We may think of the Series 9 smartphones as belonging squarely to 2021, but it turns out OnePlus still has more to add to the outgoing line-up and is doing it with a new smartphone they call the OnePlus 9RT.
New, that is, for India, since it’s already been released in China. Ironically, they actually launched a OnePlus 10 at the same time — but exclusively in China. Whatever this baffling strategy is, for the present it can all be put down to the pandemic and component shortages. Anyhow, the 9RT really is an upgrade and gives the customer yet another option in the meantime and so, is welcome.
Hacker Black
Taking the OnePlus 9RT out of a big China-red box instantly took me back to the earlier days of the company. Back then, we only wanted a OnePlus phone to be black or, at the most, grey, and it also had to look sleek and stealthy to appeal to the tech savvy.
The 9RT has just that sort of black in a wonderful caress-able texture. They very aptly call it Hacker Black. It may not be evident but the back is made of glass with Gorilla Glass 5 protection. You can use the black tag-lined case provided or even forget about using one if you’re sure you won’t drop it and will keep it non-oily. The back panel looks and feels pristine and doesn’t show paw-prints.
This is a relatively slim and medium-weighted phone (just under 200 gms) and not too fatiguing to hold. It’s on the flatter and boxier side, which is something that goes well with the black back panel. But it does have a careful curving to the sides that makes it more comfortable to grip. The second colour variant happens to be a glossy one they call Nano Silver but it’s fairly certain that most will prefer the look and feel of the Hacker Black
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Geared to respond
The OnePlus 9RT is intended for the power user and runs on the Snapdragon 888 processor, catching up with the OnePlus 9 and 9Pro, with 12GB of LPDDR5 memory and 256GB of UFS3.1 storage (₹46,999). There’s also an 8GB and 128GB variant (₹42,999) if you’re working with a tighter budget. There’s no memory card slot.
The phone has a good 6.62 inch FullHD AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate, manually adjustable down to 60Hz. The display has a 300Hz touch sampling rate, high to begin with, and it goes up to 600Hz while gaming. This is just one of the tweaks and upgrades that make this device usable by both regular users and gamers. The Dolby Atmos enabled stereo speakers have a nice, deep and loud sound that goes well with the display.
Surprisingly, this phone comes with Android 11 out of the box.
OnePlus, at one time, used to even be faster than the Pixel with its Android update but now seems to be running behind. It will eventually get there, of course, but for now, users will need to wait. The phone uses OxygenOS 11.3 but this is an interface that is slowly moving away from what it was and merging with ColorOS. That isn’t necessarily a problem, but it’s just that the tech savvy thrived on OxygenOS. The phone feels extremely fast and snappy to use with no hint of lag anywhere. It doesn’t heat up at all. It has a strong haptic motor with which you get a more than satisfying amount of feedback as you use the phone, specially for gaming.
This device charges its 4,500mAh battery in about half an hour. There’s the 65W charger in the box with a USB-A to USB-C slot. The fingerprint sensor is an in-display one. Don’t expect a 3.5mm jack, but do look for the famous alert slider which is very much in its regular place on the right edge. This is a 5G phone and supports eight bands.
The main camera on this phone is a 50MP SonyIMX766 with OIS. This is a 1/1.56-inch sensor that results in images with low noise and more detail. It does pretty well with low-light photos. It also has a 16MP ultra wide and a 2MP macro lens that you can safely ignore. There’s no Hasselblad branding or evident input on these cameras but I’m guessing that’s not something users are going to miss. Colours are more punchy and strong compared with the 9R, to which this is a direct upgrade. The front camera is a 16MP and does a generally good job.
The OnePlus 9RT fixes a few of the issues from the other phones in the 9 series and will make the 9 and the 9R redundant.