OnePlus 9 Pro Teardown: Custom Camera Sensor Revealed! By iFixit

OnePlus always manages to slip some interesting tech into their flagship phones and the OnePlus 9 pro is no exception, while the OnePlus 9 pro is loaded with upgraded features like its 6.7 inch, LPO AMOLED display capable of running anywhere between 1 and 120 hertz. The most notable upgrade is the new camera system developed in cooperation with Swedish camera manufacturer Hasselblad, we'll let the reviewers handle the camera test, though, because today we've got our own job to do. We find out whether OnePlus has made any tweaks to their mediocre repairability design. There is no denying that the OnePlus 9 pro bears a striking resemblance to Samsung's galaxy s21 ultra and that resemblance extends to the opening procedure. The rear panel is glued firmly in place and the 9 pro even shares the ultra's tough adhesive near the camera bump, with the back cover removed, we're faced with a wall of black mid-frame and wireless charging, get upheld in place by uniform Phillips screws, including some hidden ones, one behind the camera's flash and a couple behind white stickers. These aren't moisture sensors, but it sure looks like OnePlus wants to use them as evidence of tampering.

Luckily, they can't void your warranty for that with our mid-frames, dispatched we're on the hunt for the battery connector, which, as always, we try and disconnect as soon as possible, not finding it immediately. We dig right in disconnecting cables and ultimately find that OnePlus has unfortunately run the battery connector underneath the board interconnect cable. Thankfully, it's still disconnectable within the first few disassembly steps just like in the other 5g devices we've seen this year, the OnePlus 9 pro is loaded with 5g antennas that crisscross the phone. We find a large green millimeter wave antenna attached to the motherboard and two more in the sides of the frame. These rectangular green caterpillars allow the OnePlus 9 pro to support both the sub 6 and ultra-fast millimeter wave flavors of 5g.

The main camera system is in our sights, but a sneaky cable prevents us from getting them all the way out. So we decide to make some room by removing the battery. OnePlus has pretty consistently used large pull tabs on their batteries, making their removal slightly easier than some other manufacturers, and thankfully the 9 pro continues that streak. The OnePlus 9 pros massive 4500 William battery is actually two 8.59 watt hour cells. This dual cell design is the secret to OnePlus 65 watt warp charge capabilities with each cell sipping half of the current resulting in faster cooler charging.

Now that the battery is out of the way, the solution to the stuck camera system reveals itself, there's a cable routing bracket glued over the two megapixel monochrome cameras' connector at the bottom of the group, we've got a total of four cameras in the rear-facing group. There's a 48 megapixel main camera, a 50 megapixel ultra-wide, an 8 megapixel telephoto and the runt of the litter, the 2 megapixel monochrome camera. The OnePlus 9 pros main camera sensor is a custom, Sony, mix 789. It's an impressive sensor supporting dual native ISO for less grainy photos and some fancy new HDR technology that allows the sensor to take multiple exposures at once to combine for a HDR image, reducing the need for subjects to hold still in order to get a great HDR shot. Only one more cable to disconnect, and the motherboard is free.

Hidden under this massive thermal paste is the OnePlus 9 pro snapdragon 888 processors, down at the bottom of the phone is our last remaining board and underneath that we find the in-display fingerprint sensor and the display's cable connector. That only leaves us with the huge 6.7 inch LPO AMOLED display, which is firmly glued to the frame, while the OnePlus 9 pro gained some exciting tech. This year, its repairability remains unchanged, just like the pro before it. The OnePlus 9 pro scores, a four out of ten its easily removable battery and relatively modular construction are always great to see, but it's glued on rear panel is a barrier to entry and repair making matters worse. Its display requires a lot of disassembly to access and will be a pain to remove if it breaks thanks to tenacious adhesive and curved edges.

Source : iFixit