OnePlus 10T vs. OnePlus 10 Pro: Don’t buy the wrong OnePlus phone

The OnePlus 10T and OnePlus 10 Pro — the two latest OnePlus flagships on the market — have a lot going for them. The 10T is OnePlus’s performance flagship, while the 10 Pro is marketed as the company’s camera flagship. If you want the fastest processor available today — and at a highly competitive price — OnePlus thinks you should buy the 10T. But if you have a bit more money to spend and really value camera quality, the 10 Pro should be a better fit. It all sounds like a fairly straightforward comparison on paper, but as you start digging into the small details, you realize there’s more to compare than performance and cameras.

Specs

Design, display, and durability

At first glance, the OnePlus 10T and the OnePlus 10 Pro look nearly identical. Both phones have large displays, glass backs, and square camera bumps that appear to creep up from the frame. However, there are a few smaller details that create a pretty significant difference between the two.

The biggest of these differences is the frame. The OnePlus 10T uses a plastic frame around the sides, top, and bottom of the device. Comparatively, the OnePlus 10 Pro’s frame is made out of aluminum. That may not sound like a big deal — and to some people, it may not matter at all. But using the OnePlus 10T and OnePlus 10 Pro side-by-side, the 10 Pro feels significantly more premium. Also, while both the 10T and 10 Pro have glass backs, I greatly prefer the finish used for the latter. The Volcanic Black 10 Pro has a smooth, almost velvet-like finish that feels incredible to hold. The Moonstone Black 10T has a textured design that, at least to my fingers, almost feels like cheap plastic. And if green’s more your color, the matte finish of the Emerald Forest OnePlus 10 Pro is incredible. OnePlus opted for a glossy finish with the Jade Green OnePlus 10T, making it a fingerprint magnet.

OnePlus also took a different approach to the displays of each phone. At their core, both the 10T and 10 Pro have 6.7-inch AMOLED screens. But that’s where the similarities end. The OnePlus 10T has a maximum screen resolution of 2412 x 1080, while the OnePlus 10 Pro goes all the way to 3216 x 1440. You get a 120Hz refresh rate on both phones, but only the OnePlus 10 Pro uses LTPO technology to lower it all the way down to 1Hz to conserve battery life. The OnePlus 10T doesn’t have LTPO, and as such, can only scale the refresh rate down to 90 or 60Hz when the full 120Hz isn’t needed. Lastly, there’s the shape of the screens. The OnePlus 10T has a totally flat display, whereas the 10 Pro’s display touts curved edges.

On the durability front, all versions of the OnePlus 10T come with an IP54 rating for dust and water resistance — making it protected against dust (but not fully dust-tight) and able to withstand light splashes of water. The unlocked OnePlus 10 Pro doesn’t officially come with an IP rating, but the T-Mobile version has an IP68 rating — meaning it’s fully dust-tight and can survive up to one meter of water submersion for up to 30 minutes. When the 10 Pro launched, OnePlus said that “water resistance and durability testing were applied to all variants of the OnePlus 10 Pro to ensure they can easily cope with sweat, moisture, and light drizzles that are regularly encountered in our daily lives.” So, while the unlocked OnePlus 10 Pro doesn’t technically have an IP68 rating, it went through the same durability tests as the T-Mobile version that does.

All of this adds up to the OnePlus 10 Pro being the better device in every category here. From the more premium design, more advanced display, and better dust/water resistance, it easily edges out the OnePlus 10T.

Winner: OnePlus 10 Pro

Performance, battery life, and charging

Being OnePlus’s ‘performance flagship’ for the year, it’s no surprise that the OnePlus 10T has a lead over the OnePlus 10 Pro in this department. Powering the OnePlus 10T is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. If you pick up the OnePlus 10 Pro, you’re getting the slightly older Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. The biggest advantage of the 8+ Gen 1 over the 8 Gen 1 is CPU and GPU power efficiency — both of which are 30% better on the 10T. The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 also delivers a 10% boost in GPU clock speeds for an improved gaming experience.

How does that translate to daily use? Using apps, browsing Google Chrome, and playing games, it’s extremely difficult to notice any perceivable difference between either chip. Both the OnePlus 10T and OnePlus 10 Pro are very capable smartphones and can handle any task with ease. Perhaps more noteworthy is the 10T’s RAM, which maxes out at 16GB instead of the 12GB offered by the 10 Pro, allowing you to keep more apps running in the background.

Then there’s battery life. The OnePlus 10T has a slightly smaller 4,800 mAh battery compared to the 5,000 mAh inside the OnePlus 10 Pro. However, the better efficiency of the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 in the 10T means it usually lasts a touch longer than its 10 Pro sibling. With about three hours of screen time and 30 minutes of gameplay, the OnePlus 10 Pro runs down to 40% battery life. With three hours of screen time and over 45 minutes of gaming on the OnePlus 10T, it still has 50% left in the tank. Each phone will probably last around a day and a half for most people, but the 10T will get you through more of day two before needing to reach for its charger.

And when it does come time to charge up, the OnePlus 10T again has an advantage — at least for wired charging. The OnePlus 10T is capable of 125W charge speeds in the U.S., which will get you from 0-100% in around 20 minutes. The 65W charging offered by the OnePlus 10 Pro in the U.S. takes about 30 minutes. However, only the OnePlus 10 Pro supports wireless charging.

Winner: OnePlus 10T

Cameras

One of the most substantial changes between the OnePlus 10T and OnePlus 10 Pro is their respective camera systems. While the camera housing on both phones is nearly identical, the sensor layout is a night and day difference.

The OnePlus 10T gets a 50MP main camera, 8MP ultrawide camera, 2MP macro camera, and a 16MP selfie camera. The OnePlus 10 Pro treats you to a 48MP main camera, 50MP ultrawide camera, 8MP telephoto camera, and a 32MP selfie camera. There’s a lot that jumps out here. The ultrawide camera on the 10 Pro has a significantly higher resolution, and the telephoto camera allows you to get 3x optical zoom for closer shots of your subjects. That’s replaced with a 2MP macro camera on the 10T, and the grainy, soft photos it produces are rarely worth using. You also get much more resolution out of the front-facing camera for selfies and video calls.

Speaking of video, only the OnePlus 10 Pro is capable of recording 8K video. Both phones can capture 4K video at 30 and 60fps, but only the 10 Pro delivers 4K video at 120fps. Furthermore, the OnePlus 10 Pro’s cameras were designed in partnership with camera legend Hasselblad. The OnePlus 10T doesn’t bear the fruits of the Hasselblad partnership, and as a result, it misses some of the pro camera features that make shooting with the 10 Pro so fun.

Winner: OnePlus 10 Pro

Software and updates

The OnePlus 10T and OnePlus 10 Pro are on a much more level playing field on the software front. Both smartphones run Android 12 with OnePlus’s custom OxygenOS 12.1 interface. As we’ve talked about before, the current state of OxygenOS is a messy one.

Where past OnePlus phones put a large emphasis on a clean UI with minimal clutter, OxygenOS 12.1 feels heavy and clunky by comparison. From missed notifications, unreliable touch responsiveness, missing features from OxygenOS 11, etc. — the list goes on and on. It’s not that OxygenOS 12.1 is unusable, but compared to what OxygenOS used to look/feel like, 12.1 is a notable step backward.

The good news? Both the OnePlus 10T and OnePlus 10 Pro will get the upcoming OxygenOS 13 software based on Android 13. There’s no guarantee it’ll fix all of the issues found in OxygenOS 12.1, but it is something to look forward to.

Winner: Tie

Special features

Ever since the OnePlus One, one of the standout features of OnePlus smartphones has been the alert slider. The little physical switch allows you to instantly enable notification sounds, set your phone to vibrate, or silence everything. It’s useful, convenient, and a fun design element that helps OnePlus handsets stand out from the Android crowd. The OnePlus 10 Pro has an alert slider — and it’s great! The OnePlus 10T does not, and its design feels much more generic because of it.

Both the 10T and 10 Pro come with in-screen fingerprint sensors. Regardless of which phone you’re using, the sensor is fast and reliable more often than not. The problem with the OnePlus 10T is that its fingerprint sensor sits near the very bottom of the display — often making it awkward to press. The fingerprint sensor on the 10 Pro is placed higher up on the screen and in a place where your thumb naturally rests. It’s a small detail, but one worth pointing out.

Winner: OnePlus 10 Pro

Price and availability

This is where things get even more interesting. When it launched at the beginning of the year, the OnePlus 10 Pro had a starting price of $899. As of August 3, it’s now available for just $799. The OnePlus 10T is cheaper at $649 — but only by $150. That’s not an insignificant amount of money, but it doesn’t make the OnePlus 10T a standout value like it would be if the 10 Pro still cost $899.

Availability is another tricky factor. The OnePlus 10 Pro is available for purchase right now from OnePlus’s website, Amazon, Best Buy, and T-Mobile. Pre-orders for the OnePlus 10T don’t begin until September 1, and regular sales aren’t happening until September 29.

Overall winner: OnePlus 10 Pro

The OnePlus 10T isn’t a bad phone. It has a solid display, top-tier performance, great battery life, and some of the fastest charging you can find. But in the process of achieving those things, it also makes numerous compromises along the way. The plastic frame feels cheap to hold. The camera system leaves much to be desired. There’s no wireless charging. The iconic alert slider is missing. It’s a lot of little things that add up to create regular annoyances in daily use.

For $150 more, the OnePlus 10 Pro addresses all of those things. It has a more premium design, more capable cameras, 50W wireless charging, and the alert slider. Plus, its Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and 65W wired charging are still plenty fast by today’s standards. It’s a much more enjoyable phone for not that much more cash — and why it’s our pick as the overall winner for this comparison.