OnePlus 10 Pro has to battle perception, and Samsung in luxury segment

“The OnePlus 10 Pro is a logical successor of the Pro series smartphone with the Pro grade features in it,” says Faisal Kawoosa, Founder and Chief Analyst at Techarc.

The pricing pitched OnePlus 10 Pro against Samsung Galaxy S22 series which was launched in February with similar features. The differentiating factor here is that OnePlus is just eight years old whereas Samsung is a legacy brands that has seen the rise and the fall of Nokia, Motorola and many other champions of their times.

He further said, “In the luxury segment, users still see Samsung synonymous to Android smartphone and that remains a challenge for OnePlus to change the perception.”

OnePlus 10 Pro comes with Hasselblad camera branding having triple rear lenses, a 48MP main lens, supported by a 50MP ultra-wide sensor and an 8MP macro lens. It has a 32MP selfie camera. “I believe with 2nd generation of OnePlus-Hassleblad relationship, near natural colour rendering has become stronger,” he says.

For processing, OnePlus 10 Pro got the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset coupled with 12GB RAM. OnePlus 10 Pro comes with a 5,000mAh battery and an 80W fast charger. It features a 6.7 inch AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate. The phone uses a punch hole display design that holds selfie camera.

Similarly, even if we see the Samsung Galaxy S22, it has all the above mentioned features such as 120Hz refresh rate, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, AMOLED display, triple rear camera set up. Galaxy S22 uses a 50MP lens along with a 12MP ultra-wide lens and a 10MP telephoto sensor. The front camera in S22 is of 10MP. 

Samsung Galaxy S22 retails at ₹72,999 for the 8GB/128GB compared to ₹66,999 for OnePlus 10 Pro in similar RAM/ROM combination.

“We have to realise that the newer edition does not always mean a substantial jump than it’s predecessor as smartphones as a product category have reached maturity in their performance and quality. So a user might not always find remarkable changes than the previous edition,” added Faisal.

The buyers have all the options available to decide. The brand value does come into play if people have to spend so much money. The Korean vs Chinese still counts when it comes to the final purchase. There are people out there who do not want to get a Chinese phone in luxury segment but either prefers Samsung in Android or Apple for a complete different ecosystem, experience and brand value. This is a challenge for OnePlus to prove itself as a reliable brand as good as any other Korean or American smartphone maker.

The jump in the luxury segment for OnePlus could change the market positioning, not only for Samsung but also for those who sell ‘affordable’ phones with 4.7 inch screen and has elaborate plans for markets like India.