OnePlus 10 Pro official with 80W sports charging

Official product news about the upcoming OnePlus 10 Pro has begun to arrive. For now, we have an incomplete review with some images and specs, while things like price, release date, and more detailed details will have to wait until later.

First of all: specifications. OnePlus 10 Pro has officially received the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC. This is Qualcomm’s new flagship SoC for 2022, which includes one ARM Cortex X2 core, three medium Cortex A710 processors, and four small Cortex A510 processors, all built in 4- nm process technology.

OnePlus doesn’t say how much RAM and storage the 10 Pro has, but the 9 Pro comes with 8GB or 12GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of storage. The company has confirmed the display is 120Hz but hasn’t specified the size, although it’s rumored to be 6.7-inch, the same as the OnePlus 9 Pro. This now corresponds to the official dimensions, which are 163 × 73.9 × 8.55 mm.

The battery is officially 5000mAh, which is an improvement over the 9 Pro’s 4500mAh battery. Given the similar dimensions between the two phones, this is a welcome improvement in battery density. OnePlus now also has a whopping 80W SuperVOOC fast charging, an improvement over last year’s 65W “Warp Charge”.

OnePlus doesn’t give any indication of what charging times we can expect, but 65W can take the 9 Pro’s 4,500mAh battery from 0 to 100 in half an hour. Charging rates still outpace battery growth, so the 10 Pro should charge in less than half an hour. Like last year, wireless charging is 50W.

In the past, OnePlus has billed itself as a splinter startup, but it’s actually owned by China’s BBK Electronics, one of the world’s largest smartphone makers. Like General Motors, BBK has multiple brands (OnePlus, Oppo, Vivo, Realme and iQOO) targeting different markets and they share a lot of parts and engineering. While OnePlus and Oppo have always shared some engineering resources, it was announced last year that OnePlus would actually be merged with Oppo.

The OnePlus standoff will be the main narrative for the OnePlus 10 Pro. We can already see a bit of that with the change from “Warp Charging”(OnePlus branding) to “SuperVOOC”(Oppo branding). But what really matters is the software, where OnePlus will use Oppo’s Android Color OS shell with a few custom tweaks, rather than the separate codebases the two companies used. We got a glimpse of this design direction through the OnePlus 9 update to Android 12, and the feedback hasn’t been kind. But let’s see what the first new program for the phone will bring.

In terms of design, the camera block is really the only area where Android OEMs allow themselves to be different. This year, OnePlus uses a boxy design that frames the side of the phone. It’s very similar to the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s camera block, except it’s wrapped all around the corner. Inside the camera block are three cameras and an LED flash. Right now, OnePlus only reveals the number of megapixels: 48MP, 50MP, and 8MP.

We don’t actually have a picture of the front yet, so the above is an unofficial OnLeak render from a few months ago. The camera hole is on the left side, not in the middle. Other than that, it looks like any other Android phone on the market.

Perhaps it’s due to Oppo’s influence, but OnePlus’ launch this year looks rather odd. The phone will go on sale in China on January 11. We don’t have a price yet, but OnePlus’ flagship prices have so far gone up every year, with the 9 Pro priced at $969. There is also no word yet on a US release date.