The OnePlus 10 Pro has finally launched globally, almost three months after it was launched in China. There is no point going into a detailed introduction now.
Anyway, I’ve used it as my primary driver for about 10 days and this is my detailed review. I’ve also thrown in a camera comparison with the iPhone 13 Pro Max for added context on how the Hasselblad 2.0 system performs.
I am Ershad. You are watching Trakin Tech English. Let’s just get on with the review.
Contents
Camera
I really want to start off with the cameras this time because OnePlus has updated the Hasselblad camera to Hasselblad 2.0 and I took a lot of shots at NH7 Weekender. I’m doing a comparison with the iPhone 13 Pro Max just to see if the 10 Pro’s cameras are actually that good. In any case, I’ve already done a comparison with the 9 Pro’s cameras. You must check it out if you haven’t already.
- The 10 Pro does capture slightly sharper images thanks to the larger sensor. But, there is a slight bit of oversharpening. You will have to be okay with that.
- However, the Hasselblad natural colour science doesn’t really match the colour accuracy of the iPhone 13 Pro Max. In the first shot, the Blues are Bluer, the Reds are Orange-er, and the Greens are well not very Green. I mean, it is an attractive picture, yes. But, I feel the 9 Pro was slightly better. And, even if you look at the gradients in the sky, the iPhone 13 Pro looks so good here.
- Dynamic range performance is not too bad on the OnePlus 10 Pro but in certain situations, like this one shot with the 3x camera, the iPhone 13 Pro Max just smokes it.
- But, HDR is not always the best. Especially when you look at this picture of Sagar shot against a very harshly lit background. Clearly, the OnePlus 10 Pro is doing better here. Moreover, in the second picture, the OnePlus 10 Pro’s sharp sensor comes in handy with the sharp textures too. That said, the facial tones are more accurate on the iPhone 13 Pro Max.
- If you are capturing portraits, the OnePlus 10 Pro zooms in 2x using the main camera and doesn’t use the Telephoto. Therefore, it looks soft. The edge detection is good, though. In 1x portraits, the level of depth is higher on the 10 Pro. I’d say, portraits are pretty good on the 10 Pro. In fact, if you are shooting your friends and family with the rear camera, the 10 Pro does a good job.
- However, selfies are way better on the iPhone. Whether you are shooting in even light or Portraits, you are bound to appreciate how good it looks. The selfies do look incredibly crisp, detailed and have better facial tones compared to the 10 Pro. OnePlus doesn’t do much to control the bright spots all over my face and hence ends up over-exposing it.
- Ultrawide shots look equally good on both the phones, but the OnePlus 10 Pro has an ace up its sleeve and that is the 150-degree camera. That lets you take some insane perspectives. I really love that mode. In fact, I did talk in detail about the importance of the Fish Eye mode in my previous comparison. You must check it out.
- By the way, the OnePlus 10 Pro cannot shoot Macros, which is weird considering the OnePlus 9 Pro could. Apple added a macro mode with the iPhone 13 series this year. And therefore, the Macro shots look way better and sharper.
- But it is the 3x telephoto camera on the iPhone 13 Pro Max, that just smokes the OnePlus 10 Pro’s 3.3x telephoto. Every time I punched in with these cameras, the iPhone just made the more attractive picture. From colour science consistency to great dynamic range and low light performance, the OnePlus 10 Pro couldn’t match up. I am glad the telephoto exists on the 10 Pro but it is high time that OnePlus started looking at better solutions.
- In low light shots, the OnePlus 10 Pro just wants to make everything look brighter. And therefore, you can see how the Black night sky turns Grey here and the picture ends up losing a lot of the dynamics that the iPhone 13 Pro Max can capture. Shooting a concert in the night is a complex situation and clearly the iPhone 13 Pro Max captures better memories. Even if it isn’t a very complex situation, the OnePlus 10 Pro does tend to brighten the scene a tad too much. It shows that the IMX 789 is a very capable sensor, which can let in a lot of night but the algorithm needs to tune it right. I do still find it annoying that sometimes the 13 Pro Max tends to crush the shadows a bit too much in low light.
- By the way, my analysis for low light shots is also true for low light ultra wide shots.
- Low Light selfies are also crisper on the iPhone 13 Pro Max.
- And, low light videos in 4K 60fps are far less noisy on the iPhone compared to the OnePlus.
- It is not like the 10 Pro shoots bad video footage. It is good for an Android phone. It can shoot up to 8k videos but I compared the 4K 60fps footage to the iPhone 13 Pro Max and you can clearly see the difference. You get better footage on the 13 Pro Max with no focus hunting, better dynamic range and a spot on exposure too. I do like the OnePlus 10 Pro’s sound recording, though. While the iPhone sounds cleaner with better environmental noise correction, at the concert, OnePlus was better at capturing the bass and minute details because it was capturing more of the dynamics. But yes, it didn’t sound as clean, though. And, even if you are shooting with the ultrawide or the telephoto, the iPhone is better.
- Videos using the front camera are a huge let down on the OnePlus 10 Pro because it is capped at 1080p 30fps. The iPhone can shoot in 4K 60fps with Dolby Vision! Undoubtedly it looks stunning in comparison.
The OnePlus 10 Pro did trouble the iPhone 13 Pro Max once or twice in my camera comparison. It is not like the 10 Pro is a bad camera but it is not as great as OnePlus makes it out to be with the Hasselblad partnership. There is still a lot of work left to do. But yeah, the iPhone is way more expensive and a correct comparison would be something like the iQOO 9 Pro or the Samsung Galaxy S22. Let me guys know if you want to see one. But, I am fairly certain both those phones will be better.
Design
I know that a lot of people don’t like the design of the camera module on the OnePlus 10 Pro but I like it. It looks unique and stands out. I am glad OnePlus doesn’t play it safe here. It is very similar to the backlash that the company received when it launched the OnePlus 7T with the circular module. And, that is one phone that stands out every time I see it in the flesh.
And, as for the 10 Pro, the curved Gorilla Glass Victus back and front blend into the aluminium frame and it feels very premium. The in-hand feel is great. Plus, you get a fantastic quality case inside the box. I’ve been rocking the sandpaper case, which offers a great grip.
The rest of the design includes the Type-C 3.1 port at the bottom, stereo speakers, and no headphone jack. And, of course, the fantastic alert slider exists too. By the way, talking about the speaker, the 10 Pro’s stereo setup sounds pretty loud and very, very clean. I really love the way it is tuned. However, the Mi 11 Ultra is still the gold standard for stereo speaker setup on phones thanks to the Harman Kardon tuning. Anyway, listen to the 10 Pro’s speaker setup to judge for yourself.
All that said, there’s one major baffling omission and that is the IP rating. I am sure, the OnePlus 10 Pro can easily handle a few splashes of water here and there but adding an official IP rating would’ve given us some peace of mind.
Display
If you know me, I am not a fan of curved displays because I find it uncomfortable to use and ghost touches are bound to happen. But, I will not deny that they look very attractive. The 10 Pro’s curved panel offers QHD resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, DCI-P3 colour gamut, and HDR playback with 1300 Nits of peak brightness. It is an absolutely gorgeous display to watch videos and play games on. The outdoor brightness is great, the colour accuracy is good, and there is no visible colour shift either. In fact, the lowest brightness level gets really low, making it easy to view the display in the dark, with no visible colour banding either. It is an A+ panel overall.
The haptic feedback is not the tightest around but it works well and OnePlus has integrated vibration feedback across different aspects of the system. I also like the fact that the optical in-display fingerprint scanner is at the right position and is super fast to unlock the phone.
Performance
The OnePlus 10 Pro has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, which is the best Qualcomm makes today. The AnTuTu benchmark numbers lie between the iQOO 9 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. The CPU doesn’t throttle as much as the iQOO 9 Pro. But, the S22 Ultra offers even better throttling performance after the update. Samsung has done a good job here. Although, the S22 Ultra fares terribly in our 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test, where the OnePlus 10 Pro and the iQOO 9 Pro do a better job.
The 10 Pro is easily the fastest and smoothest phone I’ve used all year. It just flies. It also plays all games at the highest graphics settings. It doesn’t get too hot either, which is great. In comparison, the iQOO 9 Pro would get hot easily. Overall, I’m supremely impressed that OnePlus has gone back to its roots of offering the most fluid Android phone experience.
You also get a lot of 5G bands and support for 4G carrier aggregation. The call quality was fantastic too.
Battery
OnePlus has bumped up the battery size on the OnePlus 10 Pro. You now get a 5000mAh battery inside. This is essential for a phone with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. I tried three battery runs, once with QHD resolution and 120Hz, and twice with FHD+ resolution and 120Hz. All three times I got a SoT in the vicinity of 5 hours, which is strictly a one-day battery life. But, that’s also because I was battering the phone. The battery performance is better than the iQOO 9 Pro. By the way, the Moto Edge 30 Pro is still the best Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 phone when it comes to battery performance.
The 10 Pro also supports 80W SuperVOOC charging now and it takes the same 30 odd minutes to charge from 0 to 100 similar to the OnePlus 9 Pro. That’s also because the 9 Pro had a 4500mAh battery but 65W charging speed. Basically, what I’ve noticed is that 80W doesn’t offer a huge upgrade in charging speed compared to 65W. But, the 65W charging was great to begin with. Oh, and lest I forget, you also get support for 50W fast wireless charging too.
Software
The OnePlus 10 Pro runs on the latest Oxygen OS 12.1 based on Android 12. And, our unit has the Feb Security patch update as well. OnePlus promises 3 years of OS upgrades and 4 years of security patch upgrades. Oxygen OS is still one of the cleanest when it comes to third-party app installs. And, it is definitely the most customisable for sure. While the Color OS codebase integration has created a few design inconsistencies here and there in the UI, I am willing to be patient and see how Oxygen OS 13 looks.
Because frankly, this is as premium a software integration as it gets. You can change icon packs, you can customise system colour themes, you can create automatic wallpapers, the animations are super duper smooth…essentially, there’s just a whole laundry list of features that’s worth appreciating. I also like the fact that OnePlus Shelf is now a drop down toggle from the top right corner. I am just glad OnePlus is back to doing the right things.
Conclusion
I must admit, I had low expectations for the OnePlus 10 Pro but ended up enjoying it more than the OnePlus 9 Pro. That’s primarily because I didn’t face any heating issues and the performance was tuned really well. This was a major problem with the 9 Pro last year. Plus, Oxygen OS 12 works absolutely beautifully on this phone and I am certain OnePlus will make a comeback with Oxygen OS 13, with a more streamlined design. The cameras are good enough, the display is fantastic, battery life is as good as it gets with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, fast charging is mad fast – what more could one really want for the price of about Rs 70,000?
IP rating, you say? Are you hearing that OnePlus?
Now, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that this is the comeback phone for OnePlus but it is a more refined experience compared to the OnePlus 9 Pro. That’s for sure. Which is a step in the right direction.
What do you folks think? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time, Keep Trakin and Stay Safe.
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