Way back in January OnePlus announced their 2022 flagship, the OnePlus 10 Pro, but unfortunately it was only available in China at that time. Now they have announced that folks around the world will be able to purchase it from mid-April but once again Australia has missed out on an official launch and we will have to purchase it through an importer such as Kogan.
The OnePlus 10 Pro will be officially available in the US, Canada, Europe and India from April 14 with pre-orders starting today for US$899 which is just approximately AU$1150 – cheap for an ultra-premium flagship but unfortunately for Aussies you’ll have to pay a premium import price/tax on that to get it here.
When you purchase a flagship OnePlus smartphone you expect the best of the best when it comes to hardware and the OnePlus 10 Pro is no different. The OnePlus 10 Pro is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform chipset (same as the OPPO Find X5 Pro), paired with up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage (also the same as the OPPO Find X5 Pro). Note that OnePlus is now a subsidiary of OPPO so the similarity in hardware should not come as a surprise.
The display was one of the best features of last year’s OnePlus 9 Pro and this year OnePlus has included an even better display. The display is a 6.7-inch QHD+ panel with a refresh rate of 120Hz with LTPO technology that allows for the refresh rate to be adjusted based on the requirement at the time (ie. what is on the display). The display is calibrated to deliver accurate, natural colours on a consistent basis.
The battery is a massive 5,000mAh but the best part about the battery is its ability to charge at 80W thanks to OPPO’s SuperVOOC Flash charging – Of particular note is that if you purchase a US product it will only arrive with a 65W charger. Indian and European versions will offer the full 80W charging but the OnePlus and OPPO chargers have always been interchangeable so expect an 80W OPPO Find X5 Pro charger to work at 80W on the OnePlus 10 Pro. The battery will also support 50W AirVOOC wireless charging.
The camera is where OnePlus has often let down their customers over the years and this year they are looking to overcome these issues with not just the help of Hasselblad in the second year of their partnership but also with the help of OPPO – OPPO has had great smartphone cameras in their flagships for a while now. Image capture by the rear camera setup is performed by a 48MP main camera, a 50MP 150-degree ultrawide camera and an 8MP telephoto camera. Expect great things from OnePlus with this camera – stay tuned for our upcoming review.
The software experience on a OnePlus phone has always been second only to the Pixel experience – with many placing it above the smartphones from the maker of Android. The software this year will once again be OxygenOS 12.1 from OnePlus based on Android 12 but it will be interesting to see how much influence OPPO and ColorOS has on OxygenOS.
OnePlus has publicly stated that the final version of their software will remain separate and distinguishable from ColorOS. Not only that but they have also promised to deliver 3 major Android updates and 4 years of security updates to their new flagship.
The OnePlus 10 Pro 5G (8+128 GB) in Volcanic Black and Emerald Forest goes on sale for $899US at OnePlus.com beginning April 14th. Pre-orders commence on March 31st and include a free pair of OnePlus Buds Z2. It will be available from OnePlus.com, Amazon and Best Buy in the US. Check out their Indian and European websites if you can use a third-party shipper.
Australians who are interested, and there always seems to be more than you’d expect, can purchase from any grey market importer – Kogan has long had OnePlus smartphones available for purchase (and already do this time too).
Keep an eye out for our review of the OnePlus 10 Pro 5G coming in the next few weeks.
