OnePlus 11 Review – Best Android Flagship Out There?

OnePlus lost that flagship killer title long ago and is now more like just a flagship phone at a flagship price. So will things change with the latest OnePlus 11? I don’t think so. Don’t take it wrong, OnePlus 11 is a great phone as per the specs but also comes at a flagship price.

The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset which makes it powerful enough to handle any task. You get a stunning 2K 120Hz AMOLED display which offers a great viewing experience. Then there’s the 50MP OIS camera that captures great photos in any lighting condition. All this is backed by a 5000mAh battery and 100W of fast charging support.

Everything is great right? I think so too. But how well does it perform in real life? Is it better than the iQOO 11? Let’s find out in this OnePlus 11 review.

The OnePlus 11 has launched in Indian markets in two variants. The phone starts at Rs 56,999 for the 8GB RAM + 128GB storage variant and Rs 61,999 for the 16GB RAM + 256GB storage variant.

The phone is available in two colour options: Titan Black and Eternal Green. You can pre-order the phone online at Amazon and oneplus.in while the open sale will begin on 14th February.

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The OnePlus 11 packs the following items inside the box:

• Phone
• 100W charger
• Type-C cable
• SIM ejector tool
• Documentation

Before we talk in detail about the OnePlus 11, let’s see what the on-paper specs look like:

• Display: 6.7 inches AMOLED
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
• RAM & ROM: 12GB RAM 256GB Storage, 16GB RAM 256GB Storage, 16GB RAM 512GB Storage
• Software: Android v13
• Rear camera: 50MP + 48MP + 32MP
• Selfie camera: 16 MP
• Battery: 5000 mAh
• Weight: 205 grams
• Dimensions: 163.1 x 74.1 x 8.5 mm

So starting with the design, OnePlus has made some major changes on the back panel. You get a new strange looking large camera unit on the backside. Yes, it protrudes a lot, so it is going to wobble when you place it on a flat surface. You will notice some shimmering dust-like particles on the camera unit which looks…a bit odd.

The phone has a glass back with a shiny finish that is going to attract some fingerprints. The frame is made of aluminium and makes the phone feel sturdy in my hands. The phone looks really premium and feels the same. I have the green colour variant with me but there’s also a black colour variant.

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The other variant comes with a textured finish so if you are not a fan of a glossy look you can go with that. What I love the most is the alert slider. Yes, the alert slider has made a comeback.

You get a power button on the right side with the alert slider while the lift side has the volume buttons. The bottom has the type-C port, primary speaker, primary mic and the SIM card slot. The overall look is very similar to OnePlus 10 Pro but that camera module changes everything.

OnePlus has never really put the camera on the priority but things look a bit different this time. It features a triple camera setup on the back which includes a 50MP main camera with OIS, a 48MP ultra-wide lens and 32MP telephoto lens. The front side has a 16MP selfie shooter which has been used earlier as well.

The main camera takes great photos in daylight. The dynamic range is excellent with plenty of details. The colours look vibrant and the images look well-balanced. The same can be said for the low-light shots.

The quality was well maintained and the colours were still looking nice. Dynamic range was better than other phones in this range like the iQOO 11.

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The ultra-wide camera took great shots. The images were packed with details and the clarity was on point. It was on par with the main camera. The dynamic range was equally good and the colours were nice although the skin tones looked better with the main camera.

The portrait shots were also very nice. The edge detection was solid and the background blur was also good. The portrait images were well-detailed and the colours looked good.

The selfie camera takes good-looking selfies. They were quite detailed and sharp. I could see the beard hair after zooming in. The skin tones also looked very natural to me.

Coming over to video recording, the phone can record 8K videos at 24fps using the main camera while the ultra-wide support 4K videos at 30fps. The video quality looks great. The footage is very detailed and the dynamic range is also good.

OnePlus 11 packs a big 5000 mAh battery which is pretty much the norm in flagship phones. You get a good battery backup and the phone will easily last a full day with heavy use. A light user can even extend the battery life for the second day.

The LTPO display and the power-efficient chipset helps to save the battery. I got about 6 hours of screen on time which is on par with other phones with this battery size.

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But what’s better is the 100W fast charging support. The phone can fully charge from 0 to 100 per cent in just about 25 minutes. A 10 minute charge would charge the phone to around 50 per cent.

It’s good to see that you get the 100W charger in the box. Now, it’s not the fastest out there but at the same time, it’s more than enough for an average user. Sadly, there is no support for wireless charging which I feel should be given on a flagship phone.

The OnePlus 11 features a flagship-level display which offers best in class viewing experience. It comes with a 2K E4 AMOLED panel which comes with a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. You get a peak brightness of 1300 nits.

Now I know this is not the brightest display but the sharpness and clarity of the panel are unparalleled. It gets right enough for indoor use but you might struggle a but while using it under direct sunlight.

Even though it doesn’t have the latest E6 technology, it’s still a great display for content consumption. The 2K resolution is great and the colours on the screen look really punchy. The blacks are deep and the viewing angles are great as well.

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The 120Hz refresh rate makes the overall experience quite smooth. Be it scrolling through the Instagram feed or playing games, you feel the benefit of that 120Hz. Not to forget, it features an adaptive refresh rate, meaning it goes down all the way to 1Hz depending on the app. This also helps to save some battery.

You get the HDR10+ certification along with Dolby Vision support. So you can enjoy high quality content on your device. I watched a couple of HDR videos on YouTube and played Genshin Impact for a while and both of the activities were really immersive and enjoyable.

OnePlus has even mentioned on the box that performance is their main focus. And that makes it clear what we are going to expect in this department. OnePlus 11 is powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset which is paired with up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB of UFS4.0 internal storage.

You can also expand the RAM by 8GB (on the 16GB variant) using the storage but I don’t think that would be needed given that there’s plenty of RAM already. The phone works flawlessly during everyday use. The apps open up quickly and switching between them was smooth.

Also, the RAM management is good and the apps stay in the background for long. You can throw anything on it and it won’t break a sweat. Well, that’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for you.

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I played some graphic intensive games like Apex Legends Mobile and Genshin Impact on it to push it further. Both the games ran on their highest settings. I did not face any kind of lags or shutters while playing the game.

You also get HyperBoost 2.0 which stabilises the frames while you are playing a game. Even after gaming for about 40 minutes, the phone did not heat up much and it maintained a good temperature.

The OnePlus 11 boasts a stereo speaker setup which delivers great sound quality. The output gets pretty loud and doesn’t distort. It has the right depth in it along with good bass. I watched a couple of videos on it and can tell that it’s a great sounding set of speakers and will deliver a nice multimedia experience.

The phone comes with 5G connectivity. We will know what 5G bands it will support in India once the device launches in India. Other connectivity features include WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, GPS and NFC.

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The biometrics is handled by an optical in-display fingerprint sensor. It is fast, accurate and pretty responsive. You also get the usual face unlock feature which is not as secure as the fingerprint unlock.