The OnePlus 10 Pro is the first smartphone to pull me away from my beloved Samsung streak. After spending years with the brand between the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, S22+, Z Fold2 and Z Fold3, I’ve moved on to a new brand with OnePlus, and it was a shockingly easy change. The OnePlus 10 Pro is very welcoming to newcomers to the brand, and for that, I’m thankful.
Inside the OnePlus 10 Pro box, the presentation is sharp, as always with OnePlus. The bright red box perfectly contrasts the jet black smartphone with a simple OnePlus logo on the smooth, smudge-resistant backing. The camera is a stand-out, bright and untouched with subtle Hasselblad branding along the side. The partnership between OnePlus and Hasselblad is one both brands are proud of, and they put it on full display in a sleek and classy way. The box also comes with a Type-C Cable and 65W SUPERVOOC Power Adapter, a much appreciated addition that some other brands have let go of as of late.
The USB-C charging port sits at the bottom of the device, with a small set of buttons on each side. The OnePlus 10 Pro takes pride in its minimalist design, with only one button on each side, with combinations of pressing to control volume, screenshots, power, and waking the screen. OnePlus has stuck with its switch design for controlling ring, vibrate and silent modes on the OnePlus 10 Pro.
The alert status slider was one of the hardest things to get used to coming from a Samsung device. I often found myself pulling down the shade from the top of the screen to change the volume settings. Eventually, I got used to it, but both options would be better, especially since I would often move the switch one click too far, turning my sound on instead of vibrate. The switch is great for a quick change, but a more concise way to control the settings for the ring, vibrate and silent mode within the phone that isn’t a few menus deep would be appreciated.
Setting up a new device is always a daunting task, and it can turn you off of a smartphone very quickly. OnePlus managed to make this as simple as possible. After answering a few questions, finding my Wi-Fi, and signing in to my Google account, I was able to connect the new OnePlus 10 Pro to my old Samsung device with the provided USB-C cable and everything transferred over seamlessly, apps, messages, contacts, photos and all.
I actually prefer the way the app drawer works on the OnePlus 10 Pro compared to my past devices. Swiping up reveals all the apps on the device, and they are listed alphabetically, with letters along the side to jump to the apps you want. Though I got used to the chaos of my past device, I love not having to organize pages and tidy things up on a regular basis.
I will mention though, that when you have apps open on the OnePlus 10 Pro, the “Clear All” button is a bit sassy. I often rely on this button to close all my applications in one go. Partly because I look at it like having too many tabs open on Google Chrome—it makes me crazy. But also because I like to close out the things I’m working on or looking at for privacy’s sake. The OnePlus 10 Pro smartphone doesn’t close out what you want though, it will close some, or none usually. I’ve been met with the note “Your device is in the best condition” more than once, with it not having closed anything. I don’t like that the smartphone can tell me what to do, and not the other way around.
“The app shelf is one of my favourite parts of the OnePlus 10 Pro…”
Once the device was set up, it was pretty smooth sailing. There are a few small things to get used to when switching from device to device. One of witch is where the app shelf is held, on the OnePlus 10 Pro it is a swipe down from the top right corner, which makes swiping down for settings a bit messy, especially if you’re primarily right-handed, I was constantly catching the wrong one. That being said, the app shelf is one of my favourite parts of the OnePlus 10 Pro, giving me customizable access to almost anything I want in one spot.
When I first received the OnePlus 10 Pro, it had not been released yet. I had quite a bit of trouble with my SIM card being from Bell. The phone didn’t seem to recognize the company, meaning when I was out and about it wasn’t registering that I had service outside Wi-Fi. We had to play around with the APN settings to get things working properly, but since the phone has now launched, an update was released that is said to fix the issue.
Watching Netflix and playing games like Fortnite on the OnePlus 10 Pro was excellent with the 120 Hz Fluid AMOLED with LTPO (low-temperature polycrystalline oxide) Display. The smartphone held up well in-game, with no stuttering or delay, even when I was surrounded. Colours were bright, and the picture was clear and sharp no matter what I was watching or playing.
“Watching Netflix and playing games like Fortnite on the OnePlus 10 Pro was excellent with the 120 Hz Fluid AMOLED with LTPO (low-temperature polycrystalline oxide) Display.”
Running on OxygenOS, based on Android 12, the operating system is currently one of the best you can get. If you’ve come from Android already, you’ll be in good hands here. As for the insides, the Snapdragon Gen 1 Mobile Platform CPU and X65 5G chipset with 8 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 128 GB of storage will meet the needs of almost anyone. The Adreno 730 GPU lets the OnePlus 10 Pro really stand out for gaming, making games like Fortnite, Minecraft and COD look great while performing admirably. You can find the Adreno 730 in other stand-out devices like the Xiaomi 12 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8+, so you know OnePlus has quality in mind.
The camera is what we’re all really here for though, right? The OnePlus 10 Pro features Hasselblad Camera for Mobile, with a 32 MP front camera, 48 MP main camera, 50 MP ultra-wide camera and 8 MP telephoto camera. What is most important to me, though, was how easy the camera was to use and what it took in order to get a great shot.
“The OnePlus 10 Pro manages to bring a simplified approach to photography, but makes sure to keep your options open if you want to take things up a notch.”
The OnePlus 10 Pro’s camera has a very simple interface, meaning anyone who just wants to snap a quick, but impressive shot can without issue. There are only four modes on the screen, Night, Video, Photo and Portrait, with anything extra sitting under the “More” tab. There you can get into Slo-Mo, Pro, Pano, Film, Time-Lapse and more.
The OnePlus 10 Pro manages to bring a simplified approach to photography, but makes sure to keep your options open if you want to take things up a notch. In its simpler modes, even the front facing camera takes beautifully detailed photos. Colours stood out well after an adventure downtown on an overcast day. On a grey, wintery looking afternoon, the OnePlus 10 Pro’s cameras seemed to bring the city to life, thanks to the OnePlus Billion Color Solution that allows Natural Color Calibration with Hasselblad to shoot in full 10-bit colour.
Security on the OnePlus 10 Pro is not something they take lightly. I was surprised to find that when setting up a pin, it required six digits instead of the usual four I am used to. A small complaint, but it actually pushed me to use the fingerprint sensor on the device. I usually loathe this feature, but with the OnePlus 10 Pro, this is the first time I’ve found it responsive. The fingerprint sensor is fast and accurate, it was very rare that it took more than a split-second or required me to press a second time. It’s changed the way I use my phone.
I was pleased overall with the 5000 mAh battery in the smartphone. As someone who charges overnight daily, I almost never had to hunt for a charger during the day. Emails, texts, heavy social media use (which I’ll mention, plenty of TikTok filters don’t work on this device either, so I’m looking at you, TikTok!), and the occasional Twitch stream was no match for the OnePlus 10 Pro’s battery. It always carried me through to bed with ease. When you do manage to wear it down, the battery charges very fast. With the right charger, you can get it from 0 to 100% in under an hour.
My only real issue with the OnePlus 10 Pro was Bluetooth connectivity, but I also eluded this with the pre-launch software, as things seem to be much better now. Between my car, my HUAWEI FreeBuds Lipstick, JBL Pulse 4 and then some, I have lots of devices I light to keep connected to. I was rarely able to find any devices on the OnePlus 10 Pro that were actually mine.
On multiple occasions, I’ve gotten requests from random phones to connect to mine, but have only just now successfully found my JBL Pulse 4 a few weeks in. In the car, I found myself disconnected between trips, having to reconnect. These are issues I came across in the first few weeks, but seem to have solved themselves after a software update. If you are having trouble, double check that you’re up-to-date!
All things considered, the OnePlus 10 Pro is a well-built device, especially for its price. It sits at $899 USD, and for comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S22+ is at $999, the S22 Ultra is $1159.99, and the Xiaomi 12 Pro is at $999. The most affordable in the bunch, easy to use, with an excellent camera and some great quality-of-life features, making the OnePlus 10 Pro a front-runner in the smartphone race.
The OnePlus 10 Pro is the smartphone that proved that changing brands and devices doesn’t have to be a nightmare. Moving over to the OnePlus brand from Samsung has been effortless, and I’m not itching to switch back anytime soon. Aside from a few software issues that seem to have been sorted out with the latest update, the OnePlus 10 Pro is an excellent smartphone that is competitively priced. If you’re looking for a smartphone that is sleek, easy-to-use, and takes excellent pictures PLUS has great performance, the OnePlus 10 Pro is the smartphone for you.
