OnePlus 11 5G Review: Great Camera and Quicker Charging

The year 2022 was unusual for OnePlus’ flagship smartphone lineup. We only had one proper flagship at the start of the year, the OnePlus 10 Pro 5G and no follow-up. There was no OnePlus 10, however the OnePlus 10T 5G arrived later, with a faster SoC and most of the Pro’s frills removed, including the iconic Alert slider. The company has just unveiled its initial product lineup for 2023, which involves the OnePlus 11R 5G as well as the OnePlus 11 5G. Both smartphones have a new design with the Alert slider and improved specs.

Today, we’ll be concentrating on the OnePlus 11 5G. Despite the lack of a ‘Pro’ in its name, the 11 5G can be considered the spiritual successor to the 10 Pro 5G due to upgraded hardware that gives it an immediate advantage. However, it lacks a few features, such as wireless charging, and lacks an official IP rating. Do the OnePlus 11 5G’s improvements justify ignoring some of the frills we’ve come to expect from flagship phones? Let’s check out.

Price

The OnePlus 11 5G price in India starts at INR 56,999 for the base variant, which includes 8GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 128GB of UFS 4.0 storage. For INR 61,999, the second variant doubles everything, with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. This is quite aggressive pricing considering the 11 5G is on par with, and even outperforms, the 10 Pro 5G in some areas.

Design and Build Quality

The OnePlus 11 5G resembles the OnePlus 10 Pro 5G from last year, which is not a bad thing. The most noticeable difference is that the rear camera module is now circular rather than square. There’s also some added texture under the camera module’s glass, which is visible from certain angles. The Hasselblad logo is now horizontally placed between the four camera lenses rather than to one side.

The rest of the dimensions, build quality, as well as in-hand feel are similar to the 10 Pro 5G. The OnePlus 11 5G is slightly slimmer at 8.53mm, but it weighs slightly more at 205g. The curved sides of the aluminium frame make it easy to carry this phone around, but the smooth finish of the back panel, that has Corning Gorilla Glass 5, makes it very slippery when held in one hand. The rubber case that comes with the box is useful. This time, OnePlus sent us the Titan Black colour, but it’s also available in Eternal Green, as with the 10 Pro 5G.

Display

The OnePlus 11 5G’s display now supports Dolby Vision HDR playback, but otherwise is very similar to that of the OnePlus 10 Pro. It has a 6.7-inch QHD+ AMOLED panel and a variable refresh rate of up to 120Hz (can drop to 1Hz) and Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection. The phone comes with a pre-applied scratch guard, which I find extremely irritating. The display and back panel have the same curved edges as before, giving it a premium appearance.

Software

No Android flagship is complete unless it includes the most recent SoC, and that’s exactly what you get. Unlike Samsung’s S23 series, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC in the OnePlus 11 5G does not appear to be customised in any way for the phone, but OnePlus claims that it has used a new, bigger vapour cooling system that should offer better heat dissipation for sustained performance.

OxygenOS 13, which is based on Android 13, powers the OnePlus 11 5G. The new skin appears to be more similar to Oppo’s ColorOS than ever before, which could be a good or bad thing depending on your preferences. It includes all of the features we’ve come to expect from OxygenOS, as well as some new ones like RAM-Vita. This is said to optimise RAM allocation to the most active apps. In addition, the OnePlus 11 5G is expected to receive four years of Android updates and five years of security updates.

Performance

The OnePlus 11 5G provides excellent performance for casual use while also being powerful enough for demanding tasks such as gaming. The phone has performed admirably in the few weeks I’ve had it, with no signs of unusual heating or lag in the interface. The fingerprint sensor is fast and accurate, 5G works well, and the display’s brightness is sufficient even when used outside during the day.

The stereo speakers on the OnePlus 11 5G are very loud and have a good sound. The stereo separation is slightly off, with the main speaker sounding slightly louder than the earpiece, but this is to be expected. Games like Call of Duty Mobile performed admirably even with the graphics and framerate set to the minimum.

Battery

The OnePlus 11 5G has an option to change the display resolution from full-HD+ to QHD+ according to the app or content, which is what I mostly used. This, combined with the display’s ability to scale its refresh rate down to 1Hz when necessary (as with the Always-on display), resulted in extremely long battery life. Even with extended gaming sessions and camera use, I was easily able to last more than a day on a single charge. This was reflected in the long runtime of our HD video loop test, which lasted 23 hours, 25 minutes at full-HD+ resolution and 21 hours, 46 minutes at QHD+ resolution.

The OnePlus 11 5G lacked wireless charging, but the super-fast wired charger made up for it. I charged the phone from zero to full in about 26 minutes. 

Camera

In comparison to the 10 Pro 5G, OnePlus has upgraded all of the cameras on the 11 5G. The primary camera now employs a Sony IMX890 sensor, which is slightly smaller than the one found in the 10 Pro 5G but has a higher resolution (50 megapixels). The focal length has increased by 1mm, but the aperture remains unchanged at f/1.8.  A 32-megapixel Sony IMX709 sensor with 2X optical zoom as well as a wider f/2.0 aperture serves as the third rear camera. OnePlus has gone back to its old Sony IMX471 16-megapixel sensor for selfies, which is a step down from what the 10 Pro 5G offered. 

Verdict

The OnePlus 11 5G is reasonably priced, with prices starting at INR 56,999. Even the top-tier variant we tested is reasonably priced at INR 61,999, undercutting the iQoo 11 5G. The OnePlus 11 5G also renders the OnePlus 10T’s higher variants obsolete. Wireless charging is the one feature that would have made the 11 5G a complete package, but if you don’t care about that, it shouldn’t matter.

Warranty Plan