As previously heard in leaks, the OnePlus 10 Pro will debut earlier than we originally expected with it first being revealed in January 2022.
That's according to a comment made on a post by OnePlus co-founder Pete Lau on Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo. The comment is in Mandarin Chinese, but a translation reads "10 Pro , see you in January".
It's particularly interesting that Lau has specified the OnePlus 10 Pro in his post, and there's no word on the standard OnePlus 10. It may be we only see one of these handsets at the launch, and we may have to wait for the next handset.
Analysis: Why so early, though?
OnePlus brought the OnePlus 9 series to our attention in March 2021 and made it available in most regions by April 2021. We had assumed its successor would follow the same launch cycle.
The reason for an early launch is completely unknown right now, but we sense some competition that must be brewing internally.
OnePlus competitors Xiaomi and Realme are all set to launch their first Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered phones Xiaomi 12 and Realme GT 2 Pro sometime soon. Xiaomi 12 now, in fact, has a confirmed launch date of December 28 in China.
Samsung could bring upgrades to with its upcoming Galaxy S22 in January. Motorola has already launched a phone with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, although that has just been in China so far. All this says that OnePlus likely won't want to lag behind in the flagship phone race.
Of late, chipset makers like Qualcomm and MediaTek have started refreshing their lineup with new launches in a year so to help smartphone OEMs develop new phones for every type of consumer. Seeing its competitors launching new phones aggressively builds pressure for OnePlus too.
Reorganizing the roadmap simply means OnePlus might have plans of bringing more phones powered by different chipsets next year. This year, it chose to bring its traditional T-upgrade to its OnePlus 9R phone instead.
It skipped its regular OnePlus T series, and it only launched the OnePlus 9R in certain markets such as India. OnePlus likely wants to get back in phone purchaser's thoughts, and launching the OnePlus 10 Pro in January allows it to do that.
