OnePlus 10 Pro review: slick performance costing less than rivals

The phone has one of the best 6.7in OLED screens: bright, crisp and colourful with a 120Hz refresh rate to keep things smooth. The glass sides curve to a shiny metal band and a frosted glass back, which feels particularly nice and stops fingerprints creating a mess.

The camera lump in the top-left corner blends into the metal sides and makes for an interesting design element. While big, its curved sides, relatively narrow width and about 200g weight make the 10 Pro comparatively easy to hold compared with similar rivals.

The 10 Pro has the same top chip Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip as most high-end Android phones for 2022, performing admirably with a rapid interface and smooth gaming.

OnePlus rates the battery for at least 1,000 full charge cycles while maintaining at least 80% of its original capacity.

OnePlus traditionally had one of the best versions of Android on its phones, OxygenOS. While that is still broadly true on this phone, it is now a tweaked version of ColorOS developed the by parent company, Oppo, as seen on the Find X5 Pro, with a slightly different look and operation.

The main camera generally shoots very good images that are well exposed with good colour balance. It can struggle in very high-contrast scenes but deals with low-light scenarios well. The ultra-wide camera is equally decent, if a little softer on detail and less sensitive in low light. It can shoot extremely wide or fisheye-style photos with fun special modes, too.

The 3.3x telephoto camera has a decent level of magnification compared with some rivals and is capable of producing fairly sharp shots in good lighting. But it struggles in lower light levels, quickly becoming grainy.

The OnePlus 10 Pro costs £799 ($899) with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage or £899 with 12 and 256GB.

For comparison, the Google Pixel 6 Pro costs £849, the Samsung Galaxy S21+ costs £949, the Oppo Find X5 Pro costs £1,049, the Galaxy S21 Ultra costs £1,149 and the iPhone 13 Pro Max costs £1,049.

The OnePlus 10 Pro is a good alternative to a top-spec Google or Samsung Android phone.

It offers a potent combination of speed, rapid charging, long battery life and big screen in an attractive, svelte body. The new OxygenOS software is generally good, if not quite as slick as previous versions. You will get four years of software updates from release, which is longer than previous OnePlus phones but a year or more short of Google, Samsung or Apple.

If you want a good, premium Android phone not made by Samsung or Google, the OnePlus 10 Pro is the one to get.