OnePlus Has Plans to Bring Back Its Iconic Alert Slider on Future Smartphones: Report

With the OnePlus 10T 5G now out, it's clear that the smartphone does not have the iconic alert slider. The OnePlus 10T also becomes the second premium device from the brand after the OnePlus 10R 5G to skip on this hardware feature that's unique to OnePlus. The alert slider is present on the OnePlus 10 Pro 5G, which was launched in March this year. So, is the OnePlus' done with the alert slider? Turns out that may not be the case.

A report by 9to5Google, claims that OnePlus is not done with its alert slider just yet. OnePlus claims that retaining the alert slider is a challenge, but the company has plans to overcome the design and technical challenge in future devices, so that the same can be retained alongside other improved technologies. However, it isn't clear whether the next premium smartphone from OnePlus will retain the hardware feature that has been present on its high-end devices since the OnePlus Two.

A previous report, stated that OnePlus' alert slider takes up about 30mm² of space. And removing the alert slider from the OnePlus 10T 5G allowed the manufacturer to add more performance focused components like the two charge pumps needed for its 150W fast charging system and a bigger 4,800mAh battery. The report also points out that adding the alert slider would have made the phone thicker as well because OnePlus engineers would have had to go with a stacked motherboard to make more space.

The OnePlus alert slider has changed its function over time. Introduced with the OnePlus Two, it would initially let users disable all notifications (top), allow only priority notifications (middle), or allow all sounds (bottom). Over time, the role of the Alert slider has changed and currently works more like the iPhone's Ring/Silent switch. The OnePlus 10 Pro's Alert slider lets users change the device's sound profile by switching between ringer ON (top), vibrate (middle) and silent (bottom).

The OnePlus 10T 5G is the company's latest premium smartphone that gets a starting price of Rs. 49,999 in India. It features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC, which is so far only available on a few smartphones from Asus and iQoo. There's a maximum of 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The phone features three rear cameras including a 50-megapixel primary, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide, and a 2-megapixel macro sensor. Selfies are handled by a 16-megapixel front-facing camera. Powering the phone is a 4,800mAh battery that can be charged using the bundled 160W charger.