OnePlus’ flagship device for 2023 has arrived in the form of the OnePlus 11. For those who are used to the company having rolled out three variants of its flagship since the OnePlus 7, you are in for a surprise: there will be no OnePlus 11 Pro or OnePlus 11T. It is just the OnePlus 11, plain and simple.

This consolidation might make it easier for those who want to make the jump to the Oppo subsidiary’s platform without having to go through the trouble of comparing different models.

Design

The most noticeable change in the OnePlus 11’s visual language would be the camera bump behind. The trio of cameras now resides on a circular island, clearly standing out from the minimalist back.

It is protected by Gorilla Glass 5, and the entire handset tips the scales at 205g. Flipping it over, you will find Gorilla Glass Victus offering frontal protection, while the side boasts chromed aluminium.

Taking the curved-display route, the OnePlus 11 has extremely thin bezels for maximum visual clarity. On the right lie the power button and alert slider, while the left houses the volume rocker.

Moving to the bottom, there is a speaker grille, a USB-C port, and a SIM-card tray. The OnePlus 11 features stereo speakers, with the second loudspeaker located behind the earpiece grille on top. There is no 3.5mm audio jack here.

The OnePlus 11 arrives with 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage space alongside a larger-capacity model that has the same amount of RAM but double the internal memory. OnePlus has ditched support for microSD cards, so it is highly recommended you pick up the larger-capacity model if you intend to use it for a while.

Display

The OnePlus 11 is equipped with a 6.7-inch (17cm) LTPO3 Amoled panel that boasts 1440 x 3216px resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, Dolby Atmos HDR standard, and 10-bit colour depth. You will be able to enjoy a peak brightness of 1,300 nits, which means using it under bright sunlight is not an issue.

While the variable refresh rate is meant to conserve battery life, there are times it remains undecided, especially in the presence of both static and moving content. Does it dial the refresh rate down or ramp it up to 120Hz? As a result, you end up with scrolling issues and dropped video framerates once so often.

Hopefully, this can be fixed via a future software update. Until then, it would be best to enable the 120Hz refresh rate all the time; after all, with fast-charging capability, battery life is not so much of an issue. More on this below.

Performance and software

Android 13 is at the heart of the OnePlus 11, running the OxygenOS 13 skin on top. This is basically a ColorOS twin for all intents and purposes, which would be a sore point with longtime OnePlus fans.

Truthfully, the appearance and iconography in OxygenOS 13 does bear a striking resemblance to the Realme UI 4.0 and ColorOS 13. At least you are able to experience additional notification options for those who love customising their user experience.

The much-loved alert slider switch has returned, but it seems you can no longer enjoy the trio of available profiles (Ring, Vibrate, Silent). This is also the brand’s first handset to feature four years of major Android updates and up to five years of security patches, which is unprecedented from the company.

Those who are switching to their first OnePlus handset will find it snappy enough, with fingerprint recognition working well without any lag. Indeed, armed with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, everything runs smoothly without a hitch.

If your daily usage pattern consists mostly of social media apps, navigation, and music/video streaming, with some productivity tools like word processing or spreadsheets, then the OnePlus 11 is able to handle everything without missing a beat.

You will also be able to indulge in gaming without suffering from dropped frames or lag. While there is a degree of heat buildup when gaming – especially when you play games that are more processor-intensive – it does not feel uncomfortably hot in your hands even after a lengthy session.

Camera

The OnePlus 11 and its predecessor, the OnePlus 10 Pro, feature the same camera configuration with Hasselblad cooperation. You get a 48MP primary camera, a 50MP ultra-wide angle shooter, and a 32MB 2x telephoto lens behind. In front lies a functional 16MP camera located on the top-left corner.

The primary 48MP camera offers a great amount of detail and range. However, work needs to be done with the colour balance as in warmer scenes, there is a tendency for a shade of orange to show

It is nice to see the ultra-wide angle camera pack in more megapixels than usual, but somehow it fails to capture all the detail, with the shots looking darker than what other cameras offer. Thankfully, there is a 2x telephoto lens to help you get closer to the action, but when you compare it with rivals that offer a 10x optical zoom, this pales in comparison.

Everything looks great under bright sunlight, but the battle is decided in low-light conditions for flagships these days. The trio of cameras tend to offer average results that aren’t jaw-dropping. The portrait mode works well enough for social media, but if you want a professional headshot, then you might want to head to a photo studio.

OnePlus is not the only party guilty of “recycling” the previous year’s camera, as the industry has inevitably subjected itself to the law of diminishing returns in terms of camera hardware with each successive generation. This has led to a software arms race, with computational photography being one of the primary differentiating factors.

Battery

One of the banes of modern-day smartphones would be the battery life. Due to more powerful processors and displays with higher refresh rates, the smartphone’s battery tends to deplete itself before the day is over.

The 5,000mAh battery in the OnePlus 11 is a commendable performer, offering more than a day’s usage on a single charge in most cases. A screen-on time of five to six hours at maximum QHD+ resolution and a mix of Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity would be the average scenario.

Of course, you can always push it to the extreme and drain the battery in no time with all-day gaming, but this is where the 100W fast wired charging comes in handy, taking less than 25 minutes to fully juice up from empty.

Rated to last at least 1,600 full charge cycles, charging it once a day would translate to over four years’ of use. This is in line with the average lifespan of newer handsets.

One aspect that is disappointing about the OnePlus 11 is the lack of wireless-charging support, which has become the norm in most flagship models.

All in all…

It is difficult to believe that OnePlus decided not to include IP68 certification of water resistance into the OnePlus 11 for it to be on par with flagship or even mid-range devices from rival brands. Wireless charging is also conspicuously missing here.

Coupled with the “recycled” camera, longtime fans of OnePlus may have seen the company fail to live up to its motto of “Never Settle”.

Still, it’s not all bad: the consolidation of the product line helps with decision making; there’s a much more accessible price point compared with other flagships; and, most of all, OnePlus’ new software and security update policy places it on par with Samsung as the best in the Android world – for now.

The green-coloured OnePlus 11 retails for RM3,299 a pop, while the black variant with double the internal memory will cost RM300 more.

Edwin Kee dreamt of being a pro-gamer only to have circumstances mould him into a programmer in a past life. He has since moved on to write about consumer electronics and other topics.