OnePlus as a brand has undergone quite a lot of changes lately. What started off as OPPO’s spin-off went on to become an independent brand hugely popular among enthusiasts. And now, it’s back to where it all began. OnePlus merged into OPPO recently and the two brands are now sharing the same R&D team. OxygenOS has also been merged with ColorOS — a move that not a lot of OnePlus users are appreciating. While there are a lot of changes taking place, the core philosophy of OnePlus over the past few years has remained the same. The brand focuses on speed and that can be seen on almost all OnePlus phones. The OnePlus 9 series combined that with major camera improvements making the OnePlus 9 Pro one of the best Android phones to buy. Now, it’s time for the upcoming OnePlus 10 series to carry on this legacy of speed.
The OnePlus 10 is set to arrive in a few months. What that means is we’ve already started to see leaks and renders giving us a glimpse of what the devices could look like. If you’re interested to know more about the OnePlus 10, we’ve collected all the information that’s out there and even added a personal wishlist of what we would like to see on the OnePlus 10. Note that these reports are all based on rumors so take them with a pinch of salt.
OnePlus 10 and 10 Pro: Price and Release Date
We’re aware of the fact that OnePlus has gradually kept climbing up the price ladder with its phones over the years. To be fair, they’ve also upgraded various aspects of the device to justify that price. What was once a brand that made “flagship killers” has now become a brand that makes full-fledged flagships with premium specifications. The OnePlus 9 started at $729 in the US with the top-of-the-line OnePlus 9 Pro just $30 shy of touching the grand $1,000 mark.
OnePlus 9 Pro
Considering that the OnePlus 10 would improve and build upon what the OnePlus 9 series offered, it’s safe to say that we can expect a price bump with the upcoming OnePlus 10 series. OnePlus would have to play it safe, though, since competing brands like Samsung, Apple, and Google also operate in a similar price bracket. While there aren’t any leaks or reports about the expected pricing of the OnePlus 10 series, we can expect the standard OnePlus 10 to start at $749-$799. OnePlus may even decide to undercut the competition offered by the Pixel 6 or the upcoming Galaxy S22 by pricing the OnePlus 10 slightly lower than last year’s model at around $699.
The OnePlus 10 Pro, on the other hand, might breach the $1,000 mark this time, or stay one short of it like all the brands do and start at $999. Again, these are just our guesses as there’s no concrete information regarding this yet. In India, we’re expecting the OnePlus 10 and OnePlus 10 Pro to retain the same launch prices as their predecessors — ₹49,999 and ₹64,999 respectively. If OnePlus makes considerable improvements to the 10 Pro, we can expect a slight price bump to ₹69,999 for the base variant.
OnePlus 9
Moving on to the release date, the OnePlus 9 series was launched in the third week of March this year. We can expect a similar time frame for the launch of the OnePlus 10 series. It may also be possible that OnePlus launches the phones early to get an advantage over other OEMs selling flagship smartphones. Now that they have a bigger R&D team courtesy of OPPO, we won’t be surprised to see the OnePlus 10 series launching sooner than usual.
We saw reports indicating that OnePlus may launch the OnePlus 10 series earlier than usual, probably in January or February 2022; only in China. The global launch may take place sometime later in March or April according to the rumor.
OnePlus 10 Variants: Regular, Pro, and… R?
OnePlus launched three variants of the OnePlus 9 — the standard OnePlus 9, the OnePlus 9 Pro, and the OnePlus 9R. The first two phones were made available globally while the OnePlus 9R was an India-specific device. This time too, we’re expecting the standard OnePlus 10 to be accompanied by a Pro variant, but we’re not sure if there will be a OnePlus 10R — too early to comment on that right now. The OnePlus 9R was essentially a rehashed OnePlus 8T with a “newer” chip. It had the Snapdragon 870 which was essentially a binned version of the Snapdragon 865. Unless Qualcomm decides to do something similar again this year, a OnePlus 10R doesn’t really make a lot of sense.
It’s still a possibility though and it’s too soon to rule out especially since the brand recently launched the OnePlus 9RT in China. India is a price-sensitive market so a cheaper alternative to the OnePlus 10 might be in the works. We should know more about it soon.
The standard OnePlus 10 ideally should be the smaller and cheaper version in the series. It might also lack some important features to distinguish itself from the Pro version. The OnePlus 9, for example, sacrificed a telephoto lens, a curved display, and wireless charging to bring down the price. The OnePlus 10 Pro, on the other hand, should be packed with features since it’s going to be the best phone OnePlus has to offer.
OnePlus 10: Design, Display, and Cameras
OnePlus has generally played it safe in the design department with all its phones, barring the special edition phones of course, which always have something unique to offer. As per a recent leak, though, that might be about to change. Popular tipster @OnLeaks recently shared a few OnePlus 10 Pro renders giving us an early look at the device. The phone looks quite unique in the renders and doesn’t look like anything OnePlus has done in the past.
The renders show three camera lenses on the rear housed in a camera module that protrudes from the side and overlaps onto the back of the phone. This is similar to the camera module on the Galaxy S21 series. The three cameras are expected to be as follows: A 48MP primary camera, a 50MP ultra-wide camera, and an 8MP telephoto lens with 3.3X optical zoom. A new set of renders published by OnLeaks reveals a lot more about the back and front of the OnePlus 10 Pro, including the Hasselblad branding next to the camera array. Note that OnLeaks warns that the render could be of an early prototype since OnePlus, just like all other brands, tests multiple prototypes before finalizing the design of a phone. This means the actual device may end up looking different from what we see in these renders.
The OnePlus 10 Pro is expected to feature a 6.7-inch display with dimensions of 163.2 x 73.6 x 8.7 mm. For other specifications, early and unverified leaks suggest that the OnePlus 10 Pro may come with a 5,000mAh battery, a 120Hz QHD+ display, and a 48 or 64MP primary camera. The OnePlus 9 Pro had four cameras on the rear so it seems a bit weird that these renders only show three — maybe OnePlus decided it has finally had enough of useless 2MP quarternary cameras that barely served any purpose? The front might have a 32MP selfie camera.
Just like we saw with the OnePlus 9 series, the regular OnePlus 10 would most probably have a Full HD+ display instead of a QHD+ one. Going by the new renders, it’s possible that the OnePlus 10 Pro gets a curved display with LTPO technology while the OnePlus 10 might get a flat one. The OnePlus 9 Pro also had an extra camera sensor in the form of a telephoto lens. We’re not sure if OnePlus is going to add a telephoto lens to the standard OnePlus 10 this year. OnePlus partnered with Hasselblad last year to improve the cameras on the OnePlus 9 series. The results were quite good but the competition leapfrogged ahead with stronger improvements in hardware and software. Hopefully, the experience in the past year would have helped OnePlus further improve the camera performance with help from Hasselblad.
OnePlus 10: Internals
While the OnePlus 9 did have a few compromises compared to the Pro version, one area where there was nothing to differentiate the two phones was performance. Both the OnePlus 9 and the OnePlus 9 Pro had the Snapdragon 888 under the hood carrying out CPU duties. That’s not going to change even with the OnePlus 10 series since both the standard and the Pro versions reside in the flagship territory. We’re expecting to see Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 on both the OnePlus 10 and the OnePlus 10 Pro.
Since the OnePlus 10 would probably have a smaller chassis, we can also expect to see a slightly smaller battery when compared to the OnePlus 10 Pro. The OnePlus 9 lacked wireless charging (in some regions like India) while the 9 Pro had it, so we can expect to see a similar situation with the OnePlus 10 series. There’s also a good chance the OnePlus 10 Pro might feature faster-charging speeds compared to the standard OnePlus 10. Xiaomi has managed to achieve up to 120W fast-charging on the Xiaomi 11T Pro and we can expect OnePlus to pull off something similar. After all, OnePlus has always been all about speed. A new leak suggests that the OnePlus 10 Pro might have 80W fast charging.
OxygenOS fans, you’re going to be disappointed about how ColroOS-ified the software on the OnePlus 10 series is going to be. The software was a huge selling point of OnePlus phones in the past simply because of how clean OxygenOS was. ColorOS is quite different in this regard and isn’t as “light”, but a lot of people still like ColorOS over other competing OS solutions.
OnePlus promises to provide three years of major Android version updates, which is good, and also promises to retain its bootloader unlockability.
XDA’s Wishlist for the OnePlus 10 Series
Having used all the phones from OnePlus over the years, there are a few things we hope OnePlus addresses or includes in the upcoming OnePlus 10 series. These inclusions in our opinion would improve the overall usability of the phones and make them well-rounded across all aspects.
A Periscopic Telephoto Camera
Periscope Zoom Cameras
The OnePlus 9 Pro had a telephoto lens, but it could only punch in up to 3.3X optically. Compared to some other Android flagships in 2021, that’s not very impressive. We’ve seen periscope cameras for years now on flagship phones, that too from OPPO itself so there’s no reason why the OnePlus 10 Pro cannot get a periscope lens with 5X optical zoom and up to 60X or even 100X digital zoom for those crisp moon shots!
A standard Telephoto Camera on the OnePlus 10
Yes, the OnePlus 10 isn’t going to be the top-of-the-line phone in the series. But, for the asking price of over $700, it surely deserves at least a standard 2X telephoto camera to accompany the wide and ultra-wide lenses. Heck, OnePlus can even put in the same 3.3X telephoto camera from the OnePlus 9 Pro into the OnePlus 10 and it would still be a winner!
Get rid of those 2MP Cameras
The OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro were triple-camera and quad-camera smartphones respectively. Well, just on paper. Both phones had a 2MP monochrome camera that was practically useless. On a $300 phone, that’s understandable. But on a $1,000 phone? Come on, OnePlus. Give us a usable camera, or include something actually useful in its place. The microscope from the OPPO Find X3 Pro would be cool! Or even a small telephoto lens for portraits like on the Galaxy S21 Ultra. If you can’t figure that in, save the space and cost and do something else with it.
Wireless Charging and IP Rating across the board
What’s with this regional bias? The OnePlus 9 Pro had both wireless charging and an IP68 rating across the globe. The OnePlus 9, however, came with wireless charging only in North America and Europe. The rest of the world didn’t get wireless charging on the standard OnePlus 9. Similarly, only the OnePlus 9 bought from T-Mobile in the US had an IP68 rating while no other variant had the certification. I know this was done to save costs, but again, the competition is catching up and other brands are providing these premium features in the same price range.
Improved Battery Life
While the standard OnePlus 9 offered good battery life, the OnePlus 9 Pro was just about average in terms of endurance. Hopefully, OnePlus manages to pack a larger cell this time around on the Pro variant with better optimization.
Well, that’s pretty much everything we know and everything we can expect from the OnePlus 10 series. Over the course of the next few weeks, we should be seeing more leaks surfacing across different platforms. We’ll make it a point to refresh this article with all those updates. This is going to be OnePlus’ first flagship smartphone series after their merger with OPPO so it would be interesting to see what sort of changes would be implemented in terms of both hardware and software.
What are your expectations from the OnePlus 10 series? Is there anything you want to add to the wishlist? Let us know in the comments below!
The post OnePlus 10 and 10 Pro: Everything we know so far about the upcoming flagship series, along with XDA’s Wishlist! appeared first on xda-developers.
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