OnePlus 10T is losing the alert slider and the Hasselblad branding: Here's why

OnePlus is going to launch the OnePlus 10T on August 3 and as we build up to that date, some details regarding the upcoming flagship smartphone have made it out to the wild. These also include some details about the phone’s exterior that, as The Verge points out, could be disappointing to some people.

As compared to its predecessor, while the OnePlus 10T’s design is similar to the OnePlus 10 Pro, the upcoming device is going to miss out on the alert slider and there is also no Hasselblad branding on the camera system on the back. Both the alert slider and the camera branding had become a staple of sorts on OnePlus’ flagship devices.

The alert slider on the OnePlus smartphones has been around for a while and it basically gives users a quick and easy way to put the phone on silent or vibrate mode without having to navigate through the screen. But why is it being dropped?

In an interview with The Verge, OnePlus’ chief designee Hope Liu said that the company needed to drop the slider for the OnePlus 10T to make space for other components inside like larger battery capacity, better antenna signal, high wattage charging, etc.

While OnePlus has not announced what sort of charging, we are going to see on the OnePlus 10T, but rumours suggest we might see a 150W charging on it. And Liu said that the company has added two charging pumps in the OnePlus 10T as compared to the one pump used on the OnePlus 10 Pro which supports 80W fast charging. OnePlus has also reportedly prioritised the antenna system on the OnePlus 10T to include 15 separate antennas which will help improve signal while holding the phone horizontally (helpful while playing games).

Liu explained that while the alert slider appears to be a very small component it actually takes up about 30 mm square area on the motherboard, which is a large impact. The head designer explained that to keep the alert slider, the company would have to stack the device’s motherboard and that would have made the smartphone thicker.

The other feature the OnePlus 10T is losing is the Hasselblad-branded camera system. Now, the OnePlus and Hasselblad partnership began last year with the OnePlus 9 Pro and the main focus was to tune the colours on the camera. Some features like support for 12-bit RAW photos were brought in this year, however, they are not really “mainstream essentials”, as The Verge puts it.

Liu explained that the company wanted to offer an “ultimate performance flagship smartphone” experience at the chosen price point, which indicates that dropping the Hasselblad branding was a necessary compromise to ensure the smartphone would cost exactly how much the company wants to price it at.

Besides this, so far, we know that the OnePlus 10T is going to use a 50MP Sony IMX766 sensor and support shooting in 10-bit colour, improved HDR photography, and also the OnePlus night photo mode.

The smartphone will feature a 6.7-inch display and be available in matte black and glossy green. It is expected to be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor.

Also Read: OnePlus 10T India launch next week: Specs, price and everything else we know so far

Also Read: OnePlus to unveil OxygenOS 13 alongside OnePlus 10T 5G on August 3