The upcoming OnePlus 9 hopes to establish itself as a camera phone - the announced partnership with photography specialist Hasselblad speaks for itself. And this new model will get improved hardware to back up that ambition.

OnePlus confirmed via Twitter that the OnePlus 9 series will feature a new ultra-wide sensor.

For this year's phones, OnePlus aims to make the camera its main selling point and has spent over $15 million to have a custom Sony IMX789 sensor developed.

We now know that the OnePlus 9 will use the IMX766 sensor for its ultra-wide camera. Along with the free-form lens, OnePlus states that this camera aims to reduce distortion from 20% to 1%

. The free-form lens uses two prisms side-by-side to bend light 90 degrees before it comes into contact with the sensor. The images are then stitched together like a panoramic shot, resulting in a distortion-free 140-degree field of view.

OnePlus founder and CEO Pete Lau posted a comparison photo on Twitter.

According to Lau, the image on the left was taken with a "slow charging iPhone at 60Hz." The picture on the right was taken with a OnePlus 9 Pro. As you can see, the building on the left is curved and rounded like a fish eye, while the one on the right shows a linear structure.

Note that Twitter compresses images, so the above photos are likely not representative of the final product. One Twitter user noted that the iPhone image appears clearer than the one Lau took with the OnePlus, despite the distortion. But again, Twitter's image compression means that the social media site is not the best place to judge overall photo quality.

Interestingly, this ultra-wide camera is not exclusive to the Pro model. Lau went to the trouble of hashtagging it as OnePlus9Series, which means it will likely be available on the standard 9, 9 Pro, and 9E.

Along with the new ultra-wide camera, the OnePlus 9 is likely to be a powerhouse as a photography phone. It will be capable of 16:11 aspect ratio photography, capture 12-bit RAW images with 6.87 billion colors, support 8K video, and 4K video at 120 fps. The standard OnePlus 9 will have a 2MP macro lens, while the 9 Pro is rumored to have an 8MP telephoto lens.

It is also expected to have a 120Hz screen, 8GB or 12GB of RAM, 128GB or 256GB of storage, and a 4,500mAh battery. Standard models will stick with FHD displays, while Pro models will upgrade to QHD.

The OnePlus 9 launch event is scheduled for Tuesday, March 23 at 10 a.m. ET/PT.