OxygenOS 13 Update Causing Battery Drain Problems for OnePlus 9 Series
The OnePlus 9 series was launched in 2021; the first time OnePlus collaborated with Hasselblad for image processing. The 9 series consisted of a 9 Pro and the vanilla 9, with a 9R early in the year. The 9RT was released at the end of the year. They got a mixed reception overall.
OnePlus’ 9 series was promised three years of major Android updates. We have already seen the phone move from Android 11 to 12 before. The stable Android 13 update is now available for the OnePlus 9 series.
OxygenOS 13 is just a minor, aesthetic difference from ColorOS 13. It has a new aqua-morphic design that applies a beautiful frosted glass effect throughout the UI. OxygenOS 13 has bold and modern icons with more AOD customisation. A large Folder is a new practical feature. We also got better Material You implementation.
With the right balance of features and uncompromised aesthetics, OxygenOS 13 strikes a good balance between practical and playful. Unfortunately, this update hasn’t been perfect for several people who use a phone from the OnePlus 9 series.
New complaints primarily talk about severe impacts on battery life. It gets worse, with some units suffering heating issues in simple everyday use. There are a variety of reasons that could have caused a decline in battery life. Your phone’s battery contains chemical components that naturally age and degrade over time.
However, the 9 series is relatively new, and the battery impact of a loss in battery health should not be very severe. A primary cause is difficult to pinpoint, but we can assume that inadequate developers’ testing is the reason. Severe heating issues are prominent with the 9 series too.
Heating issues are primarily due to the inefficient chip used in the 9, 9 Pro and 9R, which is the Snapdragon 888. The 888 is based on Samsung’s 5nm fabrication which has been very poor with the handling of thermals. Overheating and thermal throttling are day-one problems with Snapdragon 888 phones.
As a result, OnePlus previously decided to throttle down the performance of apps to avoid heating in everyday use. According to many reports, this update, unfortunately, brings the annoying heating issues back. Judging from the number of reports, it’s not a one-off case either.
As a direct consequence of high standby drain and poor efficiency, the screen on time that users get from a single charge has also plummeted, leaving them annoyed. Many people have resorted to charging twice a day.
People have tried workarounds to no avail. Restarting your phone or resetting the device has not helped so far. Downgrading to OxygenOS 12 or 11 might solve your problems, but do this at your own risk. The process is also long and cumbersome; you must back up all your data in advance.
If you’re on a version of OxygenOS that is currently stable and has no problems with battery drain, we highly recommend sticking to it for a more stable experience. We advise proceeding with caution if you want to update to OxygenOS 13.
OnePlus has not officially acknowledged problems with battery drain on the OnePlus 9 series. We hope the developers look into this problem and provide a solution as soon as possible. We will keep this article updated with any further news about this problem.
