The OnePlus 11 is the company’s first true flagship phone to come out in 2023. It costs $699, and there’s a lot to like about it. From its sleek, updated design to its super-powerful processor and ability to charge quickly, this phone works hard to live up to its name as a flagship.
But it’s not a big change from the already great OnePlus 10 Pro from last year. It looks the same, has a big (and maybe unnecessary) boost in power, and the new camera setup is good, but not a big step forward. If you were hoping for a totally new OnePlus phone, you might be let down. People who have recently bought a OnePlus device shouldn’t think about upgrading.
Price is definitely a plus. The base model of the OnePlus 11 costs $699, which is about £729 or AU$1,270. It has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Even the high-end review model I used, which had 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, only cost $799 (£799), which is a lot less than its competitors. The Pixel 7 Pro was one of our favourite phones of 2022. It won the best choice award when it came out in October thanks to its great cameras, smooth interface, and attractive design. It’s a great phone, and it’s one of my favourite ways to use Android 13.
The OnePlus 11’s best feature is its raw power, which gives it lightning-fast speeds for gaming and doing a lot of things at once. It also charges faster than the phones made by Google. The Pixel’s Tensor G2 processor isn’t made for straight-line speed, but it can still run everything in the Play Store.
OnePlus 11 review: Design
The OnePlus 11 5G looks a lot like last year’s OnePlus 10 Pro 5G, which isn’t a bad thing. The back camera module is now round instead of square, which is the most noticeable change. There is also a new texture under the glass of the camera module, which can be seen from certain angles. Instead of being on one side, the Hasselblad logo is now in the middle of the four camera lenses.
The rest of the 10 Pro 5G’s dimensions, build quality, and feel in your hand are pretty much the same. The OnePlus 11 5G is just a little bit thinner at 8.53mm, but it is a bit heavier at 205g. The curved sides of the aluminum frame make it easy to carry this phone around, but the back panel, which is made of Corning Gorilla Glass 5, can make it very slippery when held in one hand. The rubber case that comes with the box is useful. This time, OnePlus sent us the Titan Black model, but it also comes in Eternal Green, just like the 10 Pro 5G.
The display on the OnePlus 11 5G now supports Dolby Vision HDR playback, but it is otherwise very similar to the display on the OnePlus 10 Pro. It has a 6.7-inch QHD+ AMOLED screen with a variable refresh rate that can go as low as 1Hz and can go as high as 120Hz. Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protects the screen. The phone already has a scratch guard on it, which I find to be very annoying. Like before, the edges of the screen and back panel are curved, giving it a high-end look.
OnePlus 11 review: Display
The screen on the OnePlus 11 is great. Most people won’t find a single thing to complain about with the 6.7-inch OLED screen. It’s a Quad HD LTPO 3.0 panel with a refresh rate between 1 and 120Hz and bezels that are almost perfectly symmetrical.
But, as I said before, if you know where to look, you can see that this is where OnePlus settles a bit to reach a lower price point. This screen is a Samsung E4 panel, which is still great and better than about 99% of other screens. But there are Android phones, like the Vivo X90 Pro+ and Xiaomi 13 Pro, that use Samsung’s latest E6 panel, which has better viewing angles, a higher maximum brightness, and uses less power.
But this is just being picky. To see the difference, you’d have to be an expert on displays and have a Vivo X90 Pro+ next to it. The OnePlus 11 screen is fine by itself, and its maximum brightness of 800 nits or 1300 nits when HDR content is being pushed is bright enough.
OnePlus 11 review: Camera
The 11’s camera setup is similar to that of last year’s 10 Pro, which used Hasselblad camera technology. On the back, it has a main 48MP camera, a 50MP ultra-wide camera, and a 32MP 2x telephoto camera. On the front, it has a good 16MP selfie camera. The main camera takes some of the best photos OnePlus has ever taken, with good detail and range, but it loses a little sharpness around the edges of the frame and sometimes has trouble with color balance, making warmer scenes look a little orange.
Compared to the other cameras, the ultrawide camera doesn’t capture as much detail and can take slightly darker pictures. The 2x telephoto lens is one of the better short zoom lenses because it has good detail and balance, but it doesn’t really bring things closer. Most of its competitors have an optical zoom of at least 3x, and the best ones can go up to 10x.
All three cameras do not do as well as class leaders when there isn’t much light. The 16MP selfie camera takes good-looking, detailed pictures with a good dynamic range that work well even in dim light. When you get close to something, you can use the ultrawide camera’s macro mode to take great pictures. But you have to be careful to keep the image sharp, which is hard to tell while you’re shooting. Some of the extra modes, like the portrait mode and the Xpan panoramic shots, work well most of the time.
OnePlus 11 review: Performance and Gaming
The OnePlus 11 is surprisingly well-equipped for a mid-range phone. It has the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, which will also be found in this year’s top Android phones. This top-of-the-line processor comes with 256GB of storage and 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, which lets up to 44 apps cache themselves in the background. The starting SKU has half as much storage and memory, which gives you mostly the same experience but less space for apps to cache.
All of these high-end parts kept Android 13 running quickly, whether I was just scrolling through websites, recording 8K video, or playing games. The 120Hz display and 1000Hz touch response rate of the OnePlus 11 make it a lot of fun to play games on.
With their built-in HyperBoost Gaming Engine, OnePlus phones have always been better for gaming than most other popular phones. As soon as you start playing, this “gaming mode” turns on, freeing up memory and improving the device’s performance. The phone will also try to keep the frame rate on the screen steady, which is similar to how the Xbox Series X and PS5 work with their variable refresh rates.
OnePlus 11 review: Battery Life
The OnePlus 11 comes with a 5,000mAh battery that can be charged with 100W SuperVOOC. During the time I used the device, I did most of my work on a 5G network and used navigation a lot. With this much use, I got about five hours of screen time, but on a normal day, I got nearly seven hours. Aside from that, OnePlus has put its 100W charging solution, which charges the phone in about 20 minutes, inside the box.
OnePlus 11 review: Price and availability
The base model of the OnePlus 11 with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage costs $699. The model with 16GB RAM and 256GB storage costs $799. It can be ordered ahead of time starting on Feb. 7, and it will arrive on Feb. 16. The device will be sold in the U.S. on Amazon, Best Buy, and OnePlus’ own online store. T-Mobile will not carry it, which is different from previous years.
Final Words
The OnePlus 11 has a better camera than its predecessors and an even better screen than its predecessors. But it looks like the supercharge speeds are the only thing that makes the OnePlus 11 stand out. But is that enough to make you want to switch from an older phone or choose OnePlus over other brands?
With 8GB of memory and 128GB of storage, it costs $699, which is $100 less than last year’s top model. It’s a much better deal than the one that came before it, which could be the deciding factor. The OnePlus 11 falls between midrange phones like the Pixel 6a and high-end phones like the Pixel 7 and the Galaxy S23 series from Google and Samsung. In many ways, you get the best of both worlds. However, it needs to do more to stand out from other phone makers.
