OnePlus 11 Specifications

The OnePlus 11 seems to be a great versatile device, meeting most of the criteria for what a flagship smartphone has to offer. They look great, feature a great screen, high-end performance, all-day battery life, and most importantly, great camera clips without any instant flaws. Sure, there are small omissions like wireless charging, but for the most part, the OnePlus 11 is a tempting option in the 2023 market.

Key features

High-quality display The 6.7-inch AMOLED display is one of the best devices available with a refresh rate of 120Hz, support for Dolby Vision HDR and LTPO 3.0 technology.

Rear camera capable setup The 50MP main camera is capable of operating in both good and low-light environments. The 48MP and 23MP telephoto lenses enhance the experience on display.

Superior performance with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, expect high-level performance no matter what you intend to do.

Introduction

After the China-focused launch in early January, the OnePlus 11 made its worldwide debut.

OnePlus 11 is looking to fix some big complaints with last year's smartphone presentation with both improved camera performance compared to the OnePlus 10 Pro and 100W ultra-fast charging exclusively for the OnePlus 10T last summer.

The question is, is it the flagship 2023 you should spend your hard-earned money on? I have spent the last few weeks using the OnePlus 11 as my daily smartphone and I think the answer is yes.

Design & Display

New round camera cover on the back

Great build quality

Advanced 6.7-inch AMOLED display with LTPO 3.0

The OnePlus 11 has undergone a minor overhaul compared to its predecessor. It still retains the identity of the OnePlus smartphone, but it has undergone improvements and improvements.

It's a well-built combination of aluminum and glass with a new stainless steel camera case on the back that looks a bit like the Samsung Galaxy S22's surround camera case, although this camera is round.

OnePlus says it's inspired by the black hole, and while marketing is almost certainly subtle, the shiny effect inside the housing looks rather unique and attractive. It also helps match the slight brilliance of the rest of the back – as long as you choose black, that is. There's also a more subtle green finish if you don't like the eye-catching background of the black variant.

Longtime fans have lamented the loss of Alert Slider in the OnePlus 10T last year because it has been one of the key features of the OnePlus brand since the early days, giving users the ability to quickly adjust their phones to loud, vibrating or silent using the switch core. But, according to the word OnePlus, it is back with the OnePlus 11, located in the upper left corner of the phone.

It is one of the most convenient features of any smartphone that gives you a way to visually check the sound mode that the phone is working in without having to wake up the phone and access the notification center. It's a wonder that only OnePlus and Apple use the technology.

The 6.7-inch AMOLED display is one of the phone's standouts, featuring really excellent technology including 2K resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate, and LTPO 3.0 technology that allows it to dynamically drop below 1Hz to save battery life when a high-priced update is not required (as with the always-on display).

This is a very important step because the always-on screen is especially useful, showing not only notifications and time, but the ability to control music - as long as you use Spotify, that is, via the always-on screen. The company suggests that it can also display ready-made order updates, but this feature is not yet supported by any delivery apps in United Kingdom.

It supports 10-bit color to complement the ability to capture images in 10-bit – more on that later – essentially meaning it can display 1.07 billion colors, making for a vibrant experience with colors that are overall true. Animated shows like Archer and cartoon-style games like Survivor.io appear especially on the OnePlus 11 screen.

Both Dolby Vision HDR and HDR10+ support both deal optimization, with impressive dynamic range in supported titles when watching movies on the likes of Netflix. This maximum brightness also makes it easy to use in bright sunlight.

The fingerprint scanner, embedded inside the screen, works as expected with near-instantaneous unlocking capabilities.

Cameras

Triple rear camera capable of setting up

Significant improvement in low-light shooting

The selfie camera is fairly basic in comparison to

OnePlus cameras have always been good, but there is usually one of two small hits that prevent them from being the best camera phones – even with the company's partnership with camera power Hasselblad in recent generations.

However, that has changed with the OnePlus 11, which I think offers three cameras capable of handling a variety of scenes.

The 50MP main camera features a fairly large 1/1.56-inch sensor and a wide f/1.8 aperture that allows it, along with features such as OIS, to accommodate far more light than previous OnePlus smartphones. This provides improvements in overall photography, but a real leap forward in low-light photography.

While it won't quite compete with the 200MP Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, it's still an impressively capable camera in low-light conditions without the need for a tripod. Even in very low-light scenarios, like the shot below of my garden with the only visible light being a lamp from my living room shining through the window, the OnePlus 11 captures a lot of light and detail – more than I can see with the naked eye.

There are arguments that this may be too much and that some photographers prefer to connect to the amount of light captured by the smartphone, it is sure to be useful when taking selfies and group shots in bars and other low-light areas.

The only problem is that under low-light conditions, the phone may have difficulty focusing, resulting in low-light images.

This performance extends to general photography, with the phone's ability to capture 10-bit colors allowing for impressive color reproduction, and taking real photos most of the time. There were certain scenarios in the test where the colors weren't exactly as accurate as what I was seeing, especially with the vibrant sunset below, but this could be fixed with a quick adjustment.

HDR performance is also notable, as the main camera is able to capture the foreground of images with decent quality despite the bright backlight. Take a look at the shot below of my dog Luna with bright sunsets in the background. Just a few generations ago from cameras, it was almost impossible to use a smartphone.

In general, the main camera is capable and probably the one that uses it most of the time, but there is also a 48 megapixel 115° telephoto lens and 32 megapixels 2x.

Although megapixel counts are not always an indicator of overall quality, ultra-wide lenses and telephoto lenses offer great performance, complete with HDR support, giving you a real alternative to the main lens that does not compromise on quality or lighting. This is especially true for the telephoto lens, from the trivial 8 megapixels in the previous flagship.

Of course, the main lens will take the best photos of the three, but I wasn't disappointed with the performance of either lens within two weeks of taking pictures.

The camera adjustment between the three lenses is also quite impressive, with a very small difference in overall quality and color profile making it difficult to see which lens was used at a glance – apart from the actual angle, of course – thanks to Hasselblad's natural color largely calibration technology.

Video reaches 8K@24fps, although this powerful crop is applied at 8K, most people will be better off at 4K@60fps. The angles are wider and the OIS is turned on to provide a smooth shot, even if you're walking.

There's an AI-powered video mode that would boost low-light performance and other factors to actually make videos stand out, but limitations including capturing 30 frames per second and being able to only use the main lens mean most people won't often use that. If it could rise with performance to 60 fps, I think it would be more common.

Turn the phone over and you will get a 16MP selfie camera. Good for selfies. It will also be more than enough for video calls, although it ends at 1080p and lacks advanced features such as autofocus, which means it's not exactly the perfect camera for video recording. This is best left to the rear lenses...

performance

Groundbreaking performance via Snapdragon 8 Gen 2

OxygenOS is one of the best Android forms out there

Can get hot during extended gaming sessions

When it comes to OnePlus 11 (and to be honest with the last few OnePlus phones), the software is a sensitive topic. This is largely because OnePlus' native OxygenOS has been chosen by new owners Oppo and its ColorOS over the past few years, with fans calling it the opposition to OnePlus.

But for me, that's not really a bad thing; yes, the OxygenOS OG was nice, but the new Android 13-based Oxygen/ColorOS hybrid offers one of the best Android experiences apart from the inventory experience offered by Google.

It is easy to use and much more intuitive than other forms from Chinese manufacturers such as Vivo's FunTouchOS and Xiaomi's MIUI with a high level of polishing and some really useful features that are not in stock Android 13. Everything in the settings menu is where you expect it to, the always-on screen offers support for apps like Spotify and there is a high level of UI customization.

There are also unique features like Shelf, which provides access to a range of widgets (pedocounter, music controls, to-do lists and more) with a swipe on the home screen.

Besides the promise of a four-year OS upgrade, I really believe OnePlus is among the best, and if I could, I'd install it on most of the phones I review.

Software aside, overall performance is fast, with apps loading instantly and no sign of stuttering or lag even when scrolling through media-filled apps like Facebook and Twitter. However, this is not surprising given the phone packages from Qualcomm's high-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset.

This is largely supported by my benchmark test results with a single-core score of 1165 and a multi-core score of 4856 in Geekbench 5 which sets it up against top-notch competition like the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra despite the special 'For Galaxy' chipset. It's a similar story in the GPU section, with a score of 3532 in the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme standard.

But while it's definitely a capable smartphone, it's not the best at keeping cool despite the new cooling system. I've noticed that weather can get warm during extended gaming sessions when playing particularly demanding titles like Call of Duty Mobile.

While this isn't irregular among leading companies, the problem is that it's the top and bottom edges – not the back of the phone – that get hot to the touch. AKA, the two places that sit in the palm of your hand as you play games in a horizontal aspect ratio.

So, yes, it's capable, but it's not the most comfortable option for extended gaming sessions. If that's your thing, maybe invest in a gaming phone with active cooling.

As you'd expect from the flagship in 2023, the OnePlus 11 comes with a full range of high-end connectivity options including support for 5G connectivity, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, and NFC for wireless payments. Sadly, there is no headphone port, but outside of modern Xperia phones, this is rare at the flagship level.

On the subject of audio, OnePlus 11 offers a stereo speaker experience that is perfect for watching YouTube videos and scrolling through TikTok, but as always, it's not a substitute for a suitable speaker to enjoy listening to your tunes. Dolby Atmos support improves the Bluetooth listening experience somewhat, but without the headphone jack, don't expect high-fidelity audio.

Battery life

Comfortable all-day battery life

Can be pressed for two days from one charge

0-100% charge in less than 30 minutes

Battery life is an area where the OnePlus 11 really excels, as the 5000mAh battery has no problem providing all-day battery life. I was comfortably able to reach the end of each day of testing with at least 30% battery remaining, and never once did I check that the battery was 20% low after nearly two weeks of daily use.

I'm not a completely strong user, but I've used the phone for messaging, calls, listening to music on the go, and taking lots of photos for review. I even played some games, although they were fairly simple games like Survivor.io of three-dimensional AAA games like Genshin Impact.

This is largely supported by standard battery tests as well, with OnePlus 11 drain by just 7% during a 30-minute gaming session and a nominal 6% when streaming on Netflix for an hour. It really relieved me of the worry of my battery, so much so that I turned on battery drain features like the monitor that always work without much worry.

This is coupled with the parent company's SuperVOOC 100W charging technology which, during testing, achieved a 50% charge in 12 minutes and 37 seconds and a full charge in 27 minutes and 50 seconds. This is extremely fast, and this means that you do not need to leave your smartphone charging overnight, which will help the battery in the long run.

For context, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra with a matched 5000mAh battery but 45W slower charging takes almost 90 minutes to charge, and this phone costs over £1000.

Usually, you have to choose between long battery life and fast charging, but that doesn't seem to be the case with the OnePlus 11.