Yesterday’s OnePlus event covered the high-end 9 and 9 Pro, but out of the spotlight, the company quietly unveiled a cheaper model with smart specs: the OnePlus 9R. CEO Pete Lau confirmed last week that the 9R was on its way and would be launched in India. It is now listed on the company’s Indian website starting at $ 39,999, which equates to about $ 550. This is a really attractive price, especially considering that you will have a useful camera feature here that the $ OnePlus 9 729 does not have: optical image stabilization.
The 9R does not include Hasselblad cameras on the 9 and 9 Pro, which is not really a big loss. The 9 and 9 Pro offer the latest hardware with features like larger pixels and ultra-high resolution, so you miss out on some interesting updates, but the color adjustment developed by Hasselblad is nothing special. However, you get a stabilized main camera of 48 megapixels, which helps to reduce the blur caused by camera movement in low light conditions. Unfortunately, it is missing from the 9, although it is included in the $ 969 OnePlus 9 Pro.
Other cameras on the 9R include a 16 megapixel ultra-wide, a 5 megapixel macro and a 2 megapixel monochrome sensor. This system is borrowed from the OnePlus 8T, which is fully capable of good image quality, although its macro and monochrome cameras are not very useful.
There is a 6.55-inch 1080p OLED with a fast refresh rate of 120 Hz – just like the OnePlus 9 – and a Snapdragon 870 processor with 8 GB or 12 GB of RAM. It’s not as powerful as the top-notch 888 processor on the 9 and 9 Pro, but it should be more than adequate to keep day-to-day tasks running quickly and smoothly. The 9R is equipped with a 4,500 mAh battery with fast charging with 65 W wire, an exclusive feature of the OnePlus that provides a full charge in less than 40 minutes. Wireless charging, however, is not offered. Oh, and there is 5G support, of course.
Altogether, it looks like a series of smart exchanges for almost $ 200 less than the main model. At the moment, the launch of the phone is confirmed only in India, but we hope that it will reach the European and North American markets. Although the OnePlus brought its good $ 300 Nord N10 5G to the US earlier this year, the Nord midrange never made it to the United States. The 9R looks like an excellent candidate to bridge a wide gap between the N10 budget and the basic main model.
Meanwhile, customers in India can pre-order the 8 GB RAM / 128 GB version for $ 39,999 (~ $ 550) or the 12 GB RAM / 256 GB model for $ 43,999 (~ $ 600).