Hlo Guys, almost three months after its initial launch in china the oneplus 9rt finally made its way to india a few weeks ago weirdly enough it is currently exclusive to these two markets and i am not quite sure when or if it will ever launch globally compared to its predecessor the oneplus 9r the 9rt brings a more powerful snapdragon 888 processor at its core so yes the 9rt is definitely aimed at those who don't want to compromise on performance without spending a lot of money as for pricing it costs 43 000 indian rupees for the 8 by 28 gb variant and 47 000 indian rupees for the 12 256 gb model in india which is roughly 1 percent higher than what it goes for in china i have been using the oneplus 9rt as my primary phone for about two weeks.
Now alongside the xiaomi 110 pro and the galaxy s21 fe so i am also thinking of making some comparison blogs between these devices do let me know in the comments if you would like to see that anyway let me start the review with the things i have absolutely loved about the oneplus 9rt and later i'll be going through the things that might be a deal breaker for some okay the first thing that's great about this phone is the performance but it's not just because of the flagship snapdragon 888 chipset and all the other high-end stuff to go with it more importantly oneplus has optimized the thermal design on the 9rt we all know that the oneplus 9 pro and even the vanilla oneplus 9 were subject to excessive overheating issues but with the 9rt the company has addressed those concerns to keep things cool under the chassis for this there's a 59 larger vapor chamber than the one on the oneplus 9 pro.
So curious to find out just how effective the new cooling mechanism is like most people i also ran a throttling test at the phone's default out of the box settings and the 9rd cpu throttled to just 90 percent of its max performance in 30 minutes while i am pretty impressed by this result i realized that oxygen os now shares its code base with opus color os and color os by default optimizes performance for better battery and thermal efficiency so in order to ech out the very best performance i had to manually set the phone to the high performance mode but even under this mode the cpu on the 9rt throttled to just 88 of its max performance not bad at all the result was similar in a one hour test as well i believe winter also works as a nice chiller to keep the thermals in check so these numbers could slightly degrade in somewhere but i am petty sure things won't be as bad as with last year's oneplus 9 and 9 pro. Regardless let me also share my experience with normal day to day usage here no matter if the high performance mode is turned on or off you will have no trouble browsing through your social media apps or anything of that sort to date i have never experienced any hiccup or slow down here as expected from such a powerful chipset coupled with a 120 hertz refresh rate and a default dot sampling rate of 300 hertz the whole smartphone experience on the oneplus 9rt is really snappy plus oneplus even lets you bump the touch sampling rate to 600hz while gaming however despite the 8gb ram on my unit i am a little shocked to see the phone suffer from memory management issues it can handle lightweight apps and multitask between them pretty efficiently but if they're joined by some resource heavy apps or games then the equation becomes entirely different and the phone has to relaunch such apps so i hope oneplus fixes this with a software update asap in terms of gaming you can easily play the most taxing titles like kenshin impact at the highest of settings here with motion blur turned off graphics quality set to highest and 60 fps mode turned on the 9rt achieves a 57 fps on average with 97 stability for the first five to eight minutes or so to compare the xiaomi 11 t pro that ships with the same chipset manages just 51 fps on average with 69 stability during the same period as you can see in this graph both phones suffer from stutters every now and then although the 11t pro is comparatively less stable on the other hand the 9rt maintains better gameplay when dialing down the graphics preset to high it is still prone to intermittent stutters after a while into the game but the superior fps stability here is quite noticeable likewise the phone does not heat up beyond 42 degrees celsius even when playing such a graphically demanding game for half an hour straight okay getting to pubg mobile the oneplus 9rt can hit up to ultra hd graphics and ultra frame rates under this you can expect a smooth 4d fps gaming experience with 100 stability for an even smoother 60fps gameplay you can lower the settings to hdr graphics and extreme frame rate where it easily manages a 60fps average with 100 stability games like call of duty mobile don't break a sweat to the oneplus 9rt either at its highest setting the phone gives a stable 60 fps gameplay i also tried out a few 120 fps games on this thing injustice 2 is well labeled with a stable 120 fps while critical ops which is also a 120 fps ready game is restricted to just 60 fps here besides performance the 9rt also brings a higher number of 5g bands last year's oneplus 9 and 9r drew widespread criticism.
Since those flagship tier phones supported just one or two 5g vans but this time around the company has provided a total of eight 5g bands here it still pales in comparison to the competition but this definitely makes the oneplus 9rt a little more future proof okay moving on while people are still arguing about the color os oxygen os merger i don't consider it to be an absolute deal breaker until and unless oxygen os entirely transforms into color os and so far i haven't come across any critical bug that would break the user experience either but i am disappointed to see android 11 at the heart of this 2022 semi-flagship phone given how android 12 has been available for months now plus our unit is still on december 2021 security update while we are almost halfway through february already contrary to this the recently launched galaxy s21 fe and the vivo v23 pro which also fall under the sub 50 000 price bracket in india shipped with android 12 out of the box however the good news is that the oneplus 9 rt is guaranteed to receive three years of major android updates and four years of security badges in terms of looks this phone shares a similar design language with the oneplus 9 series i have it in the nano silver color variant that gives off a premium feeling the moment you hold it in your hands thanks to the compact body and round edges at the back it's also available in hacker black color variant which has a matte finish and a bit of a shimmering effect at the back that looks drop dead stunning anyway the company has included gorilla glass 5 protection on both the front and back of the phone but i will still recommend wrapping it around the case since 9rt's glass finish makes it a that slippery and you probably don't want to water on this class body either moreover despite its near 200 grams weight oneplus has done a pretty good job of balancing the hips so you won't struggle to carry it for a longer period the 9rt also retains the signature oneplus alert slider while the buttons here have nice tactile feedback the haptex is also pretty good with a precise vibration that highlights keystrokes and button presses for a pleasing response unfortunately there is no ip rating of any sort here which is to be expected given how their standard oneplus 9 skipped ib certification except for the t-mobile variant in the us okay getting to the display the 9rt flaunts a 6.62 inches e4 amoled panel with full hd plus resolution as mentioned earlier this is a 120 hertz screen with a 300 hertz dot sampling rate um most of the apps here have been optimized to make full usage of the high refresh rates so scrolling through websites and navigating between the apps is a breeze on this thing then again this is not an ltpo screen like the one on the oneplus 9 pro which means that it can switch between 60 or 120 hertz only nevertheless in the recommended vivid picture profile the display reproduces vibrant colors with excellent contrast levels and is ideal for multimedia consumption speaking of which you can also enjoy hdr content on ott platforms like netflix without any weird issues that you might encounter in cheaper phones plus it is also complemented by dolby atmos powered stereo speaker setup with the main speaker placed on the bottom and the earpiece acting as the secondary speaker unit the audio quality is loud enough and i enjoyed listening to spotify and watching shark tank videos here then again its sound stage is not wide enough 9snd you will notice slightly muffled sound output at max volumes.
Similarly throughout my time with the phone i haven't had any trouble regarding outdoor visibility either this amoled screen also hosts an optical industry fingerprint sensor which is quite fast and accurate still i would have liked it better if it were positioned a bit higher for someone with small hands like mine this sensor position takes some getting used to about the wi-fi oneplus claims that it has a triple antenna system and on my usage its reception was quite good plus the call quality is also pretty decent here okay oneplus biggest complaints in its semi-flagship phones has always been the subpar cameras and that trend seems to be carried down to the 9rt as well it brings a triple camera setup led by a 50 megapixel imx 766 primary sensor with ois which is the same sensor used on the much cheaper oneplus note 2. Accompanying this is a 16 megapixel ultrawide and the gimmicky 2 megapixel macro lens normal daytime images from the 9rt have a boost in contrast and saturation in general i compared its cameras against the xiaomi 11 t pro and as you can see 9rt shots are noticeably 11:06 heavier in contrast while such image processing does look better in a few scenarios photos end up looking relatively dark most of the time on the contrary the 11t pro takes comparatively brighter images along with a bluish hue whereas oneplus has gone with a more warm color science instead switching to the ultrawide lens it's the exact opposite additionally there's not much detail to talk about from either of them and you could say that both phones are not good with wide angle photography when it comes to portraits oneplus 9rt's results are quite soft and hazy compared to the saturated and contrast heavy and also over sharpened images from xiaomi but in general i prefer oneplus output because the ones from xiaomi are just 11:52 too vibrant and sharp which does not 11:55 look good on human subjects plus the 11t 11:57 pro also fails to manage background 12:00 exposure well in many instances 12:02 moving on to nighttime shots the 9rt 12:04 preserves the essence of the night with 12:07 maintained black levels and detail on 12:10 the other hand the 11t pro attempts to 12:12 maintain an equal level of exposure over 12:14 the whole image and lifts details in 12:17 shadows you can also shoot ultra wide 12:19 angle nighttime images from both phones 12:21 where xiaomi's results look somewhat 12:23 muddy and with toned down exposure as 12:26 opposed to 9rd superior sharpness 12:29 with night mode turned on photos have 12:31 better contrast and a more balanced 12:33 exposure on the oneplus 9rt it also 12:36 performs well in terms of flair control 12:38 the narrative is the same with ultra 12:40 white night mode as well in terms of 12:43 selfies well 9rt's results look costly 12:46 with an unnatural red tint and too much 12:48 softness alright getting to the 12:50 videography aspect both phones can 12:52 capture up to 4k 60fps videos here 9rt's 12:56 footages have a better dynamic range 12:58 than the 11t pro but if you're walking 13:01 you will notice the slightest hint of 13:03 jerks every now and then having said 13:05 that xiaomi's 4k 60 fps videos are also 13:08 pretty stable but its color science is 13:11 too lackluster switching to the 1080p 13:14 60fps mode i noticed oneplus bearing 13:17 better stabilization even though the 11t 13:19 pros videos are not that bad either 13:23 all right the selfie videos from the 13:24 oneplus 9rt cap out at just 1080p 30fps 13:27 which is a bummer at this price point 13:30 also the footages lack very good 13:32 exposure control as you can see and the 13:35 field of view is not very wide either i 13:37 have to stretch my hands like this in 13:38 order to get a fuller view of myself um 13:40 apart from that the audio quality from 13:42 the built-in microphone is good 13:45 all in all both the oneplus 9rt and the 13:47 xiaomi 110 pro's cameras are straight up 13:50 average and for a cheaper price you can 13:52 find better camera phones like last 13:54 year's galaxy s20 fe or the new vivo v23 13:58 pro so in this regard i believe oneplus 14:01 could have offered the oneplus 9's 14:03 camera system with hasselblad 14:05 optimization lastly talking about the 14:07 battery the oneplus 9rt has the same 14:10 4500mah cell as the rest of the phones 14:13 in this lineup but this non ltp oh 120 14:16 hertz display and snapdragon 888 combo 14:19 means the phone only delivers an above 14:21 average battery life i was able to go 14:23 from unplugging it in the morning to the 14:25 end of my office hour in the evening 14:27 with still some juice left but if i had 14:30 plans to go out for the night i would 14:32 need to fuel it up again thankfully it 14:35 supports 65 watt fast charging using the 14:38 power adapter provided inside the box 14:40 itself it takes around 35 minutes to 14:42 fully juice up the phone from zero to 14:44 100 14:45 yet unlike the one that shipped with the 14:47 oneplus 9 pro it's not a power delivery 14:50 compatible charger as a result i could 14:53 not use it to charge my laptops or fast 14:55 charge other power delivery compliant 14:57 devices 15:02 wrapping things up after using the 15:04 oneplus 9rt for the past few weeks i 15:08 think despite some shortcomings it is a 15:10 very good option if you're looking for a 15:12 flagship experience at a cheaper price 15:15 here you're getting a fairly premium and 15:17 ergonomic design a superb 120hz amoled 15:21 display and snapdragon 888 chipset with 15:24 improved thermals however if oneplus had 15:27 provided a better camera setup like the 15:29 one on the vanilla oneplus 9 it would 15:32 have been a terrific bargain all around 15:35 likewise if you look at the competition 15:37 we're soon going to see the launch of 15:39 the icon 9 in the indian market which 15:41 should be priced quite similarly to the 15:43 oneplus 9rt 15:44 but it also brings better specs like a 15:47 10 bit display and superior cameras the 15:49 xiaomi 11t pro is another option that 15:52 comes with a cheaper price tag and 15:53 offers equivalent features 15:56 but if you want pure value i would go 15:59 with last year's iq7 legend that's 16:01 currently available at amazon for an 16:04 insane deal so there you have it guys my 16:06 take on the oneplus 9rt i am coming up 16:09 with an in-depth comparison between this 16:11 phone and the xiaomi 11 t pro so make 16:13 sure to subscribe to us till then i am 16:16 prathimadikari and see you soon