The OnePlus 10 Pro is the next flagship phone from OnePlus, and it’s now official.
Unexpectedly, it looks like there might only be a 10 Pro – with no sign yet of a regular OnePlus 10 or the expected 10R model for India and China. OnePlus has at least revealed the phone’s striking redesign and most of its specs now, which were enough to earn the phone one of our coveted Best of CES Awards.
The new flagship has officially launched in China. But when will the 10 Pro make it to the rest of the world, and what on earth happened to the regular OnePlus 10?
When is the OnePlus 10 release date?
OnePlus launched the OnePlus 10 Pro in China on 11 January, after first revealing the phone at CES 2022.
While new OnePlus flagships tend to launch in mid-spring, we got this one a little early – or at least China did, as for now we have no solid information on when the phone will make it to the rest of the world. The company has promised a launch in “India, Europe, and North America later in 2022,” so it is confirmed to be on the way eventually.
It might be very soon. OnePlus has confirmed that it will be showing the 10 Pro off at Mobile World Congress, a Barcelona-based tradeshow that kicks off this year on 28 February. The company hasn’t specifically said that it will be using the show to launch the 10 Pro in Europe or announce when it will go on sale, but it seems pretty likely.
That lines up well with details shared before the phone’s Chinese announcement by leaker Max Jambor in this timeline, which suggests the phone’s global release will come in March/April.
— Max Jambor (@MaxJmb) November 17, 2021
That’s backed up by leaker Yogesh Brar, who tweeted that the 10 Pro’s global launch is coming in March, while also suggesting dates for the likes of the Nord N20, Nord CE 2, and some other OnePlus accessory products.
The other caveat is that OnePlus has so far only mentioned the 10 Pro. Will the regular 10 have a different launch date? Or is it not launching at all?
Brar has hinted that it might be the latter, warning on Twitter that, “I see just 1 product in the OnePlus 10 series for now, maybe a mid year will follow up.” So if you don’t like the Pro, you might be out of luck.
Since then we’ve heard rumour of a OnePlus 10 Ultra in the works though, so there could still be more OnePlus 10 goodness on the way.
How much will the OnePlus 10 Pro cost?
So far OnePlus has only launched the 10 Pro in China, which means we only have local pricing for that model. Here’s how much it costs, with rough conversions to other currencies:
- 8+128GB – RMB 4699 ($740/£540/€650)
- 8+256GB – RMB 4999 ($785/£575/€690)
- 12+256GB – RMB 5299 ($830/£610/€730)
Note that direct conversions aren’t an especially accurate guide for global pricing, which tends to be higher – so expect to pay more than those figures whenever the 10 Pro does launch worldwide.
One note of encouragement is that the 10 Pro is cheaper than the 9 Pro was in China – by the equivalent of about $50 on the cheapest model, and $100 on the top config. Hopefully that means we’ll see a similar price cut for the global launch.
For reference, here are the prices of the last few models that launched in the West (note that different models launched in different markets, hence the varied prices):
- OnePlus 9 Pro: £829/€899
- OnePlus 8 Pro: £799/$899
And for reference in case a regular 10 does arrive, here’s how much the standard models have cost recently:
- OnePlus 9: £629/$729/€699
- OnePlus 8T: £549/$649
- OnePlus 8: £599/$699
What new features will we see in the OnePlus 10?
With the phone now official, OnePlus has revealed just about every key spec. If you’d rather watch than read, we discuss the specs in depth in an episode of our weekly podcast Fast Charge:
Design
OnePlus first revealed the phone’s official design – though it’s not new to us, as the exact design was leaked by OnLeaks and Zouton back in November last year.
OnePlus has revealed Volcanic Black and Emerald Green variants of the 10 Pro, though the OnLeaks report claims that the phone will also be available in white and light blue finishes. We haven’t seen any official sign of either though, so they may not be on the way at all.
On the front you’ll find a 6.7in curved display – similar to previous Pro entries – with a punch-hole selfie camera in the top-left corner. OnLeaks has since added that the phone will have an IP68 rating too.
It’s 8.55mm thick, and 163.0 x 73.9mm across the front.
Then there’s that camera module. It reveals a triple camera array with a flash – more on that in a bit. It’s the design that’s more unusual, with the way it wraps around the frame calling to mind the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, though the module doesn’t quite extend all the way to the top of the phone.
Of course, this is also specifically for the Pro, so we don’t know how the regular OnePlus 10 might differ from this if it exists at all – could it look the same, or similar with fewer lenses, or look entirely different?
Display
As mentioned above, the display is 6.7in across the diagonal, but we know more than that.
OnePlus has confirmed that we can expect a 120Hz AMOLED display, using LTPO 2.0 tech to provide a dynamic refresh rate between 1Hz and 120Hz. The 9 Pro had the first-gen version of the same tech, but OnePlus says the updated display switches refresh rate faster – making it even more power efficient.
Core specs
On the processor side of things, the OnePlus 10 Pro uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 – the latest Qualcomm flagship chip, unveiled at the end of November 2021.
This is paired with 8GB/12GB LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB/256GB UFS 3.1 storage options – pretty standard for OnePlus.
Battery
Moving on, we’re getting a battery of 5000mAh – a decent improvement from the 4500mAh cell in the 9 Pro.
As for charging, the phone supports 80W wired charging – the fastest yet from OnePlus – and 50W wireless, along with reverse wireless too.
Interestingly, these are branded SuperVOOC and AirVOOC respectively. Those are the brand names for Oppo‘s charging standards, as opposed to OnePlus’s own Warp Charge – yet another small shift as Oppo moves to incorporate OnePlus more closely into the parent brand.
Camera
As for camera, that large and unusual 10 Pro camera module will pack three rear shooters: a 48Mp primary sensor, a 50Mp ultra-wide lens, and an 8Mp telephoto lens (though this isn’t a high zoom periscopic lens as we’ve seen on some rival flagships). As before, all three come with Hasselblad branding.
This is a similar set-up to the camera on the 9 Pro, but there have been tweaks. The biggest hardware change appears to be to the ultra-wide, which now supports a 150° field of view – which would be a world-first if it hadn’t appeared in the Realme GT 2 Pro just days before.
OnePlus has released a sample shot from the ultra-wide, which is impressive but features pretty clear edge distortion and bending. The new lens is also capable of shooting more traditional 110° wide-angle shots if you prefer to minimise that (which is actually the default ultra-wide setting, apparently), or a fisheye mode if you want to go all-in and accentuate the curved edges.
There are more camera upgrades besides. The new Hasselblad Pro mode is supported on all three rear lenses, and can shoot 12-bit RAW+ images – a format that combines the versatility of RAW with some of the phones existing computational photography features. Even the regular camera modes are able to shoot in 10-bit now too – again, across all three rear lenses.
Finally, a new Movie Mode allows you to adjust ISO, shutter speed, and more both before and during video capture. You’re also able to record video in LOG format.
On the front the 10 Pro has a 32Mp punch-hole camera – that at least is an upgrade, with double the resolution of the 9 series’ selfie shooters.
Software
On the software side, we’ll get OxygenOS 12 on top of Android 12, but not quite as we know it.
In a blog post in September 2021 company founder Pete Lau confirmed that after the merger with fellow manufacturer Oppo the two brands have folded their OS divisions into a single team.
This means that OxygenOS (OnePlus) and ColorOS (Oppo) are becoming a unified codebase. Lau stated, “I believe that the unified operating system will keep the DNA of OxygenOS that many of you love so much, while also giving you an upgraded experience overall.”
He also confirmed that the new software will appear on its next generation of devices: “In terms of timeline, for global OnePlus devices, we will first introduce the integrated OS with the launch of our next flagship series in 2022. The integration will be fully completed together with the next major Android update in 2022.”
An early version of this integrated software was included on the OnePlus Nord 2, while the Android 12 update for the OnePlus 9 series also includes ColorOS integrations, so anyone with those phones can see the direction in which OnePlus is headed – though it sounds like there are more changes on the way in 2022.
What about the OnePlus 10 Ultra?
OnePlus has never released an ‘Ultra’ branded phone before, but 2022 may be when it bucks that trend – at least according to leaker Yogesh Brar.
Technology sharing between OnePlus & Oppo is in Full swing, Find X5 series gets Hasselblad treatment and I’m hearing that MariSilicon will be seen on a OnePlus Flagship in the 2nd Half of this year.
There are rumours of an Ultra flagship from OnePlus in the EVT phase right now.
— Yogesh Brar (@heyitsyogesh) January 25, 2022
He tweeted that an Ultra flagship is on the way and in early testing – the ‘Engineering Validation Test’ phase, if you’re wondering what EVT means. Broadly speaking, that means the hardware is being tested out but the final design is not yet ready.
Brar didn’t share any details on what might make the Ultra, well, Ultra, so we’ll still have to wait to find out more.
To see what the new OnePlus models have to compete with, be sure to read our guide to the best smartphones.