OnePlus 9 Pro Could Get An Official Waterproof Rating
OnePlus has a love-hate relationship with the official dust and water resistance rating, better known as IP (Ingress Protection) rating. Although an industry standard and a feature much-touted by other smartphone makers, OnePlus has steered clear out of its way, explaining the unnecessary cost of the certification when its phones are just as dust and water-resistant anyway. That changed earlier this year with at least the OnePlus 8 Pro and it seems that its 2021 successor will likewise be favored by an official IP pair of digits.
An interview with co-founder former exec Carl Pei revealed the costs of getting a phone certified with an IP rating. That cost would inevitably have to trickle down to the smartphone's retail price, something consumers might not be comfortable with. Since OnePlus phones don't magically become less water-resistant with an IP rating, the company found the cost and the certification itself to be unnecessary.
Unfortunately, popular opinion won in the end and the OnePlus 8 Pro became the first to have an official IP rating and an IP68 figure no less. According to MaxJmb, the OnePlus 9 Pro will follow suit when it launches next year. Unfortunately, neither the OnePlus 9 nor the OnePlus 9E will have it.
The tipster also reaffirms the existence of the OnePlus 9E, an unexpected addition to the company's annual lineup. There are still no details for this variant though it wouldn't be surprising if it followed in Samsung's and Apple's footsteps in putting out multiple models for a single phone generation. Samsung has also used the "e" suffix for its more "economical" configuration and it remains to be seen if the OnePlus 9E will be the same.
As for the OnePlus 9 Pro itself, details are just as scant, though there is no shortage of renders claiming to be the phone's design. One particularly curious aspect of that design are the two camera lenses that protrude out of an already large camera bump, giving the OnePlus 9 Pro an admittedly unique but probably impractical appearance.