On the surface, it’s not at all fair to compare the flagship OnePlus 9 Pro to the mid-range Google Pixel 4a 5G. But I have my reasons.

Key among them, of course, is the downgrade test that I wrote about ahead of my review of the OnePlus 9 Series (which includes two phones, the OnePlus 9 and the OnePlus 9 Pro). The Pixel is the phone I was coming off when I started my evaluation of the new OnePlus handsets, and a key component in my personal evaluation of the OnePlus 9 Pro, which is the model I’d choose because of its slightly better camera system. That is, is the OnePlus 9 Pro superior to the Pixel 4a 5G in enough ways that it can “pass” the downgrade test?