OnePlus 9 RT to be launching in October along with OxygenOS 12

OnePlus 9 RT with OxygenOS 12

OnePlus 9 RT: Chinese manufacturer OnePlus launched just one model last year, the OnePlus 8T, over-chewing the OnePlus 8T Pro, and the company is expected to do the same this year. Although there won’t be a OnePlus 9T this time, OnePlus will release something from the numbered flagship series.

In October, OnePlus is expected to unveil the OnePlus 9 RT, based on information I obtained from my insider sources. OnePlus 9R is limited to select markets and comes with modest upgrades over its predecessor. There will be two Nord launches this year, but no new devices aimed at the high-end segment. Numbered flagships are only available on this phone.

As for hardware, the OnePlus 9 RT will have the same 120Hz AMOLED panel as the OnePlus 9R, the same high-binned Snapdragon 870 — it will not possess the Snapdragon 888. It will also have a 4,500mAh, 65W battery.

The phone will feature a 50 MP Sony IMX766 sensor. The same sensor is also featured in the OnePlus 9 and Nord 2 smartphones. In addition to acting as a wide-angle lens, the sensor was also the main sensor on Samsung’s Nord 2, which will also be the case with the OnePlus 9 RT.

Limitations of OnePlus 9 RT

The OnePlus 9 RT will be available in the same markets as the 9R, which is India and China. It makes sense that OnePlus won’t be releasing a numbered flagship this year in Europe and North America, given how it positions itself in these regions.

North American sales of the OnePlus 9 Pro do not even include the base model, indicating the company is increasingly focused on the budget segment. OnePlus offers the Nord 2 in Europe in place of cheap Android phones from Samsung, Mi, and Realme. It is understandable that OnePlus does not want to launch the OnePlus 9 RT in global markets since it essentially undercuts the OnePlus 9.

OnePlus 9 RT Highlights

OnePlus’ OnePlus 9 RT offers an interesting feature because it’s the first OnePlus phone to be preloaded out of the box with OxygenOS 12. The Nord 2 already shows us how colorOS integrated into OxygenOS as part of its OnePlus OxygenOS skin.

OnePlus’ and OPPO’s software implementations are effectively unified by OxygenOS 12, which builds on that. In addition to the OnePlus Launcher and exclusive OnePlus features like Work-Life Balance, Zen Mode, Scout, and Shelf, the skin will emulate ColorOS in a major way.

A few new features have been added to OxygenOS 12 based on an internal build which I have been using for several weeks now. OxygenOS 12 will come with floating windows that function just like ColorOS 11. You will be able to drag and drop windows wherever you like.

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It has been possible to customize accent colors and icons in OxygenOS for some time now, but no theme store was available. The situation will change with OxygenOS 12, which will feature a theme store similar to the one found on ColorOS. OxygenOS 12 also gets a few privacy-focused additions; you can now configure alerts when an app accesses your clipboard contents, and ColorOS’ Private Safe has been ported over. In the safe, you can store photos, videos, and documents with a privacy password.

Private Safe, an extension of OxygenOS’s Hidden Space mode, lets you secure sensitive files and photos and hide apps from the application drawer. Moreover, OxygenOS 11.3 on the Nord 2 comes with newly designed Settings, which feature better menu categorization.

Oxygen OS 12

As for the design, OxygenOS 12 does not feature Google’s new Material You aesthetic; it largely retains OxygenOS 11.3’s design language. As my sources indicate, OnePlus intended to release a closed beta of OxygenOS 12 by now, but that plan has been scuttled by the sheer amount of bugs found in the software. A build of OxygenOS 12 is scheduled to be released to closed beta testers via an OTA build in the near future. That’s the focus of the whole software team.

It is already recruiting testers for the closed beta of OxygenOS 12 that is set to begin at the end of August, according to OnePlus’ internal timeline. Normally, the public beta follows the closed beta within two to three weeks, so OxygenOS 12 beta should be available by the time Android 12 is released in its stable form next month.