Now, you might be familiar with and have heard a lot about the new OnePlus flagship i.e. OnePlus 11 5G, so, not doing a regular review but we will tell you why you should buy this device. A lot of people have already gone for this new OnePlus 11 5G but if you still didn’t have one and come to this article, we will get a good idea of why one should spend ₹61,999 on this smartphone.
Well, personally, I used the OnePlus 10 Pro 5G for almost a year and it was the only OnePlus device I truly liked out of the bunch launched in 2022. So, certainly, I could see the quality, innovation, and performance dropping with each model especially when it comes to the flagship.
However, right from the rumours to the launch, I could practically see how good this new OnePlus 11 5G got the eyes of any tech enthusiast out there. The whole world started to talk about this mostly because this phone marks the return of OnePlus and its core philosophy in 2023, however, should you buy it? Well, here are the top 5 reasons to buy this new OnePlus 11 5G:
In The Box
- OnePlus 11 5G
- 100W SUPERVOOC Power Adapter
- Type-A to C Cable
- Quick Start Guide
- Welcome Letter
- Safety Information and Warranty Card
- Logo sticker
- Protective Case
- Screen Protector (pre-applied)
- SIM Tray Ejector
OnePlus 11 5G Specifications
- Camera: 50MP Main Camera with Sony IMX890 (OIS supported), 48MP Ultrawide Camera with Sony IMX581 (FOV: 115 degree) and 32MP Telephoto lens with Sony IMX709 (2X Optical Zoom); 16MP Front (Selfie) Camera with EIS support
- Camera Modes: Night, PRO, PANO, Portrait, TIME-LAPSE, SLO-MO, Text scanner, Movie, Long Exposure, Dual-view video, TILT-SHIFT, XPAN, Scan, STICKER, and AI ID photo
- Display: 6.7 Inches; 120 Hz AMOLED QHD Display with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus; Resolution: 3216 X 1440 pixels; HDR 10+, sRGB, 10-bit Color Depth, PWM + DC dimming
- Operating System: OxygenOS based on Android 13
- Processor: Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform
- 16GB LPDDR5X RAM, 256 GB UFS4.0 Storage
- Battery & Charging: 5000 mAh with 100W SUPERVOOC
- In-Display Fingerprint Sensor
OnePlus’s Core Design Fundamentals
OnePlus has simplified the design language this time, favouring its core design principles, a curved display with a metal railing and glass back. The new Arbor Green color looks stunning and the glass at the back makes it look polished, and premium, however, the Titan Black variant I got isn’t bad though, having the same OnePlus matte finish over the years.
This Titan Black variant is also resistant to fingerprints and it’s easy to hold around the metal railings, even though it’s a big phone but its comfortable to use. Also, because the camera cutout has this circular look, it’s much better than the square one personally and helps keep the rear end subtle and clean.
Awesome Display & Audio
From the last OnePlus 10 Pro I was using, I didn’t like any other display but this OnePlus 11’s display is next-level in my opinion and I easily switched to this one. This is a stunning 6.7-inch 120 Hz 2K Super Fluid AMOLED display with LTPO 3, so not only it saves your battery life but also gives you a next-level media consumption experience.
Also, if you don’t know, this is the first Dolby Vision HDR-supported phone and that means colors look punchier than ever, unlocking cinematic experiences with ultra-vivid picture quality — incredible brightness, and contrast. However, this will be app-specific, so apps like Netflix which has Dolby Vision support content will help you truly enjoy the experience.
Personally, I did notice improvements over the last-gen display mostly in terms of sharpness and quality during my everyday usage. The 3D curved display is still there and finding a screen protector is really tough, however, the biggest advantage of this OnePlus 11 5G display is this time it’s Corning Gorilla Glass Victus certified, unlike last year.
Though I would suggest you be careful with the display anyways OnePlus has provided Corning Gorilla Glass certification on both sides of this OnePlus 11 5G to your liking. Talking about the audio experience, OnePlus has again worked on this compared to the previous year’s flagship OnePlus 10 Pro because the new Dual “Reality” Speakers are very loud, punch & accurate this time.
With Dolby Atmos support, I did enjoy playing music with this OnePlus 11 5G and at high volume, it felt almost like a 3-5W speaker in front of me. Also, I was surprised to see the depth of the speakers, nice improvement though, making this flagship a love for those who love media consumption on their phone itself.
Flagship Performance
As you are using a OnePlus flagship phone, expect a top-of-the-line Qualcomm-Android experience and the same tradition continues with the latest OxygenOS 13 based on Android 13 alongside Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. The OnePlus 11 5G with up to 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB UFS 4.0 storage unlocks incredible performance which one never expected.
At Rs.60k, this is next-level performance thanks to OnePlus’s new 3D Cooling System with a crypto-velocity vapour chamber that provides enhanced cooling to the chipset. Having used both OnePlus 10 Pro 5G and this OnePlus 11 5G, I can guarantee you the new one is damn cooler when you do heavy workloads like gaming and even when I ran the AnTuTu test, the temps raised by only 3 degrees celsius and peaked around 36 degrees.
However, if I remember with the OnePlus 10 Pro’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 that used Samsung’s 4nm process, it got heated up like nuts. Now, it’s far more efficient and even in CPU throttling tests too, unless you push the OnePlus 11 5G too really really hard it won’t befall you and it’s very reliable when it comes to everyday performance.
Though I am not a big mobile gaming fan after BGMI’s loss yes, the new Adreno 740 GPU brings ray-tracing onboard and you can enjoy high-end gaming on this OnePlus 11 5G easily. Overall, for an Android user, this new flagship smartphone from OnePlus deserves praise and is indeed a performance king!
Latest Connectivity & Battery/Charging
OnePlus has never been shy of providing the latest connectivity options to users and that is the same with this OnePlus 11 5G, not only it is India’s first Wi-Fi 7 support smartphone but also it comes with the latest Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity.
With NFC support, and dual 5G sim support and covering all the major 5 bands: N1, N3, N5, N7, N8, N20, N28A, N38, N40, N41, N66, N77, N78, this is a true 5G flagship phone. I used the phone primarily with my Jio sim and the 5G speeds were excellent, I got up to 700MB/s speeds and that is amazing!
I used this OnePlus 11 5G with its new OnePlus Buds Pro 2, the connectivity experience has always been flawless, also, it has the Spatial Audio feature that you can enjoy. The buttons are placed exactly where they should be and the Alert Slider is still there to help you in day-to-day usage.
Also, talking about Battery life and charging which I think most people neglect but I think OnePlus deserves its credit here, why? Well, instead of working to further enhance charging speed and risk your phone’s battery, OnePlus is wise to use a 5,000 mAh battery split into two 2,500 mAh units to help faster charging and reduce overheating along with other battery issues.
OnePlus has saved some costs by adopting basically the same design and battery on both OnePlus 11 5G and the OnePlus 11R 5G, however, I liked this 100W SUPERVOOC charging support, assuring a fast 25 minutes of full charge. This is decent enough for everyday usage and the best part is GaN tech is used to improve charge efficiency, and the SUPERVOOC S Battery Management Chipset has its own benefits to improve the charge cycle for better everyday charging.
The Battery Health Engine is now integrated into the OnePlus 11 5G and it is secured to have a better battery in the long-run thanks to Smart Battery Health Algorithm and Battery Healing Technology. Also, you can check your smartphone’s battery health like iPhones through the new OnePlus software directly through Settings of your phone.
In terms of my daily usage, the new TSMC 4 nm-based Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is exceptional and is really efficient for everyday usage. I comfortably got 4-5 hours of screen-on-time even torturing with slight gaming, turning on the Always-on display, which I think is really good. Charging speeds are also very fast and in 2023, this is a flagship which you rely on if you are talking about battery life and charging.
Improved Camera
Another big improvement came to this OnePlus 11 5G in terms of cameras, yes, the triple-camera system has got its best implementation ever: 50MP Sony IMX890 primary sensor, 48MP Sony IMX581 ultra-wide sensor and 32MP Sony IMX709 portrait tele sensor. This is the reason why this new flagship phone’s camera has better focussing, quick capturing ability and better sharpness.
The 13-channel Accu-spectrum Light-color Identifier with 3rd Gen Hasselblad Camera for mobile helps to produce highly color accurate, true-tone colors into photos which look very close to the real world. Sometimes though it doesn’t look like a processed image but natural as if you have captured this using DSLR, well many have their own opinion but I liked the true colors this OnePlus 11 5G produces accurately.
The ultra-wide lens is again very usable if you snap outdoors and talking about the telephoto sensor, you can go up to 20x zoom due to this. Did I say, the portrait pics are damn good, almost DSLR-like, thanks to the Hasselblad Portrait Mode, the bokeh is incredibly accurate and stunning.
Here are some of the camera samples in various conditions:
Daytime shots –
In daytime shots, the OnePlus 11 5G didn’t fail at any time and the 50MP primary sensor along with the 3rd Gen Hasselblad Camera always gives you crisp and detailed results. The Qualcomm ISP inside is always fast to process images and 90% times the focussing, color science and sharpness are intact, if you look closely, at the buildings, and their edges have been detected very accurately.
The green trees and the blue sky have been captured perfectly and it’s very natural to the scene around you, kudos to OnePlus for this. Overall, I saw huge improvement over last-gen and it sometimes did beat my iPhone 13 and will soon bring a side-by-side comparison to help you with a proper decision.
The use of proper 48MP ultra-wide helps you to capture crisp shots even in a wide-angle frame and that is what you expect from a flagship like this. The OnePlus 11 5G’s 32MP telephoto sensor is also very functional and useful, as you see the zoom shots have better sharpness even at 20x zoom, which I think is good enough for its price.
Afternoon shots:
In the afternoon, photos have something which most photographers cannot overlook, here, from any camera you ask for true-tone colors with exceptional accuracy to bring the best out of the environment. As you see the shots look stunning and incredibly true to the original colors which I feel is a major attraction.
Night shots:
At night too as you see, the brightness is very good because of the ƒ/1.8 aperture, more light passes through and the sharpness of all the images is quite good, but again could have been better. The night performance is decent, but certainly not the best I would say.
Human subjects during the day and Portrait:
The biggest pros of this OnePlus 11 5G‘s rear camera has to be its portrait mode tuned by Hasselblad, the bokeh as you see are stunning, along with colors that are insane! The human subject is accurately processed, the background blur is top-notch, also, the skin tones are very real, no AI skin tones but the sharpness could have been better sometimes.
Portrait during the night:
In night portraits too, the OnePlus is very reliable and brings out the best of the environment, processing human objects quite perfectly but sometimes the sharpness is lacking.
Selfies both during the day and night:
The 16MP front camera is also quite good with EIS enabled, during the daytime, the selfies are incredible with really bright and accurate skin tones. However, during the night, the selfies are decent, could have been better I would say, could be fixed with a software update later.
Indoor shots:
Coming Indoors too the rear camera performance is quite good in my opinion as you see in the pics above, the colors again are very accurate. The software processing is quick and crisp but again struggles with low light, overall it’s quite reliable and comparable to the iPhone 13 camera.
Food photography-
One good thing about this OnePlus 11 5G‘s camera is its changing of macro and primary lens are per your focussing range, it changes in real-time which sometimes helps you and sometimes could make the image out of focus. So, in food photography too, the colors are incredibly true and the details are sharp but sometimes focusing problems persist, overall is good.
Macro Shots-
The telephoto sensor has been used properly when it comes to macro, as you see the sunflower here is shot in macro mode and it looks incredible. Even the dia as you see is looking great, crisp and color accurate as well, overall, I would say the OnePlus 11 5G‘s camera has been improved significantly.
Lastly, the video improvements are decent and with OIS support, the video capability is decent and here too colors are captured quite well and the output is bright as well:
Comparing it with iPhone 14 Pro or Galaxy S23 Ultra isn’t a fair job but as a mass-market flagship smartphone, the camera performance is quite good. I used my iPhone 13 because of its reliability and I can safely say I can also use this OnePlus 11 5G as an alternative especially because of its rear camera, telephoto and Hasselblad Portrait & Color engine.
Verdict
Now, comes the most important question should you really go for this OnePlus 11 5G? To give the most honest answer in the market, this depends on you, if you are a OnePlus fan, yes you should because finally, I feel OnePlus has made a mass-market flagship. Nothing is perfect and can check all the things you want but will satisfy the needs of everyone.
I admit, there’s no wireless charging or IP55 rating which I personally can trade in for better battery life, 4 years of Android updates and 5 years of security updates, an upgraded camera experience and a stunning display. Also, if you are looking to enter the OnePlus ecosystem or already one, then this OnePlus 11 5G makes absolute sense.
Keeping our demands realistic, in its true sense I can say OnePlus is back but I would imagine someday OnePlus to go head to head with Samsung or Apple in the ultra-flagship range because it has a strong community. Lastly, we have one suggestion, we have for you to stretch your budget a bit and go for the 16GB variant as you can avail of up to 18 months No Cost EMI via Amazon India as it has faster storage which could be usable for years down the road.
Buy the 16GB/256GB variant from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Zmh0Cx
Also Read:
