OnePlus 10 & 10 Pro: Everything we know about the 2022 OnePlus flagships

The OnePlus 10 Pro and 10 will have some significant changes in tow thanks to the company's Oppo-fication.

OnePlus has come a long way from its "Never Settle" days. The company that was once known for taking on premium flagship smartphones in the market at one-third the price has revised its strategy entirely in recent years. OnePlus phones are now almost as expensive as offerings from Samsung and Apple, with specs to match. The OnePlus 9 series was a modest success, though it could not live up to its Hasselblad camera hype in the imaging department. For 2022 though, OnePlus will have some major changes in tow for the OnePlus 10 series on the software front as the company is in the process of being Oppo-fied, with the hardware getting a minor refresh. Below is what rumors and leaks reveal about the OnePlus 10 series.

Galaxy S21-esque design for OnePlus 10 Pro

The OnePlus 10 series is still a few months away from launch, but renders have already revealed the OnePlus 10 Pro design. The device will take design cues from the Galaxy S21 series, with a camera bump that blends into the chassis. From the renders, it looks like the OnePlus 10 Pro will have curvier edges, which should help with ergonomics. A dummy replica of the OnePlus 10 Pro based on the renders gives a good look at how big the device will look in real life.

The front looks pretty uninspiring and is largely similar to the OnePlus 9 Pro, with the punch-hole camera located on the top-left corner. OnePlus also seemingly plans to offer the 10 Pro in a new forest green color. There should be other color options as well, but they are not known as of now.

OnePlus 10 Pro specs

OnePlus has always packed its phones with flagship-level specs, and if rumors are anything to go by, the OnePlus 10 Pro won't be any different, though it won't be a massive upgrade over the OnePlus 9 Pro. The device will feature a 6.7-inch 120Hz 1440p OLED display and a 5,000mAh battery. A leak suggests the 10 Pro will be powered by Qualcomm's next flagship chipset: the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. This will be paired with 8/12GB RAM and up to 256GB of speedy UFS-based storage.

Qualcomm has already unveiled its next-gen chip that will be fabricated on the 4nm foundry from Samsung. The new chip will bring a noticeable jump in AI and ML performance. It features a redesigned GPU as well that should offer notably superior gaming performance and better frame rates.

The triple-rear camera specs of the OnePlus 10 Pro will remain similar to their predecessor, with any planned improvements yet to be detailed. This means a 48MP primary sensor, a 50MP ultra-wide, and an 8MP 3.3x telephoto lens. While the camera resolution will remain the same, expect some improvements in the image processing department — an area where OnePlus has always lagged behind the competition. The powerful new ISP on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip should also allow the company to extract better quality images from the camera sensors. The front camera will get a much-needed bump to 32MP resolution that should help improve its image quality and allow the OnePlus 10 Pro to up its selfie game.

It will be interesting to see how OnePlus takes advantage of its Hasselblad partnership with the OnePlus 10 series. On the OnePlus 9 series, the Hasselblad improvements felt more like a marketing gimmick and did not provide any tangible real-world improvements.

OnePlus has pushed the boundary in terms of charging speeds with its recent devices. The OnePlus 9 Pro supports 65W fast charging speed that's good enough to charge it from empty to full in less than 30 minutes.

The OnePlus 10 Pro is rumored to be the company's fastest charging phone yet with the wired charging speed topping out at 80W. The wireless charging speed is expected to remain the same at 50W.

Ultimately, it looks like the OnePlus 10 Pro is going to be a refinement over the OnePlus 9 Pro instead of a radical upgrade. The 9 Pro was not a bad phone at all, but it had its own set of faults, which OnePlus can address with its successor.

ColorOS-based OxygenOS

Apart from its flagship specs, the OnePlus 10 series will be notable for launching with a new version of OxygenOS-ColorOS that will offer "the fast and smooth, burdenless experience of OxygenOS, and the stability and rich features of ColorOS." OxygenOS has long been one of the strengths of OnePlus devices, so it remains to be seen how the company manages this integration and ensures it does not destroy its USP.

Our hands-on with OxygenOS 12 beta based on ColorOS does point to OnePlus's skin merely existing as a launcher on top of Oppo's skin. This could be a point of worry in the OnePlus 10 series since OxygenOS users are quite vocal about their love for the skin and they are not going to be happy with ColorOS.

OnePlus also botched the official OxygenOS 12 update for the OnePlus 9 series. The initial build was so buggy the company had to stop the rollout. While it was relatively quick to roll out a revised build, it did not fix all the reported issues. This does not really inspire confidence in the new ColorOS-based OxygenOS 12, though the company has time to address these issues before the launch of its next flagship phone.

What about the OnePlus 10?

OnePlus typically launches a non-Pro version of its flagship phone with cut-down specs and a lower price. There have not been any leaks surrounding the OnePlus 10 so far, but it is only a matter of time before leaks surrounding it start popping up.

It's fair to expect the OnePlus 10 to be powered by the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 CPU, but retain the same triple-camera setup as found on its predecessor. The charging speeds should remain the same, with only the Pro model getting a speed bump in this regard.

An early launch schedule

OnePlus has been moving up the launch timeframe of its devices over the last few years. It also did not launch a 'T' refresh of the OnePlus 9 series this year. For 2022, OnePlus reportedly intends to launch the OnePlus 10 series in China as early as January-February. The global launch will then follow in March or April. For comparison, the OnePlus 9 series launched in March 2021.

In fact, OnePlus founder Pete Lau confirmed a January launch for the device in China in a post on Weibo. This will likely be followed by a global release in February or March. This will be the first time that OnePlus will launch its flagship phone so early in the year.

While not typical of OnePlus, it does make sense when one considers the Oppo-fication of the company. Oppo tends to launch its flagship phones in China first and then launch them in global markets in the following weeks and months. With OnePlus now under Oppo's wings, the company is following the same launch strategy for the OnePlus 10 series.

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