Last year, OnePlus announced its revised product strategy, where the company revealed that there would be at least five different series of phones from the brand. There will be the flagship number series from the company that we all know about, the “R” series, the “NORD” series, the “NORD CE” series, and the “NORD N” series. Speaking of the “R” series, it will include entry-level flagship phones, and we already have one phone under this series, the OnePlus 9R. Moreover, the phones under this series will be exclusive to the regional markets, i.e., specifically for markets like India and China. So the only series that will be available globally is the flagship number series from OnePlus.
Now, the OnePlus 10 Pro is already official in China and is expected to launch globally sometime in April alongside the vanilla OnePlus 10. But, just like last year, there is also an ‘R’ series phone this year named the OnePlus 10R. Some details of this phone were shared by AndroidCentral, and AndroidCentral also reveals that it is set to go official in Q2 2022.
As per AndroidCentral, the OnePlus 10R will be powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 SOC. As AndroidCentral mentions, the reason why this phone will not launch globally and will be exclusive to only a few markets like India or China is due to the Dimensity 9000’s 5G modem that supports only Sub-6GHz 5G bands. In the US, networks rely on the mmWave frequency bands for 5G, so there, it would make no sense to launch a Dimensity 9000-powered phone.
As we know, Dimensity 9000 has similar specs to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, and it even gets an edge when we talk about the manufacturing process. While both are built on the 4nm process, the Dimensity 9000 is built on TSMC’s 4nm process, whereas Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 on Samsung’s 4nm process. So far, we have seen that chips built on the TSMC’c process offer better power efficiency & issues of throttling and heating are also lesser.
The OnePlus 10R will launch with a 120Hz AMOLED, at least 8GB RAM, and 128GB storage. We do not have more details yet, but AndroidCentral says that they should get the camera details soon.
It is said that the delay in the 10R’s launch is due to the launch of the OnePlus 9RT. It was launched last year in China, but in India, it launched this month. So, to ensure that the OnePlus 10R does not affect the 9RT’s sales, the company has moved the launch of 10R in Q2 2022.