One to watch
There are more than just smartphones on offer from Chinese firm Oneplus
CHINESE phone-maker Oneplus has unveiled its latest devices in an online show.
All the hype beforehand got one thing right – there were three new things revealed. The big surprise was that one of them wasn’t a phone.
Alongside the big reveal of two series 9 smartphones in a slick online show, Oneplus also showed off its first stab at the smartwatch market.
The imaginatively-named Oneplus Watch more-or-less follows the usual pattern – fitness and sleep tracking and notifications are the main features.
Oneplus has something of a reputation for making decent phones that undercut the big two – Apple and Samsung – on price, but not on features.
That’s largely true of each of the three new devices coming our way, including the Oneplus 9 and the Oneplus 9 Pro, but there are compromises.
Here are the main takeaways from Oneplus’s event…
ONEPLUS 9 PRO
The flagship device for any phone company is allimportant – it’s the one with the fewest compromises that represents the best on offer. The 6.7in 9 Pro is that phone for Oneplus.
It features the fastest Snapdragon processor available, and an elegantly simplified version of Android 11 called Oxygen OS that makes the phone feel fast and fluid.
Oneplus makes some bold claims about the device’s battery – not in terms of how long it lasts, but in how fast it charges. A fully-dead phone can be at 100% capacity in just 45 minutes, which might be a game-changer for some.
Much has been made of Oneplus’s partnership with Swedish camera giant Hasselblad, and the 9 series show off the first fruits of that tie-up.
It’s fair to say the results are somewhat underwhelming at first glance – Hasselblad’s only real involvement in the phones’ cameras has been to assist with tweaking the colour settings, as well as allowing Hasselblad branding on the phones’ camera units. And according to all reports, while the cameras can produce nice photos, they’re not up to the standard you can get from a Samsung S21 or iphone 12.
Let’s hope the Hasselblad tie-up brings much more in future – Oneplus says it will.
The design of the 9 Pro is very reminiscent of the S21, in fact, but offers sound quality and a great screen with a variable refresh rate to save on juice.
The big draw, of course, is the price – coming in at £829 the Pro is a lot cheaper than the flagship phones from Samsung and Apple.
ONEPLUS 9
The standard 6.55in 9 series phone starts at £200 less than the Pro, but doesn’t seem to lose £200 of features.
There’s no telephoto lens on the camera unit, and the main camera doesn’t offer any kind of stabilisation. But the super-fast charging, great build-quality and fast performance are all there, as are the striking good looks.
ONEPLUS WATCH
The first watch from Oneplus does all the usual stuff – tracks workouts and activity, as well as sleep.
What’s special about it is that Oneplus is calming that its battery lasts up to two weeks on a single charge, and takes only 20 minutes to recharge from dead to 100%.
These are very bold claims and it will be interesting to see how they stack up when the device hits the market.
The only drawback to the Watch seems like its size – it’s a big watch at 46mm across, which may not work for everybody.
The pricing of the Watch is predictably Oneplus – just £149.
■ Both the Oneplus 9 and 9 Pro can be ordered now for delivery on April 2. Orders for the Oneplus Watch will open “soon” for an April 26 release date