Review | OnePlus 10 Pro review: 2nd-gen Hasselblad cameras the selling point, along with 6.7-inch AMOLED display and superfast charging
- The triple-camera system on the OnePlus 10 Pro can process 64 times more colours than most other smartphones’ cameras and has 25 per cent more colour coverage
- The 6.7-inch AMOLED display has higher lowlight colour accuracy, and the phone will go from zero to a full charge in 34 minutes. It sells for US$899
If you’re an Android phone manufacturer and your name isn’t Samsung, Google or Sony you have to make a splash in other ways to get attention.
OnePlus has been trying to gain market share for the past decade by being known as a manufacturer that creates flagship-level phones which cost less than the competition.
And it has worked. The Chinese company has a loyal and growing customer base, but it could certainly use more name recognition.
Starting last year, it began a multi-year collaboration with Hasselblad, the noted Swedish camera maker, to put Hasselblad cameras in OnePlus Pro phones. This year, the second-generation Hasselblad camera system is the highlight of the new OnePlus 10 Pro.
Design and hardware
The OnePlus 10 Pro has a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a 120 Hertz dynamic refresh rate that can adjust the screen refresh rate between 1 and 120 times per second, as needed.
The screen has dual-colour calibration, meaning it will provide more accurate colours at 100 and 500 nits of brightness. Colours will look more accurate in lower brightness settings.
The screen has a maximum resolution of 3,216 by 1,440 pixels for a pixel density of 525 pixels per inch. It is covered with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus.
The phone runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8th Gen 1 CPU with 8 gigabytes of RAM and 128 GB of storage.
The dimensions of the 10 Pro are 6.4 by 2.9 by 0.33 inches, and it has a USB-C 3.1 charge/sync port.
Software and features
The phone will ship with Android 12 and OxygenOS 12.1. OnePlus says users will get the next three Android updates (up to Android 15).
The three Hasselblad cameras on the OnePlus 10 Pro include wide-angle, ultra-wide and telephoto lenses, and they are capable of shooting in 10-bit colour.
That might not mean a lot to most people, but OnePlus says its cameras can process 64 times more colour than other smartphones that have 8-bit cameras.
If that weren’t enough, the OnePlus 10 Pro captures 25 per cent more colour coverage than other smartphones, meaning it produces pictures that look better than those of the competition.
The 50-megapixel ultrawide camera has a 150-degree field of view that captures some interesting shots. The default view of the ultrawide is 110 degrees, but you can enable 150-degree mode in the camera’s settings.
The main camera has an exclusive 48MP Sony sensor to capture 10 bits of colour.
The telephoto camera has an 8MP sensor with a 3.3x optical zoom, with the option of a 30x digital zoom with a new “super resolution algorithm” that OnePlus says improves the clarity of photos shot with digital zoom.
Performance and battery life
The camera application has a mode called Hasselblad Pro that can be used with all three cameras. It allows the photographer to have almost total control over all the settings involved in taking a picture.
The 32MP selfie camera offers double the megapixels and a 27 per cent wider field of view compared with the one used in last year’s OnePlus 9 series.
The OnePlus 10 Pro has a Movie mode that allows the shooter to adjust ISO, shutter speed and white balance before and during filming.
The smartphone can record 4K video at 120 frames per second and 8K video at 24 fps. There is also a dual-video view that can record from the front and rear cameras at the same time.
The handset runs on a 5,000 mAh battery, which can be fast-charged with a 65-watt wired charger or a 50-watt wireless charger. With the included 65W charger, the phone can go from zero to 100 per cent charge in just 34 minutes.
The OnePlus 10 Pro’s display has a screen refresh rate that can be adjusted to between 1 and 120 times per second, as needed. This dynamic refresh mode gives the user up to 1.5 more hours of battery life compared with last year’s flagship OnePlus model.
Conclusion
OnePlus really wants the 10 Pro to stand out as a smartphone with top-tier cameras, and it has succeeded.
The competition is the iPhone 13 Pro Max and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. The cameras in the 10 Pro are on par with Apple and Samsung’s best offerings.
OnePlus has done a great job keeping the 10 Pro’s price down while keeping the features competitive.
The OnePlus 10 Pro is available in a single configuration that offers 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage, and will cost US$899.
