Review: OnePlus 11 5G

Samsung and Apple have flagship smartphones that start at $800, but pay a little extra and you can get even more of a flagship phone (flagshippier?) with the words “Ultra” or “Pro” attached at the end. OnePlus used to follow the same strategy, but it's changing things up this year with its new OnePlus 11 5G. Instead of making you pay more for the mark, there won't be a OnePlus 11 “Pro” at all. The standard flagship should have everything you need and more, right? It's like the company took Marty DiBergi's question from This is Spinal Tap to heart. 

The new handset is pretty darn good. It omits a few features you'd expect to find at its $699 base price, like wireless charging and an IP68 water-resistance rating. But it manages to compete with most other high-end phones in almost every other way, from performance and battery life to the cameras. It's not my first recommendation if you're looking for a new smartphone, nor is it my second, but it's still an all-around respectable device. 

OnePlus has always leaned on speed over everything else, and that rings true here with the OnePlus 11. Underpinning the device is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset with 8 gigabytes of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage. You can upgrade to 16 GB RAM and 256 GB of storage for $100 more (and if you like the fancy green color, which is the version I tested). I've had zero issues hopping from one app to another, and even intensive games like Genshin Impact feel super slick on the 120-Hz screen at the highest graphics settings. OnePlus made a whole host of optimizations and hardware boosts to maximize this performance; I can't go over them all, but suffice it to say this is an impressively fast and responsive phone.

Speed demons will note that the base version of the phone comes with Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 3.1, whereas the 16 GB RAM upgrade nets you UFS 4.0. The latter storage option offers faster data transfer speeds with improved power efficiency, so apps and games should load faster while costing you less battery life, though you'll likely only notice the difference when you put these devices side by side. They're already plenty fast for most tasks. 

Battery-wise, I never felt like I had to stick close to an outlet. With average use, the OnePlus 11's 5,000-mAh battery comfortably lasted a full day, with enough left in the tank for the following morning. The OnePlus 11 remains one of the fastest-charging phones in the US. I managed to go from 8 to 95 percent in roughly 22 minutes. The catch is that you need to use OnePlus' 80-watt SuperVooc+ charging adapter, which is chunky. But hey, at least it's included in the box, unlike with most other phones these days. 

Worried about damaging the battery? The phone will intelligently recharge at slower speeds when it detects that you're juicing up at bedtime, but if you forgot to plug it in and are rushing to head out the door at 8:45 am, it'll know to crank things up. Weirdly, OnePlus has omitted wireless charging, a staple on all flagship phones, claiming that most people will rely on speedy wired charging instead. Maybe, but I'm not sure why both can't coexist, especially since it wasn't a problem on the OnePlus 10 Pro. I much prefer plopping a phone on my bedside wireless charger instead of fumbling for a cable in the dark. Oh well. Time to fumble.

Perhaps even stranger is the company's decision to move back from a USB-C charging adapter to a USB-A. The older port is still common enough that this might not be an issue for you, but with most new devices going exclusively with USB-C ports and cables, it feels like a step back. I once brought the OnePlus 11's adapter and cable to a coffee shop, hoping to use it on my MacBook. But it turned out the cable was too short—and I couldn't swap in the MacBook's longer cable, because its USB-C plug wouldn't work with the OnePlus adapter. First-world problems, I know, but it's a silly snag to have in 2023. 

Then there's the IP64 water- and dust-resistance rating. The OnePlus 11 will be fine against dust and rain, but it might not be as protected if you drop it in the pool as a phone with an IP68 rating (which is, er, most flagship smartphones). It's bizarre the company couldn't secure a better rating. Also, the screen is wrapped in Corning's scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass Victus, but the rear glass employs the older Gorilla Glass 5. Even the cheaper Pixel 7 uses Victus on both sides, making it more durable (the new Galaxy S23 opts for the even stronger Victus 2). 

The 6.7-inch AMOLED display is lovely. It's sharp and colorful, plus it gets bright enough that it's almost never hard to read even on sunny days (though it doesn't get as bright as the Galaxy S23). Just remember to switch the screen resolution to Quad HD+, since it sits at 1080p by default. My only gripe? The curved edges around the display are a little too curved for my taste. It makes the edges feel too thin, and they attract glares; I much prefer the flatter edges on the Galaxy S23 Ultra and Pixel 7 Pro. 

The screen is pretty, though, and you get wonderful stereo speakers that enrich the whole media consumption experience. To my ears, the sound is at times more robust and richer than the speakers in the Galaxy S23 Ultra, whether I'm listening to Phoenix or the ambient sounds of the jungle in Netflix's Our Planet. 

OnePlus has been gradually upping its camera game year over year, and the OnePlus 11 is its best effort yet. There's a primary 50-megapixel camera, a 48-megapixel ultrawide with autofocus and macro capabilities, and a 32-megapixel sensor offering 2X optical zoom. The 16-megapixel selfie camera is notably stuck at 1080p video recording—most phones in this price bracket have moved on to 4K resolution on the front shooter.

In dozens of camera tests against the Google Pixel 7 and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, it's hard to declare a surefire winner for photos, which is a feat in itself for OnePlus. There are moments where some low-light images can be sharper than what I've captured on the Pixel and vice versa. I think the Pixel has the edge when you're photographing a moving subject—like my dog looking away at the precise moment I point the camera at him. And when it comes to video, especially in low light, the Galaxy S23 Ultra produces brighter and less noisy clips. 

More interestingly, OnePlus has stuffed a spectrometer into this phone for the first time (something we'll be seeing on more phones in the coming year), and it's used to better identify the white balance and color accuracy of a scene. This, combined with OnePlus' continued partnership with Hasselblad and its Natural Color Calibration for richer colors, makes for some pleasing photos with the right ambiance. For example, when I was passing by Madison Square Garden in New York City, which was lit up for a Knicks game, the OnePlus 11 was the only device to bring out the proper orange color—Samsung's and Google's phones veered closer to red. However, the OnePlus doesn't always get it right, and it still has a tendency to oversaturate. 

One point of weakness is indoors, especially when there's some kind of backlighting. The OnePlus 11 tries to brighten every single person's face, and things end up looking unnatural, whereas the Pixel 7 isn't afraid to let shadows be shadows. Similarly, as someone who prefers the telephoto camera, it's a bit lackluster here. Sometimes, colors can be all over the place—like the purplish branches on a tree in one of the photos in the gallery above—and other times, the image can look a little too over-sharpened. Overall, like most camera phones these days, the OnePlus 11 has a reliable system that can produce stellar shots with the occasional hiccups. 

The OnePlus 11 works on all major US networks. Just know that unlike on most flagship phones, there's no millimeter-wave (mmWave) 5G support—you won't be able to enjoy the fastest 5G speeds, though it's worth noting that mmWave coverage is far from abundant. 

Buyers will like that OnePlus is finally matching Samsung on its software policy, promising four years of Android OS upgrades (better than even Google), and 5 years of bimonthly security updates. That means you can rely on this phone for a long time. There's even support for the next-generation Wi-Fi 7 standard, something Samsung still doesn't have on its new handsets. Considering that most people aren't even utilizing Wi-Fi 6E, this isn't really a meaningful bonus, but it's nice to see.  

The software is one part of this phone that doesn't feel as strong as its peers. OnePlus used to have one of my favorite interfaces, but it's long gone. The notifications, for example, still don't show the color of the app, so it's hard to tell at a glance what alert you're looking at. I can go on about the notifications, like how I can't expand every notification to read them entirely and have to tap them instead. I'll spare you, but there are quirks. 

The OnePlus 11 is available for preorder now, and it goes on sale on February 16. At $699, it's a nice price for a powerful, large-screen phone. I think most people will be better served by the $599 Pixel 7 and its more helpful software, or the slightly more expensive Galaxy S23, with extra perks such as a 3X optical camera and better durability. Right now, it feels like fast charging is the OnePlus 11's defining feature, and that's not enough to beat Google and Samsung. The company hasn't quite moved the needle in many other ways. But hey: At least it's pretty!