OnePlus 9 range might disappoint camera zoom fans

No periscope in sight

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One of the major camera upgrades we’ve started seeing on phones is a move to periscope lenses, which can typically zoom a lot further than conventional telephoto ones. But it looks like theOnePlus 9and OnePlus 9 Pro probably won’t include a periscope camera.

That’s according toMax Jambor(a leaker with a reasonable track record) who said as much in a Tweet.

While we’d always take leaks with a pinch of salt, this isn’t the first time the lack of a periscope camera has been rumored. Plus, we’ve seenunofficial rendersof both the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro, and in neither case did they look to include a periscope camera (which typically has a square-looking lens).

If you want to know if the 9 or 9 Pro have a periscope cam: they do not have one https://t.co/Aewn1uK8h2January 25, 2021

This doesn’t mean the OnePlus 9 range won’t offer optical zoom – it’s likely that the OnePlus 9 Pro at the very least will probably have a telephoto camera, given that previous Pro models do (though the standard OnePlus 9 might not). But it does mean the optical zoom range will probably be less than if it had a periscope.

For example, while the telephoto camera on theOnePlus 8 Prosports 3x optical zoom, the periscope camera on theSamsung Galaxy S21 Ultraallows for 10x optical zoom. So if you want to zoom in to distant objects the OnePlus 9 range might not be for you – though these phones will also almost certainly undercutSamsung’s top flagship in terms of price.

But we won’t be certain of anything about the OnePlus 9 range until OnePlus itself confirms the details, which handily it probably will do before too long, as based on past form we’d expect the new models to land in April or May – and probably be extensively teased ahead of that.

ViaGSMArena

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James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.

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