OnePlus 9 Vs OnePlus 8 | What’s The Difference and, Should You Upgrade?

The OnePlus 8 smartphone was very well appreciated by the tech community and was quite a successful smartphone from OnePlus. And now that we have a successor by OnePlus, the latest OnePlus 9 series offers a  couple of changes and upgrades in the performance, design, and camera optics.

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While the latest OnePlus 9 Series does offer a few upgrades over the previous year’s model, it still remains a question if users should upgrade to the latest OnePlus 9 Series or continue to use the existing OnePlus 8 smartphone. This article helps you understand the key changes and here’s our take on OnePlus 9 vs OnePlus 8.

Hardware Specifications: OnePlus 9 Vs OnePlus 8

Without having both the smartphones side-by-side, it is difficult to tell what are the major changes in the two smartphones as both the devices look quite similar on the front. The major difference lies in the new flagship processor and a new camera setup in partnership with Hasselblad.

The Snapdragon 865 on the OnePlus 8 is quite powerful and compared to the Snapdragon 888 on OnePlus 9, you won’t see much difference in performance as both are flagship processors.

The upgraded storage and Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 might not make a bigger difference in performance but when combined with a slightly faster 120Hz refresh rate display on the OnePlus 9 makes it look faster.

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The OnePlus 9 makes a move to a completely flat design and this is the biggest hardware change you will notice, the curves on the OnePlus 8 doesn’t look bad but it does make finding a good screen protector a major hassle.

Software: OnePlus 9 Vs OnePlus 8

The OnePlus brand is well known for the consistent software updates they have provided for at least three years on all the existing devices. While this is going to be true for both, the OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 9. The OnePlus 8 was launched with Android 10 while the OnePlus 9 was shipped with Android 11. But both of these are now running on Android 11 and the software update cycle is going quite well for both devices.

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This means that the OnePlus 8 software updates will be supported up to Android 13, the OnePlus 9 software updates will be supported up to Android 14. OnePlus has been pretty good with the software updates over the past, while the speed of the updates might have slowed down a bit, but they do arrive. And in terms of overall software, there is not much of a difference as both are running on Oxygen OS and offer similar software features.

Also Read: OnePlus 9 Review

Battery: OnePlus 9 Vs OnePlus 8

The OnePlus 8 features a 4300 mAh of battery, while the OnePlus 9 packs a 4500 mAh battery. While there is only a modest 200mAh difference in the battery size of the two devices, the more important change is the charging speed. This minor upgrade also brings in a few key improvements and a long-overdue battery charging tech upgrade.

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The charging speed on the latest OnePlus 9 smartphone has been bumped up from 30W to 65W all thanks to the dual-cell battery design that allows the device to take on twice as much charge as before and offers a massive boost in the charging speed.

Cameras: OnePlus 9 Vs OnePlus 8

The camera sensors have taken a big step up in the OnePlus 9 series, while the predecessor comes with a 48MP camera as the main sensor, it was the same old sensor that we had on the OnePlus 7T. The OnePlus 9 smartphone comes with a Hasselblad lens and this ongoing partnership will hopefully result in some of the best smartphone cameras.

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The competition between the two OnePlus smartphones isn’t especially fair given the massive bump with a 50MP ultra-wide lens and an upgraded main camera.

The biggest problem with the OnePlus smartphones in the past was with the camera performance and the post-processing. And the OnePlus 9 now includes Pro Color tuning by Hasselblad and quite a lot more optimizations and massive hardware upgrades have resulted in quite a major upgrade in terms of camera.

Also Read: OnePlus 8 Review

OnePlus 9 vs OnePlus 8 | Should You Upgrade?

As in the case of most smartphone refreshes, the upgrades might not be massive and are more incremental. However, the OnePlus 9 does offer some significant changes and upgrades over the predecessor, the camera optics and the display are two noticeable changes. Also, the increased charging speed is a thankful welcome as it can come in very handy in a lot of situations.

As in the case of any device that is just 1 year old, if you are happy with the OnePlus 8 it might be worth keeping for a little longer, the OnePlus 9 smartphones comes with several big upgrades and if you have an older OnePlus smartphone then it is a very worthy upgrade.

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