Something curious has happened, as hot on the heels of the OnePlus 10 Pro’s global launch, a photo of an unknown OnePlus phone has leaked, with many commentators suggesting this is the standard OnePlus 10.
The image first leaked on Weibo (a Chinese social network) and the source suggested that it might be the OnePlus 10 – a suggestion that other outlets ran with. But is it? We’re not so sure.
For a start, the phone – which you can see below – looks nothing like the OnePlus 10 Pro. Shown just from the back in black and white shades, it has a very different camera block, housing different-looking lenses.
Of course, the OnePlus 10 wouldn’t necessarily look identical to the OnePlus 10 Pro, but the OnePlus 9 looked a lot like the OnePlus 9 Pro. One of the lenses here also actually looks like it might be even bigger than the ones on the OnePlus 10 Pro – which isn’t something we’d expect from a lesser phone in the range.
But an even bigger reason to think that this isn’t the OnePlus 10 is that OnePlus itself has said there won’t be a OnePlus 10. In an MWC 2022 media briefing attended by TechRadar, OnePlus founder Pete Lau said that there would only be one model in the OnePlus 10 range – namely the OnePlus 10 Pro.
There’s an outside chance that he misspoke, or perhaps meant that only one OnePlus 10 model would arrive in the west, with China getting others, but that seems unlikely.
On top of all that, if there was a OnePlus 10, we’d have expected to have seen more of it by now – in leaks at the very least, but probably even an announcement. Indeed, the global launch of the OnePlus 10 Pro would have been the ideal venue to unveil it, but it wasn’t in attendance. So no, this probably isn’t the OnePlus 10.
Analysis: what is this mystery OnePlus phone?
So if not the OnePlus 10, what phone are we looking at here? First, it’s always worth taking leaks with a pinch of salt, so while the picture looks like a real phone, it’s possible that it’s been faked, or perhaps it’s a prototype that will never see the light of day.
But there’s a good chance we will see this, just probably not under the OnePlus 10 name – and not under the OnePlus 10 Ultra name either, since that also presumably doesn’t exist given Lau’s words.
This could then be a new entry in one of the brand’s other ranges, such as the Nord range, but given the size of one of those cameras it looks a bit high-end for that.
So perhaps this is the start of a whole new range. In the same meeting as its confirmation that there won’t be a OnePlus 10, OnePlus did also say that in 2022 it "will continue to release more products across a wider range of prices." So one or more new ranges isn’t out of the question.
Whatever phone this is, it could make use of the 150W charging the brand has confirmed is coming to a handset soon – which is something else we’d expect to see on a reasonably high-end model.
- Take a look at all the best OnePlus phones
Via LetsGoDigital and Phone Arena
