Yes, OnePlus is back and after the not-so-good year of 2022 in terms of flagship smartphones, the company has bounced back in 2023! Understanding the Indian market and audience, it launched the OnePlus 11R alongside the flagship OnePlus 11 5G.
Personally, I was a OnePlus fan and many like me have closely watched its phenomenal growth in India, its amazing community in India was all present at the Cloud 11 event we attended. After 3 years, it seemed OnePlus is really back and doing something for one of its biggest markets in the globe – India!
After the OPPO-OnePlus drama users were frustrated with some of the blatant decisions that were taken, merging ColorOS with OxygenOS or removing Alert Slider, just the typical OnePlus thing was getting blurred at the end of 2022. While they were doing good in the budget market with Nord but OnePlus was known for its affordable flagship smartphones!
The OnePlus 10 Pro was the flagship but way out of reach for most Indians, while the new OnePlus 11 5G is again priced well but most Indians won’t be looking at that price segment. OnePlus ruled that Rs.40k price bracket and was known to provide value-for-money top-notch flagship smartphones in the same price bracket, while a lot of people like me were disappointed with OnePlus 10R, this time OnePlus is truly back!
From the launch to just holding the demo unit back at the Cloud 11 event, I personally understood this will be a hit. Though I made the OnePlus 11R hands-on article previously, recently got the Indin retail unit for just a day, so, will not be able to make a full review but a first impressions article that will help you make the decision whether you should buy it or not:
OnePlus 11R Specifications
- 6.74-inch 120 Hz Super Fluid AMOLED display with 2772 X 1240 pixels resolution and HDR10+ support
- Snapdragon® 8+ Gen 1 Mobile Platform
- OxygenOS with Android™ 13
- 8GB/16GB LPDDR5X RAM/ 128GB/256GB UFS 3.1 storage
- 5,000 mAh battery with 100W SUPERVOOC
- 50MP Sony IMX890 primary sensor + 8MP Ultra-Wide sensor + 2MP Macro lens, 16MP front camera
- 5G support, WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, Dual Stereo Speakers
In the Box
- OnePlus 11R 5G
- SUPERVOOC Power Adapter
- Type-C Cable
- Quick Start Guide
- Welcome Letter
- Safety Information and Warranty Card
- Screen Protector (pre-applied)
- Protective Case
- SIM Tray Ejector
Design & Build Quality
The last time we tried both OnePlus 10R and 10T but they lacked that subtle OnePlus premiumness you expect. However, this time they have completely overhauled the design and aligned it with the OnePlus 11 design showcasing a sleek laser-cut silhouette and a glossy finish to match.
Both Galactic Silver and Sonic Black colors look gorgeous, here we got the Black variant which comes with a matte finish, almost identical to the OnePlus 11 5G’s Sandstone Black.
Obviously, this is a major benefit for the OnePlus 11R and with that sleek laser-sculptured curvature, it’s a nice feeling when you hold the device in your hands. To OnePlus’s credit, both the OnePlus 11R 5G and the OnePlus 11 5G black variants almost look identical, having that same OnePlus philosophy.
It weighs only 205 grams, has a good balance when you hold it and the back glass also comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The overall build quality is great, very much improved over the 10R’s build quality, the plastic sides do have an identical metal frame design, just what the OnePlus flagship reminds you of.
Display
Here too, OnePlus has heavily invested and given a top-notch display, a curved one that too, a Super Fluid Display on a 6.7-inch QHD 120Hz screen with a resolution of 2772*1240 and a 450 PPI. This is a flagship quality display with a brightness of typically 500 nits and with a peak of 1450 nits, making it highly usable outdoors.
It comes with all the support you want like HDR 10+, and SGS Low Blue Light Ex and also covers 100% DCI P3 color gamut, having a rich contrast which makes everyday usage smooth AF. Now, coming with ADFR 2.0 tech on an LTPS display, means the display adapts to the refresh rate that the app or UI demands, conserving battery life.
Also, the HyperTouch Engine helps enhance the scrolling and touch-screen experience, to be fair I enjoyed my brief usage of the display. Even for gaming also, the display is smooth and with low latency, the OnePlus 11R is a comparable flagship smartphone to its brother OnePlus 11 5G in terms of display and that’s a huge positive for a phone at Rs.40k pricing.
The display also comes with TÜV SÜD Precise Touching S Rating and it is evident that OnePlus has no cost cutting here. Personally, in my brief usage, I loved using it for my daily usage and for media consumption too, this OnePlus 11R has become one of my favourites!
Performance
When the OnePlus 11R was announced, I was pretty confident about a smooth everyday performance because the Qualcomm chipset is still one of the best in the market. The last-gen flagship Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is still a powerful chip and is based on TSMC’s 4nm process its very refined, on top of that, having the same 3D Cooling System with crypto-velocity vapour chamber as the OnePlus 11 5G, this OnePlus 11R is made for heavy users.
With up to 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB UFS 3.1 storage, in terms of memory, too this OnePlus device is a solid performer. Now with its advanced RAM management system, OnePlus promises one can open up to 44 applications and keep them active in the background.
While I didn’t have much time to check all of that but I did notice no stutter or lag of any sort, a totally smooth performance, just what you expect from a flagship. While we will test this OnePlus 11R more and bring a detailed review but here are quick benchmark tests we ran:
As you see in all the benchmarks, the OnePlus 11R’s numbers speak for themselves, and are very well optimized and supported with good RAM & storage, be it any benchmark, the numbers look damn impressive! From AnTuTu to Geekbench, the numbers are really good, it doesn’t even heat up when running these tests and so, in our detailed review will be excited to bring a detailed gaming analysis as well.
Camera
A new triple camera system on the OnePlus 11R brings a plethora of improvements over the last-gen 10R, thanks to a new 50MP Sony IMX890 primary sensor, the same present on the flagship OnePlus 11 as well. However, the ultra-wide camera is only 8MP and you have a useless 2MP Macro lens, so I won’t say it’s bad but you understand where OnePlus had cut corners compared to its flagship brother.
Yes, the primary camera supports OIS, you have a 120-degree ultra-wide camera, and the camera improvements are noticeable when compared to last-gen. Also, pairing a Qualcomm ISP with a sharper and more detailed Sony IMX890 sensor results in better photography and the snaps we took was far more bright.
The Image Clarity Engine 2.0 brings much better color reproduction when you compare it to the OnePlus 10R and the phone capture moments faster. Though we couldn’t do a detailed camera review here’s a quick camera test we could do in a day:
In daytime shots, the 50MP primary sensor really performs very well, both in terms of sharpness and color accuracy, the image processing is fast and mostly accurate. When its AI is used, it detects objects accurately and optimizes the photos accordingly, mostly giving us a good result.
Mostly, it does a good job but sometimes struggles indoors when light is low, colors are good but not lifelike and still worthy to post on social media.
In most daily usage, the OnePlus 11R’s camera shines to post really impressive shots, take this dia for example or capture products or objects like the iPhone on my hands, or green plants and even toys.
In terms of food photography too, the focus was right and the shots were good but the colors were a bit saturated and on the warmer side rather than pointing to the naturalness. However, sometimes it took better shots than even the OnePlus 11 5G which we are testing as well, so it depends completely on the scenario.
During the night, it struggles even further but still delivers sharp images if you zoom in the ultra-wide camera could have been better but is still usable. We didn’t get the time to test the macro lens, so expect a better photography test in our full review.
Lastly, coming to selfies, the 16MP camera, much expectedly is decent and colors are also well reproduced, but obviously, more testing is required before passing on any judgement, so for a deeper camera test please wait for our full review of this OnePlus 11R. However, if you talk in terms of first impressions, the camera will do the job for most Indians out there and I am confident of that as I see a huge improvement over the predecessor OnePlus 10R.
OS & Software
OxygenOS is still there based on Android 13 with some ColorOS integrations which have to be taken into mind but still, I would say it’s a clean experience with no bloatware. OnePlus has also been careful in pushing timely updates and has guaranteed to push 3 years of Android updates and 4 years of Security, making this to be future-proof.
Buttons/Ports & Connectivity
Here too, the OnePlus 11R will give you no areas of complaint with dual 5G support, WiFi 6E and the latest Bluetooth 5.3 support. Though I used it for only a day, had no issues with Jio 5G and the Wi-Fi too worked well with good network reception, on the other hand, Bluetooth 5.3 is good to have to help use the smartphone in the long run.
OnePlus has also used dual Bluetooth antenna for better Bluetooth performance, here are all the 5G bands it supports in India: n1/n3/n5/n8/n28A/n40/n41/n77/n78. The biggest restoration OnePlus has ever done will be the Alert Slide undoubtedly and the rest, the volume +/- keys, and power key, all are in the exact same position as you see on the OnePlus 11 5G on the metal frame, making it even more premium.
Not only this, OnePlus has added IR Remote Controller to the 11R, which is again a good-to-have feature nevertheless and you also have NFC enabled. We will bring a detailed analysis of this in our full review article, stay tuned!
Audio, Earpiece & Microphone
The audio on this OnePlus 11R is again top-notch, thanks to Dual Stereo Speakers, the sound is amazing, loud and without any distortion. The earpiece worked well for me but have to test it on a daily basis to make a statement on the earpiece or microphone, so as per first impressions, it looks good.
Battery life & Charging
I liked the fact that OnePlus has not used the gimmicky 150W SuperVOOC charging which I think is completely unnecessary and has worked on the efficiency of the battery. Having the same 5,000 mAh split into two 2,500 mAh units help faster charging and reduces overheating along with other battery issues.
The OnePlus 11R has the same 100W SUPERVOOC charging support as its brother, assuring a fast 25 minutes of full charge which in 2023 is very good. 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.
Having the same Battery Health Engine which is present in the OnePlus 11 ensures that your OnePlus 11R is secured to have a better battery in the long-run thanks to Smart Battery Health Algorithm and Battery Healing Technology. As a part of the new OnePlus software, you can see your battery’s health via settings much like its expensive brother.
Undoubtedly, the new OnePlus 11R is impressive and looks enticing for its Rs.40k pricing also you can a OnePlus Buds Z2 free if you pre-order, but as my usage is very brief I cannot make a statement just yet. However, by the looks of it, the new OnePlus 11R is a promising smartphone much better than the 2022 OnePlus flagships, and truly deserves to be called the 2023 flagship killer!
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