OnePlus 10 Pro review: Not bad but could've been better
After reviewing the mid-range Nord 2T 5G last week, we now move to absolute flagship territory and take a look at the best that OnePlus has to offer currently. As expected, the OnePlus 10 Pro is a powerful phone that not only employs the fastest processing hardware around but also promises to deliver improved performance in other departments like camera and battery backup, courtesy of second generation Hasselblad cameras and higher capacity battery with faster charging, respectively. The Indian smartphone market is filled to the brim with quality options, and it is never a walk in the park for any brand these days. You not only have competition from the likes of Samsung and Apple in the premium segment, but typically mid-range brands like Realme and Xiaomi have also upped their game with some serious options in the premium segment. How well can the OnePlus 10 Pro deal with its adversaries? Time to find out.
Striking design, smudge-resistant glass back, excellent flagship-grade display
The OnePlus 10 Pro design is very striking, especially its back panel and the camera module. The back, though made of glass, has a smooth matte finish and is pretty much smudge free. Both the Volcanic Black and Emerald Forest color variants look good, but the latter is a little better. The camera module is very distinct and feels like an extension of the aluminium frame. It hosts three cameras and a flash. The glass back and the curved display blend seamlessly into the frame. The phone weighs a shade over 200 grams and does feel a bit heavy in hand, but at the same time feels quite rugged. The volume rockers are present along the left edge while the power button and alert slider can be found on the right. The placement is just right, and same goes for the in-display fingerprint scanner located an inch above the bottom edge, and thus, easy to access. The display has a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, while the back has Gorilla Glass 5 to protect them from scratches and cracks. Speaking of display, you get a 6.7-inch 10-bit LTPO 2.0 Fluid AMOLED display with a resolution of 3216x1440 pixels and 525ppi pixel density. The HDR10+ compliant display can get up to 1,300 nits bright and has an adaptive refresh rate between 1 to 120Hz. It automatically adjusts the refresh rate depending on the app and content on the screen. This is a highly useful feature with the refresh rate going up to 120Hz when required (while scrolling in compatible apps for instance) and drops significantly to save battery when it's not necessary, like when viewing an image or video. The refresh rate is capped at 60Hz in most games, like in the case of the majority of phones. The overall display quality is top notch with accurate colors and sharp visuals.
Most powerful processing hardware around results in top notch performance
The OnePlus 10 Pro is powered by Qualcomm's top-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip. You get two variants of the phone, one with 8GB RAM and 128GB UFS 3.1 storage and the other with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage (we got the latter for review). It is a given that the performance is absolutely flagship grade with the phone returning scores that are right at the top of the charts in popular benchmarks. In real world scenarios too, things were a smooth sail across the board. Be it day to day operations or photography or gaming, the phone carried on without a hiccup or any heating issues. It does get warm after 30 minutes of gaming, but nothing alarming that one should be worried about. Watching content on that high-res screen is a great experience. The speakers on the phone complement the visual experience. There are two speakers on the 10 Pro, one behind the earpiece and the other along the bottom edge. They deliver loud and clear sound output with impressive stereo separation for phone speakers. The phone is compliant with Bluetooth 5.2 to connect wireless earphones or speakers, but just like most upper mid-range and flagship phones these days, it skips a 3.5mm headphone jack. Strangely, the Indian variant also skips the IP68 ingress protection that was present on the OnePlus 9 Pro. The call quality and reception were perfectly fine too. And of course, the phone is 5G compliant; all OnePlus phones have been for the past couple of years since OnePlus 8.
Good battery backup, faster charging, and the uninspiring OxygenOS 12
Why do I feel like a stuck record lately when it comes to OxygenOS? Or have I been reviewing far too many OnePlus phones in recent times? Probably the latter. Anyway, I will repeat myself one more time. As you might have guessed, the OnePlus 10 Pro runs the latest Android 12 with OxygenOS 12.1. And yes, it is not our favorite version of OxygenOS because it doesn't feel like it. Despite that, it is very much usable, and most importantly, it is still free of ads and unwanted notifications. We can live with that for now. Even better, chances are that OxygenOS 13 will be out by the time you read this long-term review, and hopefully it will restore some of its lost glory. And given that the 10 Pro is the company's flagship device, it will be among the first lot of devices to get the new update. The battery department on the OnePlus 10 Pro has undergone a few changes in comparison to its predecessor. The phone now packs a 5,000mAh battery (500mAh more than the 9 Pro) that easily lasts a day and a half of moderate use. Of course, if you indulge in heavy duty gaming for hours, don't expect it to last a full day. That's where fast charging comes in. Or should I say faster charging? The company has replaced the 65W Super VOOC charger on the 9 Pro with an 80W Super VOOC variant on the 10 Pro. Just like in the case of the Nord 2T, it doesn't shake things up, but saves about four minutes. The 80W charger takes the phone from from 1% to 100% in just about 34 minutes, while the 65W charger gets there in 38 minutes. Either ways these are good numbers, though not as insane as some of the 120W+ chargers flaunt. This phone also supports 50W fast wireless charging.
Versatile triple camera setup at the back, impressive picture quality
Barring the 2MP mono camera that has been bumped off, the rear camera combination is quite similar to that of its predecessor, at least on the surface. The 48MP primary camera with a Sony IMX789 sensor and OIS has been carried forward from the 9 Pro but now supposedly gets second generation Hasselblad color tuning. The 8MP telephoto camera also retains its spot. That too has OIS and provides up to 3.3x optical zoom. The 50MP ultra-wide camera here uses a Samsung sensor instead of its Sony counterpart on the 9 Pro. While this one offers a broader 150-degrees FOV, it lacks auto-focus that was present on its predecessor. There is no macro camera here. Moving on to picture quality, the 48MP primary camera clicks some excellent shots in various conditions and modes. The photos have very good detail and impressive dynamic range. Colors are indeed close to the actual shades of the subject. The 150-degrees broad FOV offered by the ultra-wide camera opens up some fun possibilities like Fish-eye mode. Even otherwise, the ultra-wide camera here does a good job in terms of colors and dynamic range in good to average light. In low light, the main camera does an excellent job and there's ample detail in the captured images with accurate colors. There isn't much noise either. When things get too dark, the Night mode makes things a tad brighter without missing out on the details. The ultra-wide camera is very much usable in low light too, though results aren't as good as the main camera. The 32MP selfie camera gets the job done just fine. The OnePlus 10 Pro is more than handy when it comes to recording videos. This phone can not just record videos up to 8K resolution but also record 4K videos at 120fps. You get 240fps and 480fps options for 1080p and 720p Super-slow-motion videos. The 4K videos look sharp and stabilized.
We would still recommend the OnePlus 9 Pro over this
The OnePlus 10 Pro is priced at Rs. 66,999 for the 8GB RAM and 128GB storage variant and Rs. 71,999 for the 12GB RAM and 256GB storage option with a one year warranty. Though it does offer a lot of flagship-grade features, we feel the price is a bit too high. OnePlus has made recommending the 10 Pro even more difficult by dropping the price of 9 Pro to Rs. 49,999. Barring the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, the OnePlus 9 Pro pretty much has everything worthwhile that its successor has to offer, and also an IP68 rating, making it a far better buy. If the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC is your primary reason for considering the OnePlus 10 Pro, there are other phones with the same chip that sell for anything between Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 24,000 lower. Yes, you read that right! Here are three options that come to mind straight away - Xiaomi 12 Pro 5G starting at Rs. 54,999 for the 8GB/256GB variant, Realme GT 2 Pro from Rs. 49,999 onward for the 8GB/128GB variant, and lastly the Motorola Edge 30 Pro with 8GB/128GB for as low as Rs. 42,999. Though there is nothing glaringly wrong about the OnePlus flagship, there is nothing extra-special either. All things considered, we do not have a strong enough reason to recommend the OnePlus 10 Pro at its current price. If you have been eyeing it, you might want to wait for another couple of months for the festive mega sales or for the company to announce a price drop after which you can pick one under Rs. 60,000.
