The News: OnePlus recently announced its newest second flagship smartphone, the OnePlus 10T 5G, alongside its signature operating system OxygenOS 13. The smartphone is targeted at the premium segment. Read OnePlus Press Release for more.
Analyst Take: OnePlus’s recent launch of its OnePlus 10T 5G smartphone, coupled with its OxygenOS 13 software, were welcomed additions to the smartphone ecosystem. Like prior generations, OnePlus is using Qualcomm’s newest system-on-chip (Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1) from its Mobile 8 Series Platform targeting premium Android smartphone users wanting a richer mobile gaming experience, better connectivity, and a camera that can take professional quality photos and videos.
The smartphone is priced at $649, which makes it a very affordable option for consumer who want a premium device with a leading system-on-chip (SoC) from Qualcomm. OnePlus is dwarfed by rivals in the premium segment in North America, to be sure, but I see the company’s pricing strategy as solid, and it could help it grab additional market share in the future — especially in a market that has entered a mild recession at present. It’s worth noting that smartphone shipments have been revised downward in recent weeks and a lower-priced premium product could be attractive as consumers have less durable income. I’m interested to see how this plays out.
The OnePlus 10T 5G has a width of 75.4mm, thickness of 8.75mm, and weight of 203.5 grams. The smartphone does not come with any wireless charging capabilities, but does come with a 160-watt charging brick, which is fast. The OnePlus team indicated that it could go from 0 to 100 percent charging in roughly 20 minutes, which is quick and a welcome feature for pretty much all users — especially road warriors and mobile gamers.
The OnePlus 10T 5G camera system includes a 50-megapixel triple camera with an 8-megapixel ultra-wide angle of 119.9 degree and 2-megapixel macro camera. The system is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sight 18-bit triple image signal processor, which is exceptionally powerful and capable of processing up to 3.2 gigapixels per second. The Snapdragon Sight ISP also powers the Honor Magic4 Ultimate, which is ranked number 1 high on DXOMark Image Labs that specializes in benchmarking devices such smartphones. Thus, there is potential for more in future iterations.
The OnePlus 10T 5G has a 6.7-inch OLED flat versus curved screen with a refresh rate of 120hz. The left side of the phone has volume rockers and is missing the alert slider that users apparently liked, so there might be a little blowback from that standpoint. That is to be expected — when implementing changes in product design, when a functionality that saves users time is altered or removed completely, criticism is inevitable.
The bottom of the phone has a sim card slot, microphone, and USB Type-C port with the power button on the right side. The OnePlus 10T 5G supports up to 256 GB of UFS 3.1 storage and 16 GB of LPPDR5 RAM (a first for OnePlus).
It was also indicated that the OnePlus 10T 5G can have more than 35 applications suspended at one time, which will make switching between applications much smoother. In these days best personified by multitasking — email, messaging, Ring camera checking, GPS, family location tracking, etc. — this is especially valuable.
Wrapping it up, I think the OnePlus 10T 5G is a good smartphone for the premium segment. It’s priced competitively, and uses a leading SoC (Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1) from Qualcomm’s Mobile 8 Series Platform. All in all, it’s a solid phone, launched with perfect timing, especially as the overall smartphone market has been forecasted to decline to anemic economic conditions, shortages, inflation, etc. It makes sense that consumers might be compelled to kick the tires on the OnePlus 10T 5G at a time when they may have less durable income.
Disclosure: Futurum Research is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of Futurum Research as a whole.
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