What is going on to OnePlus? This 12 months, the model scaled down on its flagship launch to the singular OnePlus 10 Pro. The upside is that there’s just one OnePlus mannequin to contemplate among the many sea of Android smartphones at the moment supplied. The draw back is that OnePlus’s choices have turn into severely restricted.

We’re within the midst of a bizarre time for Android. We misplaced some manufacturers and gained some new ones which have but to indicate off their wares. One of these manufacturers that modified trajectories was OnePlus, which misplaced its co-founder, Carl Pei, to one other startup hoping to indicate up the Apple iPhone later this 12 months. That’s left the remainder of us questioning what would occur to OnePlus since its guardian firm, Oppo, introduced plans for “deeper integration” of its ecosystem. If the OnePlus 10 Pro is any indication, the model will possible keep its place as one other Android various. But this newest smartphone actually doesn’t shine as vivid as after we mentioned this was a model on its solution to changing into a true Samsung rival.

It’s the little issues

The OnePlus 10 Pro has been in the marketplace in China since January, however now it’s obtainable stateaspect. Rather than two variants, OnePlus has determined to solely lead with one flagship machine, dubbing it a “Pro” model from the get-go.

The OnePlus 10 Pro is available in two colours: Emerald Forest and Volcanic Black, the latter of which is what the corporate despatched over for overview. The cellphone options exaggerated rounded edges just like the common Galaxy S22 collection. Its bottom is semi-matte, and I personally respect that OnePlus has strayed away from the shiny rears it featured on its final two cellphone releases, the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 9 collection.

The rear-facing digital camera module pops out of the again just like the Google Pixel 6. It homes three digital camera lenses: a major 48-MP digital camera with OIS and an f/1.8 aperture, an 8-megapixel telephoto digital camera with OIS, and a 50-MP ultra-wide digital camera with a 150-degree subject of view, which doubles as a fish-eye lens for those who’re within the temper. There’s additionally a 32-megapixel front-facing digital camera on the entrance of the machine, positioned within the higher left-hand nook like on earlier OnePlus units. I’ll get into the efficiency of those 4 cameras in a bit.

The OnePlus 10 Pro sports activities a 6.7-inch QuadHD Fluid AMOLED show with a most brightness of round 480 nits. The display dimension is barely taller than the Galaxy S22+, as is the OnePlus 10 Pro’s chassis. The show encompasses a most refresh charge of 120Hz, although OnePlus provides a local rate-adjusting mechanism that corresponds with the content material you’re watching on display.

Inside, the OnePlus 10 Pro’s {hardware} is much like the remainder of the worldwide Android competitors. It contains {hardware} just like the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor and 8GB RAM. I’m a bit bummed that we don’t have the choice of a 12GB variant obtainable right here, as that was par for the course for OnePlus’s final two cellphone releases and a part of the explanation I most popular its telephones over the competitors. Even Motorola is providing the choice with the Edge+. The distinction is minimal to the on a regular basis smartphone consumer, however it’s palpable after you’ve had a 12 months to completely “move into” the machine and clog it up with apps and issues. The OnePlus 10 Pro additionally solely provides 128GB of storage, which is about half of what I’ve been working with these final couple of years. After transferring the mass of my photos and movies over, I solely had 16GB of storage left. You may not just like the limitation for those who’re a local-storage media hoarder like me.

Our artificial benchmarks positioned the OnePlus 10 Pro’s skills on the backside in comparison with its closest rivals; the Galaxy S22 Ultra, S22+, Xiaomi 12 Pro, and Motorola Edge+, which all characteristic the identical processor. However, most of these overview items additionally run on 12GB RAM, which helps clarify the OnePlus 10 Pro’s slower numbers. (Samsung was additionally caught throttling the numbers throughout our preliminary testing interval, which has resulted in some open-ended questions concerning the validity of the newest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 benchmarks.)

Regardless, I had no efficiency points throughout my time with the OnePlus 10 Pro, regardless of the lesser reminiscence providing. I watched Degrassi on HBO Max in split-screen mode whereas chatting in Discord on the opposite aspect. The OnePlus 10 Pro was a superb Pokemon Go companion, and we even had a Saturday night time the place we went down a number of TikTok rabbit holes with ease.

The OnePlus 10 Pro additionally provides spectacular battery life. The 5000 mAh battery pack lasted 17 hours and 18 minutes in our battery rundown take a look at. That’s an hour longer than the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and Xiaomi 12 Pro, which have similar-sized batteries. The OnePlus 10 Pro is fast to cost, too, with its most 65-watt charging velocity and 50-watt wi-fi charging.

There are a number of different notable features of the OnePlus 10 Pro you would possibly choose over different smartphones. Namely, there’s the helpful quantity swap on the best aspect of the machine, which you should utilize like on the Apple iPhone 13 to silence your ringer and media quantity rapidly. The under-display fingerprint reader additionally makes a comeback, although facial unlock is out there. But maybe my favourite a part of the OnePlus 10 Pro, which Samsung and Google’s units don’t provide, is that the quantity rocker and energy button are break up up on both aspect of the cellphone as an alternative of being positioned subsequent to one another. This makes it so my proper hand, which is my dominant hand, can simply grip the machine to take a screenshot. It’s the little issues.

The solely digital camera you want

Let’s dive into what you got here right here to see: the digital camera samples. The OnePlus 10 Pro’s major digital camera is a “custom-built” 48-MP Sony IMX789 sensor, which the corporate says is unique to its units. The second telephoto digital camera can seize as much as 30x digital zoom and contains optical picture stabilization to assist make up for the truth that it’s zooming in digitally and never, say, optically. The ultra-wide digital camera goes as much as a 150-degree subject of view, making for a neat fish-eye impact that you simply’ll need to manually transition to if you wish to use it within the digital camera app. All three of the rear-facing lenses shoot in full 10-bit shade.

The OnePlus 10 Pro’s telephoto digital camera is unquestionably behind in comparison with the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s, contemplating Samsung {couples} two of them into its final machine. The 8-MP telephoto tops out at 3.3x optical zoom, so that you received’t be taking eye-popping moon pictures as you’ll be able to with Samsung’s beefiest flagship. At the very least, OnePlus considerably improved its nighttime algorithm, and the OnePlus 10 Pro was able to taking dramatic stormy sky pictures. This is the primary time since utilizing the OnePlus 8 that I don’t thoughts sharing nighttime pictures.

The OnePlus 10 Pro had no drawback with the night time shot on a tripod, and the digital camera app instantly flipped right into a long-exposure mode to maintain the sensor open for a couple of minute to extract knowledge. The outcome was a photograph that appeared bluer than the Pixel 6 Pro’s Night Sight and rather less uncovered than the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Indoors and not using a tripod, the OnePlus 10 Pro exhibits its limitations. I had a tough time getting a gentle picture with my shakey palms. If you zoom in, you’ll see that solely the Pixel 6 Pro might determine the best way to make the shot, whereas the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s outcome was extra set on sharpening the picture. These pictures may also help us see how completely different algorithms are programmed to work their magic.

Outdoors, the OnePlus carried out higher than I anticipated. I took loads of vivid, sunny day pictures, and so they appeared nice, although they required a bit test beforehand for blurry faces earlier than zooming in. I observed a bit clipping, too, when taking pictures previous the optical zoom restrict.

The shade temperature distinction between the OnePlus 10 Pro, Pixel 6 Pro, and Galaxy S22 Ultra is particularly obvious on cloudy days. There’s extra of a yellow tinge to OnePlus’s pictures in comparison with Google’s snaps (which appear extra impartial in lighting) and Samsung’s photos are just a bit extra saturated than the opposite two. Still, I’d take any of those pictures to Instagram or print them to a Google Photos album. It’s a testomony to how a lot better Android smartphone cameras have turn into in recent times. The OnePlus 10 Pro is completely able to being the one digital camera inside your attain.

OnePlus’s front-facing 32-MP digital camera was simply as pleasing to shoot with, and it might deal with your thirsty selfies or ranty TikToks. I additionally tried the automated portrait mode with the rear digital camera, and whereas it’s gotten higher at blurring out the scene than the way it carried out on the OnePlus 9, it’ll nonetheless require you to take a number of pictures earlier than you find yourself with one you want.

The OnePlus 10 Pro is barely aggressive in its daytime saturation. If it’s an excessive amount of for you, the digital camera does provide a Hasselblad-branded Pro mode of types, that includes dwell edits and an automated focus mode so that you simply’re simply adjusting bits of the picture fairly than your complete scene. But until what you’re doing, it may be an excessive amount of to cope with whenever you’re and not using a tripod or just making an attempt to get the shot.

Anyway, if picture and shade accuracy are what you’re actually into, you’ll be able to shoot a few pictures with the OnePlus 10 Pro’s included RAW mode and make the modifying occur in an exterior app like Adobe Lightroom. You may also try the Long Exposure mode for low-light shenanigans, which helps you to set how lengthy the shutter ought to keep open for a photograph.

Video recording stays gratifying with the OnePlus 10 Pro. I’ve taken a whole bunch of movies between the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 9 items that I’ve wielded prior to now, and I’m happy to see the corporate hasn’t strayed from its stabilization capabilities. The OnePlus 10 Pro can document in 4K as much as 120 frames-per-second (fps) and 8K at 24 fps.

A special sort of Android

Every Android consumer is aware of what they like. Some of us like to make use of Google’s model of the working system with its Pixel units, making certain well timed software program updates and freshly-out-of-beta Android options that everybody else has to attend some time to get. Other customers like Samsung’s One UI as a result of the corporate provides a bunch of minor software program tweaks to make it a extra palatable expertise, together with the quite-capable Samsung DeX mode.

OnePlus does the identical with its model of Android 12, or OxygenOS 12.1. Admittedly, it’s messy when you first take it out of the field and set it up. I transferred over all my information and purposes from the older OnePlus 9, and as soon as arrange completed, each app was splayed out on the Home display fairly than filed away into the app drawer.

OnePlus provides many useful UI options with out overdoing it. I like the flexibility to swap out icons via the native launcher and choose which shade scheme you need all through the interface. However, it doesn’t have the identical Material You-style shade extraction choice course of, which you would possibly really feel you’re lacking out on for those who have been a fan of the Pixel 6’s flowery advertising. I’m simply relieved it didn’t convert over to Oppo’s ColorOS, which is what we have been all fearing.

One characteristic I didn’t anticipate OnePlus to be so aggressive about this time round is the Shelf, a widget-filled touchdown web page of types that pops up whenever you slide down from the highest nook of the display. It’s particularly delicate to swipes, however fortunately there’s an off swap for this characteristic.

As for software program updates, OnePlus has committed to a few years of Android OS updates and 4 years of safety updates for all of its smartphones after the OnePlus 8. This is much like Google and Samsung’s replace insurance policies.

Another Android various

The OnePlus 10 Pro is a wonderfully stable Android machine. There’s nothing notably excellent about it, but it surely’s succesful sufficient that it’s an possibility for those who don’t like the appear and feel of Samsung and Google’s respective telephones. I might have most popular the next storage providing for OnePlus’s single SKU, which seems like a transfer that signifies the corporate is determining if there’s any model loyalty within the U.S. market.

That being mentioned, it’s a must to actually need to wield a OnePlus smartphone to decide on the OnePlus 10 Pro over Google’s Pixel 6 and Samsung’s Galaxy S22 collection—particularly contemplating the $900 value level. You can get the 128GB Google Pixel 6 Pro with 12GB RAM and a greater nighttime digital camera for a similar sum of money. For $100 extra, you can even get the Samsung Galaxy S22+ with the identical quantity of reminiscence and 256GB of cupboard space. The selection is straightforward: which Android model are you?