OnePlus 10 Pro Telephoto Camera Might Continue To Disappoint

OnePlus' original claim to fame was to offer high-end premium specs with an extremely affordable price tag. There are always compromises to be made, but those compromises are often acceptable for many consumers. OnePlus' price advantage has long been a thing of the past, but there are some specs that seem to be stuck in the old days. In particular, it seems that OnePlus won't be upgrading its telephoto camera to something that is more in line with premium flagships in the past year or so.

OnePlus has always been criticized for its photography performance, and it has been one point that the company has been working hard to improve. Over the years, OnePlus phones have indeed improved but not to the point of being noteworthy. One aspect in particular, however, hasn't exactly seen an improvement in the past three years, and a leak suggests it still won't happen in 2022.

According to Chinese tipster Digital Chat Station on Weibo, the OnePlus 10 Pro still won't have a periscope style zoom camera next year. That's in contrast to many of its rivals on the top smartphone tiers that boast high levels of optical zoom. Instead, OnePlus's next "Pro" phone will be stuck with the same 3.3x optical zoom and 30x digital zoom.

That's pretty much the same as this year's OnePlus 9 Pro. Going back further, some might notice that OnePlus has been using similar telephoto cameras since the OnePlus 7T in 2019, with only small upgrades here and there. That's not to say that 3.3x optical zoom is terrible, just that it is lagging behind the smartphone market's best.

Complicating matters a bit is the tipster's comment that the OnePlus 10 Pro won't have a high-pixel telephoto sensor. For the same three years, OnePlus has been using an 8MP sensor for its telephoto camera. That definitely won't do it favors if both the sensor and the lens are stuck in the past.

It's arguable whether that matters much to end users, though, as only reviewers and benchmarks put a heavy emphasis on zoom quality. That said, it still doesn't help the company's image if it keeps using seemingly outdated hardware while selling phones at a high price. Then again, these are still just uncorroborated rumors, but we might not have to wait long for the OnePlus 10 Pro to debut, at least based on other rumors.