OnePlus 9RT Review: Key Features, Specifications and Price

Android Phone, Tech Gadgets Review, Technology

OnePlus built its brand on low-cost flagships, and even though it has moved up to the top of the premium market, it hasn’t given up on the low-cost market entirely. After the Nord series took over the mid-range market, OnePlus released the R series last year. As a follow-up to the OnePlus 9R, the OnePlus 9RT came out early this year. It was the first smartphone made by OnePlus to come out this year. At the time, there was a lot of controversy about the company’s plans to merge with its parent brand, Oppo. The good news is that the phone still has the charm of old OnePlus phones, and with a few smart additions, it becomes a great smartphone for aspiring gamers and power users.

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I’ve been using the OnePlus 9RT as my main phone for a while now. This is a long-term review of the budget flagship, written after the release of the OnePlus 10 Pro and before India auctions off the 5G spectrum. The phone is still pretty useful because it has a Snapdragon 888 chip inside that makes it stable, fast, and smooth, but its cameras leave a lot to be desired. In its defense, the OnePlus 9RT isn’t exactly a top-of-the-line camera phone because it has the same parts as other high-end phones. It’s made for speed, especially in games, and four months after it came out, it’s still a good choice there.

OnePlus 9RT Review and Full Phone Specifications

Design

The OnePlus 9RT is more like the OnePlus 9 than the OnePlus 9R. This is because the camera module on the OnePlus 9RT has been changed. The back of the unit we looked at was matte black and glittered with small pieces. It looks nice and feels smooth in your hand, which almost makes you want to use it without a case. Even though both the front and back are made of Gorilla Glass 5, it’s a risky move. Good thing you get a matching rubber case with raised rails and a grippier finish right in the box. For a long time I used the phone, I did drop it a few times, but thank goodness nothing was broken.

There are also other things that are common to OnePlus phones. It has stereo speakers, a slider for setting an alert, power and volume buttons on opposite ends, and a hole-punch camera for taking selfies. This one is a smartphone with flat-screen and small bezels on the sides, top, and bottom. The in-screen fingerprint sensor is now much lower on the screen than it was on the OnePlus 9R, which makes it much easier to reach and unlock.
The phone comes in a tall, red box with the Warp Charge 65T charger, USB-A to USB-C cable, manuals, and other paperwork, and the matte black case. It weighs about 198 grams, but because the weight is spread out evenly, it doesn’t feel too heavy in the hand. The phone looks a lot classier now that the camera module has been redesigned. In fact, it’s one of the best-designed OnePlus phones I’ve seen in a long time.

Display

OnePlus 9RT Review — Photo Credit: moneycontrol.com

The OnePlus 9RT has a 6.65-inch AMOLED screen with a 1080p resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. It’s basically the same screen as the OnePlus 9R, but it responds to touch faster, which is helpful for gaming. This isn’t the LTPO panel you get in the Pro series, so the refresh rate won’t change on the fly as it does in those. The refresh rate stays at 120Hz, which may cause the battery to run down faster, but on the other hand, it keeps the experience the same all the time.

The OLED panel is a pretty good display, with high color saturation and sharpness. If you look at a white background, there is a slight blue bias, but you wouldn’t really notice it. But the peak brightness could have been a little higher to make it easier to read in the sun.
The sound quality is pretty good, and the stereo speakers are just a little bit louder than they were before. You get a good separation between the channels, which is helpful for gaming, and it’s usually loud enough to watch YouTube videos while the ceiling fan is running.

Performance

The Snapdragon 888 is a big change from the OnePlus 9R. It’s under the hood. Last year’s OnePlus 9R had a Snapdragon 870 that was based on the Snapdragon 865, so it’s expected that the 9RT will be faster than its predecessor. It’s also impressive that OnePlus is keeping the Snapdragon 888 from getting too hot by using a larger vapor chamber cooling system. There are up to 8 5G bands and three Wi-Fi antennas. The Wi-Fi antennas are more useful in this case, especially when gaming in landscape mode, where you would normally cover the antennas with your palms. In this case, there is an extra third antenna on the side that doesn’t get blocked and keeps the connection going.

The sad part is that the OnePlus 9RT, which came out in 2022, still uses OxygenOS 11.3, which is based on Android 11. Even after four months, there’s still no sign of Android 12 on this phone. That could be a good thing for longtime OnePlus users who are used to the OxygenOS experience, since the codebase has been merged with Oppo’s ColorOS as of Android 12, and the user interface has changed in a lot of ways that may not be familiar to them. The 9RT’s user interface (UI) has almost no bloatware, and the animations are smooth and quick, making it seem like it can be used quickly.

The OnePlus 9RT feels fast from the moment you unlock it, just like all OnePlus flagships, whether they are expensive or not. The fingerprint sensor is easy to use and takes you straight to the home screen. Face Recognition works faster than the fingerprint sensor, so you probably won’t use it very often. There’s no lag when switching between apps, and apps open almost immediately. Even with a few apps running in the background, it didn’t get too slow or sluggish.

Games like COD: Mobile, BGMI, and PUBG: New State worked perfectly on this phone, which is made for gaming. The high touch response rate (almost 600Hz in some games) and haptic feedback made it fun to play online games on this. Even after a long session, it didn’t get very warm, which is good news for the power-hungry Snapdragon 888.

OnePlus 9RT Specifications and Prices

NETWORK	Technology	GSM / CDMA / HSPA / EVDO / LTE / 5G

LAUNCH	Announced	2021, October 13
LAUNCH	Status	Available. Released 2021, October 19

BODY	Dimensions	162.2 x 74.6 x 8.3 mm (6.39 x 2.94 x 0.33 in)
	Weight	198.5 g (7.02 oz)
	Build	Glass front (Gorilla Glass 5), glass back (Gorilla Glass 5), aluminum frame
	SIM	Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)

DISPLAY	Type	AMOLED, 120Hz, HDR10+
	Size	6.62 inches, 106.3 cm² (~87.9% screen-to-body ratio)
	Resolution	1080 x 2400 pixels, 20:9 ratio (~397 ppi density)
	Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass 5
		Always-on display

PLATFORM	OS	Android 11, ColorOS 12
	Chipset	Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888 5G (5 nm)
	CPU	Octa-core (1×2.84 GHz Cortex-X1 & 3×2.42 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4×1.80 GHz Cortex-A55)
	GPU	Adreno 660

MEMORY	Card slot	No
	Internal	128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM
		UFS 3.1

MAIN CAMERA	Quad	50 MP, f/1.8, 24mm (wide), 1/1.56”, 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS 16 MP, f/2.2, 14mm, 123˚ (ultrawide), 1/3.6″, 1.0µm 2 MP, f/2.4, (macro)
	Features	Dual-LED flash, HDR, panorama
	Video	4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/240fps, Auto HDR, gyro-EIS

SELFIE CAMERA	Single	16 MP, f/2.4, (wide), 1/3.06″, 1.0µm
	Features	Auto-HDR
	Video	1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS

SOUND	Loudspeaker	Yes, with stereo speakers
	3.5mm jack	No

COMMS	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
	Bluetooth	5.2, A2DP, LE
	GPS	Yes, with dual-band A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO
	NFC	Yes
	Radio	No
	USB	USB Type-C 2.0, USB On-The-Go

FEATURES	Sensors	Fingerprint (under display, optical), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass

BATTERY	Type	Li-Po 4500 mAh, non-removable
	Charging	Fast charging 65W, 100% in 29 min (advertised)

MISC	Colors	Hacker Black, Nano Silver, Blue
	Models	MT2110, MT2111
	Price	$ 379.00 / ₹ 36,669

Source: GSMarena

Cameras

The OnePlus 9RT has a 50MP main camera with a Sony IMX766 sensor, a 16MP ultra-wide-angle camera, and a 2MP depth camera on the back. This is a little better than the 48MP main sensor on the other phones in the OnePlus 9 series. On the front of the phone is a 16MP selfie camera with a Sony IMX 471 sensor, which is another thing that all of the OnePlus 9 phones have in common. Overall, the OnePlus 9RT isn’t much different from the other phones in the OnePlus 9 series.

When it comes to taking pictures with the back camera, the OnePlus 9RT is a mixed bag when it comes to the details. But it’s very clear, which is something it does very well. Whether it’s dark inside or bright outside, the phone’s camera captures every detail of the subject with great accuracy. When you zoom in on an image or take a picture with the macro camera, you can see how many details the phone is able to capture, which is pretty amazing. But it has both good and bad parts. It tends to take pictures of shadows in the same way, especially when there is enough light.

In low light and indoors, the OnePlus 9RT tends to make the colors a little more vivid. This makes things look a little more dramatic and staged than what we’ve seen in older OnePlus models.

This is also true of the selfie camera. When pictures are taken outside in bright light, they have depth and clarity. But the phone tends to fail in both of these ways when there isn’t enough light or when you’re inside. Even though the colors are still accurate.

Battery

The OnePlus 9RT has a 4500mAh battery, which is more than enough to last a day with normal use. I used my phone for about 6-7 hours with the screen on, which is pretty good for a Snapdragon 888 phone. The battery will die faster if you use your phone a lot, like by scrolling through Instagram or playing games, but the 65W Warp Charger is very helpful. It can go from 0 to 100 in 30 minutes, which is almost as fast as some of these 120W fast-charging smartphones.

Final verdict

A lot of the features and ideas that made OnePlus popular are still in the OnePlus 9RT. It’s a top-of-the-line performance device that’s made for speed and games. You get a reliable screen, a long-lasting battery, and a camera that works well enough. It’s a better deal than both the OnePlus 9R and the OnePlus 9, but it’s a bit late to the party. By February, you could buy things like the iQOO 9 SE, the Mi 11T Pro, and, most recently, the Realme GT 2 Pro, all of which had Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processors and cost around Rs. 49,999. So, even though there are a lot of choices, buy the OnePlus 9RT just for that old-school OnePlus charm.