We have a complicated relationship with the OnePlus 9. The phone came to life in 2021 with roaring performance at an attainable price, but was cut down at every turn from the cameras that weren't as good as the OnePlus 9 Pro's all the way through to the OxygenOS 12 update which injected Oppo's ColorOS sensibilities into a user base that found it difficult to embrace. There are maybe a couple of reasons you'd want to pick one up these days — maybe it's for your collection, maybe it'll be a cheap spare, maybe it's ripe for ROM hacking — but you'd obviously want to get it for the right price. That right price may finally be here, right now.

Both Amazon and Best Buy have the phone on end-of-year (probably end-of-life) clearance, putting it down for half-off its current MSRP at about $300 — Best Buy is inexplicably selling it for $301.

The core specs should still keep you running hot and fast for years to come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, a 5,000mAh battery with 65W Warp Charging, and wireless charging support at up to 15W. The phone recently got pushed to OxygenOS 13 a scant few weeks after it got an Open Beta. On one hand, the speed is good news... but if you're not a fan of the whole "aquamorphic design" it's got going on, you might want to play around with a custom image or two.

I'm not going to sugarcoat the fact that the Android Police thinks the OnePlus 9's journey is emblematic of all the party fouls Oppo has committed over the past year and a half. I am going to say that if you enjoy Android as much as we do, there will be reasons for some of you to get this phone. Like, today.