Oneplus 9 for 550€! Is it worth it?

[MathiasS]

Hello everyone,

I'm writing this message from my 2017 or 2016 Huawei P10 light and I finally want to upgrade my phone. I have been looking at One Plus phones for a long time. Especially because of the Software and good looks. Now in Austria there are shops that sell the Oneplus 9 "non pro" for 550€ (650USD/819CAD). Would you buy it? I'm a bit spoiled because of all the tech reviews I watch but I think it'll be a huge upgrade for me. Or maybe there are other phones that are better for the price?

[jaslion]

What do you need in a phone? The one plus 9 base for 550 is just ok really.

 

If all you do is some browsing, social media, a random mobile game,... just get the galaxy a52 it's a great phone for around 300€ and you really don't need more. If you want a better camera and such go for the pixel 5a. Both phones are more fully featured too than the one plus 9 so that is a good bonus.

[MathiasS]

17 hours ago, huilun02 said:

Would not buy it. Would not buy anything else either. Because I'm not looking to buy a phone.

 

Is it at a great price for what it offers? Well it depends what else is available in your country and at what price. I am not in or from Europe.

 

Is there something cheaper that is as good as the OP9? Well I don't know. All I can say is what it has...

• Snapdragon 888
• 5G capability
• 120Hz OLED screen, max 1,100 nits
• Base model has 128GB internal UFS 3.1
• Base model has 8GB RAM
• 65W charging
• Wireless charging

What you want in a phone and how much you are willing to spend, is for you to decide.

Hey,

thanks for awnsering! It looks a lot like a good price for the phone itself because it started at 700€. I am willing to spend around 500-600€ but the OP9 seems to be the best deal here. The Xiaomi Mi11 is more expensive, the Samsung a72 doesn't offer the specs and the camera quality that the oneplus does. Kinda hard to decide...

[MathiasS]

21 hours ago, jaslion said:

What do you need in a phone? The one plus 9 base for 550 is just ok really.

 

If all you do is some browsing, social media, a random mobile game,... just get the galaxy a52 it's a great phone for around 300€ and you really don't need more. If you want a better camera and such go for the pixel 5a. Both phones are more fully featured too than the one plus 9 so that is a good bonus.

Hey,

thank you for awnsering!

The thing with those two is the lack of of premium "future proofing" features (though I heard OnePlus doesn't care that much about updates) like the Snapdragon 888 or more RAM. I was going to go wait for the Pixel 6 but that's supposed to cost around 999€ and that's too much for me. Xiaomi also has nice phones but the Mi11 for example is 700€ and that is, for me at least, a bit high.

[jaslion]

4 hours ago, MathiasS said:

Hey,

thank you for awnsering!

The thing with those two is the lack of of premium "future proofing" features (though I heard OnePlus doesn't care that much about updates) like the Snapdragon 888 or more RAM. I was going to go wait for the Pixel 6 but that's supposed to cost around 999€ and that's too much for me. Xiaomi also has nice phones but the Mi11 for example is 700€ and that is, for me at least, a bit high.

The thing is with phones don't future proof. Just do not. The battery will be long ruined before even a solid mid range phone becomes too slow. I can safely say that current mid level processors are plenty powerful for almost everyone.

 

Phones nowadays are meant to last 2-3 years and they are built that way you notice. Yeah you can totally use them longer but the batteries ESPECIALLY when using fast charging are ruined at year 2 usually.

 

Hence why I just suggest you get a good phone instead of a premium phone. They'll both become unusable at the same time with battery issues anyway. The premium ones faster usually due to the more intensive fast charging tech they use.

 

An easy way to avoid overstressing the battery is to just use a weak charger like a 5v 1-2a one. At 2A it still charges fast but doesn't cook the battery.

[MathiasS]

9 hours ago, huilun02 said:

Let's do a sanity check...

 

Are you looking to replace your 2017/2016 P10 Lite due to battery or performance/ feature concerns?

 

Do you think that the premium features will have an effect on your experience? Things like...

 

A really bright 120Hz screen

More RAM to hold apps for rapid switching before having to load off storage which is slower and less efficient

Really fast storage that is more resilient against slowdown as more flash storage is occupied

The whe experience starts is laggy, I can't use LTE anymore and the charging port is fucked up (only 90% my fault).

More RAM, a good Camera and a smooth experience are the things that I want, maybe good materials but I'll use a case anyways so that's not super important. The thing is a lot of phones do more than that for a higher price or less for a lower but there doesn't seem to be a phone that's doing exactly that, or at least I could'nd find one.

[MathiasS]

10 hours ago, jaslion said:

The thing is with phones don't future proof. Just do not. The battery will be long ruined before even a solid mid range phone becomes too slow. I can safely say that current mid level processors are plenty powerful for almost everyone.

 

Phones nowadays are meant to last 2-3 years and they are built that way you notice. Yeah you can totally use them longer but the batteries ESPECIALLY when using fast charging are ruined at year 2 usually.

 

Hence why I just suggest you get a good phone instead of a premium phone. They'll both become unusable at the same time with battery issues anyway. The premium ones faster usually due to the more intensive fast charging tech they use.

 

An easy way to avoid overstressing the battery is to just use a weak charger like a 5v 1-2a one. At 2A it still charges fast but doesn't cook the battery.

So older phones are definitely the way to go if I understand and if possible also not super fast charging. Makes sense I think. A big battery would be cool, maybe I have to look into Motorola phones but the cameras are not that great.....

[jaslion]

9 hours ago, MathiasS said:

So older phones are definitely the way to go if I understand and if possible also not super fast charging. Makes sense I think. A big battery would be cool, maybe I have to look into Motorola phones but the cameras are not that great.....

I'm not saying get an older phone. I'm saying get a mid range current gen phone that you don't spend too much money on like a samsung a52 that is at most 350 and call it a day. Then when the battery becomes to degraded it isn't the painful of a bandaid to rip off and get a new one.

 

I've been running this strategy together with some friends and we end up with great phones for a good price that last a good whilst and basically become a 100€ a year cost so to say. Then at the end of the cycle we get new ones and sell the old ones on for about 100-150€ and there we go again.

 

I am an outlier tho since I kept my one plus going for about 5 years but had to replace it with a g5 someone left behind after fixing it (was older by then and basically a mid range phone when I picked it up) when my sim slot broke. Then switched to the original google pixel for a bit after that was left behind too with a new battery. That one I gave away and got a xiaomi mi 9t which I've been running ever since.

 

I'll ride that out even tho the screen has a nice crack in it due to a bike accident but I didn't really mind since it only cost me 200 ish something and it still works fine. The battery is finally starting to degrade a little bit after having it for 2 years and just using a regular charger but I still go 3 days with it without a sweat and it still runs great since it's cpu is fast even if it's "just" a snapdragon 710 and it doesn't struggle doing anything I throw at it.

 

My next replacement will most likely be the 5a when it is about to be replaced as they tend to drop in price by about 40% usually then and that is pretty nice. As the 4a in july this year got as low as 210€ and a fair few people bought it then.

[MathiasS]

3 hours ago, jaslion said:

I'm not saying get an older phone. I'm saying get a mid range current gen phone that you don't spend too much money on like a samsung a52 that is at most 350 and call it a day. Then when the battery becomes to degraded it isn't the painful of a bandaid to rip off and get a new one.

 

I've been running this strategy together with some friends and we end up with great phones for a good price that last a good whilst and basically become a 100€ a year cost so to say. Then at the end of the cycle we get new ones and sell the old ones on for about 100-150€ and there we go again.

 

I am an outlier tho since I kept my one plus going for about 5 years but had to replace it with a g5 someone left behind after fixing it (was older by then and basically a mid range phone when I picked it up) when my sim slot broke. Then switched to the original google pixel for a bit after that was left behind too with a new battery. That one I gave away and got a xiaomi mi 9t which I've been running ever since.

 

I'll ride that out even tho the screen has a nice crack in it due to a bike accident but I didn't really mind since it only cost me 200 ish something and it still works fine. The battery is finally starting to degrade a little bit after having it for 2 years and just using a regular charger but I still go 3 days with it without a sweat and it still runs great since it's cpu is fast even if it's "just" a snapdragon 710 and it doesn't struggle doing anything I throw at it.

 

My next replacement will most likely be the 5a when it is about to be replaced as they tend to drop in price by about 40% usually then and that is pretty nice. As the 4a in july this year got as low as 210€ and a fair few people bought it then.

Ok I think I get you now.

It's probably going to be Pixel 5a or 5 as well, Software updates and stuff...

 

3 days of battery is siiiick, I have to charge 3 times a day with light use lol

[jaslion]

33 minutes ago, MathiasS said:

Ok I think I get you now.

It's probably going to be Pixel 5a or 5 as well, Software updates and stuff...

 

3 days of battery is siiiick, I have to charge 3 times a day with light use lol

The 5 is a worse version of the 5a so don't get that. I'd say get the a52 if you want a phone now it's a excellent device and you will miss out on nothing+it has 4.5years of android support left.