OnePlus knows how to release a phone ... slowly. The OnePlus 10 Pro launches on Jan. 11, but the company has been dropping details about its new flagship all week: first some body images, then some basic specs, and now info about its new Hasselblad-branded camera system.
The OnePlus 10 Pro will shoot in 10-bit color by default, and its three rear cameras will also have the option to shoot in 12-bit RAW.
The ultra-wide lens will have a 150-degree option with a "fisheye mode" that looks like a fisheye camera, as well as a 110-degree option with distortion correction.
A new "movie mode" lets you alter camera settings on the fly while filming video, and video can now be captured in "log" format for professional video editors.
These features look like they're trying to appeal to prosumer and professional photographers. RAW and LOG formats aren't for your average consumer; they're for people who take their shots as just a starting point for later editing.
In the US, OnePlus will run into the cultural problem that these professional communities are pretty much owned by Apple. No great hardware will be able to change how macOS and iOS workflows are deeply baked into pro-photographer culture. But OnePlus's core markets aren't the US; they're in places like India, where Android dominates and Apple has a much weaker hold all around. Those countries have professional photographers, too.
Part of OnePlus's merger with Oppo is about improving OnePlus phones' camera capabilities, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau said at a virtual event in November. Oppo recently announced a new, in-house image processing chip, the MariSilicon X, but that isn't appearing in the OnePlus 10 Pro.
The OnePlus 10 Pro will launch in China at 1 a.m. ET on Jan. 11. OnePlus says a US launch will follow "later in 2022," which is a broader time frame than we expected. Perhaps OnePlus is being affected by the chipset shortage.