OnePlus 11 Review | Nepal


OnePlus 11 Review

In this review, I’ll be talking about my experience with the new OnePlus 11. Like always, it’s already been out in China for a while and OnePlus is finally bringing its latest flagship phone for all the world to see. And it starts at just USD 699 in the US, or INR 56,999 in India—although it is quite expensive here in Nepal. Starting at NPR 129,999.

Remember, this is not a “Pro” OnePlus 11 but just… OnePlus 11. In fact, there’s not going to be a “OnePlus 11 Pro” this time according to OnePlus China’s president. So compared to last year’s OnePlus 10 Pro, I like the new pricing of the OnePlus 11 in the global market. The company has even gotten rid of a few features like wireless charging and an IP68 rating to bring the cost down, and really push for the one thing it’s always been known for all those years before:

flagship-level performance at a sub-flagship price.

The past couple of years sure has been rocky for OnePlus, with the company struggling to find its footing in the market. But maybe—just maybe—things could turn around for OnePlus in 2023.

OnePlus 11 Review: Specifications

  • Body: 74.1 x 163.1 x 8.53mm, 205 grams, Glass front/back, Aluminum frames, IP64 dust and splash resistance
  • Display: 6.7-inch E4 AMOLED, LTPO 3.0, 10-bit colors, 120Hz refresh rate, Up to 1000Hz touch sampling rate, Gorilla Glass Victus, Dolby Vision
  • Other Properties: 800 nits (HBM), 1300 nits (HDR) brightness
  • Resolution: 2K QHD (3216 x 1440 pixels), 552 PPI, 20.1:9 aspect ratio,
  • Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 5G (4nm mobile platform)
  • CPU: Octa-core:

    – 1x Cortex-X3 (3.2 GHz)

    – 2x Cortex-A715 (2.8 GHz)
    – 2x Cortex-A710 (2.8 GHz)
    – 3x Cortex-A510 (2.0 GHz)

  • GPU: Adreno 740
  • Memory: 8/12/16GB LPDDR5X RAM, 128GB (UFS 3.1), 256/512GB UFS 4.0 storage
  • Software & UI: Android 13 with OnePlus’ OxygenOS 13 on top
  • Rear Camera: Triple (with LED flash), Third-gen Hasselblad Camera for Mobile
    – 50MP, f/1.8 Sony IMX890 primary, 1/1.56″ sensor, OIS
    – 48MP, f/2.2 Sony IMX581 ultrawide, 115º FoV
    – 32MP, f/2.0 Sony IMX709 telephoto, 2x optical zoom
  • Front Camera: 16MP, f/2.45 (hole-punch cutout)
  • Other Sensors: 13-channel Accu-spectrum Light-color Identifier
  • Audio: Built-in stereo speakers, No 3.5mm headphone jack
  • Security: In-display fingerprint sensor (optical)
  • Sensors: Accelerometer, Ambient light, Flick-detect, Gyroscope, M-sensor electronic compass, Proximity, Sensor core
  • Connectivity: Dual-SIM (Nano), WiFi 7 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be (Triple-band), Bluetooth 5.3, GPS (L1+L5 Dual Band), Glonass, Galileo (E1+E5a Dual Band), Beidou, A-GPS, QZSS, 4G LTE (VoLTE), Dual 5G
  • Battery: 5000mAh with 100W SuperVOOC charging (100W adapter provided)
  • Color Options: Eternal Green, Titan Black
  • What’s Inside The Box: OnePlus 11, USB-A to USB-C cable, 100W power adapter, SIM ejector tool, OnePlus stickers, User manual and other documents
  • Price in Nepal: NPR 129,999 (8/128GB) | NPR 134,999 (16/256GB)

OnePlus 11 Review:

Design and Build

  • 74.1 x 163.1 x 8.53mm, 205 grams
  • Glass front/back, Aluminum frames
  • IP64 dust and splash resistance (US-only)

Starting with the looks, the design of the Oneplus 11 is kinda polarizing. I’ve seen a lot of people like its sorta unique look, and an equal number of people calling this circular camera ring ugly and unsettling.

OnePlus 11 Design

I must say I’m kinda on the fence on this one though. It’s not the most visually attractive smartphone I’ve seen but it’s certainly not the worst thing in the world either. That said, I definitely would’ve preferred a matte touch instead of this “all-chrome ‘n’ gloss” finish on the green colorway. Maybe OnePlus should’ve gone with a ceramic finish on both color options like they did on the 10 Pro.

Somewhat uneven weight distribution

I also found the phone to be a little bottom-heavy, but that’s something I got used to after a while. The phone also feels quite comfortable to hold thanks to the gentle curves on both ends and its handy size, but I’m just not sure what that uneven weight distribution means for jerryrigeverything’s durability test! That would definitely be interesting to see!

Besides all this, OnePlus 11 is not IP68 dust and water-sealed either. It does come with an official IP64 rating in the US but elsewhere, OnePlus says this phone has IP64-equivalent ingress protection only. And not the real deal itself. I know… I know, this is yet another cost-cutting measure but for a flagship phone, maybe the company shouldn’t be compromising on such a basic thing.

Making a comeback, however, is this alert slider. So it’s great to see the company realize its from the OnePlus 10T and rectify it. Hopefully, smartphone makers will bring back the 3.5mm headphone jack as well! Yeah… nah, that’s not happening.

Display

  • 6.7-inches 2K QHD E4 AMOLED panel
  • 120/1000Hz refresh/touch sampling rate
  • 800 nits (HBM), 1300 nits (HDR) brightness
  • Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection

Over on the front, OnePlus 11’s display is gorgeous. The default color calibration looks pleasing to my eyes with nice contrast and white balance. You can even switch to QHD resolution for sharper texts and images but on a 6.7” screen, I find that to be an overkill. Not to mention, it’s not gonna play as nice with the phone’s battery life compared to Full HD resolution either.

Talking about the battery, OnePlus 11 has been giving me around 6 hours of screen-on time under a fairly heavy usage pattern. This includes playing games and testing the cameras on top of everything else, so that’s not bad either.

Anyway, I’m not the biggest fan of curved displays but the way OnePlus has so elegantly implemented it here deserves a special shoutout. It has a really subtle curve that results in the least amount of accidental touches while also giving a premium look and feel. Just… the best of both worlds.

Top-notch haptics

That reminds me, OnePlus continues to improve its haptics system and the vibration motor on the OnePlus 11, it is apparently 67% larger than the one on the 10 Pro! So yeah, I absolutely love how responsive it feels when interacting with this display.

But there are a few aspects OnePlus has compromised here. The biggest of which has to be in terms of brightness. Now, you may hear “1300 nits peak brightness” in most of OnePlus’ marketing materials but this screen’s max brightness in practical usage is just 800 nits. Which is not a whole lot for excellent outdoor visibility.

OnePlus 11 Display-1

That’s actually less than what some mid-range phones in 2023 like the Redmi Note 12 Pro manage. And since OnePlus is using the older E4 luminescent material instead of E6, it’s not as power-efficient either.

Performance

  • Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 5G SoC (4nm)
  • 8/12/16GB LPDDR5X RAM, 128GB (UFS 3.1) / 256/512GB (UFS 4.0) storage (fixed)
  • Android 13 with OxygenOS 13 on top
  • 4 years of OS, 5 years of guaranteed security updates

So while the OnePlus 11 compromises quite a bit on the display front, there is nothing of the sort as far as performance is concerned. From the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip to the latest LPDDR5x RAM and UFS 4.0 storage, this thing has it all. So needless to say, it has more than enough processing power to drive your everyday tasks. You can get it with as much as 16GB RAM—which is what I have—but if you’re someone who doesn’t keep multiple apps open at a time, the base 8GB variant should be just fine.

OnePlus 11 Software

The OxygenOS experience on OnePlus 11 is also great, despite all its similarities with OPPO’s ColorOS. Yes, OnePlus has failed to keep its own promise of “retaining unique visual design” on OxygenOS 13 but I don’t mind this OPPO influence all that much. The phone feels comfortably fluid and snappy—including the animations and all.

OnePlus’ longest software update commitment yet

In fact, I’m excited to see how this custom Android skin will evolve over the years since the OnePlus 11 is guaranteed to receive at least 4 major OS updates and 5 years of security updates; the highest ever for a OnePlus phone. Only Samsung has a similar update policy for its flagship and some premium midrange devices while most of the competition lags behind by a year each. Including Google itself.

Other than day-to-day tasks, OnePlus 11 can handle the most demanding games too. Just not as well as other 8 Gen 2-powered phones like the iQOO 11 that I recently reviewed. In all the games I tested, OnePlus 11 finished the warmer of the two by a couple of degrees at least, but this shouldn’t be a big problem since it pretty much matched iQOO’s performance in terms of fps and stability. This is nothing compared to how hot the 10 Pro used to get but this guy clearly isn’t winning the top-performer crown this year.

Cameras

  • Triple camera setup at the back
  • (50MP primary, 48MP ultrawide, 32MP telephoto)
  • Third-gen Hasselblad Camera for Mobile
  • 16MP selfie camera (hole-punch cutout)

OnePlus 11 Rear Camera

What about the cameras, then? Unlike its chief rivals, OnePlus hasn’t used a big 1” image sensor like Xiaomi and Vivo—or a high-res 200MP camera like Samsung. Instead, the phone has quite a modest triple camera array, consisting of a 50MP primary, a 48MP ultrawide, and a 32MP telephoto lens.

All complemented by third-gen Hasselblad mobile imaging system.

Normal Images

So I went for a brief photo walk with OnePlus 11 and I found its cameras to be decent enough. Of course, It’s not as good as the Galaxy S23 Ultra or the iPhone 14 Pro Max of the world. The optimization is nothing extra too, but these are not a bad set of cameras at all. The images are sharp, well-detailed, and have a good dynamic range.

The only complaint I have is that the images feature a distinctly warm tone in most cases which may not complement the picture all too well. Other than that, as I said, they are quite okay.

Ultrawide Images

Same with ultra-wide shots, good colors, nice white balance, and good enough details.

Telephoto Images

OnePlus 11’s 2x telephoto shots are pretty great too.

You can also take portrait shots from this lens, which OnePlus says mimics Hasselblad’s XCD 65mm lens. It brightens up the subject most times which looks good when you are shooting against the sun. I like the subject focus and blur from its cameras too, it’s quite DSLR-like!

Selfie Images

Selfies also retain good skin tone and the exposure is maintained well.

Lowlight Images

Similarly, I’m also liking its low-light shots. The images look lively with a nice amount of details, contrast and highlight control.

And what I also love is how you don’t necessarily need to switch to Night Mode for such results either. The usual photo mode takes care of things perfectly.

Videography

As for the videos, OnePlus 11 lets you shoot at up to 8K 24 fps. Or more realistically, at up to 4K 60 fps. And its video quality is quite nice. The colors look very rich and vibrant, alongside a nice dynamic range. But for a semi-flagship phone, it can only shoot at 1080p 30 fps. At a time when Samsung’s flagships can do 4K 60 fps HDR selfie videos, this is beyond embarrassing.

OnePlus 11 Review: Conclusion

So that’s it for my review of the OnePlus 11. With its aggressive pricing strategy, the OnePlus 11 sure seems like a well-balanced phone that should be on everyone’s radar who’s looking for a flagship experience but doesn’t want to throw away a thousand dollars or more. After all these years, OnePlus has realized that it can’t keep up with the mainstream competition in the absolute flagship space. Against the likes of the iPhone 14 Pro or the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

So skipping the “Pro” model and circling back to its original roots of offering the best performance-per-dollar is 100% the right move, in my opinion. But here in Nepal, that incredible value-for-money mantra of the OnePlus 11 isn’t resonated at all. While the phone is cheaper by at least a couple hundred bucks in the international market, it costs almost the exact same as the OnePlus 10 Pro’s launch price.

  • Watch our video review of OnePlus 11

OnePlus 11 Review: Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Great value for money (in the global market)
  • Ergonomic build quality
  • Excellent haptics
  • Nice AMOLED display
  • Decent battery endurance
  • Great performance, software experience
  • Takes great photos from all three cameras

Cons:

  • No wireless charging
  • The display doesn’t get as bright
  • Thermals could’ve been better
  • Limited to 1080p selfie videos

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Rabins Sharma Lamichhane

Rabins Sharma Lamichhane is senior ICT professional who talks about #it, #cloud, #servers, #software, and #innovation. Rabins is also the first initiator of Digital Nepal. Facebook: rabinsxp Instagram: rabinsxp

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