OnePlus 11 review: Sleek, shiny, and not especially innovative

As an iOS enthusiast, I sometimes envy how many really great Android enthusiasts choose really great phones each year. The same applies to the OnePlus 11.

The Chinese tech giant’s latest flagship smartphone is an exercise in minor iterations. Instead, it brings arguably the coolest camera in the industry, excellent performance thanks to a brand new chipset, and an all-around premium feel at a price that’s slightly less than premium.

The OnePlus 11 is generally a great smartphone, starting at just $700, so you don’t have to break the bank. It doesn’t change the world, but it doesn’t have to.

The fanciest camera bump

like last year OnePlus 10 Pro, the OnePlus 11 is a big phone with a big battery and impressive specs on paper. The most important specifications are:

• 6.7-inch display with 120Hz variable refresh rate and 3216×1440 resolution

• 8GB or 16GB RAM

• 128 or 256 GB of storage

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset

• 5,000mAh battery

• 50MP main camera lens with 48MP ultra-wide lens and 32MP portrait lens

• 16MP selfie camera

Right off the bat, the phone’s physical characteristics are both sparkling and frustrating. TRUE A cool phone that will catch the eye of someone sitting across from you on public transport. Its signature circular camera bump (complete with the logo of Swedish camera brand Hasselblad) gives it a sleek look compared to other smartphones. Not only is it practical, it’s also handsome.

Unfortunately, the back of the phone doesn’t just offer a swanky camera: the OnePlus’ back glass is slippery whether you’re holding the phone in your hand or laying it on a flat surface. I tend to lay my phone flat on the pillow next to me while I sleep sometimes.

That’s just one example, but in general the OnePlus 11 wasn’t as comfortable to hold as I thought it would be. It’s a bit too big for one-handed use for extended periods of time, and OnePlus didn’t fix last year’s problem of having the volume rocker and power button on the other side of the phone. , here you just have to pull up another hand to adjust the volume.

Other odds and ends include an in-display fingerprint sensor that never rocked for me, and an equally effective face unlock mechanism. Aside from the relatively minor issues mentioned above, the OnePlus 11 is an impressive device on the surface. Even if you dig deep, it’s pretty impressive.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Fast, 2 Furious

One of the OnePlus 11’s big selling points is the inclusion of the state-of-the-art Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip that powers the phone. It’s a rarity in today’s phones (Samsung’s are a bit more expensive). Galaxy S23 ), and you should cherish the opportunity to see how it works.

verdict? fine! OnePlus claims the new chip will provide 25% and 35% speed boosts to the GPU and CPU respectively, but the proof is how the phone is used as an everyday device. When tested using our normal diet of media, Spotify and YouTube streaming, and general online fiddling, we detected no notable performance issues.

It’s a smooth and speedy experience thanks to the 120Hz display. Last year’s phone didn’t have any performance issues either, so I feel the gains are dwindling with each new generation of chips. It’s great that you don’t have to close them.

The OnePlus 11 runs on OxygenOS 13, a slightly modified version of Android 13. In other words, it comes preloaded with a folder full of OnePlus bloatware, just like its own Notes app. While such things are easy to ignore, some of the other unique software features are worth a look, for better or worse.

For example, you can multitask by stacking one app vertically on top of another. It’s easy to do so. Open the All Open Apps view, tap the three dots in the upper right corner of the screen, tap[分割画面]Click Options. Layering Twitter on top of Spotify is a neat trick, but on a traditional phone display, for example, Galaxy Z Fold 4.

There is also a dreaded “shelf”. It’s a OnePlus-only drop-down menu that appears when you swipe down from the middle of the display. It’s filled with widgets like clock, weather, and recently played views on Spotify. I don’t find this particularly useful. Also, the fact that you can easily see it while trying to swipe into the notification view is a problem.

In fact, I had the same problem with my OnePlus 10. Maybe next time they’ll work to fix it.

battery boost

The OnePlus 11’s most impressive aspect is its battery. Curiously, it’s not the battery life per se that impresses me most, but the recovery time from a dead battery.

I’m not saying the battery life is bad. It can be used for about 24 hours on a full charge. This included downloading sizable updates for mobile games and streaming music heavily with screens at or near maximum brightness. If you use it more carefully, you can almost certainly squeeze out more.

But what seals the deal is the 80W wall charger that comes with the phone. .this is foolish This charging speed. It was fun to stare at the screen and watch the percentage meter slowly (but not as slowly as on other phones) creep towards 100.

I hope one day my iPhone will be able to charge fast.

bright night shot

Back to flashy Hasselblad-branded cameras, it’s not just looks. I can take pictures, and I’m pretty good at it.

The three rear lenses produce shots with very vivid colors. I did most of my testing in sub-optimal conditions (New York isn’t his brightest and most cheerful place in January and February), but the photos still looked sharp and colorful.

Some of these photos have an almost ultra-realistic quality. Because the environments I shot weren’t always this vivid in real life. I really like it conceptually as it creates great looking social media photos. However, if you’re looking for hardcore reality, it can be a bit of a hassle.

Portrait mode is here and works as advertised, adding a nice depth of field effect to photos taken with a single subject up close.

There are also some great options for taking pictures very Close-up subjects, or subjects that are slightly out of reach. Macro photography allows you to get very close to small objects such as seeds and pebbles to create highly detailed shots. The zoom lens, on the other hand, is pretty decent, maintaining a decent level of clarity from moderate distances.

There is also night photography, which brightens dark photos and makes them easier to read. The results are attractive enough, but those who stick to realism may find that some of these shots look more like daytime than nighttime. It appears to be lit withit’s not Naturebut it doesn’t look bad.

just one of many options

When it comes time to finally choose a new Android smartphone in 2023, the OnePlus 11 shouldn’t be left off the list. This is a beautiful phone with a high-end chipset, a gorgeous display and one very fast charging battery. At least I don’t have friends with phones that are as cool as this one.

It also doesn’t matter that you have to pay up to $800. That’s $100 less than the Pixel 7 Pro and holds up as the gold standard for current Android phones. That phone has a much cleaner software package without bloatware, relatively good performance, and an overall better camera that can do more. Good point is only $600.

Personally, if you’re looking for a new Android handset, go with the Pixel 7. But OnePlus is also worth noting.