Top Lister At Long Last

OnePlus 9 Pro Review

No flagship killer, a true flagship nonetheless

Kostas Farkonas
Turn On | Press Play
14 min readMay 5, 2021

--

Once the slayer of flagships, OnePlus now directly competes with other top manufacturers in the $1000/€1000 premium category — and the OnePlus 9 Pro is proof of that. (Image: OnePlus)

It’s often the fate of the rebels to take the place of those they strived to overthrow… and that is now happening to OnePlus. Once the company of “flagship killer” smartphones — devices that offered most of the features of expensive models others were selling, at almost half the cost — OnePlus has endorsed high prices too these days, aiming to compete with the very giants it used to slay just a few short years ago.

The OnePlus 9 Pro is proof of that: at €949 for the more affordable model and €1049 for the more expensive one (through OnePlus’s online store), it has now fully endorsed flagship-level pricing. The question is: does it offer more than what the competition does so as to remain a preferable option for many consumers who have loved OnePlus products in the past?

I’ve been using the OnePlus 9 Pro for about a month, half that time as my daily driver, in order to have an answer for myself. Now that I do, here’s what people need to know in order to make an informed decision for themselves.

Design, build quality, ergonomics: true flagship-level

First impressions matter when talking about 1000-euro smartphones, as expectations…

--

--

Kostas Farkonas
Turn On | Press Play

Veteran journalist, project kickstarter, tech nut, cynical gamer, music addict, movie maniac | Medium top writer in Television, Movies, Gaming | farkonas.com