It’s Not Just Behind Closed Doors Anymore

• OnePlus’s first flagship since Oppo merger: OnePlus 10 Pro

BBK Electronics is a name that we don’t hear much on the consumer end of the smartphone market. Still, they remain one of the top players in the segment, thanks to the brands that they have under their umbrella. While you might not have heard much about BBK Electronics, you must have heard of the brands under its banner: Oppo, Vivo, Realme, and OnePlus. Each of these companies works in tandem to share a specific demographic, possibly to take over the market more efficiently. For a while in the past, Realme operated as a sub-brand to Oppo, much like how Poco worked under the Xiaomi umbrella. But as of recently, Realme has evolved into an independent entity (still under BBK, just not under Oppo), and OnePlus has switched places with it instead. Now, with OnePlus’ merger with its sister brand ironed out, it seems to have changed a few things with its marketing — most noticeably the release date of its flagship devices. OnePlus 10 Pro is now the first flagship phone to launch from the brand with that merger completed, which is at least a couple of months earlier than expected. Albeit, it was a China-only launch. So, by the time that the rest of the world gets this device in their hands, it’ll probably be in line with OnePlus’ usual release dates. Regardless, we are more interested in what this device has to offer than contemplating why OnePlus is changing release dates. Just looking at the OnePlus 10 Pro, it is fairly obvious that the phone took a few design cues from Samsung’s flagships from last year. The matt texture on the back of the device is broken by the camera unit that has a glossy finish. The protruding camera housing has three cameras, and a flash arranges in perfect symmetry, but the way that it melts into the rails is what’s reminiscent of Samsung. Well, it’s not exactly how Samsung did it. Still, it’s frustrating not being able to see companies experimenting independently with their design, at least. I mean, the front of the phone has to be all screen at this point, give us something to be excited about with the design out back. Anyways, the camera housing also continues OnePlus’ partnership with Hasselblad. As for the hardware itself, there has been little change in the hardware. The rear featured a triple camera array: a 48MP wide, a 50MP ultrawide with up to 150-degree FoV, and an 8MP telephoto. Something that the photo-fanatics can be excited about would be: 10-bit colour capture on all lenses, 12-bit RAW capture on all lenses, Dual OIS on at least one lens, and Second-gen Hasselblad software. Not to forget, the 150-degree ultrawide is almost fisheye territory and should be tremendously fun to play with. The front has a 32MP shooter, which is twice the megapixels of the OnePlus 9 Pro. Flip the phone to the front, and you’ll be greeted with a 6.7-inch LTPO AMOLED display. Having an LTPO display means that the phone can switch between different refresh rates depending on the content that’s on the screen — good for the battery. The QHD+ display (1440p) would definitely look crisp, but the battery might suffer. Thankfully, this time around, the battery is a bigger unit: a 5,000 mAh battery. Not just that, it has a stupidly fast 80-watt charger IN THE BOX! Yup! The unit also supports a 50-watt wireless charger with the proprietary charger. Oh, and there’s reverse wireless charging for those looking for it. All in all, the battery should theoretically last much longer than the previous generations also because of the new chipset featured on the device. The OnePlus 10 Pro runs on the latest and greatest chipset from Qualcomm — Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. This chipset is also an insurance that the phone will outperform every phone from last year in terms of computing capabilities, but for most, it’s a glass ceiling that they might never experience. It might still be a while for the rest of the world to get their hands on this China-only device as of this writing. But, one thing is for sure, the OnePlus 10 Pro is a phone many are eagerly looking forward to, especially in countries like Nepal. The Chinese release was at 4,699 yuan, which roughly translates to $737 for the base variant (8GB/128GB), and the speced-out version (12GB/256GB) was going for 5,299 yuan, which is around $830. We might have to wait a couple more months to see how the prices stack up for the Nepali market. READ ALSO:

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