As an iOS lifer, I’m sometimes jealous of what number of genuinely good telephones Android lovers get to select from every year. The similar holds true for the OnePlus 11.
The newest flagship smartphone out of the Chinese tech big is an train in minor iteration. There aren’t many eye-popping new software program options to play with or a radical redesign that may make you rethink smartphones typically. Instead, it brings maybe the coolest-looking digicam within the biz, glorious efficiency due to a model new chipset, and an all-around premium really feel for a considerably less-than-premium worth.
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The OnePlus 11 is a typically good smartphone that you simply don’t want to interrupt the financial institution to get, because it begins at simply $700. It gained’t change the world, nevertheless it doesn’t have to.
The fanciest digicam bump round
Look at that!
Credit: Kyle Cobian/Mashable
Just like final yr’s OnePlus 10 Pro, the OnePlus 11 is a giant cellphone with a giant battery and impressive-looking specs on paper. It’s additionally accessible in black or inexperienced. Here’s how crucial specs shake out:
6.7-inch show with 120Hz variable refresh charge and 3216×1440 decision
8 or 16GB RAM
128 or 256GB storage
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset
5,000mAh battery
50MP predominant digicam lens with a 48MP ultrawide lens and a 32MP portrait lens
16MP selfie digicam
Right off the bat, the cellphone’s bodily traits are each scintillating and irritating. OnePlus 11 is a actually cool-looking cellphone, one which will surely catch the attention of somebody sitting throughout from you on public transit. Its distinctive round digicam bump (full with the brand for Swedish digicam model Hasselblad) simply seems to be refined in comparison with different smartphones. It’s good-looking, not simply utilitarian.
Unfortunately, the cellphone’s bottom doesn’t simply supply a swanky trying digicam. OnePlus’s again glass is just too slippery, whether or not the cellphone is within the hand or laying on a flat floor. I tend to put my cellphone flat on a pillow subsequent to me whereas I sleep typically, and that’s a nasty thought with the OnePlus 11 as a result of it’ll inevitably slip off and wind up misplaced in your mattress someplace.
The energy button continues to be on the improper aspect, when you ask me.
Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable
That’s only one minor instance, however normally, I didn’t discover the OnePlus 11 as snug to carry as I would really like. It’s slightly too massive for long-term one-handed use, and OnePlus didn’t repair the issue I had final yr the place the amount rocker and energy button are on reverse sides of the cellphone. That’s OK with one thing small like an iPhone SE, however right here, it simply means having to tug up one other hand to regulate quantity.
Other odds and ends embrace an in-display fingerprint sensor that by no means wavered for me, and a equally efficient face unlocking mechanism. Aside from the comparatively minor issues addressed above, the OnePlus 11 is a formidable machine on the floor. It stays pretty spectacular whenever you dig deeper, too.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Fast, 2 Furious
One of the massive promoting factors for the OnePlus 11 is the inclusion of the state-of-the-art Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip powering the cellphone. It’s considerably of a rarity in telephones proper now (Samsung’s barely dearer Galaxy S23 additionally has it), so any alternative to see the way it works ought to be cherished.
The verdict? It’s nice! OnePlus claims the brand new chip offers velocity boosts of 25 and 35 p.c to to the GPU and CPU, respectively, however the proof is extra in how the cellphone feels to make use of as an on a regular basis machine. When I examined it utilizing my traditional weight loss program of copious quantities of social media, Spotify and YouTube streaming, and normal messing round on-line, I didn’t detect any efficiency hiccups that have been value noting.
It’s a clean, speedy expertise, helped by the 120Hz show. I do really feel that there are diminishing returns with every new technology of chips, as I didn’t have any efficiency issues with final yr’s cellphone, both. That mentioned, it’s cool to have the ability to have a bunch of apps open directly (on the 16GB RAM mannequin) with out feeling any strain to shut them.
This is a reasonably spectacular show with efficiency to again it up.
Credit: Kyle Cobian/Mashable
OnePlus 11 runs on OxygenOS 13, a barely altered model of Android 13. That means it comes pre-loaded with a folder filled with OnePlus bloatware, like a proprietary Notes app. That stuff is straightforward sufficient to disregard, however among the different distinctive software program options are value , for higher and worse.
For instance, you possibly can multi-task apps by stacking one on high of one other vertically. Doing so is straightforward; merely open up the view of all of your open apps, faucet the three dots within the higher proper nook of the display, and hit the “Split display” possibility. Stacking Twitter on high of Spotify is a neat trick, although I’ll say that it’s considerably much less helpful right here on a conventional cellphone show than it might be on a much bigger machine, just like the Galaxy Z Fold 4.
There’s additionally the dreaded “Shelf,” a OnePlus-exclusive drop-down menu that seems whenever you swipe down from across the center of the show. This is filled with widgets like a clock, the climate, and a not too long ago performed view on Spotify. I don’t discover any of this notably helpful, and the truth that you possibly can simply carry it up whenever you’re making an attempt to swipe down into the notifications view is problematic.
In reality, the OnePlus 10 had the identical downside. Maybe subsequent time round they’ll get round to fixing it.
Battery enhance
The actual winner right here.
Credit: Kyle Cobian/Mashable
By far essentially the most spectacular side of the OnePlus 11 is its battery. Curiously, it’s not the battery life itself, however the restoration time from a depleted cost that gained me over essentially the most.
That’s to not say the battery life is dangerous, thoughts you. I used to be in a position to get about 24 hours out of a full cost, and that included downloading sizable updates for cellular video games and loads of music streaming with the display at or close to full brightness. You can virtually definitely squeeze much more out of it with extra cautious utilization.
But it’s the 80W wall charger that comes packaged with the cellphone that seals the deal. Using that charger, I used to be in a position to get from 15 p.c battery to one hundred pc in lower than half an hour. It’s absurd how briskly this factor costs. I had enjoyable simply staring on the display and watching the proportion meter slowly (however not practically as slowly as different telephones) creep up in direction of 100.
I hope sometime my iPhone can cost that rapidly.
Bright evening pictures
Going again to that fancy-schmancy Hasselblad-branded digicam, it isn’t simply there for seems to be. It takes pictures, too, and does it pretty nicely.
That trio of rear lenses produces pictures with terribly vivid colours. I did most of my testing in sub-optimal situations (New York is not essentially the most brilliant and cheery place in January and February), and pictures nonetheless got here out trying sharp and colourful.
Message acquired!
Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable
There’s virtually a hyper-real high quality to a few of these pictures, because the environs I took them in weren’t essentially this vivid in actual life. I’m fairly into that, conceptually, because it creates handsome social media pictures. If you are striving for hardcore actuality, nevertheless, it could be slightly irksome.
The ultrawide lens does its job fairly nicely.
Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable
Portrait mode is right here and works as marketed, including a pleasant depth-of-field impact to pictures taken shut up on a single topic.
I do not know why this tree is painted blue.
Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable
There are additionally some good choices for taking pictures of extraordinarily up-close topics, or topics which are slightly out-of-reach. Macro pictures enables you to get in actual shut on small objects, like seeds and pebbles, producing extremely detailed pictures. The zoom lens, then again, is fairly respectable, sustaining an enough stage of readability from a average distance.
Macro pictures seems to be fairly good right here.
Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable
This was taken at about 12x zoom, and nonetheless seems to be actually sharp.
Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable
There’s additionally nighttime pictures, which brightens darkish pictures to make them extra legible. The outcomes are engaging sufficient, although sticklers for realism would possibly discover that a few of these pictures look extra like daytime than nighttime. The software program processing tends to brighten the pictures fairly a bit, making them look virtually as in the event that they’re lit by studio lights. It’s not pure, nevertheless it would not look dangerous, both.
This one maintains a pleasant nighttime environment.
Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable
This one doesn’t, although oncoming automotive headlights did not precisely assist.
Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable
Just one in all many choices
When it comes time to lastly select a brand new Android cellphone in 2023, the OnePlus 11 should not get left off the checklist. This is a good looking cellphone with a high-end chipset, a stunning show, and one significantly fast-charging battery. At the very least, none of your folks can have telephones that look as cool as this one.
It additionally would not harm that you’ll pay a most of $800 for it. That places it $100 beneath the Pixel 7 Pro, which I might maintain up as the present gold normal of Android telephones. That cellphone has a a lot cleaner software program bundle with none bloatware, comparably glorious efficiency, and general higher cameras that may do extra. The base Pixel 7 can also be glorious, and to OnePlus’s detriment, it is solely $600.
Personally, I’d go Pixel 7 if I have been in search of a brand new Android handset. But OnePlus deserves your consideration, too.
