OnePlus 10 Pro long-term review

Design, build quality, handling

From the front, the OnePlus 10 Pro is definitely a phone of its time. Specifically, an Android phone of its time. It pretty much looks like every other device out there, with two subtle exceptions - the curved screen sides are usually reserved for high-end handsets only, so that gives away its market positioning, while the left-aligned hole-punch for the selfie camera used to be all the rage among Chinese companies a few years ago but now the 10 Pro kind of stands out not having it centered.

We won't debate which position is the better one, since we can see both sides of the argument. The point is that this helps you tell this is a OnePlus, and with the curved screen, you can ascertain that it is definitely not a mid-ranger.

Flip it over, and things become more unique, and much less subtle, thanks to the design of the camera island. This was definitely polarizing when all we had to go on were leaked images of the device prior to its launch, and even at this moment in time, it's definitely not everyone's cup of tea. It's very assertive, to put it nicely. This reviewer started off really disliking it but has grown so accustomed to it by now that it simply isn't an issue anymore. We would, however, guess that not many people will call it the most beautiful camera island they've ever seen. It's just a little too weird for that.

The symmetry of the four circles is neat, though, even if the spacing is all over the place on the horizontal plane. From left to right, there's a lot of camera island frame to begin with, then after the first two circles, there's less of it, and finally, to the right of the last two circles, there's even less. This feels nitpicky to say, but we would have appreciated the symmetry theme to be respected in all areas, not just the diameter of the circles and the vertical spacing between the two pairs.

The 'camera island frame flows into the phone frame' theme has been pioneered by Samsung, and it's pretty easy to assume OnePlus got inspired by the Galaxy S21 Ultra in the process of designing this part of the phone, for better or worse. It's not one piece, though, there's a seam near the Hasselblad logo, but you can't feel it with your finger because everything is nicely finished - or should we say, adequately for this price point.

Speaking of curves, the back glass curves on the sides in a similar fashion to the screen and the two meet the metal frame at a similar angle, which is always quite aesthetically pleasing. The top of the device is flat enough that it can stand 'on its head' as it were, but the bottom being curved doesn't bode well for lovers of symmetry.

While the OnePlus 10 Pro is definitely not a small phone unless your hands are small, it should be easy enough to grip - because of the aforementioned curves, it's pretty thin on the sides. The shiny metal frame is a fingerprint magnet, but it's too slim to notice fingerprints on the sides - you do, however, tend to see them on the top and bottom. The same goes for the camera island.

In stark contrast, the back of our Emerald Forest unit has the most fingerprint-resistant matte finish we've ever seen. Or touched. It's just impossible to ever notice any sort of smudge on it, and that's impressive. Of course, with a matte back, there's generally a downside, and that's the slipperiness. Matte finishes are always more slippery than glossy ones because the latter pick up fingerprint oils that then reduce the slippage by having your fingers ever so slightly stick to them. It's a gross fact of life, this.

Build quality is as outstanding as you'd expect from this price point; there's really not much more to say about it. The phone feels incredibly well built, sturdy, doesn't creak, and its weight is just right - it's not light enough that it feels flimsy and cheap, but it's also not heavy enough that it feels like a brick.

Cases

There's a case in the box - take that, Samsung! And not only is there a case in the box, but it's among the nicest feeling bundled cases we've seen and handled so far, and it's also decently, if not perfectly, color matched to the device - no transparent jelly shenanigans here. If for any reason you don't like it, as always, OnePlus offers a variety of other case options for an additional cost, and we're fans of the sandstone one because it makes us think of the OnePlus One and its rather unique back finishing. But mostly because it's very grippy - it's basically the exact opposite of the phone itself, and that aids in usability a lot.

Of the Chinese companies, OnePlus has always been very careful about providing good first-party case options, and we hope it never gives up on that because it is nice to have the option to buy a quality case straight from the maker of your phone, even though these are more expensive than the generic ones out there. The money may be well spent in that you know you're getting quality for sure, whereas with third-party options, sometimes it's all akin to a lottery really.

Speakers, alert slider, vibration motor

The OnePlus 10 Pro doesn't have a 3.5mm headphone jack, but it does have a dual speaker system, and these speakers are definitely among the best we've ever heard on a non-foldable smartphone that we've long-term reviewed so far. There's plenty of volume in them so that you don't have to bring the phone to your ear to hear what's going on unless you're in a loud environment, and the quality is very good too - that is, if you, like this reviewer, think that phone speakers should be mids-centric and not highs-centric.

Does that make any sense to you? If so, you'll love these. If you enjoy piercing highs coming out of your handset's speakers, then you should probably look elsewhere - Samsung's high-end phones definitely have more pronounced highs, which might make them ever so slightly better for listening to music, but worse for movies and anything where the main focus is a mids-forward human voice.

Obviously, there's almost no bass to speak of here, and again Samsung high-end devices do eek out a tiny bit more bass. But if the main things you use the speakers for are voice-centric, the subjective feeling will be that the OnePlus 10 Pro's speakers just sound better. At a purely technical level, there are equally good phone speakers out there, and if you only consider dynamic range, then there are slightly better ones, but again - for YouTube videos, podcasts, TV shows, and movies, having the mids well-represented results in a better experience. Because we're in the "music should not be listened to on phone speakers, get a Bluetooth one" camp, we have to commend OnePlus for pulling this off.

Unlike the newer OnePlus 10T, the 10 Pro retains the company's now-iconic alert slider, a feature that was definitely inspired by Apple initially, but which has in the meantime grown to become a differentiating factor for OnePlus phones since for some reason no other Android device maker adopted anything like this on a similar scale. Now that seems to slowly be dying for OnePlus phones too, and what you think about that obviously depends on how useful you think it is.

For what it's worth, we really like the idea of quickly toggling between Normal (ring) mode, Vibration, and Silence, and have used the slider on any phone that had it, but way less than we initially expected to. So from this position, we can kind of see the arguments on both sides - OnePlus clearly thinks it's not enough of a differentiating factor in people's purchasing decisions to keep it for all devices, on the other hand, some die-hard OnePlus fans seem to be very keen on it. The good news is that the alert slider is present on the 10 Pro, and it's not going away from this model. It's grippy enough, and it works well, so if you're a fan, you'll definitely enjoy the experience.

The vibration motor inside the OnePlus 10 Pro is top-notch, easily among the best we've ever tested on a phone that we reviewed long-term. The one caveat here is that it's one of those "feel it more than hear it" offerings, as most are these days. "Hear it more than feel it" is generally the trademark of a cheap motor, but Samsung used to offer the best of both worlds for its Ultra flagships, until this year, when it also switched to a similar "feel more than hear" part.

Of course, your mileage with the motor will vary based on your preference; we find this to be unsurpassed by any other in the Android world at the moment, although there are a lot that is incredibly similar. Still, the point is you won't be disappointed.

Sound & vibration settings

The software can also adapt the vibration pattern to your chosen ringtone (from the built-in ones), which is always nice to see. There are a few sliding scales on which to adjust the vibration intensity for various things, and the only slight niggle we have here is that we only felt the motor delivered its best performance when all of those were maxed out. A little more give would have been appreciated. You even get to pick between two types of feel for the haptic response to your touches in a dedicated menu: we went with Crisp because Gentle simply seemed too subtle, but you may like that better.