OnePlus has just launched the OnePlus 9 series and while the phones come with decidedly flagship specs on paper, what’s really interesting about them (at least to me) is the new Hasselblad-branded camera system. So what is this all about and what does it mean for the camera quality on the OnePlus 9 Pro? We’ll discuss that in this article, so read on.
Before we take a look at the camera performance of the OnePlus 9 Pro and what Hasselblad brings to the table, let’s first find out what Hasselblad is all about.
Naturally, OnePlus couldn’t have used Hasselblad’s lenses or sensors because that would have caused the price of the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro to go up by a considerable margin. However, what OnePlus did here, was in fact partner with Hasselblad to tune its color science for the smartphones.
That means, OnePlus is claiming that photos from the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro will have natural colors, excellent skin tones, and just overall brilliant photos. After all, getting the colors right on a camera is a big deal. What’s more, OnePlus 9 Pro has a new Hasselblad Pro Mode, which lets you shoot pictures in 12-bit RAW to give you even more fine-tuned control over the image when you’re editing your pictures.
To test things out, I took a bunch of photos with the OnePlus 9 Pro, the iPhone 12 Pro, and the Galaxy S21 Plus. I took pictures of people as well as some typical landscape shots, as well as low light images to see how the OnePlus 9 Pro’s pictures compare with other flagship smartphones.
Landscapes
I also tested out some landscape shots without any people in them. You know, photos of trees, buildings and what not. Here too, the OnePlus 9 Pro usually captures more natural looking colors. To be honest, in some cases, I do like the iPhone photo better, just objectively speaking. However, the OnePlus 9 Pro is also capturing more details in the shot. That’s probably more due to the IMX789 sensor here than the Hasselblad color science, but it’s something noteworthy for sure.
Portrait Mode
Low Light
This wasn’t even a one-off thing. In this next picture as well, the OnePlus 9 Pro is just not doing a good enough job of capturing details in low light, even though the colors seem to be pretty accurate.
I’m not entirely certain why the camera on the OnePlus 9 Pro drops so much beneath the standards in low light photos, but it’s definitely a problem. After all, as a flagship smartphone you won’t be mistaken to expect good low light performance from this smartphone. Performance that’s at least at par with the Galaxy S21 Plus and the iPhone 12 Pro. But that’s not the case here at all.
So is the Hasselblad camera on the OnePlus 9 and the OnePlus 9 Pro worth all the hype? And does it bring enough of an improvement to the OnePlus 9 series cameras to make it worthwhile? Well, the answer is both yes and no. The OnePlus 9 Pro does capture photos with excellent colors in regular day time images. However, the phone does lag behind when it comes to low light photos and portrait mode shots.
