OnePlus 11 5G Brings Value And Performance To An Affordable Android Flagship
There is no doubt that the average retail price of high-end Android phones has increased in recent years, although the current launch cycle seems to be slowing down a bit, likely due to the volatile economic situation. OnePlus has historically been at the forefront of delivering "unprecedented" premium specs and features for reasonably priced flagship offerings, although the company's latest releases have also seen price hikes. Luckily, the company has returned to its value roots with the OnePlus 11 5G, offering what I think is one of the best flagship Android phones of the year starting at $699.
Top-notch features: stunning screen, redesigned camera module, Snapdragon processor.
Let's start here with the vital signs. The OnePlus 11 5G is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, which in my opinion is one of the best mobile platforms the company has ever offered, with reliable and long-lasting performance across a wide range of mobile workloads. We'll talk about this in a moment.
The back of the device is covered in Gorilla Glass 5, and the Eternal Green color you see here looks nice and does a good job of protecting against fingerprints, but it's very glossy and slippery. It's a shame to hide it, but OnePlus makes some really great cases, and I highly recommend buckling up to protect that gem-colored finish. The front screen is covered with Gorilla Glass Victus for added durability.
Speaking of the display, the OnePlus LTPO 6.7-inch OLED panel with 3216 x 1440 resolution offers a 120Hz dynamic refresh rate that can automatically switch to a lower refresh rate when not required to save power. It's a beautiful, bright (1300 nits) durable OLED display with gently curved edges that blend seamlessly with the contours of the phone's aluminum side rail. And yes, ladies and gentlemen, the OnePlus alert slider is back, so you can put your phone on vibrate or do not disturb mode with a flick of this edge-mounted switch. Why others don't use this simple and well thought out feature is beyond me.
The back of the OnePlus 11 5G features a redesigned thin rounded camera module with a main shooter equipped with Sony's excellent 50MP IMX890 sensor, 1/1.56" size, f/1 0.8 aperture, and OIS... a little more focus more, than Pixel 7 Pro. And, like Google's competitors, sometimes it can narrow things down too much. However, the results are very satisfying across the board and OnePlus' partnership with Hasselblad is really just getting started. The table provides excellent accuracy, and I prefer capturing the phone's true color to the sometimes subdued images of the Pixel 7 Pro.
Seems fast...
The OP 11's wide-angle camera is larger than the previous generation, but has a narrower field of view of 115 degrees compared to the OnePlus 10 Pro's 150 degrees. The color cast in the image above is very realistic as of January New England. The OnePlus 11 also has a solid 2x telephoto lens, but it lacks image stabilization. Either way, shots with the built-in zoom as well as digital zoom do a great job with a steady hand.
My teammate Ryan at HotHardware took this photo with his OnePlus 11 5G, and here you can see Hasselblad's color science in action. It's a sharp, detailed shot with lots of color variation, everything is beautifully rendered, with good separation and accurate capture.
This is a relatively simple portrait mode shot for the OnePlus 11, although the shot was taken on a glass table top with a sliding glass door in the background and lots of reflections that can make it hard to see the edges and blur the background. especially with that jar of pepper salad. In any case, OP11 does a good job of object recognition. I'm still wondering if the Google Pixel 7 Pro has an advantage here, although I think it's a slight advantage.
Superior Android performance powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
Moving on to the overall performance results of this new OnePlus flagship, the numbers it puts out are pretty fantastic. The transition from Qualcomm to TSMC to produce SoC (System on Chip) for mobile platforms has been very successful, resulting in excellent performance over time and thermal saturation of the OnePlus 11 5G internal cooling solution. Here are some numbers that speak volumes...
You can see that the OnePlus 11 5G has stiff competition from the other two new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 flagships, Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and RedMagic 8 Pro. The performance difference between number 2 and number 3 competitors is clearly within the range of variability of the test. However, when we turned to the 3DMark Wild Life stress test to see how performance changed under a 20-minute continuous load that outperformed the test, we encountered near-zero performance variability.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, which has a special version of Qualcomm's fastest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 called Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, performed slightly better in key benchmarks, but was outperformed by about 8-10%. over time until the OnePlus 11 stands like a rock.
Fantastic software, ease of use and battery life
OnePlus' new OxygenOS 13 is a slightly more elegant Android 13 theme, but with more Oppo Color OS polish than before. I'd say this is probably my least favorite version of OxygenOS, as OnePlus' previous version of Android isn't as hard at trying to reinvent the wheel and just looks like a cleaner version of Android that's more like bone stock, which I would prefer. .
However, this is not a hindrance and these settings are more subjective for the user than anything else. Overall, I still prefer OxygenOS 13 over the Samsung One UI, but again, that's personal preference and I generally prefer Google's Android customization on Pixel phones.
What I really appreciate is the battery life of the OP 11 5G. This is definitely a two-day device and I was very impressed with the heavy mixed daily use and power management features of this phone. I also think this is a great testament to the power efficiency of the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.
While I'm definitely disappointed that OnePlus has ditched the (supposedly convenient) OP 11 wireless charging, I really like the phone's 80W fast wired charging, which works really fast. With the included 80W SuperVOOC charger, the OnePlus 11 can be fully charged in just 27 minutes and up to 50% in just 12 minutes.
OnePlus Buds Pro 2 and its brief overview
I still run and go to the gym with the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 but so far I'm impressed. Noise cancellation is on and the acoustics are excellent with rich, full bass, clear, open mids and crisp, clear highs. However, I'm still concerned about the sound quality of the microphone. Either way, for $179 with a $20 Amazon gift card offer, I think it's solid value.
Overall, I think OnePlus did a good job with the new OnePlus 11 5G, and while I'd love to see wireless charging built in, the 80W wired charging with this phone is really fast. And with an MSRP of $699 for the 8GB RAM/128GB model and $799 for the 16GB RAM/256GB model, it's one of the best Android phone deals on the market. Amazon also has a $100 gift card offer with this phone to sweeten the pot even more.
