The OnePlus 8T has just been announced, but a technical informant has already revealed what appears to be the codename for the OnePlus 9.

Max J tweeted an image of the OnePlus phone's outline, which is recognizable because of the physical alert slider that is a hallmark of OnePlus phones.

OnePlus tends to release a new "flagship killer" phone about every six months, usually in the spring time, followed about six months later by an upgraded "T" model, and the cycle repeats itself the following year. Therefore, it is no surprise that OnePlus is already working on the OnePlus 9.

The way Max J assembled the codename in his retweet suggests that there will be two OnePlus 9 phones, the standard OnePlus 9 and the OnePlus 9 Pro, given that the OnePlus 8 Pro did not receive a "T" upgrade this year, It is still OnePlus' top model.

The OnePlus 8 Pro was a true flagship phone from the Chinese company, with impressive camera performance, wireless charging, and a great display. We expect OnePlus to build on the success of the 8 with a new chip upgrade and perhaps a dual-battery system in the OnePlus 8T.

That said, we were a bit disappointed with the OnePlus 8T; it didn't have enough appealing features to make it a significant upgrade over the OnePlus 7T, and the camera performance left something to be desired. Hopefully a software upgrade will fix the latter.

As such, the OnePlus 9 could see OnePlus go back to square one and really work on making a truly attractive flagship challenging phone.

The OnePlus 8T is a pretty nice phone in terms of build quality and design. However, it did not offer a major upgrade to the OnePlus 8 or any OnePlus phone from 2019.

That said, I really hope OnePlus can pull off this upgrade. A more powerful chip is expected, and I would like to see wireless charging on the 9 Pro as well as the OnePlus 9.

One of the OnePlus 7 Pro's best features is its pop-up selfie camera, which allows the user to have a display unencumbered by camera cutouts; the OnePlus 8 Pro has a punch-hole selfie camera, which seems like a step backward. We appreciate that the longevity of the pop-up selfie camera is a concern given its moving parts. However, we would like to see OnePlus innovate again in this area.

And speaking of cameras, we'd like to see OnePlus get serious about the camera performance of the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro. The OnePlus 8 offered middling smartphone photography and the 8 Pro impressed us, but there is room for improvement.

OnePlus also needs to work on the software side of the camera, and in addition to the success of the main lens, the results of the telephoto and ultra-wide-angle cameras, and the interaction between all rear cameras need to be improved.

Given the strong performance of OnePlus phones and the clean, unobtrusive take on the latest version of Android, camera performance is the only hurdle OnePlus will have to clear.

If it can do that with the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro, we can expect to see two phones that challenge Samsung's Galaxy S21. We still have to wait about six months to see what OnePlus can deliver, but we have high hopes.