Is the incoming OnePlus 10 Pro good enough to beat the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G in the first of 2022's best Android phone battles? Our jury is still out, but more details have emerged of the OnePlus's camera setup and software. In a nice change, the information comes direct from OnePlus rather than from a leaker's Twitter account so we know it's 100% accurate.
The good news is that there are some significant software improvements to the camera. The bad? There don't appear to be many significant improvements to the camera hardware beyond an improved ultrawide sensor. With the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G expected to have a 108MP camera system, that might have made your mind up already.
A wider view and more bits in each image
We know that the OnePlus 10 Pro is getting a triple rear camera, most likely the same 40MP/50MP ultra wide/8MP telephoto as its predecessor. The selfie camera is expected to be 32MP compared to the OnePlus 9 Pro's 16MP.
The ultrawide sensor has been upgraded for 2022 with a very wide 150-degree field of view, and there's a new fisheye mode as well as a 110-degree mode with AI distortion correction. The monochrome camera appears to have been dropped.
There's a new RAW Plus mode that works much like Apple's ProRAW, going beyond a standard RAW capture mode to include the computational photography that flagship phones now compete against each other with. That means you can fiddle around with the original image without losing the phone's image processing. And the cameras now offer 10-bit colour for more accurate capture and smoother gradients.
According to The Verge, the cameras can be used in the updated Hasselblad Pro Mode to shoot 12-bit RAW files and control exposure settings, and there's a new manual video mode called Movie Mode that enables you to control ISO and shutter speed and record in a LOG shooting format for easier post-capture colour grading.
So which is the best Android phone, the OnePlus or the Samsung? I'm with my colleague Rob here: a lot of that is going to depend on the price. OnePlus's flagships have been increasing in price compared to their rivals in recent years, and that means they're not necessarily the giant-killers they used to be. If the price is right the OnePlus 10 Pro could be amazing – but it's not the only amazing Android phone we're expecting in 2022.
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