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The OnePlus 10 Pro in the SPIEGEL editorial team
Photo: Matthias Kremp / DER SPIEGEL
The history of the OnePlus brand begins with a self-confident announcement: the first and then only product from the company, which called itself a start-up, was a "flagship killer," according to the young company's website in spring 2014.
After I was able to test the smartphone, simply called »One«, a few months later, I agreed: »You don’t get so much state-of-the-art technology so well packaged from any other manufacturer.
Especially not for 300 euros.«
Yes, you read that correctly, in 2014 OnePlus sold an Android cell phone that was well-equipped for the time for exactly 299 euros.
Unfortunately that's over.
The new OnePlus 10 Pro follows the trend in the smartphone market and costs around three times as much in the cheapest version, with 128 GB of memory, namely 899 euros.
The variant with twice as much storage space costs a hundred more.
The company will be introducing the 10 Pro on Thursday, and I've been able to test it out for a while.
In return, you get a smartphone that tries again to play in the top league - and shares a lot in common with its predecessor, not only in terms of technology.
While the press materials for the 9 Pro still said that eight years ago they started with the vision of building a “better flagship smartphone”, it now says: “We started building smartphones in 2013 for one reason: To make a device to make that we wanted to use ourselves."
It's all about the cameras, of course.
Just like its sister company Oppo, OnePlus is once again cooperating with the Swedish high-end camera manufacturer Hasselblad.
Just like the Oppo Find X5 Pro (our review here) and the OnePlus 9 Pro (our review here) that doesn't mean Hasselblad built the cameras.
It rather vaguely states that they wanted to bring "some of the most iconic experiences" of traditional Hasselblad cameras to mobile phones.
In the camera app, this is primarily visible through the release button, which shines in the typical Hasselblad orange.
In addition, the app makes a noise when triggered, which should correspond to that of a Hasselblad.
The "Pro" mode also bears the Hasselblad logo, which can also be found on the camera hump on the back.
The reference to the Swedish camera manufacturer is that it should make the color reproduction of the photo sensors particularly realistic.
A camera is wide-sighted
The fact that the cameras in Pro mode can optionally save in a RAW format with 12-bit data depth also contributes to this.
So you should have more options when post-processing in photo software.
There is also an intermediate format called RAW Plus, in which the photo data is not spit out completely unprocessed, as is usual with RAW.
Instead, the noise suppression of the mobile phone intervenes here.
As camera hardware, OnePlus installs the same 48-megapixel sensor in the main camera as in the previous year.
The ultra wide-angle camera, on the other hand, remains at 50 megapixels, but has a new sensor that can capture a field of view of up to 150°.
On the other hand, the telephoto camera with its 8 megapixels looks a bit sparsely equipped.
The photo quality of all cameras is good to very good.
The same is true for the video modes, where the 10 Pro manages up to 120 frames per second in 4K resolution, and records a cinematic 24 frames per second in 8K mode.
The screen brakes itself
The OnePlus 10 Pro also shares the frame data of the display with its predecessor, the OnePlus 9 Pro.
Just like its predecessor, it is 6.7 inches (approx. 17 cm), has a resolution of 3216 × 1440 pixels and a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hertz (Hz).
However, an improved version is used in the new model, which can slow down the screen to up to 1 Hz when reading, for example.
According to the manufacturer, this should save so much power that the battery lasts an hour and a half longer than in the OnePlus 9 Pro.
This statement is hardly verifiable, especially since the company only states that the corresponding tests were carried out in a “controlled test environment”.
Regardless, the screen performed well in my tests.
It's bright enough to work well outdoors and fine enough to render color transitions well-graded.
It is slightly bent into the frame on the left and right.
Under the hood
The system is powered by what is currently the fastest Qualcomm chip, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.
OnePlus has installed two batteries instead of one.
This allows them to charge faster.
The manufacturer specifies a charging time of 32 minutes from 0 to 100 percent for the included 80-watt power adapter.
It takes 47 minutes wirelessly with a 50-watt charging station.
In the test, I easily got through the day with one battery charge, and usually even continued into the following day.
Finally, it is remarkable that OnePlus delivers the tested version of the 10 Pro for the global market with Oxygen OS 12.1, its own version of Android 12.
In China, where the device has been on the market for a few months, Oppo's ColorOS is used instead.
Conclusion
The OnePlus 10 Pro is ultimately an improved and updated version of the 9 Pro.
There are detail improvements to discover everywhere, from the screen to the cameras to the processor and the slightly larger batteries.
If it were a car, one would speak of facelift.
In this respect, the 10 Pro is an upgrade over last year's model, it's not exciting.
The charm of the start-up years has faded, nothing remains of the claim to build "flagship killers" that deliver top performance at a mini price.
The OnePlus 10 Pro is good, but it's not cheap.
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