OnePlus 10 Pro US release date officially coming at end of March

After two months of waiting, the OnePlus 10 Pro is now officially coming to the U.S., U.K. and many more counties at the end of March, the company announced today at the MWC 2022 conference.

The phone's design, specs and special features were already known to us from the Chinese launch in January, but soon we'll be able to get our hands on the phone ourselves and see how good it actually is. Stay tuned for that hopefully in the next few weeks. OnePlus also teased a new unnamed cheaper 5G phone and another handset with 150W charging. 

To recap, the OnePlus 10 Pro evolves the OnePlus 9 Pro, one of the best Android phones of last year. The 10 Pro builds on this foundation by upgrading its cameras to a second-generation Hasselblad-tuned array, complete with a new 150-degree ultrawide camera, a higher resolution 32MP selfie camera and 12-bit RAW and RAWPlus image support for enhanced editing options.

The OnePlus 10 Pro screen has also been boosted through the addition of an LTPO 2.0 display for more power efficient high-refresh rate performance, and the already speedy 65W charging will be even faster this time around with 80W wired charging available from the in-box power brick.

In an additional bit of good news, the OnePlus 10 Pro will use OxygenOS 12.1. That's good because since the company joined with Oppo, it was thought the two might both use ColorOS. ColorOS is a fine version of Android, but we've always liked how OnePlus' OxygenOS looks and feels to use more.

While it doesn't offer stylus support or a second telephoto camera like the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra does, the OnePlus 10 Pro matches up to several of the Samsung's features, and could surpass it if OnePlus undercuts the S22 Ultra's price significantly. While it's unlikely to cost less than the generously cheap Google Pixel 6 Pro, OnePlus should be able to claim an advantage over the Google phone by leveraging its fast charging, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-fueled performance and superior LTPO 2.0 display.

But where's the standard OnePlus 10?

When asked during a media Q&A about a standard OnePlus 10, OnePlus founder Pete Lau reiterated that the company was only launching the OnePlus 10 Pro in March. With a generous reading between the lines, that could suggest we will get a base model at a later date, but for now there's nothing confirmed about any other OnePlus 10 models, including the rumored OnePlus 10 Ultra.

Why the staggered OnePlus 10 Pro launch?

At this Q&A session Lau also explained the gap between the OnePlus 10 Pro's Chinese and global launches. OnePlus is now focusing more on its home smartphone market, which means that it wanted to launch the 10 Pro as soon as it was ready for Chinese users. Preparing for a global launch takes longer, he explained, which is why the on sale date for overseas is late March. Lau added that he hopes this gap will be reduced in the future, suggesting we'll see a similar strategy for future OnePlus releases. 

Pete Lau on the OnePlus 10 Pro's bend test

If you've been following the OnePlus 10 Pro news since launch, you may have read about a rather disastrous durability test in which it was shown that bending the phone with just your hands first shatters the phone's glass back and then snaps the phone in half. 

When asked about this during the Q&A, and also if OnePlus would be making changes to the 10 Pro's construction before the global launch, Lau said that he had watched the video, but that the phone still met the company's durability standards and that previous phones showed that OnePlus devices are of high quality.

Otherwise, the OnePlus 10 Pro performed well from a general durability standpoint, but we would definitely recommend a case.