What color OnePlus 9 or 9 Pro should you buy - Android

The OnePlus 9 Pro and OnePlus 9 will offer up one of the best Android phone experiences of the year, making noticeable improvements to the cameras while still offering up some of the best hardware and performance that we've come to expect — nay, demand — from OnePlus. If you intend to pick one up, the question of what color to get is a little stickier this year due to some geographical restrictions. Still, no matter where you live or what phone you're looking to buy, this is the definitive ranking for each OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro colorway.

Why Pine Green is the OnePlus 9 Pro color to beat

There may be three colors available for the OnePlus 9 Pro — well, two in North America — but there's really only one you should consider: Pine Green. The reason for this is twofold: the shade of green here is exquisite and fully deserving of its place in your pocket, dock, or dashboard mount as you go about your day, and the second is that this is the only matte finish OnePlus 9 Pro that's available in all markets.

While Stellar Black is a nice colorway in its own right, black is still boring — after all, basically every electronic ever made comes in black — and it's not available globally. Europe and Asia get all three 9 Pro colors, but the Stellar Black is excluded from North America for reasons unknown. This makes me sad, but not as sad as it should make regular OnePlus 9 buyers since the excluded color in the smaller version is really the one you'll want to buy.

The best OnePlus 9 color is excluded from North America

Winter Mist is a pretty smudge magnet — where's the Arctic Sky?

I'm a sucker for a sweet purple phone, I really am, but the Winter Mist OnePlus 9 is glossy, and it attracts blemishing smudges like honey lures flies. While in previous years, OnePlus tended to give a matte finish to most phones, the OnePlus 9 has two glossy options and only one matte — and that matte option is not coming to North America. So if you're in the United States, Canada, or Mexico, buy the Winter Mist, get a good case, and stop reading before I wax poetic about the phone you can't buy.

Arctic Sky is a soft, matte cerulean that looks like a crisp November morning with just the sheerest lacy layer of clouds touching the sky and keeping in an extra bit of warmth during the cold winter nights. It's soft but not slick; it's striking but not showy; it's ever so slightly bold but without the brashness of the shinier gradients on the Arctic Sky.

It is beauty, it is grace, but I can't buy it from this place. So if you live in Europe or India, take advantage and flaunt that superior shade of cerulean!