There are two things you need to know about the OnePlus 10R from the get-go. It is a fast phone, probably one of the fastest in its price segment, and, it charges incredibly fast. In many ways, it’s a classic OnePlus phone where fast performance and warp-speed charging are almost always a given. But there are areas where it feels a little different, too.
PERFORMANCE & BATTERY LIFE
The “OnePlus 10R 150W SuperVOOC Endurance Edition” we have for review supports 150W fast wired charging. To say that that’s bonkers would be an understatement and yet, here we are. OnePlus claims you will be able to charge the Endurance Edition from 1-100% in 17 minutes. In our experience, it is even faster. We were able to charge the phone from 0-100% in just 16 minutes and 10 seconds with the bundled charging brick and cable and rapid charging enabled from the battery settings menu. The phone was completely powered down the whole time, to be clear.
The bigger takeaway, though, is that the phone never really got hot to the touch while at it. The charging brick did get warm during the process but nothing alarming or anything.
That seems to be the undertone of the 10R in general. OnePlus has taken precautions, both in hardware and in software, to keep temperatures from hitting the ceiling. The phone comes with a large— 4129.8 mm² — vapour chamber cooling system that seems to work as advertised. There’s also a dedicated high-performance mode that’s designed to lock the CPU at high clock speeds – up to 2.85 GHz in this case— so you can unlock its full potential and keep it like that for longer duration. This is manual but you’d naturally expect the phone to identify a benchmark app and automatically switch to maxed-out settings. On AnTuTu, the phone scored 7,30,111 in standard and 7,85,404 in performance mode. That’s not a huge difference per se, but still something.
More importantly, there was no perceivable throttling in this phone or any sort of heating regardless of the benchmark or use case.
The 10R is powered by a “customised” version of MediaTek’s Dimensity 8100 called Dimensity 8100-Max. Closely working with MediaTek, OnePlus has worked on improving areas like gaming, AI, and nightscape video, it claims. While the benefits of such an approach may not always be tangible, or even measurable, but we have only good things to say about the D8100. It’s roughly like the Snapdragon 888, but it runs cooler, which is to say you’re getting near flagship-grade power at reasonable prices. What’s not to like?
OnePlus is also using fast LPDDR5 RAM (12GB) and UFS3.1 storage (256GB), here, so all good stuff there.
Battery life has been solid. The 4,500mAh battery inside the Endurance Edition will get you through the day and then some with ease.
CAMERAS & SOFTWARE
The 10R has three cameras on the back. There is a 50MP Sony IMX766 main sensor with optically stabilised lens, 8MP ultrawide, and another 2MP macro shooter.
Right out of the gate, the main camera performs surprisingly well especially when lots of light is available. Details are nice and crisp, colours mostly true-to-source. Dynamic range is okay, though. There’s some room for improvement here. The ultrawide camera is competitive, with slightly better dynamic range and more natural colours. The macro camera is barely serviceable. Not only does it have a low resolution, but it also lacks autofocus which makes shooting close-ups a hit or miss affair.
The primary and ultrawide cameras do well in low light, also, most of the time.
Though the 10R can record up to 4K@30fps videos, in the real world, 1080p@30fps is the sweet spot. You get electronic image stabilisation at this resolution and videos come out nice and stable, something that should suffice for social media posts.
On the front, you get a 16MP selfie camera. It takes good selfies with mostly natural colour tones in good light. Low-light selfies could be better. It can do 1080p@30fps with videos coming out nice and clean, especially in good lighting, with decent amount of stabilisation as well. Software-induced portraits are average at best.
That software, despite its quirks, remains one of the biggest selling points for the 10R. The phone runs the latest OxygenOS 12.1 with Android 12 and is eligible to get three major OS and up to four years of security updates. So, that’s nice. The experience is nice and fluid, with no ads or spammy notifications. We did not encounter any weird bugs during our testing. Features like OnePlus Shelf and Scout, and Work Life Balance, are worth mentioning as they add a level of individuality to the 10R, some of which may be more useful than you’d think.
DESIGN & DISPLAY
Probably the least inspiring –and to an extent even polarising— thing about the 10R is its design. Contrary to most midrange OnePlus phones we’ve in the past, this looks rather plain and generic.
The phone has a dual-textured plastic back and a flat frame, also made of plastic. It comes in two colourways— Sierra Black and Forest Green. We have the Sierra Black version. It’s smooth to the touch and fairly resistant to smudge and fingerprints.
The sides are sharp and while they do help in gripping the phone better, you will feel them digging into your palms on extended usage. The alert slider is a curious omission, too. You do not get a headphone jack, either (but you do get dual speakers, which is nice). At 186g and 8.2mm, the 10R is neither too thick nor too thin or light. Weight distribution is fairly on point.
On the front, you get a 6.7-inch flat 120Hz AMOLED display with a 1080p resolution, HDR10+ support, and a hole punch cut-out at the centre. It’s top-quality stuff. Colours look rich and viewing angles are just about right. Brightness levels won’t leave you crouching for cover when you’re out and about in direct sunlight, either. You get Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection and an optical in-screen fingerprint reader for biometrics. This is fast and reliable.
ONEPLUS 10R | SHOULD YOU BUY IT?
There’s little doubt that 150W fast charging is one of, if not the biggest headlining feature of the Endurance Edition OnePlus 10R. It works like magic, too, and has the potential to change the way we perceive smartphones today. This phone can change lifestyles.
But, as we’ve come to find in this review, this phone is about more than its headlining 150W fast charging feature. The 10R has a lot going for itself. We quite liked its all-round performance. Its screen looks nice and colourful and its cameras are good-enough if not best in class. There’s some handy futureproofing with 5G, Bluetooth 5.3 and NFC, as well.
OnePlus probably knew from the start that the Endurance Edition isn’t for everybody which is why there is also a more regular version of this phone— called simply the OnePlus 10R— with a slightly bigger 5,000mAh battery and slower –but still quick— 80W fast charging. It’s cheaper, too.
OnePlus 10R with 80W charging starts at Rs 38,999 for a version with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. A version with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage will set you back by Rs 42,999. The OnePlus 10R with 150W fast charging, comes in sole 12GB RAM and 256GB storage configuration and is priced at Rs 43,999.
Options are always nice and with very few differences between the standard and 150W models, it all narrows down to your specific use case. Either way, you can’t go wrong with the OnePlus 10R.
Also Read | OnePlus Nord 2T review: Dash of future-proofing with a dollop of nostalgia
Also Read | OnePlus 10 Pro review: A return to form
| Pros | Cons |
| Good performance | Boring design |
| Incredibly fast charging | No IP rating |
| Competitive main camera | No high refresh rate support for many games |
| Good display | |
| Clean software |
