21: 151.7 x 71.2 x 7.9mm, 172g
S21+: 161.5 x 75.6 x 7.8mm, 202g
S21 Ultra: 165.1 x 75.6 x 8.9mm, 228g
The OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro both have a punch hole camera in the top left corner, but the 9 has a flat display and a plastic frame, while the 9 Pro has a slightly curved display and a metal frame.
Both devices have a prominent rectangular camera housing in the top left corner of their glass rears, with two stand out lenses. The 9 has a third smaller lens, while the 9 Pro has two additional smaller lenses. Both devices feature Hasselblad branding.
The Samsung Galaxy S21, S21+ and S21 Ultra all have a centralised punch hole camera at the top of their displays. The S21 and S21+ both have flat displays and plastic rears, while the S21 Ultra has a curved display and glass rear. All three Samsung devices have a metal frame.
On the back, the S21, S21+ and S21 Ultra all have a rectangular camera housing that moulds into the frame, making for a slightly different design. There are three large lenses on all three devices, but the S21 Ultra has an additional fourth smaller lens.
The three Samsung devices are all IP68 water and dust resistant, but only the OnePlus 9 Pro is out of the two OnePlus devices. In terms of size, the Samsung Galaxy S21 is the smallest, followed by the OnePlus 9, S21+, OnePlus 9 Pro and the S21 Ultra is the largest.
Display
OnePlus 9: 6.55-inches, 2400 x 1080, 120Hz
OnePlus 9 Pro: 6.7-inches, 3216 x 1440, 1Hz-120Hz
S21: 6.2-inches, 2400 x 1080 pixels, 48-120Hz
S21+: 6.7-inches, 2400 x 1080 pixels, 48-120Hz
S21 Ultra: 6.8-inches, 3200 x 1440 pixels, 10-120Hz, S Pen
The OnePlus 9 has a 6.55-inch AMOLED display with a Full HD+ resolution for a pixel density of 402ppi. It has a 120Hz refresh rate, though this isn’t adaptive, and it has an aspect ratio of 20:9.
The OnePlus 9 Pro meanwhile, has a slightly larger 6.7-inch display with an AMOLED panel with LTPO. It offers a Quad HD+ resolution for a pixel density of 525ppi and an adaptive refresh rate between 1Hz and 120Hz. Its aspect ratio is 20.1:9.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 has a 6.2-inch Super AMOLED display, which makes it the smallest of the devices being compared in this feature. Like the OnePlus 9, it has a Full HD+ display, putting its pixel density at 424ppi. It has an adaptive refresh rate between 48Hz and 120Hz.
The Galaxy S21+ has a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display, like the OnePlus 9 Pro, but it has a Full HD+ resolution instead of a Quad HD+ resolution like the 9 Pro. This results in a pixel density of 393ppi, and like the S21, it has an adaptive refresh rate between 48Hz and 120Hz, so it doesn’t drop quite as low as the 9 Pro.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra meanwhile, has a 6.8-inch Super AMOLED display with a Quad HD+ resolution for a pixel density of 516ppi. It offers an adaptive refresh rate between 10Hz and 120Hz, so still not as low as the 9 Pro, but it has support for Samsung’s S Pen stylus.
Both the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset, supported by 8GB or 12GB of RAM and with 128GB or 256GB of storage. Neither have microSD support for storage expansion.
The two OnePlus devices both have a 4500mAh battery and both offer Warp Charge 65T fast charging. The OnePlus 9 has 15W wireless charging in Europe and North America, while the OnePlus 9 Pro has Warp Charge 50 Wireless, which is 50W wireless charging.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 devices all run on either the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset or the Exynos 2100, region dependent. The S21 and S21+ are available with 8GB of RAM and either 128GB of storage or 256GB. The S21 Ultra comes with 12GB or 16GB of RAM and in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB storage options. Like OnePlus, none of the Samsung devices have microSD support.
The Galaxy S21 has the smallest battery of the five devices being compared in this feature with a 4000mAh cell. The S21+ has a 4500mAh battery and the S21 Ultra has a 5000mAh. All three devices support for fast charging and wireless charging.
The five devices being compared in this feature all have under-display fingerprint sensors. They are also all 5G capable.
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Camera
OnePlus 9: Triple (48MP + 50MP + 2MP), 16MP front camera
OnePlus 9 Pro: Quad rear (48MP + 50MP + 2MP + 8MP), 16MP front camera
S21: Triple rear (12MP + 12MP + 64MP), 10MP front camera
S21+: Triple rear (12MP + 12MP + 64MP), 10MP front camera
S21 Ultra: Quad rear (108MP + 12MP + 10MP + 10MP), 40-megapixel front camera
The OnePlus 9 has a triple rear camera made up of a 48-megapixel main camera with 1.12µm pixels and an aperture of f/1.8, a 50-megapixel ultra wide-angle camera with an aperture of f/2.2 and a 2-megapixel monochrome lens.
The OnePlus 9 Pro has a quad rear camera that offers the same three lenses as the OnePlus 9 but adds a 8-megapixel telephoto lens with an aperture of f/2.4 and 1.0µm pixels. Both the OnePlus 9 and the 9 Pro have a 16-megapixel front camera and both offer the Hasselblad partnership.
The S21 and S21+ both have a triple rear camera, made up of a 12-megapixel main sensor with 1.8µm pixel size, f/1.8 aperture and optical stabilisation (OIS), a 12-megapixel ultra-wide sensor with 1.4µm and f/2.2, and a 64-megapixel telephoto sensor with 0.8µm, f/2.0 and OIS. There’s a 10-megapixel, 1.22µm, f/2.2 front camera.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra meanwhile, has a quad rear camera made up of a 108-megapixel main sensor with 0.8µm pixels, f/1.8 aperture, OIS and laser autofocus, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide sensor (1.4µm, f/2.2) and two 10-megapixel telephoto lenses, one with 1.22µm, f/2.4 (3x optical) and the other with 1.22µm, f/4.9 (10x optical). It also has a 40-megapixel selfie camera.
The three Samsung devices offer 4K 60fps video capture from all the cameras, with 8K 24fps offered on the rear too. The OnePlus 9 offers 4K video at 60fps and 8K at 30fps, while the OnePlus 9 Pro offers 4K at 120fps and 8K at 30fps.
Price
OnePlus 9 series: From £629
Samsung Galaxy S21 series: From £769
The OnePlus 9 comes in Winter Mist, Arctic Sky and Astral Black colour options. It starts at £629 in the UK.
The OnePlus 9 Pro comes in Morning Mist, Stellar Black and Pine Green and starts at £829.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 starts at £769 in the UK and €849 in Europe. It comes in four colour options: Phantom Grey, Phantom Violet, Phantom Pink and Phantom White. The S21+ starts at £949 in the UK and €1049 in Europe. It comes in five colour options: Phantom Violet, Phantom Black, Phantom Silver, Phantom Gold and Phantom Red.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra starts at £1149 in the UK and €1249 in Europe. It comes in five colour options: Phantom Black, Phantom Silver, Phantom Titanium, Phantom Navy and Phantom Brown.
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Conclusion
The OnePlus 9 is the cheapest of the five handsets being compared in this feature, followed by the Galaxy S21 and then the OnePlus 9 Pro. The Galaxy S21 Ultra is the most expensive by £200 in the UK so budget will likely come into play when choosing between these handsets.
The hardware between the OnePlus 9 series and the Samsung Galaxy S21 series is similar, though the OnePlus 9 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra both offer more RAM as an option, as well as more storage in the case of the S21 Ultra. The Ultra also has a slighty larger battery capacity than the others, while the 9, 9 Pro and S21+ are identical.
The camera make up differs across the models, but the S21 Ultra delivers excellent results in our experience, and the S21 and S21+ are good too, while we found the OnePlus 9 Pro to be good, but a little inconsistent during our review.
Ultimately, the decision between these devices will come down to budget and which features are most important to you. If you want the best camera, then the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is probably your best bet, but if you want decent specs for a good price, OnePlus is on the money.
(Pocket-lint) – OnePlus announced the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro during an event in March. The OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro succeed the OnePlus 8T that arrived in the latter half of 2020, as well as the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro from early 2020, but how do they compare?
We’ve put the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro up against the OnePlus 8T, OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro to help you work out what the differences are and which you should buy.
OnePlus 9 vs Samsung Galaxy S21: What’s the difference?
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Design
9: 160 x 74.2 x 8.7mm, 192g
9 Pro: 163.2 x 73.6 x 8.7mm, 197g
8/8T: 160 x 72.9 x 8mm, 180g / 160.7 x 74.1 x 8.4mm, 188g
8 Pro: 165.3mm x 74.35mm x 8.5mm, 199g
All the OnePlus devices being compared in this feature have a punch hole camera in the top left of their displays.
The OnePlus 9, 8T and 8 all have flat displays and are water resistant, while the OnePlus 9 Pro and 8 Pro have curved displays and carry an official IP68 water and dust resistance rating.
On the back, the OnePlus 9, 9 Pro and 8T all have a rectangular camera housing in the top left corner, though the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro have two more prominent lenses within the housing compared to the 8T, making for a more interesting design. The OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro have a slim rectangular housing in the centre of their rears.
In terms of materials, all of the OnePlus devices being compared here have a glass rear and they all have a metal frame, except for the OnePlus 9 that offers a plastic frame. The slimmest and lightest is the OnePlus 8, while the largest and heaviest is the OnePlus 8 Pro.
Display
9: 6.55-inch, Full HD+, 120Hz
9 Pro: 6.7-inch, Quad HD+, LTPO, 120Hz variable
8/8T: 6.55-inch, Full HD+, AMOLED, 90Hz / 6.55-inch, Full HD+, AMOLED, 120Hz
8 Pro: 6.7-inch, Quad HD+, AMOLED, 120Hz
The OnePlus 9, OnePlus 8T and OnePlus 8 all feature a 6.55-inch AMOLED display with a Full HD+ resolution, while the OnePlus 9 Pro and OnePlus 8 Pro have a 6.7-inch display with a Quad HD+ resolution.
All have AMOLED panels but the OnePlus 9 Pro has an AMOLED panel with LTPO that allows for a variable refresh rate between 1Hz and 120Hz. The OnePlus 9, 8T and 8 Pro all have a 120Hz refresh rate, while the OnePlus 8 has a 90Hz refresh rate.
As mentioned before, the OnePlus 9 Pro and 8 Pro have curved displays, while the OnePlus 9, 8T and 8 all have flat displays. All devices being compared here offer under-display fingerprint sensors.
The OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro both run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset, while the OnePlus 8T, 8 and 8 Pro all run on the slightly older Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor. All five models are 5G enabled.
All five models also come in a choice of 8GB or 12GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of storage and none offer microSD support for storage expansion.
The OnePlus 9 Pro, 9 and OnePlus 8T all have a 4500mAh battery capacity, while the OnePlus 8 Pro has an ever so slightly larger 4510mAh capacity. The OnePlus 8 is a little smaller at 4300mAh.
The OnePlus 9 Pro, 9 and 8T all offer support for OnePlus Warp Charge 65, which is 65W wired charging, while the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro use Warp Charge 30T. There is no wireless charging on the OnePlus 8 or 8T, but there is on the 9, 9 Pro and 8 Pro. The 9 Pro supports 50W wireless charging though.
Camera
9: Triple rear (48MP+50MP+2MP), 16MP front
9 Pro: Quad rear (48MP+50MP+2MP+8MP), 16MP front
8T: Quad rear (48MP+16MP+5MP+2MP), 16MP
8: Triple rear (48MP+16MP+2MP), 16MP
8 Pro: Quad rear (48MP+48MP+8MP+5MP), 16MP front
The OnePlus 9 Pro offers a quad rear camera, while the OnePlus 9 has at triple rear camera. Both have the Hasselblad partnership, which involves colour tuning and sensor calibration.
The OnePlus 9’s triple camera is made up of a 48-megapixel main camera with f/1.8 aperture, a 50-megapixel ultra wide-angle camera with f/2.4 aperture and a 2-megapixel monochrome sensor.
The OnePlus 9 Pro also offers a 48-megapixel main sensor with f/1.8 aperture but it’s a custom Sony IMX789 sensor and it supports optical image stabilisation (OIS), while the 9 has a Sony IMX689 sensor and no OIS. A 50-megapixel ultra wide sensor is also on board the 9 Pro, along with a 2-megapixel monochrome sensor, but it also adds an 8-megapixel telephoto sensor with f/2.4 aperture.
Meanwhile, the OnePlus 8T comes with a quad rear camera, comprised of a 48-megapixel main camera, 16-megapixel ultra-wide camera, 5-megapixel macro camera and a 2-megapixel monochrome lens so there’s no telephoto lens for optical zoom on this model.
The OnePlus 8 Pro also has a quad camera, made up of a 48-megapixel main, 48-megapixel ultra-wide, 8-megapixel telephoto and 5-megapixel photochromatic sensor.
Lastly, the OnePlus 8 has a triple rear camera made up of a 48-megapixel main, 16-megapixel 116-degree ultra-wide sensor and a 2-megapixel macro sensor.
As you can see, all the camera make ups across these five models differ. It’s worth bearing in mind that more megapixels or more lenses doesn’t necessarily mean better so head to our full reviews for each device to find out how the camera performs on each model in our experience.
The OnePlus 9, 9 Pro, 8 Pro, 8 and 8T all have a 16-megapixel front camera.
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Conclusion
The OnePlus 9 Pro and 9 offer a faster processor, more capable cameras on paper and a more exciting design than the 2020 OnePlus models. The OnePlus 9 Pro also adds a variable refresh rate and faster wireless charging.
The OnePlus 8T and 8 Pro both have the same battery capacity as the 9 and 9 Pro though, as well as the same RAM and storage options. The 8 Pro also has waterproofing like the 9 Pro.
The decision between these devices is likely to come down to price, as well as what features are most important to you. If you want the latest design and features like a variable refresh rate then the 9 Pro is likely the one for you, but if you want to save some money, then it’s well worth considering the 9 or 8T.
(Pocket-lint) – It’s safe to say OnePlus has been on something of a journey over the past few years. It lifted itself out of that initial ‘plucky upstart’ role and started to become a real smartphone company.
It’s gone from being a company that launched one or two new phones a year to launching six phones in 2020, with varying specs and at different price tiers. In 2021 that output glut looks set to continue – and it starts with the OnePlus 9.
Design
Dimensions: 160 x 74.2 x 8.7mm / Weight: 192 grams
Finish options: Winter Mist, Arctic Sky, Astral Black
3D Corning Gorilla Glass back
Dual stereo speakers
Look at the camera housing and you’ll see an evolution of design when you compare the OnePlus 9 to its most recent predecessors: the OnePlus 8T and OnePlus 8. The 9’s two main cameras have very deliberate metallic ring around them, while the camera housing has been designed to colour-match the rest of the phone’s rear panel.
It’s a classy and minimalist look, now with the addition of a Hasselblad logo. Because, yep, OnePlus is all about a camera partnership with this new series.
It’s in the rest of the build where we’ve seen OnePlus move backwards compared to its previous models though. The 9’s frame is made from a similar shiny plastic to what we first saw on the OnePlus Nord. Or, as OnePlus calls it: “fibreglass infused polymer”. Thankfully, the back is covered in Corning Gorilla Glass for protection.
It’s not the slimmest or lightest phone around either, certainly feeling thicker than previous models, but that’s almost certainly down to the move towards a flat screen. Rather than have those curved edges on both sides of the phone, it only has them on one side, so you lose that more sleek effect. Still, the OnePlus 9 feels noticeably chunkier than the 8T – another flat-screened model – which was thicker than the OnePlus 8 before it.
Of course, there are real benefits to having a flatter screen. There’s very little chance you’ll suffer from accidental touches, because it doesn’t curve around the edges, so that makes the phone a bit easier to use.
Our own review unit is the Winter Mist model, which has a light purple colour, with the rear featuring a gradient refraction effect. That means the bottom part of the phone is really glossy and reflective, but the top is more frosted and gradients between these two finishes. We think some people will like it, but we prefer the softer fully frosted look of some of the blue Arctic Sky model. It’s also a bit of a fingerprint magnet, which diminishes the overall finish effect.
There are all the usual OnePlus buttons and ports though. That means the volume rocker is within easy reach on the left side, with the alert slider switch on the right near the power/sleep button. The dual nano SIM tray is on the bottom edge near the USB-C port and the bottom-firing loudspeaker – which joins with a speaker near the earpiece to form stereo sound that’s boosted by Dolby Atmos tech.
Display
6.55-inch AMOLED panel
Full HD+ resolution (2400 x 1080 pixels; 402ppi)
120Hz refresh rate
OnePlus has focused on having lightweight and fast software for years. Its latest iteration of Oxygen OS is no different, and the display is primed and ready to take full advantage of that fluidity too.
Pocket-lint
The AMOLED screen on the front of the OnePlus 9 isn’t quite as sharp as that of the 9 Pro, but with a pixel density over 400 pixels-per-inch it should be sharp enough for most content you’d want to watch.
What’s more, with a refresh rate peak of 120Hz, it can keep up with any fast frame-rate gaming. OnePlus says it has improved the colour accuracy and the automatic brightness adjustment too – the result of adding in two ambient light sensors, while the brightness has more than 8000 different levels to enable smoother adjustment.
Like Apple’s True Tone, there’s a Comfort Tone feature that adjusts the colour temperature of the display to match your environment, which should be handy when reading ebooks on a white screen, making it seem a bit more like a paper surface.
Brightness itself shouldn’t be a problem either. With a peak of up to 1100nits and HDR10+ certification you should find a very attractive, vivid and bright panel. Of course, we need a bit more time to test it thoroughly, but all early indicators are good.
Hardware and performance
Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 platform
128GB/256GB UFS 3.1 storage
8GB/12GB LPDDR5 RAM
4,500mAh battery capacity
Warp Charge 65W charging
15W Qi wireless charging
With a top OnePlus flagship you know one thing for certain: you’ll always get the latest, most powerful mobile processor. That means the Snapdragon 888 platform for the 9 series, along with suitably quick LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage.
What that means in daily use is that, not only will your apps and games load quickly, but any downloads and installs will be fast too. That’s helped further by 5G support, presuming you’re in an area with 5G coverage, for speedy and low-latency connectivity.
All this power needs cooling for efficiency. For the OnePlus 9 there’s something called the OnePlus Cool Play system. Essentially, the manufacturer has made the vapour chambers larger and added more layers of graphite and copper to dissipate heat when you’re powering your most demanding games.
We’ve not yet experienced a OnePlus phone that under-delivers on speed and performance, so we don’t expect the OnePlus 9 will be any different. Our first few days of use have been pretty much plain sailing.
Regarding the battery and it’s really the charging that sells this phone. You may remember OnePlus saying in the past that it didn’t want to use wireless charging until it was as fast and convenient as its fast wired system. Well, for the non-Pro model in the OnePlus 9 family, it turns out it’s forgotten all about that.
The regular OnePlus 9 does have wireless charging, but it’s not blindingly fast. Instead, it uses a fairly standard 15W Qi-compatible wireless charging. That means it’s nowhere near as quick as the new Warp Charge 65T wired charging capability which can keep those 65W speeds pumping for longer and give you a full charge in under 30 minutes.
Cameras
Triple camera system with Hasselblad tuning:
Main: 48-megapixel, f/1.8 aperture, Sony IMX689 sensor
Ultra-wide: 50MP, f/2.2, SonyIMX766 sensor
Mono: 2MP
Front-facing camera: 16-megapixel
Video: 8K30p / 4K120p
OnePlus has listened to its critics over the past few years and says it’s finally delivering a flagship level camera experience. That’s thanks in part to its new collaboration with Hasselblad, to help tune the image processing to strict standards, ensuring your pictures should come out looking great.
It’s not just that tuning that’s changed though. The regular OnePlus 9 features the same main camera sensor found in the OnePlus 8 Pro from 2020, and has the same sensor in the ultra-wide as found in the excellent (and more expensive) Oppo Find X3 Pro.
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Those two are joined by a low-res monochrome sensor for extra light detail, but that’s it. No macro lens or gimmicky chroma filter camera in sight this time.
What’s more, the video recording capability can reach the heights of 8K resolution at 30fps or – perhaps more impressively – can capture 4K up to 120fps, which should enable some fantastically sharp slow-motion video.
Hasselblad’s partnership has led to some other more inconsequential features, like the orange colour of the shutter button, and a leaf shutter sound when you press it. However, where you’ll see the biggest influence is in the ‘Pro’ camera mode.
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The user interface has been designed to look like one developed by Hasselblad for some of its cameras. This includes a focus peaking feature that will highlight in-focus areas in orange when you’re using the manual focus.
First Impressions
The OnePlus 9 design may not have wowed us that much, but this company knows its users are all about getting the best performance out of every area of its phones.
So if cutting corners and adding in a plastic frame means being able to stick two flagship cameras on the back, add wireless charging, a capacious battery, and market-leading speed, then we think that’s a compromise worth making.
We can’t quite get out of our heads that the OnePlus 9 is similar to the much cheaper Nord in some respects, and that might still be worth considering, but on the whole – from the spec conscious – this latest OnePlus looks like it will deliver an experience much closer to its Pro-labelled sibling this year.
Also consider
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OnePlus Nord
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If you’re all about price then the last-gen affordable OnePlus model is a sensible option.
Niantic, developer of the smash hit Pokémon Go, has announced a new partnership with Nintendo. The first new game from the collaboration will be a mobile augmented reality game based on Nintendo’s popular Pikmin franchise, and it will launch later this year.
Details are thin right now, but Niantic says that “the app will include gameplay activities to encourage walking and make walking more delightful.” If you want to receive more information about the new game as it’s available, you can sign up here to get updates. The new Pikmin AR game will be the first developed by Niantic’s Tokyo Studio.
“Niantic’s AR technology has made it possible for us to experience the world as if Pikmin are secretly living all around us”, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto said in a statement. “Based on the theme of making walking fun, our mission is to provide people a new experience that’s different from traditional games. We hope that the Pikmin and this app will become a partner in your life.”
The Pikmin franchise is all about exploring a very Earth-like planet with packs of the adorable Pikmin creatures, so a Niantic-made Pikmin game about walking and exploring the world around you makes a lot of sense. The latest game in the Pikmin series is the Nintendo Switch’s Pikmin 3 Deluxe, an upgraded version of the 2013 game first released for the Wii U.
Niantic didn’t say what other games it will be making with Nintendo, but it sounds like the two companies have secured some kind of long-term partnership. “We’re honored that Nintendo has chosen Niantic to be its publisher of real-world AR applications,” Niantic said. More details about upcoming apps will be revealed “in the coming months.”
Niantic is best-known for Pokémon Go, the hugely popular mobile AR game released in July 2016. The game is still quite popular despite being nearly five years old, although Niantic has had to make some changes to the game while many have been staying inside due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those changes didn’t stop Pokémon Go from generating money hand over fist, however — 2020 was the game’s biggest year yet, surpassing $1 billion in revenue as of November, according to app analytics firm Sensor Tower.
NASA’s Perseverance rover is getting ready to deploy a mini-helicopter named Ingenuity on Mars. The four-pound, four-blade rotorcraft will attempt the first flight of its kind on another planet, and in the process, it will test a new mode of mobility that could transform the way we Earthlings remotely explore other worlds.
The craft is currently attached to the belly of Perseverance, which landed at Mars’ Jezero crater in February. One of the first steps toward setting the baby helicopter off on its debut flight came this weekend when Perseverance dropped a protective shell and exposed Ingenuity to the bright Martian sunlight for the first time. “Away goes the debris shield, and here’s our first look at the helicopter,” the rover’s Twitter account said on Sunday.
Away goes the debris shield, and here’s our first look at the helicopter. It’s stowed sideways, folded up and locked in place, so there’s some reverse origami to do before I can set it down. First though, I’ll be off to the designated “helipad,” a couple days’ drive from here. pic.twitter.com/E9zZGQk5jQ
— NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) March 21, 2021
After dropping the debris shield, Perseverance will spend a couple of days driving itself to Ingenuity’s flight zone, which NASA officials plan to unveil in a press conference on Tuesday. The helicopter will be lowered to the ground, and Perseverance will scoot away to a safe distance of about 330 feet, leaving Ingenuity to unlock its rotor blades and carry out a few spin tests. NASA expects the first test flights to come “no earlier than the first week of April,” a statement read.
The artificial boundaries of the flight zone, wherever it is, will be a 50-foot-long oval patch of land that Ingenuity will need to stay within during its flight tests. Perseverance will drop the helicopter off near one end of this flight zone, in a space engineers call the helipad.
Deploying the first helicopter on Mars is no easy task. Ingenuity’s team of engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory had to account for a Martian atmosphere 100 times thinner than Earth’s, which means the craft needs to work much harder than Earth-bound helicopters to lift itself off the ground.
And it’s not just a more powerful toy drone: Ingenuity is an $85 million spacecraft built to withstand an extremely turbulent ride to Mars — from the violent rumbling during liftoff from Earth last summer to Perseverance’s seven-minute landing sequence through Mars’ atmosphere in February. Its design also has to comply with the international 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which requires signatories to ensure their spacecraft don’t contaminate environments on other planets.
“This was a design challenge that straddled both the aircraft and spacecraft boundaries,” says Bob Balaram, Ingenuity’s chief engineer. The team’s biggest challenge, he said, was creating a craft that can spin its blades fast enough to generate thrust, while keeping the overall design simple and lightweight — “otherwise whatever lift you generate doesn’t do any good if you’ve gotten too heavy in the process in the design.”
Packing all that power in the craft’s four-pound body is made possible by a rectangular solar panel installed above the craft’s four carbon fiber blades. That panel also holds a tiny telecommunications device that can communicate with a node on Perseverance’s body called the Mars Helicopter Base Station, even from as far as nine football fields away. The Base Station will help relay signals back to Earth.
Beneath the blades is a tissue box-sized fuselage that houses flight sensors, two cameras, batteries, and mini “survival heaters” that protect Ingenuity from freezing during nighttime on Mars, where temperatures drop as low as negative 130 degrees Fahrenheit. One of the two cameras has a 13-megapixel color camera facing the horizon that will snap and send images to Perseverance mid-flight (the other camera has a 0.5-megapixel black-and-white sensor used for navigation).
In all, Ingenuity will attempt to carry out five flight tests within a short, 30-day window. If the tests work, similar helicopter tech could be used in other missions, to trek places where wheeled rovers can’t reach, like caves, tunnels, or mountaintops. Ingenuity won’t fly again after its 30-day window, even if the tests are wildly successful. That’s because “we are being accommodated by a major flagship mission that’s got a huge, new astrobiology exploration ahead of it,” Balaram says. Perseverance’s primary mission is to explore Mars’ Jezero crater and pack soil samples into tiny, cigar-sized sample tubes that the rover will scatter around the surface for a future “fetch” rover to send back to Earth.
After that 30-day window, Ingenuity will lie on the Martian surface for eternity. If the craft’s first flight attempt doesn’t work out, Balaram said his team can still celebrate a number of achievements they’ve already made.
“I think the main thing is, we’ve already achieved a lot of milestones just by having a design that could do all of these things, and we have had a successful test program so far,” he said. “Every step is something to celebrate because nothing is a given. It’s a fairly high-risk, high-reward type of activity. And tech demos are inherently a quite risky venture, they’re not a slam dunk.”
Xiaomi-owned Poco has returned with two new phones that have some notable processor choices at low prices. Both the X3 Pro and the F3 use new Qualcomm chips that are essentially updated and repurposed flagship-class processors from the past couple of years, which make them an interesting price-performance proposition.
First up is the Poco X3 Pro (pictured above and below), which is essentially identical to last year’s Poco X3 NFC but with a new processor. That means there’s still a 6.67-inch 120Hz 1080p LCD, a 5,160mAh battery with 33W fast charging, and a quad-camera setup headlined by a 48-megapixel primary sensor.
What’s new is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 SoC, which hasn’t previously been announced. The processor appears to be a new version of the Snapdragon 855, Qualcomm’s flagship part from two years ago found in phones like the Galaxy S10 and the Pixel 4. It uses the same Kryo 485 core based on ARM’s Cortex-A76 CPU, but the clock speed has been slightly bumped to up to 2.96GHz.
Poco describes the 860 as “the leading 4G flagship processor in 2021,” which doesn’t strike me as a field with a whole lot of competition. Still, it will likely outperform newer mid-range 5G chips like the 765.
The Poco F3, meanwhile, is a higher-end device that’s one of the first phones to use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 870, which was announced a couple of months ago. The 870 is a similar idea to the 860 but based on the one-year-newer 865, which was Qualcomm’s highest-end chip in 2020. The CPU clock speed has again received a slight bump to a max of 3.2GHz. The 870 won’t be as fast as the 888, but another way to think of it is that it would’ve been the fastest Android phone chip in the world a couple of months ago.
The F3 itself is a rebranded version of Xiaomi’s Redmi K40, which was recently released in China. It has a 6.67-inch 120Hz 1080p OLED display, a 4,520mAh battery with 33W fast charging, and a triple-camera setup including a 48-megapixel main sensor, an 8-megapixel ultrawide, and what seems to be the same 5-megapixel “telemacro” found on the Xiaomi Mi 11.
Poco hasn’t announced full global release details yet, but the X3 Pro costs €199 for a model with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage (or €249 for 8GB/256GB), while the F3 is €299 for 6GB/128GB and €349 for 8GB/256GB. Those are early-bird prices — all models will be bumped up by €50 after April 1st for the X3 Pro and April 6th for the F3. Even after that, though, they look like very good value for their segment. Both phones will go on sale later this week.
Apple’s HomePod mini smart speaker has an as-yet-undisclosed temperature and humidity sensor in its casing, Bloomberg reports. The sensor’s exact location was confirmed by iFixit, and it appears to be placed away from the speaker’s internal components so it can measure the external temperature. The exact sensor used is a 1.5 x 1.5mm HDC2010 Humidity and Temperature Digital Sensor from Texas Instruments.
Although the sensor isn’t currently usable by HomePod mini owners, according to Bloomberg, Apple has internally discussed allowing the sensor to provide information to other smart home devices like thermostats or fans. This could give smart heating equipment more information about how warm a room is or allow the speaker to trigger a device like a fan if it senses a room has reached a certain temperature. The functionality could work via HomeKit, Apple’s smart home ecosystem, which currently integrates with dozens of internet-connected thermostats.
Amazon has previously included temperature sensors in Echo speakers like its 2020 model, where the sensor can be used to trigger other devices via Alexa routines. Meanwhile, Google sells standalone sensors via its Nest sub-brand, and its Nest Hub announced last week also includes a similar built-in sensor to help monitor your room’s temperature while you sleep.
Although Apple declined to comment to Bloomberg on its report (and did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment), on at least one occasion, it’s included hardware in a device that’s only been officially activated months later. Its 2008 iPod touch included a Bluetooth chip, Bloomberg notes, but it wasn’t able to connect with Bluetooth devices until the year after its release. The hope is that a similar software update may be on the way for the HomePod mini. For those keeping track, major new HomePod firmware tends to release in the fall of each year.
(Pocket-lint) – The big ol’ beast upon which your eyes are affixed is the Poco X3 Pro: the Xiaomi offshoot’s sub-flagship device, here to tempt you with massive screen, massive battery, and not-so-massive price point.
Just a year after the Poco X2 launched, the X3 Pro isn’t exactly an unexpected surprise. But it does cut its own path: its the first device to feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 processor, which is all-powerful (basically an 855+ rebadged) but, crucially, drops any 5G modem – and, with that, any battery/cost implication that such connectivity could cause.
As such, the Poco X3 Pro is a fairly unique prospect. It’s not quite as flagship grade as the smaller Poco F3 – which was announced the same day, here’s how the two compare – but as 4G/LTE handsets on a big scale go, it’s got a lot of weight behind it (both figuratively and literally speaking).
As you’ve no doubt already figured out by now: the Poco X3 Pro is a big and weighty phone – even more so than its spec sheet might have you think. No, 215g is hardly a lot when you’re weighing out pasta for dinner or something, but in a phone that you handle constantly it’s noticeably chonky. It’s far more than the Redmi Note 10 Pro, for example, which has almost exactly the same footprint.
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The big scale comes, in part, from this Poco’s big screen. This 6.67-inch ‘DotDisplay’ panel is sourced from Samsung, complete with many of the current nice-to-haves in a phone – namely the 120Hz refresh rate to keep the visual experience smoother. The Full HD+ resolution – that’s 2400 x 1080 pixles – might not sound top of the line, but it’s really as much as you’ll need and doesn’t negatively affect fidelity.
Flip the phone around and the rear design has a kind-of retro look about it. Phone design moves on so rapidly year on year that, for whatever reason, the Poco X3 Pro just looks a bit ‘last year’. Maybe it’s the raised camera unit, housed within a black circle, that’s behind the times. The big look-at-me Poco logo emblazoned on the back is way bigger than necessary, too.
There are some nice touches though. A 3.5mm headphone jack is on board, if you’re still using wired headphones. And the side-mounted fingerprint scanner – which doubles-up as the power button – is well placed for rapid login. Or, by the wonders of face unlock, you can feed the X3 Pro your face and get a speedy unlock that way too.
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In summary: the Poco X3 Pro is massive, in a kind of gawky way that’s not at the forefront of phone design. But then it’s also practical, if you’re looking for a large phone, thanks to that massive screen and massive battery combination. And, really, that’s the most important take-away factor.
Performance & Battery
Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 platform, 6GB/8GB RAM
5,160mAh battery, 33W charging
4G/LTE only, no 5G
There’s been heaps of chat about 5G over the last few years. For good reason, too, as it enables super-fast connectivity with low-latency. Except, it doesn’t if you can’t get a 5G singal – which, in majority of places around the world, is often the case. Not to mention the elevated asking price of your monthly mobile subscription.
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The Poco X3 Pro bypasses any 5G problem by, well, shunning the connectivity entirely. That, it seems, is much the point of using the all-new Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 processor – there’s no X50/X55 series modem attached within the platform, thus no 5G. But 4G/LTE connectivity is perfectly good enough and, without the concern over elevated costs or battery consumption, we think it’ll be lapped up by many consumers.
Not to mention that the Snapdragon 860 is really rather powerful. It’s a lot like a rebaged Snapdragon 855+ from two years back – same eight cores, same clock speed (2.96GHz), same graphics chip – just minus the faster modem, as we said. In terms of performance, though, that means there’s little to nothing that’s going to bother this phone at all.
We’ve been living with the Poco X3 Pro as our own for a working week, digging into Zwift sessions (and Companion ones), playing South Park: Phone Destroyer, and generally milling about our suite of apps to browse, mail and watch videos. None of that has caused so much as a hiccup. It’s all a very smooth experience – often literally, thanks to the 120Hz display.
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Having this double-speed refresh rate here makes a lot of sense as a more powerful processor can handle decent frame-rates in a variety of situations, from the user interface and software through to a myriad of apps, including games. Some makers have pushed faster refresh screens but then not paired a quite good enough processor to always make good on that hardware – the cheaper Moto G30 being one such example – but the Poco always delivers.
Without throttling battery saver features enabled, we’ve been cutting through 30 per cent of battery every 10 hours. That includes some casual gaming. It’s no surprise, really, as the Poco X3 Pro houses a 5,160mAh battery – which is massive by any measure. But a 30-hours-plus innings per charge would be no bother, making this one of those phones that’s close to being a two-dayer unless you’re really hammering out heavyweight apps a lot of the time.
There are some caveats to all this though. That comes down to Xiaomi’s MIUI software, which has a lot of detail when it comes to battery handling. By default every app is set to ‘Battery Saver’ – so you’re likely going to need to manually move your key apps to ‘No Restrictions’ to ensure they continue to function better than not.
That said, the Poco X3 Pro still hits some walls. It’s persistently exhibited problems with notifications – much like we found with the Xiaomi Mi 11, albeit worse here – such as, for example, hour-long delays in WhatsApp notifications, plus delays with various other apps. In theory the software will learn which apps are most important to you – by volume and repetition of use – and permit those more access, but that’s not helped our overall experience.
Customisation can be a great thing, but it can also be a hindrance. We would rather MIUI was a just more gentle with its approach to limiting with apps. Why certain Xiaomi phones on the same software versions run fine – the Redmi Note 10 Pro being one example – but others do not, such as this Poco, is rather perplexing. Each has its own launcher, sure, but these ongoing notification issues are a needless irritation.
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Which is why this more laborious setup won’t be distracting those with a little more budget from buying into, say, a Google Pixel phone with stock Android software, or something like a Motorola handset instead (likely foregoing some power for the sake of user experience).
Whereas many are now pushing 108-megapixel cameras as the norm, Poco is a little further down the ladder with the X3 Pro, instead opting for a 48-megapixel main sensor. This functions by using four pixels in one, to produce 12-megapixel results. Which are fairly decent quality overall, including in a mix of conditions, with a usable Night Mode too.
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Move away from that main sensor, however, and the X3 Pro isn’t especially ‘pro’ in its sell. There’s an 8-megapixel wide-angle that, while useful, is of limited quality – as is typical at this level, really.
But it’s the pair of other cameras – both 2-megapixel sensors – to cover depth readings and macro close-ups that are throwaway. They’re of limited use, don’t need to be here, and are on board to up the count and lure you in with the “quad camera” pitch. Macro is so hidden that you’ll never know to use it, which is a good job as the results are poor.
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: Main camera – Night ModeMain camera – Night Mode
Pare the X3 Pro’s camera spec down and it’s got a perfectly fine main lens, then, but that’s about as far as things go. It’s fairly typical of this level, though, so isn’t a surprise – but consider that “quad camera” claim as and oversell and your expectations may be met.
Best smartphones 2021 rated: The top mobile phones available to buy today
By Chris Hall
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Verdict
The Poco X3 Pro is all about going big. It’s got a big screen, big battery, and its anticipated low price point should have big appeal.
In some regards, however, it’s a bit too big for its own boots. The software doesn’t quite connect in this format – we’ve had notification problems which irk – while the sheer physical size and weight mean other devices may hold added appeal.
But as a pitch there’s sense here: if you want a long-lasting phone, don’t mind the physical bulk, and don’t care for 5G, then the Poco X3 Pro will hit the mark for certain users in certain markets.
Also consider
Pocket-lint
Redmi Note 10 Pro
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Still a large size, but the Redmi is lighter weight, feeling more balanced and accomplished compared to the big slice that is Poco. The battery isn’t quite as epic, though, if that’s your main want – but we found the software here wasn’t as marred by notification issues (despite it still running MIUI).
Read our review
Writing by Mike Lowe.
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