OnePlus 11 review | Engadget

Final yr’s OnePlus 10 Professional is ready to get replaced by the OnePlus 11. There received’t be a OnePlus 11 Professional, and there wasn’t a daily OnePlus 10. Issues might be extra simple, however what are you going to do? Barring any spinoffs, that is OnePlus’ flagship cellphone, the main focus of all its consideration, improvement funds and all the pieces else. Leaks meant we knew what the OnePlus 11 would seem like lengthy earlier than it was formally unveiled. It has all the pieces we liked about OnePlus up to now: a strong, high-end processor, a vivid display and (after a short diversion) a aggressive price ticket ($699).

The OnePlus 11 launches the identical week as a trio of telephones from Samsung, the dominant Android cellphone participant. The 2023 Galaxy S sequence has telephones which are each greater and smaller, pricier and cheaper, than OnePlus’ latest cellphone. Fortuitously, this new flagship has one trick to face out from Samsung’s new lineup: extremely quick 100-watt charging.

Design

OnePlus has made some adjustments to the design. The corporate drew inspiration from sports activities vehicles (it has collaborated with McLaren up to now) and swiss watches. This apparently led to a unibody slab with a chrome steel digicam array. There are some advantageous particulars within the digicam glass which supplies it somewhat little bit of a watch aesthetic, nevertheless it’s mainly simply one other big digicam pop-out. The metallic bezel protrudes barely greater than the glass, which ought to assist keep away from scratches. Initially, I believed it was somewhat too massive and ostentatious, nevertheless it’s roughly equal to the unit on the iPhone 14 Professional – and the Pixel 7 Professional’s Cyclops digicam bar is arguably even flashier.

The OnePlus 11 additionally answered the pleas of the OnePlus devoted by reintroducing its Alert Slider. When you haven’t seen it on earlier telephones, it’s a metallic slider simply above the facility button on the precise edge that swaps between silent, ring and vibrate modes. OnePlus claimed in earlier years that the elimination was because of house calls for contained in the telephones and that the slider would make a return, so the corporate has at the very least fulfilled that promise to its followers. For the remainder of us, I’m unsure we’d like it. Then once more, I’m the form of individual that retains my cellphone on silent just about on a regular basis.

The cellphone is available in shiny gray-green (Everlasting Inexperienced) and glowing black (Titan Black) shade choices. I believed the black end would have a gritty, 3D-printed really feel to it, nevertheless it’s nearer to slate – one way or the other easy and grippy on the identical time. I don’t perceive the physics of it both. In the meantime, the inexperienced model is rather a lot like final yr’s telephones. The shiny end is sadly a canvas for all of your fingerprints and smudges.

The OnePlus 11 has a beautiful 6.7-inch 2,048 × 1,080 OLED display that may attain as much as 120Hz refresh charges. As soon as once more, there’s an LTPO panel that may now dip low at 1Hz when the always-on show (AOD) is on. OnePlus claims that, in contrast with typical 30Hz AODs, OnePlus 11’s 1Hz AOD consumes 30 % much less energy. After all, it’s not utilizing a lot energy to start with as an AOD, however might result in somewhat extra battery life in the long term, even when it’s not represented in our typical battery rundown assessments. Except for the upgraded AOD capabilities, this display is in any other case similar to the OnePlus 10 Professional – which isn’t a nasty factor. It’s one other space the place OnePlus typically goes toe-to-toe with the perfect smartphones on the market, regardless of sometimes costing tons of of {dollars} much less.

Digicam

The OnePlus 11’s main digicam is a brand new 50-megapixel sensor, with a f/1.8 aperture. It sounds just like the OnePlus 10 Professional’s essential digicam, however makes use of an even bigger 1/1.56-inch sensor. This works alongside a 115-degree ultrawide 48MP digicam that pulls double-duty for macro pictures.

This time, OnePlus’ flagship has a 32MP telephoto digicam, up from a measly 8MP on its predecessor. Nonetheless, optical zoom tops out at 2x, whereas the lower-res OnePlus 10 Professional might punch in at as much as 3.2x optical zoom. It’s an uncommon change to make. Which is the higher resolution? Whereas I didn’t have final yr’s OnePlus 10 Professional to check instantly with the OnePlus 11, the pictures didn’t appear as muted as I keep in mind. After all, they weren’t as magnified, however given the higher-resolution, I can all the time crop in with out ruining the outcomes an excessive amount of. It’s just about a guide digital zoom, cropping like this, however you profit from a greater sensor earlier than you crop away the surplus megapixels.

The OnePlus 11’s digicam array, what it calls its third-generation Hasselblad Digicam, is improved, and nonetheless comes with some addictive filters for stills and video. Nonetheless, It doesn’t fairly attain the top of smartphone pictures, led by the Galaxy S22 Extremely, iPhone 14 Professional and Pixel 7 Professional, although.

The OnePlus 11 appears to do its finest work on panorama and road pictures. There’s a Professional mode once more, so you possibly can dabble in RAW enhancing, however I used to be very happy with the JPGs. The OnePlus 11 additionally options an AI Spotlight video mode. The cellphone makes use of picture processing to take care of even ranges of publicity when recording video and shifting between areas of various lighting. I examined it out on a sunny afternoon, on a bridge, however I didn’t see too many tangible advantages to overexposure. It really works somewhat higher whenever you’re filming in a principally darkish state of affairs, however, oddly, that is meant to be the standout software program characteristic for this yr’s OnePlus flagship – it’s not notably exceptional.

Efficiency and battery life

The OnePlus 11 has the de facto high Android processor: the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. It’s highly effective, certain, however the greater advantages may come by means of longer battery life. In response to the chip maker, its new Adreno GPU can supply as much as 45 % higher energy effectivity.

OnePlus software program doesn’t seem to have modified a lot for the reason that OnePlus 10 Professional. OnePlus claims its HyperBoost Gaming Engine makes use of machine studying (and Qualcomm’s newest processor) to stability efficiency and battery drain. The caveat right here is that it’s solely suitable with main cell titles like Genshin Affect. It’s additionally arduous to inform whether or not it provides a discernible impression on video games, when so many different telephones are equally specced and supply an analogous expertise.

The OnePlus cellphone sequence sometimes provides respectable battery life. So it’s no shock that the OnePlus 11 clocked virtually 20 hours on our video rundown check. Though the battery icon appeared somewhat ‘sticky’ round one hundred pc after taking part in video for two hours. The one telephones that beat which are the corporate’s personal OnePlus 10T and the iPhone 14 Professional.

Whereas that’s nice, the velocity that OnePlus 11 can cost is much more spectacular. 100W charging is right here – the form of wattage we get with laptops. There’s a suitable charger within the field, fortunately, nevertheless it’s proprietary tech, so you will want this particular charger, this cable and OnePlus’ newest cellphone to hit these heady charging speeds. OnePlus says it takes 25 minutes to succeed in a full cost from empty, and in follow, that’s been correct.

The power to plug my cellphone in for a short stint (roughly ten minutes) and have it high up 50 % is magical. Nonetheless, there’s no wi-fi charging. It’s not a deal breaker for me nevertheless it’s undoubtedly one thing to notice as lacking from a flagship cellphone. I’d take these heady charging speeds over wi-fi charging any day.

Wrap-up

The OnePlus 11 has an excellent display (once more), extremely fast-charging (once more) and cameras which are higher than its predecessors. Nonetheless, the supercharge speeds appear to be the one distinctive factor that the OnePlus 11 brings to the desk. However is that sufficient to make you need to improve from an older cellphone, or select a OnePlus over the competitors?

At $699, with 8GB of reminiscence and 128GB of storage, that’s $100 lower than final yr’s flagship. It’s a a lot better deal than its predecessor – and this might be a deciding issue. The OnePlus 11 sits between midrange units, just like the Pixel 6a, and premium telephones together with Google’s Pixel 7 and Samsung’s Galaxy S23 sequence. In some ways, you get the perfect of each, however towards the dominance of different cellphone makers, it must do extra to differentiate itself.