We recently reviewed the 10T, but as we pointed out, it’s not a direct successor to the OnePlus 10 Pro, as the lack of the “Pro” suffix from the name strongly hints. It’s more of a side-grade, for lack of a better term, with the newer flagship chipset from Qualcomm, faster charging, but also some downgrades in other areas, most obviously the camera system.
So the 10 Pro remains on sale and even received a discount in some markets, making it an even more interesting proposition than when it launched earlier this year. We were interested to see how it aged and thus decided to use it as our one and only smartphone for an extended period to figure out what it’s like to live with, day in and day out, in the second half of 2022.
It still has flagship-grade specs, of course, it also has the iconic OnePlus alert slider unlike the 10T, and it’s got Hasselblad branding for its camera system. Maybe one year into the OnePlus – Hasselblad partnership this actually became more than another logo stamped on the phone’s back? We’ve attempted to find out.
There have also been a bunch of updates since the phone was released, and in recent years OnePlus updates haven’t always been the most issue-free, so we were anxious to find out whether quality control has improved in that respect or not. Compared to the big names in the Android mobile space, the OnePlus 10 Pro still brings an interesting value proposition to the table, so is this a phone you should perhaps consider if you want to buy a high-end device right about now?
Join us over the next few pages of this review as we try to answer that question by providing you with as many details as possible about what it’s like in daily operation, far from the cold hard synthetic benchmark numbers, in a more subjective but also more detailed fashion. Let’s go.
Design, build quality, handling
From the front, the OnePlus 10 Pro is definitely a phone of its time. Specifically, an Android phone of its time. It pretty much looks like every other device out there, with two subtle exceptions – the curved screen sides are usually reserved for high-end handsets only, so that gives away its market positioning, while the left-aligned hole-punch for the selfie camera used to be all the rage among Chinese companies a few years ago but now the 10 Pro kind of stands out not having it centered.
We won’t debate which position is the better one, since we can see both sides of the argument. The point is that this helps you tell this is a OnePlus, and with the curved screen, you can ascertain that it is definitely not a mid-ranger.
Flip it over, and things become more unique, and much less subtle, thanks to the design of the camera island. This was definitely polarizing when all we had to go on were leaked images of the device prior to its launch, and even at this moment in time, it’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. It’s very assertive, to put it nicely. This reviewer started off really disliking it but has grown so accustomed to it by now that it simply isn’t an issue anymore. We would, however, guess that not many people will call it the most beautiful camera island they’ve ever seen. It’s just a little too weird for that.
The symmetry of the four circles is neat, though, even if the spacing is all over the place on the horizontal plane. From left to right, there’s a lot of camera island frame to begin with, then after the first two circles, there’s less of it, and finally, to the right of the last two circles, there’s even less. This feels nitpicky to say, but we would have appreciated the symmetry theme to be respected in all areas, not just the diameter of the circles and the vertical spacing between the two pairs.
Source: gsmarena
