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Upon announcing the 9 series for the US, OnePlus warned that, while the phones support the important Verizon bands, and then some, it is still in contact with Big Red over certifying the duo for its 5G network.
Regardless of business or consumer, you will be able to activate an American OP9 on Verizon. If you asked prior to certification, it is possible that the person you talked to said “no” because it wasn’t in our system yet and it hasn’t launched.
— George Koroneos (@GLKCreative) March 26, 2021
OnePlus 9 Pro support and download speeds on the Verizon 5G network
- With T-Mobile historically being OnePlus’ major carrier partner in the US since 2018, the 9 series was optimized for T-Mobile’s network and continues to display best results there.
- OnePlus models for Europe, India, and China will work more poorly in the US, so consumers shouldn’t import them expecting good results.
- Only the North American model of the OnePlus 9 Pro has millimeter-wave, which is important for Verizon users.
- The SIMs in OnePlus phones must be provisioned as “CDMA-less” to work on Verizon.
- OnePlus may need to update its 5G icons firmware to show the difference between Verizon 5G types like 5G Ultra Wideband or 5G nationwide DSS.
- OnePlus 9 series phones also don’t work with Verizon’s Wi-Fi calling feature. There’s no option to turn it on.
- You can turn off 5G at will on this phone, which you can’t do on many phones sold directly by Verizon.
- The OnePlus 9 Pro supports all of Verizon’s 4G and 5G frequencies, including mmWave, CBRS and the upcoming C-band. The OnePlus 9 lacks mmWave, but has all the rest.
- On mmWave, we tested speeds up to 2Gbps near a local Verizon tower, similar to what we tested on the Samsung Note 20 Ultra on the same tower at the same time in the day.
Even then, however, the range is a bit shorter than what Samsung flagship phones get on mmWave over at Verizon or Visible, and if Wi-fi calling or even just correct 5G insignia on your phone’s status bar are important to you, you are better holding off for a proper 9 series update for Big Red’s peculiarities after the April 2 release date. On the other hand, you can actually turn off 5G while using OnePlus 9 or 9 Pro on Verizon, which is a rare sight for most phones in Verizon’s roster.
Unlike many phones in Verizon’s portfolio, the OnePlus 9 series actually show a 5G kill switch
