OnePlus 10 Pro is the newest flagship in town and comes with a premium price tag of Rs 66,999 which OnePlus aims to justify with its premium hardware, software and service. While it has had a good reputation in the past when it comes to its flagships, does the 10 Pro really prove to be a ’flagship killer’ or is it just another flagship claiming to be the best? Let’s have a look while we talk about the Pros and Cons of the OnePlus 10 Pro and at the same time, compare it with the competition.
While you can look at a rundown of the specs of the OnePlus 10 Pro here, we’ll start off by introducing its competitors including the iQOO 9 Pro (that costs Rs 64,990) and the Galaxy S22 Ultra (Rs 1,09,999). We are including the S22 Ultra in this comparison despite its higher price tag because both of them are flagships that are powered by the same Processor and are offering a similar product in some manner.
OnePlus 10 Pro: Pros & Competiton
For the Pros first, the 10 Pro features a big 6.7-inch QHD+ display which is an LTPO 2.0 panel. This panel can set the Refresh Rate adaptively in sync with what content is being shown on the screen. This helps save battery life as the screen is not consistently refreshing at 120Hz, putting extra load on the battery. This is the same panel that is being used by other flagships such as the iQOO 9 Pro, Galaxy S22 Ultra (that costs Rs 40,000 more than the 10 Pro), Xiaomi 12 Pro, etc.
The next positive aspect of the OnePlus 10 Pro is its big 5000mAh battery which is again, identical to the Galaxy S22 Ultra, and bigger than the 4700mAh cell inside iQOO 9 Pro. Apart from this, the 10 Pro supports 80W fast wired charging and 50W wireless charging. This is again better than the Galaxy S22 Ultra because that smartphone supports 45W Fast charging (which we know doesn’t make much of a difference than 25W charging). Moreover, even the wireless charging speed is higher in OnePlus 10 Pro than the mere 15W in Galaxy S22 Ultra. The iQOO 9 on the other hand has even faster charging at 120W and 50W wireless charging. But as its a slightly smaller cell, in comparison, the OnePlus 10 Pro balances out both the battery capacity as well as the fast charging speeds.
While software may have been an issue on OnePlus smartphones lately about which we’ll talk later in the article, the performance never has been. It is powered by the very same processor which fuel the Galaxy S22 Ultra and the iQOO 9 Pro, and thats Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. As this processor runs a bit hot because of its nature, you can expect some level of heating in every device which employs this SoC. However, the performance of the OnePlus 10 Pro should be on par with the iQOO 9 Pro and the Galaxy S22 Ultra. Further, Gaming shouldn’t be an issue on either one of the smartphones. Moreover, you are getting 3 years of OS upgrades, 4 years of security patches on 10 Pro, compared to just 2 years of OS upgrades and 3 years of security patches on the iQOO 9 Pro. However, Samsung takes the crown with 4 years of OS upgrades and 5 years of security patches. So if you are planning on keeping your flagship for more than 3 years, Samsung is the way to go.
Other additional features on all three smartphones include stereo speakers, X-Axis linear Haptics motor on both 10 Pro and S22 Ultra with no word for iQOO 9 Pro, 5G support, etc. The OnePlus 10 Pro seems to have a customised haptic motor which OnePlus takes pride in. From personal experience, both Galaxy S22 Ultra and the OnePlus 10 Pro have strong and accurate haptics. While this may be of no use as of now, the iQOO 9 Pro supports the least number of 5G bands out of the trio while the OnePlus 10 Pro supports the highest number. This is again where the OnePlus 10 Pro shines out of the crowd.
OnePlus 10 Pro: Cons & Competition
Now, coming to the Cons, the OnePlus 10 Pro seems to have a weak build quality based on recent durability tests. While it should be fine in daily circumstances, a little bit of extraordinary pressure on the device while its in your back pocket, can break the device into two halves. Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra seems to have the strongest build quality out of the three, with its Armor Aluminium casing. The design on the other hand is subjective. In our opinion, the S22 Ultra has the most formal design while the 10 Pro has a unique one. The iQOO 9 Pro looks best in Alpha variant with its three BMW-inspired stripes on the right side of the device.
While we are yet to test the cameras on all three devices, Samsung’s camera setup seems to be the most balanced one. On the other hand, the 10 Pro from OnePlus seems to boast of its 150-degree Ultrawide angle camera that is powered by a second generation Hasselblad camera for mobile. Ironically, it uses the Samsung JN1 sensor for ultrawide angle photos. iQOO 9 Pro also uses the Samsung JN1 sensor with similar specs for the ultrawide sensor. It uses a 50MP GN1 primary sensor. To declare a winner though, all of them will have to be tested side-by-side and as a result, we cannot call it as a Con on the OnePlus 10 Pro.
Out of all the cons, the last one on the OnePlus 10 Pro can be considered as its software. The 10 Pro runs on OxygenOS 12.1 out of the box. We have already voiced our opinion about Oxygen OS 12 in the past which is almost identical to Oxygen OS 12.1 as it is an incremental update. FunTouch OS 12 on the iQOO 9 Pro may not be as feature-rich but is very stable to use with a decent level of features. However, the S22 Ultra wins in this segment once again as it’s always on time with its monthly security patches for a while now. Moreover, it adapts Android 12 features better than any OS out there (except Stock Android of course) with its OneUI 4.1.
To conclude, the OnePlus 10 Pro, at least on paper, looks like a solid device. It has a good brand reputation amongst Indian users which can drive its growth with the OnePlus 10 Pro. Until we review the device, we cannot recommend you to buy it but we can say that OnePlus got a lot of things right and wrong with its newest flagship.
