Last month, OnePlus officially confirmed what we had long suspected: this is the first time OnePlus has skipped the T-series since the OnePlus T-series was announced in 2016, and fans of the next generation OnePlus flagship model will will have to wait until 2022.

But one of the advantages of skipping the biennial updates is that the changes between generations appear more varied. And now we have the first rumors of what the OnePlus 10 might offer beyond being a "refined Series 9 model."

On Weibo, leaker Bald Panda (which Bing translates as "Panda is very calm," if you prefer) claims that the OnePlus 10 Pro will offer 5x optical zoom and allow owners to take better quality photos from a distance." Google's enigmatic translation reads, "Son beats father, uses 5x periscope on OnePlus 10 Pro.

The father in this case is presumably the OnePlus 9 Pro, which currently offers up to 3.3x optical zoom on its Hasselblad-branded camera; Phones editor Jordan Palmer, in his review of the OnePlus 9 Pro, found the Samsung Galaxy S In his review of the OnePlus 9 Pro, Phones editor Jordan Palmer gave the OnePlus 9 Pro a run for its money over the Samsung Galaxy S 21 Plus. He writes, "Both models are good at zooming, but OnePlus wins for image accuracy."

Increasing the OnePlus 10 Pro's optical zoom to 5x would put it on par with other Chinese rivals like the Huawei P30 Pro and Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra. However, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is capable of 10x optical zoom and can take some truly impressive photos. Perhaps the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (which may or may not be the Galaxy Note 22) will match or improve on this when it launches in early 2022.

It will probably launch before the OnePlus 10 Pro, with one leaker hinting that it could be announced as early as December. The OnePlus 10, on the other hand, is expected to be announced in early 2022, based on previous OnePlus phone announcements, and if the OnePlus 9T is not announced, expect the OnePlus 10 series to follow this pattern and be announced even earlier in 2022. The OnePlus 10 series is expected to follow this pattern and be announced even earlier in 2022.