In keeping with their release cycle and the OnePlus 9 release cycle and they’ve finally confirmed, March 23rd (24th here in Australia) is the global launch date. As part of the announcement, OnePlus has confirmed at US$150 million investment in camera technology over three years in a new partnership with Hasselblad.
While the official announcement tells us very little about the upcoming device, Founder and CEO Peter Lau commented on the new partnership:
OnePlus has always prioritized a premium user experience over everything else. Beginning in
2021, we are making a concerted effort to significantly improve the smartphone camera
experience for our users, with the expertise of a truly legendary partner in Hasselblad. With OnePlus’ top-of-the-line hardware and computational photography and Hasselblad’s rich aesthetic knowledge in traditional photography, I am confident that the OnePlus 9 Series will be a major leap forward in our ability to deliver a premium, flagship camera.
OnePlus have delivered multiple phones with excellent capabilities across the board, so that’s a big talking point on the camera. Reading between the lines, OnePlus believe that with the new partnership they can take on the likes of Samsung and Huawei for the camera crown in 2021. In the short term, this will be through software improvements including colour tuning and sensor calibration. Longer-term, given the investment from OnePlus financially, the sky is the limit.
We’re excited to see more about the device when it launches, if you are: You can watch the OnePlus 9 Series global launch event will be streamed online on March 23 at 10:00 AM ET (1am AEST, March 24th) at https://www.oneplus.com/launch.
