OnePlus 10R Review: Is the 150W fast charging enough to make itself a proper OnePlus flagship that is heading differently?

Does the OnePlus 10R feel like a proper OnePlus value flagship?

OnePlus has been very successful in the flagship segment with its Pro series and also in the budget with the Nord series. Last year, OnePlus came with the R series which seems to be the perfect lineup that brings almost all the flagship specifications and is priced aggressively. The OnePlus 9R (Review) was the first smartphone of the R series that was a huge success for the brand and came with very good specifications.

Later the OnePlus 9RT (Review) was launched this year and it was a good upgrade over the OnePlus 9R in almost all aspects. The OnePlus 9RT came with the powerful Snapdragon 888 chipset, a good set of triple cameras, a premium build and design, a 120Hz AMOLED display, and a 4500mAh battery with 65W fast charging. Now its successor, the OnePlus 10R has arrived which is now their third offering in the R series.

The OnePlus 10R seems to be the  Realme GT Neo 3 (as both have identical hardware) with a better software experience and slightly better brand value. It brings a decent build and design, a 120Hz AMOLED display, a powerful Mediatek Dimensity 8100-Max chipset, a good set of triple cameras, and the biggest features being the massive 150W fast charging support which takes around 0-100 percent under 19 minutes. 

The OnePlus 10R is available in two different charging speeds one with 80W and another with 150W fast charging. Is the 150W fast charging worth it? So should you buy the OnePlus 10R and how good of an upgrade is it over the OnePlus 9RT? Let's find out in the full review.

OnePlus 10R Design:

Whenever it comes to the build and design, the OnePlus 10R seems to be a downgrade compared to previous OnePlus smartphones as there is no alert slider which is the signature feature of OnePlus smartphones, and its predecessor, the OnePlus 9RT has the alert slider. On the back, the smartphone has a newer design where now you have a larger rectangular camera module that houses the triple cameras with a LED flashlight.

The camera module sits well with the back and does feel protruded at all. Compared to other OnePlus smartphones, the OnePlus 10R has a flatter back like some of the iPhones. Gone are the curved sides as you get curves around the edges only. This design is newer and refreshing as below the camera module, you get multiple strips of vertical lines which run from top to bottom. 

The other portion remains cleaner and has a matte finish that does not catch fingerprints. However, this back is made up of polycarbonate instead of glass which is a big disappointment as it seems to be the successor to the OnePlus 9RT which has a glass back. The OnePlus 10R weighs around 186grams which makes it lighter and easier to hold.

The side frame is also made up of polycarbonate instead of aluminum found on previous OnePlus smartphones. On the sides, the power button is located to the right whereas volume buttons are placed on the left side. The top of the smartphone has a secondary noise-canceling microphone and at the bottom, there is a USB Type-C port, a primary microphone, a speaker grill, and a dual SIM card slot. 

There is no slot for a microSD card for storage expansion and you also miss out on the 3.5mm headphone jack. The back of the OnePlus 10R does not have any support for IP rating but you do have a P2i coating. On the front, there is a single punch-hole display with minimum bezels to the sides. Overall the design looks good but the polycarbonate finish lets it down.

OnePlus 10R Display:

The OnePlus 10R houses a 6.7-inches Full HD+(1080x2400 pixels) AMOLED display with a screen-to-body ratio of 20:9. As this display is an AMOLED display, the color reproduction and viewing angles are excellent. Here also there is the 120Hz refresh rate which makes all things smoother on the display whether you are playing games, web browsing, or streaming social media.

However this is not an LTPO display, but the refresh rate is an adaptive one where if you set it to High (120Hz), the refresh rate scales between 30,60, 90, or 120Hz depending on the application running in the background. You can also switch to the Standard mode which is 60Hz to save battery life. Combined with the 120Hz refresh rate, you get a 360Hz touch sampling rate for faster touch responses.

In terms of brightness, the display on the OnePlus 10R can go as high as 1000nits which is good but slightly higher brightness levels could have been better as the OnePlus 9RT has a peak brightness of 1300nits. The display has good visibility under direct sunlight and you can switch between Vivid, Natural, and Pro Mode which further consist of two modes - Cinematic and Brilliant.

You can also switch between a cooler or a warmer tone on display. As this is an AMOLED display, you get an in-display optical fingerprint scanner that works accurately. The display on the OnePlus 10R has Gorilla Glass 5 for protection and also has support for HDR10 and you get Widevine L1, so streaming HD content on OTT platforms but Netflix does not support HDR content as of now.

This seems to be slightly disappointing as the OnePlus 9RT has support but still OnePlus will fix this issue regarding Netflix with a future software update on the OnePlus 10R. Overall, the display seems good for media consumption, but compared to the OnePlus 9RT, it feels slightly downgraded. 

OnePlus 10R Performance:

The OnePlus 10R sports a newer Mediatek Dimensity 8100-Max chipset which has 4x2.85 GHz Cortex-A78 cores and other 4x2.0GHz Cortex-A55 cores coupled with a Mali-G610 MC6 GPU where the Max word means there is an AI performance boost mode that provides better AI performance. This chipset is also based on the 5nm process as that of the Snapdragon 888 chipset present on the OnePlus 9RT. 

In terms of daily performance, the OnePlus 10R can handle all tasks like streaming social media, playing games, and also other tasks easily and if you compare this chipset with the Snapdragon 888 chipset, you will not find much difference as both feel extremely smooth in all tasks. In terms of gaming, BGMI could run smoothly at Smooth graphics with Extreme frame rates.

However, still, you do not get HDR graphics with Extreme frame rates which the Snapdragon 888 supports. The gaming performance is very smooth without any lag or stutter. However, the back does not heat after long hours of gaming as OnePlus has equipped a vapor cooling system to dissipate heat faster. In terms of benchmarks, the scores were good but still, they are lower compared to the Snapdragon 888 chipset which would not make much of a difference.

In terms of the CPU throttling test, there was no thermal throttling as such as the smartphone could maintain a sustained performance of around 80-85 percent which is better than the Snapdragon 888 which suffers from thermal throttling. In terms of network connectivity, there is support for good carrier aggregation and 8 bands of 5G. 

The OnePlus 10R is available in three different variants - 8GB RAM with 128GB storage, 8GB RAM with 256GB storage, and another 12GB RAM with 256GB storage where storage speeds are UFS 3.1 and RAM speeds are LPDDR5. There is also RAM expansion using which you can get another 7GB RAM for better multitasking. Overall, the performance and gaming experience is excellent on the smartphone.

OnePlus 10R Software:

The OnePlus 10R runs on the latest OxygenOS 12.1 based on Android 12 out of the box. This seems to be a good move as you are getting the latest Android 12 compared to the OnePlus 9RT that came with OxygenOS 11.3 out of the box this year. OxygenOS as we all know is under the hood is ColorOS as it derives almost all the UI elements like quick toggles, settings menu, camera application, and also the lock screen. 

However, the big difference still remains in the bloatware-free software experience as there are no third-party applications or ads present in the user interface. As you have OxygenOS 12.1, you get all the new features like OnePlus Scout, Shelf, and the Work-Life Balance 2.0 with a HyperBoost feature which works very well in games as it provides faster touch responses during the gameplay. 

As you have Android 12, based on the wallpaper in the background, a similar color applies to all the quick toggles, messages, dialler, and some of the other system applications. There are also a lot of widgets present which can be sized on the home screen and the Privacy Dashboard is present where you can have a look at which applications are using the microphone and camera and you can also control them. 

Other than this there are a lot of customizations where you can change icon shape and size, fingerprint animations, different styles for Always-On display, etc. In terms of software updates, the OnePlus 10R will receive another three years of AndroidOS updates and four years of security patches which is very good. Overall, the software experience remains excellent with no bloatware.

OnePlus 10R Cameras:

The OnePlus 10R sports a triple camera setup that seems to be a downgrade over the camera setup on the OnePlus 9RT. The triple camera consists of a 50MP f/1.8 Sony IMX766 sensor for the main camera, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, and a 2MP f/2.4 macro camera. On the front, there is a 16MP f/2.5 camera. The ultrawide camera on the OnePlus 9RT is a 16MP one so the 8MP ultrawide camera feels downgraded.

The images from the main camera come out with good details that look sharper and have natural colors without oversharpening. The noise is less present but the dynamic range is not so good which could have been better. At night, the images have good sharper-looking details but colors come out slightly oversaturated and noise is also present but using the dedicated night mode removes the noise and improves the dynamic range.

The 8MP ultrawide camera seems to be a downgrade and the details come out good with decent dynamic range but they look softer and there is a lot of distortion around the edge. The noise is present on a slightly higher margin but colors come out naturally without any over-sharpening. The OnePlus 10R ultrawide camera cannot match the ultrawide camera on the OnePlus 9RT which was much better.

At night, the images from the ultrawide camera have a lot of noise and the dynamic range is just average but with the dedicated night mode, the dynamic range improves, and noise gets reduced. The 2MP macro camera is just present for making up the numbers as it takes images with washed-out colors and since it is a fixed focus camera, the details look softer and there is a lot of noise present in the background.

In terms of portraits, the edge detection and dynamic range are good with skin tones looking natural. The background blur is also perfect with details looking sharper. On the front, there is a 16MP selfie camera that takes selfies with a good amount of details that look sharper but in low-light conditions, they look slightly softer. 

The noise in the background is very minimal and the dynamic range is also very good. There is also a dedicated night mode for selfies during the night which reduces noise in the background but does tend to brighten up the skin tones slightly. The selfie portraits come out with good edge detection and background blur is also good.

However, the field of view is not so wide as that of the 32MP camera but other than this, skin tones come out oversaturated at times. In terms of videos, the OnePlus 10R can record 4K videos at 30fps and these videos have good dynamic range and colors look natural without any over-sharpening. Since there is OIS present, the videos have less noise. 

The ultrawide camera on the OnePlus 10R is restricted to 1080p recording at 30fps which seems to be a downgrade compared to the OnePlus 9RT as its ultrawide camera could shoot 4K videos at 30fps. The videos on the ultrawide camera of the OnePlus 10R come with a decent dynamic range and the colors look natural. There is a lot of noise present and details also look softer in the videos.

With the Ultra Steady Mode turned on, the videos come out with better dynamic range on the ultrawide camera with less noise and this mode also works for the main camera when you are shooting videos in 1080p at 30/60fps. The front camera can only record 1080p videos at 30fps which comes out with good details and dynamic range and you also get EIS for stabilized videos.

Overall, the cameras are decent not flagship level considering this is a value flagship and are a downgrade compared to the OnePlus 9RT which has much better cameras.

OnePlus 10R Battery Life:

The OnePlus 10R is present in two different variants i.e. one with a 4500mAh battery with 150W fast charging and another 5000mAh battery with support for 80W fast charging. Using the 5000mAh battery variant, the smartphone could easily last for two days with casual usage that includes playing games for 1-2 hours, streaming social media, and web browsing. 

The 4500mAh battery variant can also last up to two days with casual usage but in terms of heavy usage like attending calls, streaming social media for longer hours, playing games like BGMI for 4-5 hours, and much more, both of them easily lasted for one single day with some charge left. The standard screen-on time was around 6-7 hours which is very good, especially due to the chipset built on a 5nm process.

The 80W fast charger with the 8GB RAM with 128/256GB storage can go from 0 to 100 percent within 35-40 minutes which is good but if you use the 150W fast charger, the smartphone can go from 0 to 100 percent within 19 minutes that is the biggest highlight of this smartphone. The 150W fast charging allows simultaneously two 2250m Ah batteries side by side which is great.

OnePlus 10R Audio Quality:

The OnePlus 10R has a dual stereo speaker setup that sounds adequately loud and clear but the sound distribution is not so perfect as 70 percent of the volume comes from the bottom speaker whereas 30 percent comes from the earpiece. The loudness levels are good and you also get Dolby Atmos for enhanced sound output. But you do miss out on a 3.5mm headphone jack though.

Verdict:

Overall, the OnePlus 10R is a good smartphone if you want the software experience with no bloatware and other good specifications like a 120Hz AMOLED display, powerful Mediatek Dimensity 8100-Max chipset for daily performance and gaming, and most importantly crazy fast charging speeds. Though it is a OnePlus smartphone, it lacks an alert slider, the cameras are not so good and you have a plastic design instead of glass.

Compared to the OnePlus 9RT except for the newer Android version, better-charging speeds, and the newer chipset, everything seems to be a downgrade whether it is the display where brightness levels are not as good as the OnePlus 9RT and Netflix does not support Widevine L1, the ultrawide camera is not so good as that of the OnePlus 9RT and also the design is plastic though it is a value flagship smartphone.

If you are a person looking for the crazy 150W fast charging and the bloatware-free software experience with good performance, then the OnePlus 10R is a perfect buy but still, it pales to its competitor which is the OnePlus 9RT which is far better and also other competitors from brands like Realme, Xiaomi, iQOO, etc. 

Though the OnePlus 9RT is slightly priced higher compared to the OnePlus 10R makes better sense and this clearly shows that OnePlus needs to get something unique as they had done in the past but still the OnePlus 10R is a good buy.