OnePlus 9RT specifications and software
The second major change in the phone has been made in its performance. The OnePlus 9RT has the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip as the OnePlus 9. This is the only phone in the 9 series that comes equipped with eight 5G bands, due to which it will not get outdated easily in the coming time. OnePlus has also said that this time three Wi-Fi antennas have been used in the phone instead of two for better stability during gaming. Apart from this, the size of the vapor chamber cooling system has also been increased, which makes the phone less hot. The touch response of the phone’s screen has also been improved, which reaches 600Hz in some games.
The phone lacks IP rating and wireless charging. Samsung offers these features in its FE series and the price of the handsets, especially the Galaxy S20 FE 5G, gives a very tough competition to the 9RT in comparison.
My unit had OxygenOS 11.3 based on Android 11. Its next version, which will be based on Android 12, is currently in the development stage and will come to the phone via OTA update. However, its release time has not been revealed. The interface of the phone is quite clean and comes with light bloatware. The phone has Google’s SMS app and dialer app, which also supports call recording. There are also many customization options for fonts and wallpapers.
OnePlus 9RT performance and battery life
In everyday use, the OnePlus 9RT proved to be quite reliable. Thanks to its sturdy body and fast software, it delivered a great experience. The in-display fingerprint sensor is extremely fast and the phone’s menus can be navigated quickly. Switching between apps was also quite fast.
The multimedia playback of the phone is very good. The rendering of standard and HDR videos is excellent. The experience of watching content on streaming apps like Netflix was good due to the HDR capability of the display. I really liked the sound of the stereo speakers and with the help of Dolby Atmos support, many types of sound profiles can be set. The processor is powerful and games run smoothly. It was a lot of fun to play Fortnite in it and the experience was even better when the graphics quality was increased. A similar experience was also found in Call of Duty: Mobile. The touch response of the display also helps in enhancing the gaming experience. The phone handled heating very well. Even after a long gaming session, slight heating was felt in the phone.
We also liked the battery performance of the OnePlus 9RT. The phone has a 4,500mAh battery, which lasted 20 hours and 16 minutes in our internal test. In this, we played HD video clips in a loop until the phone turned off. This is much more than the Oneplus 9R or Oneplus 9. In normal use, which includes short periods of gaming, calls, camera, social media apps, etc., the phone was able to easily last a day and a half on a single charge. Charging is quite fast. The Warp Charge 65T charging brick that comes with the phone charged the battery from 0 to 100 percent in just 30 minutes.
OnePlus 9RT cameras
Compared to OnePlus 9R, the primary camera of 9RT has been improved. 9RT has a 50 megapixel Sony IMX766 sensor. This camera was used as an ultra wide camera in OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro. A special feature of this sensor is DOL-HDR support. This feature comes in handy when the subject is standing right in front of the sunlight while recording the video. In such a situation, this feature captures video in high dynamic range and the light falling on the subject from behind is controlled to a great extent. We saw this feature in the primary camera of OnePlus 9 Pro. Low-light photo quality has also been improved a lot.
The rest of the sensors are the same as those in the 9R. These include a 16-megapixel Sony IMX481 ultra-wide camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera, and a 16-megapixel selfie camera. It has a lower resolution than the macro camera in the 9R. The selfie camera is the same as that found on many OnePlus phones. It is an average camera and can only record videos at up to 1080p.
The camera app found in the phone is taken from Color OS of OnePlus’s sister company OPPO. It has AI scene improvement feature, which can be turned on or off. Apart from this, dual view recording option is available. A Hi-Res mode is also provided, which creates a 108 megapixel photo by combining multiple frames shot from the main camera.
While shooting videos during the day, the main camera captured details well. After turning on the AI option, the colours looked slightly artificial. The portrait mode photos turned out to be good at times and bad at times, as sometimes some parts of the subject were blurred. The camera offers up to 10X digital zoom and since the camera resolution is quite high, the photos look good even after cropping.
The ultra-wide camera captures a fairly large area, but the quality falls a bit here. The macro camera takes good clicks in adequate light, but disappoints in low light. The main camera captured good photos in low light even without turning on the night mode, but zooming in revealed that they have been over-processed. The ultra-wide camera disappointed in low light. The selfie camera performed well in daylight, but faces looked soft and skin tones were also not accurate.
This phone can shoot videos up to 4K at 60fps. The video quality is good in adequate light and the video stabilization also impresses. With the help of DOL-HDR feature, videos were recorded well even in light falling from behind the subject. However, the highlights of the background were overly boosted. Low-light video quality is a bit disappointing. Grains were seen and jitter was also seen in the video due to the side effect of stabilization in videos recorded while walking.
Verdict
The OnePlus 9RT is a powerful smartphone. It is beautifully built and the performance is also excellent. The upgrade in the main camera makes it a tough competitor, but the performance of the other cameras disappoints, especially in low light. The battery of the phone is good. This phone beats the OnePlus 9R and OnePlus 9. Only if the price of OnePlus 9R is reduced to a great extent, then it can be considered as an option.
OnePlus 9RT gives more value than OnePlus 9, but I would still call it expensive. OnePlus is quite late in launching it and xiaomi 11t pro 5g, Realme GT And Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G These devices prove to be much more value for money than this. If you are waiting for the OnePlus 10 series to come to India, then this wait can be quite long. Right now the company has only announced the series. It would be wrong to speculate about when it will be launched in India.
OnePlus 9RT is a powerful flagship phone, but if its price is reduced by a few thousand rupees, then it can prove to be the best smartphone deal. If you can’t wait, then there are some similar options available in the market from Xiaomi, Realme and Samsung at a lower price.