OnePlus may be making a drastic change to an upcoming flagship, one that may leave long-term fans of the brand sorely disappointed. Multiple changes have happened at OnePlus in the past few years. In 2020, it switched from a flagship-only business model to one that includes mid-range and budget smartphones. The following year it announced it was merging with OPPO to become a subsidiary, after years of being independent brands.
The OnePlus 9R, announced in 2021, was the first of a new series of smartphones that OnePlus calls "Entry-level flagships." It followed it up with a T-variant called the OnePlus 9RT in October 2021. Both phones are exclusive to China and India and offer a flagship experience at a more affordable price but with a few tradeoffs.
OnePlus is expected to launch a successor to the OnePlus 9R later this year, reported as being the OnePlus 10R. In addition, specs of the phone have been leaked that reveal an important feature that will be missing. Posted on Twitter by Yogesh Brar (@heyitsyogesh), the spec sheet states the OnePlus 10R won't have an Alert Slider, the hardware switch found on the side of OnePlus phones that allows users to switch between sound profiles easily.
No Alert Slider But There's Blazing-Fast Charging
This won't be the first OnePlus phone lacking the signature feature as OnePlus budget smartphones such as the Nord N200 don't have an Alert Slider. However, this is the first flagship that will reportedly be missing out on it. This new development comes on the heels of an earlier report that revealed the Alert Slider would appear on a non-OnePlus phone from a sister brand.
Putting the missing Alert Slider aside, the rest of the specifications of the OnePlus 10R are pretty good. The phone will have a 6.7-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The display will have a hole punch that houses a 16MP camera, while a 50MP triple camera setup will grace the back of the phone. MediaTek's new Dimensity 8100 processor will power it, and it will draw juice from a 4500mAh battery. The phone will be available in 8GB RAM and 12GB RAM options with up to 256GB of storage, according to a report by 91Mobiles.
The icing on the cake is support for 150W fast charging, which should see the phone charge from 0 to 50 percent in just five minutes. The source also mentions a second version of the phone will be available with a bigger 5000mAh battery capacity but with its charging speed capped at 80W, which is still super fast, and an upgrade over the 65W fast charging supported by the 2021 models. An earlier report disclosed the OnePlus 10R would be announced in May 2022, and it will run OxygenOS 12 based on Android 12 out of the box.
Source: Yogesh Brar|Twitter, 91Mobiles