The premium segment has always been dominated by brands like OnePlus, Apple, and Samsung but this year Iqoo has also stepped up the game by launching the iQOO 9 Pro in the premium flagship segment which is packed with all the flagship features all set to create new benchmarks. On the other hand, OnePlus has consistently provided well-rounded flagships each year and is no different from the OnePlus 10 Pro this year.

The OnePlus 10 Pro (Review) sports a premium build and design, a 120Hz LTPO 2.0 AMOLED display with stereo speakers for media consumption, a powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, and a good set of triple cameras, and a 5000mAh battery with support for 80W fast charging. Other than this the software experience remains smooth as you have the OxygenOS that does not have any sort of bloatware.

On the other hand, the iQOO 9 Pro (Review) has some flagship specifications as present on the OnePlus 10 Pro which has an eye-catching design, a 120Hz LTPO 2.0 AMOLED display, a 3D ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, a powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, a great set of triple cameras with gimbal stabilization, a 4700mAh battery with 120W fast charging and much more making a bold statement in the market.

So which one of these is the better pick of the two? Let's find out in the full comparison.

Both these smartphones have a premium glass design but both have different designs. In terms of design, the iQOO 9 Pro sports a unique look that will surely catch attention as the back has a massive rectangular camera module that houses the triple cameras with a dual-LED flashlight. There is a carbon fiber pattern with a matte finish with three stripes - Red, Blue, and Black inspired by BMW Motorsport. 

A similar design on the back is also carried over to the case provided inside the box that looks premium. The OnePlus 10 Pro, on the other hand, has a plain design with no flash stuff at the back. It has a matte finish and a square-shaped camera module that integrates well to the side and houses the triple cameras with a LED flashlight. The camera bump is slightly protruded on the OnePlus 10 Pro compared to the iQOO 9 Pro. 

Both these smartphones lack an IP rating which is a big disappointment as they are premium flagship smartphones but the iQOO 9 Pro does have an IP52 rating. In terms of weight distribution, the iQOO 9 Pro weighs around 210grams which is slightly heavier than the 201grams weight of the OnePlus 10 Pro. Around the sides, both smartphones have an aluminum frame that houses the power button and the volume keys.

OnePlus 10 Pro gets an additional alert slider control notifications just above the power button. On the top, both smartphones have a secondary noise-canceling microphone but the iQOO 9 Pro has an extra IR Blaster to control various devices. At the bottom, both the smartphones get a USB Type-C port, a primary microphone, a speaker grille, and a dual SIM card slot.

The OnePlus 10 Pro has a USB Type-C 3.1 port which provides faster data transfers compared to the USB Type-C 2.0 port on the iQOO 9 Pro. Neither of them has a 3.5mm headphone jack nor a microSD card slot for storage expansion. On the front, both these smartphones have a curved display and the curve is slightly more towards the sides of the iQOO 9 Pro compared to the OnePlus 10 Pro.

Overall, the build feels premium on both and the design is just a personal preference whether you like the simplistic look of the OnePlus 10 Pro or the eye-catching design of the iQOO 9 Pro.

On the front, both smartphones have a single punch-hole display which is curved towards the right as well as left with the top and bottom remaining flat. The iQOO 9 Pro has a slightly larger 6.78-inches display compared to the 6.7-inches display on the OnePlus 10 Pro. Both these displays are Quad HD+(1440x3216 pixels) AMOLED displays that have LTPO 2.0 technology.

Both these have 120Hz refresh rates and since both of them are LTPO panels, the refresh rate can scale from as low as 1Hz to 120Hz depending on the content on the display. For example, if you are watching a video on Youtube, the display refreshes at 30Hz and if you are applying games like BGMI, the refresh rate is 120Hz but while watching static content like viewing the image, the display scales as low as 1Hz.

You can also switch to standard 60Hz for better battery life. Combined with the 120Hz, the OnePlus 10 Pro has a slightly higher 360Hz touch sampling rate compared to the 300Hz touch sampling rate on the iQOO 9 Pro but this 300Hz upscale to 1000Hz during gaming as it uses a feature called frame interpolation. So as a result, both smartphones provided faster touch responses during gaming.

Both these displays have support for MEMC technology which means if you are watching a 30fps video it will bump it up to 60fps for a better experience by making frame rates smoother. In terms of display brightness, the display on the iQOO 9 Pro can achieve a peak brightness of 1500nits which is slightly higher compared to 1300nits on the OnePlus 10 Pro.

However, this does not make much of a difference as both these displays have good visibility under direct sunlight. Both these displays have their respective profiles to choose from and you can also change the color temperature to warmer or cooler. The iQOO 9 Pro has a slightly better 3D ultrasonic fingerprint scanner that has a larger surface area and is slightly faster than the optical one on the OnePlus 10 Pro.

In terms of display protection, the OnePlus 10 Pro display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus whereas the iQOO 9 Pro has a Panda Glass protection on the display. Both these displays have support for Widevine L1 so you can stream HDR content on OTT platforms and also YouTube supports HDR on both displays. Overall, both these displays are great for media consumption.

Both the OnePlus 10 Pro and the iQOO 9 Pro are powered by the latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset which has been the flagship chipset from Qualcomm in 2022. In terms of smaller tasks like scrolling through webpages, streaming social media, taking calls, etc .and heavy tasks like rendering videos, using the camera for videos, playing games, etc both smartphones could handle all of them easily.

In terms of gaming, BGMI ran at Ultra HDR graphics with Ultra frame rates, and also you can have Smooth graphics with Extreme frame rates on both of them. The iQOO 9 Pro holds a slight edge in terms of gaming as it brings frame interpolation which increases the frame rate while playing games thus providing a smoother experience. On the other hand, the OnePlus 10 Pro is also good for gaming.

After long hours of gaming, the back of both the smartphones felt warmer but the OnePlus 10 Pro did feel slightly hotter compared to the iQOO 9 Pro. But when it comes to the CPU throttling test, the OnePlus 10 Pro had slightly better-sustained performance compared to the iQOO 9 Pro but both of them do throttle a lot. In terms of benchmarks, the iQOO 9 Pro has slightly higher scores than the two.

Both these smartphones have support for good carrier aggregation and in terms of 5G support, the iQOO 9 Pro supports up to 14 bands of 5G whereas the OnePlus 10 Pro has support for 9 bands of 5G. The iQOO 9 Pro has two variants - 8/12GB LPDDR5 RAM with 256GB UFS 3.1 storage whereas the OnePlus 10 Pro has two variants - 8/12GB LPDDR5 RAM with 128/256GB UFS 3.1 storage.

Overall, the performance feels equally good on both but in terms of gaming, the iQOO 9 Pro holds a slight edge over the OnePlus 10 Pro.

Both these smartphones run on different skins where the iQOO 9 Pro runs on FunTouchOS 12 and the OnePlus 10 Pro runs on OxygenOS 12. Both these user interfaces have a lot of features that include a dedicated Gaming Mode, customizations to app shape and size, different wallpapers and themes, also different styles of the Always-On display.

But the OxygenOS provides more variety of customizations compared to FunTouchOS. Another big difference between both user interfaces is that OxygenOS does not have any bloatware whereas the FunTouchOS on the iQOO 9 Pro has a lot of pre-installed applications. These can be uninstalled but still, when you are paying a premium, you cannot expect bloatware on a smartphone. 

In terms of software updates, the OnePlus 10 Pro holds the edge as it is assured to get another three years of AndroidOS updates and four years of security updates whereas the iQOO 9 Pro is assured to get two years of AndroidOS updates and three years of security patches. Overall, the software experience is definitely better on the OnePlus 10 Pro compared to the iQOO 9 Pro.

Both the OnePlus 10 Pro and the iQOO 9 Pro have a triple camera setup where the iQOO 9 Pro house a 50MP f/1.8 Samsung GN5 sensor for the main camera, a 50MP f/2.3 Samsung JN1 sensor for the ultrawide camera, and a 16MP f/2.2 telephoto camera with 2.5x optical zoom. On the other hand, the OnePlus 10 Pro has a 48MP f/1.8 Sony IMX789 sensor for the main camera, a 50MP f/2.2 Samsung JN1 sensor for the ultrawide camera, and an 8MP f/2.4 telephoto camera with 3.3x optical zoom.

The OnePlus 10 Pro has a 32MP f/2.2 Sony IMX615 sensor for the selfie camera whereas the iQOO 9 Pro has a 16MP f/2.5 camera on the front. The main camera on the OnePlus 10 Pro has OIS whereas the main camera on the iQOO 9 Pro has gimbal stabilization. 

The images from both the cameras come out with good details but they look slightly sharper on the iQOO 9 Pro and also it has a slightly better dynamic range compared to the OnePlus 10 Pro. The colors look natural on the OnePlus 10 Pro whereas the colors look oversaturated on the iQOO 9 Pro. In images captured using the HDR, the images on the iQOO 9 Pro have far less noise compared to the OnePlus 10 Pro.

At night, the iQOO 9 Pro's Samsung GN5 sensor holds a clear edge as it has much better dynamic range and details and also looks sharper compared to the OnePlus 10 Pro which has slightly more noise and exposure is not so good as it crushes the shadows. With the Night Mode turned on, both come out with a good amount of details but still, the dynamic range is better on the iQOO 9 Pro, and also it has lesser noise compared to the OnePlus 10 Pro.

Both the OnePlus 10 Pro and the iQOO 9 Pro sport a similar ultrawide camera but the images have a slightly better dynamic range and details look slightly sharper on the iQOO 9 Pro compared to the OnePlus 10 Pro. Both also have a 150-degree field of view option where the details are equally good on both images. There is also a Fisheye mode and iQOO provides three other different modes also.

The low-light images from the ultrawide camera on both smartphones come out with good dynamic range and less noise in the background. The colors look natural on the OnePlus 10 Pro slightly compared to the iQOO 9 Pro. There is also a dedicated night mode on the ultrawide cameras on both the smartphones and they do have sharper details and good dynamic range. 

The iQOO 9 Pro has a larger 16MP telephoto camera compared to an 8MP telephoto camera on the OnePlus 10 Pro so as a result, the details look sharper and the dynamic range is better on the iQOO 9 Pro compared to the OnePlus 10 Pro. The OnePlus 10 Pro, on the other hand, has natural colors compared to oversaturate colors on the iQOO 9 Pro but the latter one has less noise.

The one advantage that the OnePlus 10 Pro has is that it can do 3.3x optical zoom compared to just 2.5x optical zoom on the iQOO 9 Pro. The iQOO 9 Pro can also use the ultrawide camera as a macro camera which takes details that look sharper and dynamic range is also good which the OnePlus 10 Pro cannot do as it lacks the macro camera capability on its ultrawide camera.

Both smartphones can take portraits from either the main or the telephoto camera. In terms of portraits, the OnePlus 10 Pro has slightly better details and dynamic range compared to the iQOO 9 Pro. The skin tones also look natural on the OnePlus 10 Pro whereas there is slight oversharpening in the portraits taken from the iQOO 9 Pro. 

Both have good background blur and edge detection is equally good on both smartphones. The selfies on the iQOO 9 Pro come out with good details that look slightly sharper and have a better dynamic range than the OnePlus 10 Pro. The field of view is wider on the OnePlus 10 Pro compared to the iQOO 9 Pro and also noise is less on the OnePlus 10 Pro compared to the iQOO 9 Pro.

However, there are some scenarios where the iQOO 9 Pro does apply some skin smoothening whereas the OnePlus 10 Pro maintains a natural color tone. In portrait selfies, the iQOO 9 Pro takes the clear edge in terms of dynamic range and also contrast compared to the OnePlus 10 Pro which does suffer from oversharpening in the background. The edge detection and background blur are good on both selfies.

In terms of videos, both the OnePlus 10 Pro and the iQOO 9 Pro can record 8K videos at 24fps and the videos are slightly better on the OnePlus 10 Pro in terms of dynamic range and it has less noise but switching to 4K videos at 60fps, the iQOO 9 Pro has much better stabilization without any noise and also better dynamic range compared to the OnePlus 10 Pro.

However, the colors do look oversaturated on the iQOO 9 Pro whereas the OnePlus 10 Pro has natural colors in the background. Switching to 1080p at 60fps with the Ultra Steady Mode on, the iQOO 9 Pro is better both in terms of contrast as well as dynamic range compared to the OnePlus 10 Pro. The ultrawide camera on the iQOO 9 Pro can record 4K videos at 60fps whereas, on the OnePlus 10 Pro, you are restricted to 1080p at 60fps.

On the front, both these cameras lack support for 4K recording and you get only 1080p video support at 30fps. The videos come out with good dynamic range and contrast on the OnePlus 10 Pro with less noise compared to the iQOO 9 Pro. The OnePlus 10 Pro also has EIS on the front camera which results in stabilized videos compared to the iQOO 9 Pro which does not have EIS on the front camera.

Overall, the cameras are better on the iQOO 9 Pro compared to the OnePlus 10 Pro but the difference is not so huge.

The OnePlus 10 Pro houses a larger 5000mAh battery compared to the 4700mAh battery on the iQOO 9 Pro. With heavy usage that includes playing games like BGMI, rendering videos, and also streaming social media with the display set to 120Hz, both smartphones easily lasted for a single day with the iQOO 9 Pro has no charge left.

In terms of normal usage which includes casual gaming, watching social media, and also web browsing both the smartphones easily lasted for one and a half to two days but the OnePlus 10 Pro has a better screen on time of around 5.5-6 hours compared to 4.5-5 hours on the iQOO 9 Pro though both sporting the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. 

There are two reasons for better battery life on the OnePlus 10 Pro one of them being the great battery optimization of OxygenOS as it removes unnecessary applications that are running in the background the second is the slightly larger battery which is 300mAh more than that of the iQOO 9 Pro. The FunTouchOS 12 on the iQOO 9 Pro does need some refinement in terms of battery optimization.

In terms of charging, this is where the iQOO 9 Pro holds the edge as it supports 120W fast charging where the 120W fast charger is bundled inside the box and it charges the smartphone from 0 to 100 percent within 22 minutes. On the other hand, the OnePlus 10 Pro has support for 65W fast charging and you do get that 65W fast charger inside the box that can change it from 0 to 100 percent in under 35 minutes.

So clearly, the OnePlus 10 Pro has better battery life whereas the iQOO 9 Pro has better charging speeds.

Both the OnePlus 10 Pro and the iQOO 9 Pro have a dual stereo speaker setup that sounds adequately loud and clear. The OnePlus 10 Pro does feel slightly louder but the iQOO 9 Pro has support for Hi-Res audio. Both do not have a 3.5mm headphone jack but iQOO does provide a USB Type-C to 3.5mm converter inside the box which is not present on the OnePlus 10 Pro.

Both the OnePlus 10 Pro and iQOO 9 Pro are very good premium flagship smartphones in the market as of now and will surely give the run for the money. Both have some similarities like a premium build and design, a 120Hz AMOLED LTPO 2.0 display with stereo speakers for media consumption, a powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset for performance and gaming, and a good set of cameras.

However, there are some differences between both smartphones, and in each area one tries to excel over the other. The iQOO 9 Pro will surely catch your attention as it has a unique design with that massive camera module, it has a better set of cameras, a faster and better fingerprint scanner, and slightly better gaming performance compared to the OnePlus 10 Pro. 

On the other hand, the OnePlus 10 Pro has a better software experience as OxygenOS does not have any bloatware and provides slightly better software updates compared to FunTouchOS, the battery life also is better. Also, OnePlus has better brand value compared to iQOO which itself is still a sub-brand of Vivo.

So considering all factors it all depends on personal preference which one you choose if you want a smartphone for gaming and cameras, then the iQOO 9 Pro is better but if you want brand value, good battery life, and premium software experience, then the OnePlus 10 Pro is the one to be considered.