The OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro are now certified to work on Verizon’s 5G network, which means folks on Verizon and Visible can pick up the buzzy handsets direct from OnePlus and use them with confidence. But there are still a few twists in the tale, which means that those who aren’t OnePlus superfans, a Samsung handset may still be a better choice.
OnePlus’s two new phones are sold by T-Mobile and also unlocked direct from OnePlus. They work at their best on T-Mobile’s network, but they also now work on Verizon 5G. On AT&T, they are 4G phones, and not even the best 4G phones, as they lack band 14, which AT&T uses for coverage in some rural areas now.
T-Mobile has historically been OnePlus’s major carrier partner in the US, selling OnePlus phones since 2018’s OnePlus 6T. Verizon first put a OnePlus phone on its shelves last year with the OnePlus 8, but the carrier hasn’t committed to selling any OnePlus 9 models for now.
Only the US Model Works Well Here
Potential OnePlus buyers should also know there are four different global models of the phones, for North America, Europe, India, and China.
The North American model has one SIM card slot; the others have two. There’s been some speculation that if you could shave down the SIM holder in the North American phone and fit two SIMs in there, they might work, but I haven’t seen that in action yet.
The four models have very different network support, according to their reviewers’ guide. Only the North American model of the OnePlus 9 Pro has millimeter-wave, which is important for Verizon users. Also, only the North American models of the 9 and 9 Pro have CBRS band 48; the US iteration of C-band, known as band 77; or T-Mobile’s band 71, which the carrier really leans on for coverage. The India and China models also lack Verizon’s band 13, which is absolutely critical for 4G coverage.
That means the other models will work more poorly in the US. While they will get some LTE and even T-Mobile mid-band 5G coverage, they will drop out of signal when other phones, designed for the US, are able to maintain it. That’s why we rarely recommend importing phones not designed for US networks.
How to Set Up OnePlus 9 Pro for Verizon
You can’t pop just any Verizon SIM into the OnePlus 9 series, and here’s where things get a little complex. The SIMs in OnePlus phones must be provisioned as “CDMA-less,” a flag that isn’t set if the SIM was previously used in a popular Samsung or Apple phone. This has been an issue with some OnePlus phones on Verizon for years now; Android Authority has a guide for how to talk to your Verizon rep about the issues.
Some folks on Twitter, as of March 30, have been reporting that Verizon or Visible customer relations staff say that the phones aren’t supported. That’s because the official launch date for the phones is April 2, Verizon tells me, and the scripts those departments use may not be updated until then. It should all straighten itself out in a little while.
Missing Icons and Other Oddities
Using the OnePlus 9 Pro on Verizon’s network shows some oddities. For one, while the phone has a “5G” status bar icon, it has no “5G UW” icon to show when it’s connected to Verizon’s faster millimeter-wave 5G. Millimeter-wave has very little coverage, but this will become a bigger deal next year when the icon is used to tell between Verizon’s upcoming, moderately fast C-band network and its disappointing, “nationwide” DSS network.
Insiders tell me that OnePlus could fix this by adding a Verizon “icon pack” to its firmware. I’ve asked OnePlus for comment and I’ll update this when I hear back. The phones also don’t work with Verizon’s Wi-Fi calling feature. There’s just no option to turn it on. Verizon tells me there is no plan to add that, at least for now. I’ve also asked OnePlus about that.
On the other hand, you can turn off 5G at will on this phone, which you can’t do on many phones sold directly by Verizon.
Surfing the Millimeter Waves With OnePlus
My full review of the OnePlus 9 Pro tested the phone against the Galaxy S21 Ultra on T-Mobile and showed that it doesn’t quite perform up to the S21 Ultra’s level, but it performs well. I saw similar things when compared to a Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. The OnePlus phone showed very similar performance to the Note on Verizon’s 4G LTE and 5G DSS networks, but it had shorter mmWave range than the Note did.
The OnePlus 9 Pro supports all of Verizon’s 4G and 5G frequencies, including mmWave, CBRS, and the upcoming C-band. The less expensive OnePlus 9 lacks mmWave, but has all the rest.
On mmWave, I got speeds of up to 2Gbps near my local Verizon tower, similar to what I was getting on the Note 20 Ultra on the same tower at the same time.
MmWave range on the 9 Pro seemed a bit shorter than on the Note, and it wasn’t as easy to tell when I was in mmWave range because of the lack of a UW icon. On two days when I got about 750 feet of range from the UW panel with the Galaxy Note, I got about 600 feet with the OnePlus 9 Pro. (I could tell even without the icon, because speeds drop off a cliff when you move from mmWave to DSS.)
This is almost certainly not down to the hardware. Phone and network firmware tend to decide when to give up on a network, and the OnePlus 9 Pro may just be set to give up on mmWave at a higher signal strength than the Note is set to do so.
All in all, this makes the OnePlus 9 Pro workable on Verizon and Visible, but for now I recommend the Samsung Galaxy S21 series over the OnePlus phone on those carriers. Wi-Fi calling is important for many people, and the whole icons/range thing with millimeter-wave gives me the sense that Verizon performance was more of an afterthought with this phone.
For more, read our full OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro reviews, which enthusiastically recommend the phone for T-Mobile subscribers.
