Replaced a Google pixel 6 (tons of connectivity problems) with this OnePlus 9 pro, and hallelujah this android actually works! Speed, good layout, pretty good camera, reliablility, all make it a winner. For some reason I don't understand the battery drains quickly. But the lightening charger that is included recharges incredibly quickly too. So far everything works perfectly.

The build quality is solid, and premium feeling in the hand. It has some weight to it, but is still less than say an iPad Mini.

Performance wise, I have been able to play some Guitar Hero 3 for Wii (using the right adapters of course) in Dolphin - surprisingly solid performance and now capable of jamming while on the road. Standard mobile games and most applications will not stretch the specs on this one, but emulators definitely will. I have paired this with an amazingly thin case and the Razer Kishi controller for the ultimate emulation and streaming beast on the go.

My choice came down to price, as I was originally going to go with the Sony Xperia 1 III. That choice also lost me some options in the process such as the awesome 3.5mm jack and DAC combo, and the micro SD slot (I have multiple ranging from 128GB to 1TB for storage away from my server (away from civilization)). Sony is the only top end option for those points but at nearly double the price that I bought the OnePlus 9 Pro at. 256GB of storage will be a little thin for my uses but I can manage.

TL;DR - for the price, this is the best top-end phone of 2021. Emulation, photography, and overall performance and longevity make this one hard to beat.

They are selling Chinese versions as US versions! Check your RAM you should have 12gb that is US version. If you only have 8gb you have a Chinese version which will work with most carriers in US so it can fool a person. The US version should work with all carriers so if your having issue with it working and can't figure out you prob have Chinese. ..ALSO if you use the Alexa app or smart devices connected to Alexa DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE either version. One plus did an update that now Alexa app will not open just freezes and crashes. Been this way for 2 months now. Amazon rep tried to figure it out with me for about an hour. I've tried numerous different things including factory dam reset and nothing. It's an update one plus did it's a problem talked about on there forums by phone owners and one plus will not acknowledge it.

This is a fabulous phone, and why it gets 5 stars. Scren is great. Fingerprint and face unlock is great. Super fast on 5G. I'm very happy now that I have gotten it to work.

But a couple of warnings:

If you are a Sprint customer who thinks you are a T-Mobile customer, you are NOT! You are still on the Sprint telecommunications network, even though you are able to also use the T-Mobile towers. This phone, no matter what you do, WILL NOT ACTIVATE on the Sprint network. Not even in any kind compatibility mode. Sprint's activation and registration software and systems identifies this phone as a FOREIGN device and there is NO WAY to activate the IMEI number range this phone has been assigned on the Sprint network. Don't waste your time trying! I tried 3 different ways. Not happening!

The only way I could get the phone to activate was to open up a T-Mobile account and transfer my number over. If you are a single phone line Sprint customer and do not have any balance owed on your
phone, this is an easy thing to do. And you should do it. The phone activates instantly on the T-Mobile network.

But if you have any balance on your Sprint account for any of your active lines, you will need to pay all of those balances off to zero them before you can move over to T-Mobile. Again, another wonderful side affect of the Sprint and T-Mobile accounting systems not yet being compatible.

Again, if you have been a Sprint customer, you are not yet a T-Mobile customer. Not until you have switched your account. At this point, this has to be done by you. And can not be done if you still have outstanding balances (lease, payments) for your phone on Sprint. T-Mobile is not doing this automatically yet. The Sprint phone support I talked to said that there may be some work starting offering deals to get Sprint customers converted over the holidays. So look for that.

Lastly, two days after I bought the phone, Amazon lowered the price by $100. I chatted with the Amazon Customer support team to see if I could get a refund of the difference in prices. Again, NOT HAPPENING! It's not in Amazon's customer service policy to refund differences in prices for your purchases when they happen in just a 2 day period. I could understand a longer duration, like 5 or more days. But TWO DAYS? Really? I have had experience with a large number of brick-and-mortor retailers that would happily refund the difference in purchase price when an items prices are reduced shortly after purchase. So, be warned that Amazon does not have a customer service policy like this and seems to not have any way to offer a customer pleasing exemption.

I guess I could take some comfort in the idea that my non-refunded $100 could go towards more rocket fuel for Jeff Bazos' next trip into space.

I got this after using multiple Samsung and Google phones, all of which had their own issues. After using it for some time, here are my impressions with both good and not so good parts.

Good parts:

- The build quality is good, the phone feels great in hand and has some weight to it, unlike phones like Google Pixel 5 which feels like a cheap toy. You can also watch video by JerryRigEverything, this phone does not bend easily with very strong frame.

- The display quality is good, especially pixel density, which is 525 ppi. I have tried phones with lower pixel density such as Pixel 5, they're ok if your vision is good but if you have nearsightedness and have to use phone close to your face you will easily notice individual pixels on phones with lower pixel density. On OnePlus 9 Pro you will not have this issue.

- The OS is better than on Samsung phones. It is close to stock, there is no bloat like on Samsung phones, many apps can be uninstalled except apps like Gallery or Netflix. It is close to Pixel phone OS, except the launcher on OnePlus is better than Google's own launcher because you can do more customizations like remove Google search bar (I don't use it) or remove stock widget from home screen (you can't do this on Pixel phones unless you will use different launcher) or do more customizations in terms of adding different icons or changing colors. OnePlus also uses stock Google dialer and messages apps, they are much better than Samsung's apps because they filter spam much better and Google's dialer has integrated visual voicemail (this feature depends on your provider, it works on Verizon but might not work with some other provider) and Google's messages app has support for RCS messaging which you can enable even if your carrier does not want to. You can also customize features such as adding black bar on top of display to hide front camera, something that Samsung used to allow but then they disabled this feature in One UI 3. The OnePlus launcher also looks better from visual point of view compared to Samsung's One UI - Samsung really overdid "rounded corners" on every pop-up message box and every menu in their phones, I really dislike it. OnePlus launcher has much less pronounced "rounded corners" in menus and message boxes which look better and hopefully something that OnePlus will never change.

- The fingerprint reader works good for me, much more reliable than what I have seen on Samsung phones with their under display fingerprint readers. Just be aware that third-party screen protectors may interfere with it.

- The cameras produce good photo quality, especially after latest updates. Initially the photo quality was pretty poor as you can see from all old reviews, but OnePlus has released many updates which increased the photo quality to good levels. It's still not as good as on Pixel phones but very close and with more updates will probably get even better.

- The battery life is good after all recent updates. Both the standby and use time with display on are pretty good and better than similar models from Samsung. This will probably get even better with more updates by OnePlus.

Not so good parts:

- The phone is pretty expensive, especially without good trade-in programs. You can find Galaxy S21+ for cheaper price, especially with great trade-in program that Samsung offers.

- The phone still has some software bugs which are not fixed, such as bugs with bluetooth which affects some people or bugs with automatic brightness adjustment. All of those will probably fixed with future updates but the phone should not have been released with those bugs.

- The phone has SnapDragon 888 processor, it is known for high power consumption which creates high heat output. It affected many phones including phones from Samsung and also affected this model. The manufacturers are still trying to adjust this processor's power consumption in their phones, Samsung already does it well but OnePlus has not reached their level yet. You may still see overheat warnings on this model if you live in a warm climate and do things like filming 4k video at high fps. I personally hasn't experienced it but you may find other examples of it. This is something you need to be aware of before buying it.