OnePlus 9 Pro vs OnePlus 10 Pro: Should you upgrade?

The OnePlus 10 Pro is the latest effort from OnePlus, packing the brand’s latest and greatest tech to take on the competition. After releasing it in China earlier this year, OnePlus has finally made its 2022 flagship available to global markets. But how does it compare to the 2021 OnePlus 9 Pro? Is it worth upgrading to the newer phone?

OnePlus has made a number of design changes with the OnePlus 10 Pro, some more noticeable than others. It’s a metal and glass sandwich, the same as the OnePlus 9 Pro, and has almost identical dimensions and weight. The 10 Pro upgrades the front glass from Gorilla Glass 5 to Gorilla Glass Victus, which helps it keep pace with its 2022 peers. The back glass remains Gorilla Glass 5. OnePlus’s button arrangement is similarly unchanged, with the slider switch on the right edge and the volume toggle on the left.

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The most obvious external alteration is found on the rear of the phone. Where the 9 Pro had a smaller, fairly contained camera module, the 10 Pro introduces a much larger module with a bold three-lens arrangement and dual LED flash shaped to match the camera’s look. The Hasselblad branding on the camera module is also more prominent.

The screen is a near-direct carry-over between the two. The OnePlus 9 Pro and OnePlus 10 Pro share a 6.7-inch LTPO AMOLED display with 3,216 × 1,440 pixels for a density of 525ppi. The aspect ratio is the same at 20.1:9, as is the 120Hz variable refresh rate. OnePlus kept the selfie camera location in the upper-left corner too. However, according to OnePlus, the new screen is brighter, with peaks reaching 1,300 nits for HDR content. Both the 9 Pro and the 10 Pro feature in-display optical fingerprint readers.

The two phones boast stereo speakers and support Dolby Atmos sound. For Bluetooth listeners, there are aptX, aptX HD, LDAC, and AAC audio codecs on board. So again, nothing has really changed here.

OnePlus backtracked a bit on the IP rating, however. While most versions of the 9 Pro had an IP68 rating for protection against dust and water, only the US T-Mobile version of the 10 Pro retains the same IP68 rating. Global and unlocked versions of the OnePlus 10 Pro are only protected against light splashing and rain. Chalk this up as a win for last year’s phone.

Although the display specs may be very similar, there are bigger differences once we focus on the internals. The OnePlus 9 Pro featured a 2021 flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor inside, while the OnePlus 10 Pro upgrades to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. The new chip boasts improvements to gaming performance, but the CPU doesn’t see the same uplift in our benchmarks. The 9 Pro and 10 Pro both come in 8GB and 12GB LPDDR5 RAM variants, though it’s worth pointing out that the former never materialized in the US in 2021. Similarly, both phones are offered with either 128GB or 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage, but neither has microSD card support.

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The battery is about 11% larger in the new phone. OnePlus increased the capacity from 4,500mAh in the 9 Pro to 5,000mAh in the 10 Pro. That’s a welcome upgrade to battery life. OnePlus also boosted the wired charging rate this generation. Where the 9 Pro supported wired charging at 65W, the 10 Pro bumps this up to 80W for its global customers. However, US buyers will be stuck with 65W charging. Thankfully, the fast charger is included in the box. Both Phones support the same 50W of wireless charging power, which relies on proprietary OnePlus AirVooc tech and requires a OnePlus charger. Once again, the two are very similar here.

On the connectivity side of things, there is a small change. The 10 Pro supports a few more sub-6GHz 5G bands for improved global coverage. Although its predecessor supported mmWave 5G in the US, the OnePlus 10 Pro drops support for super-fast networking. However, both have you covered elsewhere with Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, GPS, and Wi-Fi 6.

OnePlus has completely rearranged the camera module, resulting in some notable hardware changes. Each has a 48MP main camera with an aperture of f/1.8 and pixel size of 1.12μm. It’s the same Sony IMX789 sensor with a seven-element lens, OIS, EIS, and an equivalent focal length of 23mm. The 3.3x telephoto zoom cameras are also the same, offering 8MP of resolution, f/2.4 aperture, and 1.0μm pixel sizes.

Although the ultrawide cameras share the same 50MP resolution year over year, the 10 Pro has swapped to a smaller 1/2.76-inch Samsung’s 50 MP JN1 sensor from the 1/1.56-inch Sony IMX766. That’s not great news for low light shooting, but the new sensor on the 10 Pro offers three different fields of view shooting options: 110 deg., 150 deg., and fisheye.

Thankfully, the OnePlus 10 Pro ditches the gimmicky 2MP monochrome camera. OnePlus has also doubled the resolution of the selfie camera, which jumps from 16MP to 32MP. Video capture capabilities are mostly unchanged, though the 10 Pro drops its 8K capture maximum frame rate from 30fps to 24fps. The 10 Pro is more of a side-grade than an upgrade based on specs alone, although it does boast second-generation image processing software and algorithms from OnePlus partner Hasselblad.

Check out: The best camera phone of 2022 so far

Last, the software. The OnePlus 9 Pro shipped with Android 11 and Oxygen OS 11. It has since been updated to Android 12 and Oxygen OS 12, a collaborative software effort between Oppo and Oneplus. The 10 Pro ships with Android 12 and Oxygen OS 12 out of the box. OnePlus says the 10 Pro will receive three major OS updates and four years of security updates. That’s the same pledge as last year’s model.

• OnePlus 10 Pro Volcanic Black (8GB/128GB): $899 / £799 / €899
• OnePlus 10 Pro Volcanic Black (12GB/256GB): €999
• OnePlus 10 Pro Emerald Forest (12GB/256GB): £899 / €999
• OnePlus 9 Pro (12GB/256GB): $799 / £629 / €799 / Rs. 49,999

OnePlus made a good move with pricing this generation. The entry-level OnePlus 10 Pro is $70 less than the 9 Pro was at launch. In reality, it’s more like $200 cheaper, as only the $1,069 model was available in the US last year. That’s excellent news. Based on the available pricing in pounds/euros, it looks as though the 12GB/256GB version will also be a bit less than the similarly equipped 9 Pro was at launch. Sadly, the 12GB/256GB model will not be available in the US right away, so early buyers are stuck with the 8GB/128GB model.

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Pricing for the OnePlus 9 Pro has been reduced permanently from the original retail price of $969 to $799, which is also a very good deal. It is still available from OnePlus.com as well as Amazon and Best Buy. It’s not clear how long OnePlus will keep the outgoing model around.

In addition to price changes, OnePlus has tweaked this year’s colorways. The 9 Pro’s appealing Morning Mist colorway is gone. OnePlus carried over the black and green options, but the fresh Volcanic Black and Emerald Forest are now different shades. The Emerald Forest model is only available in the pricier 12GB/256GB variant.

When it comes to the OnePlus 9 Pro vs OnePlus 10 Pro, there are a lot of similarities. There are improvements, of course, but they’re mostly minor, and there’s nothing truly game-changing to make the 10 Pro a must-buy. Furthermore, the OnePlus 10 Pro makes several compromises, such as the lack of an IP rating, to keep its price down.

In summary, the displays are nearly identical, with the 10 Pro chiefly providing a small boost in brightness and color. The processor offers a bump in speed and efficiency, particularly when gaming on the 10 Pro. The larger battery should provide a little more screen-on time than the 9 Pro achieved, but charging times are basically the same. The camera package has been revamped, but we haven’t judged whether the 10 Pro’s new setup is  better at producing good-looking photos yet. Nearly every other aspect of the two phones is decidedly similar, if not the same.

What’s a OnePlus 9 Pro owner to do? Well, it appears that OnePlus is not offering any trade-in deals on the new phone like Samsung or Apple. This means you’d have to pay full price for the OnePlus 10 Pro. Given the OnePlus 9 Pro’s permanent price cut, getting top dollar for your existing 9 Pro may be a challenge if you attempt to sell it.

Bottom line, the OnePlus 10 Pro may be the latest and greatest thing, but it’s not that much better than 2021’s OnePlus 9 Pro. Unless you’re a super-fan who absolutely needs the newest thing, you may be best served by sticking with what you already own.