OnePlus 11 5G review: A pro-grade phone even if it does not have it in name

OnePlus included two-side curved screen, alert slider, and Hasselblad imaging in the OnePlus 11 5G, making it pro-grade premium smartphone

OnePlus kicked off 2023 with the Cloud 11 event in which the Chinese electronics maker launched in India a whole bouquet of devices, including its premium flagship smartphone – the OnePlus 11 5G. The smartphone ticks all the right boxes for a premium smartphone. It has a glass-metal construction and top-of-the-line specifications. Besides, it gets an imaging system co-created in partnership with Hasselblad – something that was restricted to the ‘Pro’ model last year. Likewise, the alert slider is a feature that marks the return to its non-pro smartphone. Do these additions make the OnePlus 11 5G a pro-grade phone? Let us find out:

Design

The OnePlus 11 5G is a polished version of the OnePlus 10 Pro (review) in terms of design. It has a premium glass-metal construction with tapered sides for secure in-hand grip. Adding to the premium quotient is the Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection on the screen and Gorilla Glass 5 protection on the back. The phone looks dull in the titan black colour (review unit) despite featuring a fingerprint resistant sandstone-like finish on the back cover.

Aesthetics aside, the phone is neither heavy nor bulky, but appropriately built for comfortable use. Its alert slide, however, is placed a little too high from the power button – on the right side of the frame. It is aligned with the rear camera module and looks aesthetically well placed, but requires effort to operate. Nevertheless, the return of the alert slider here adds to the experience.

Display and audio

Screen is gateway to smartphone experiences and the OnePlus 11 5G scores well in this regard. It has a two-side curved 6.7-inch 2K resolution 10-bit AMOLED screen of 120Hz refresh rate. It is a LTPO 3.0 panel for adaptive properties, which allows the screen to automatically switch between 1Hz and 120Hz refresh rate based on the on-screen content requirements. The adaptive refresh rate aids power efficiency without compromising on the experience, and it works as intended on the OnePlus 11 5G.

Adding to the experience is the brightness, which makes the screen easy to read in outdoor environments and boosts the contrast for an immersive multimedia experience – especially while watching high dynamic range (HDR) content. Speaking of HDR, the OnePlus 11 5G supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+ formats. 10-bit colours, ample brightness, Dolby Vision and HDR10+ come together to deliver a wholesome experience. Lifting the experience further are the value-added display settings such as natural tone, which automatically adjusts screen colour temperature based on ambient light conditions. It may seem a small addition, but has a big influence on the experience in everyday use.

Rounding up the good visual experience is the audio experience delivered by stereo speakers. With support for Dolby Atmos, the speakers sound loud and balanced with a nuanced mix of high and low frequencies. Mid frequencies are strong, and the speakers do justice to voice-focused content such as podcasts. The OnePlus 11 5G does not have a 3.5mm audio jack for wired audio output, but it supports Hi-Res audio over wireless (Bluetooth) – LDAC and LHDC codecs. Besides, there is support for spatial audio. Therefore, you are covered on the audio front as long as you have the supported wireless headphones or earphones.

Imaging

The OnePlus 11 5G has a triple-camera set-up on the back, featuring a 50-megapixel primary sensor (Sony IMX890) with optical image stabilization, a 48MP ultra-wide-angle sensor (Sony IMX581) of 115-degree field-of-view (FoV), and a 32MP telephoto lens (Sony IMX709). On the front, the phone has a 16MP sensor (Sony IMX471). The three cameras on the back support auto-focus, which enables macro photography on the ultra-wide-angle sensor. 

Details aside, the OnePlus 11 5G is the third-generation smartphone from OnePlus to feature an imaging system co-created in partnership with Hasselblad. In this generation, however, the partnership with Hasselblad goes beyond colour calibration in manual mode. Portraits is one of the imaging features where the Hasselblad partnership brings apparent improvements. OnePlus does not force 2x or 3x magnification for portraits. Instead, it offers portraits in both 1x and 2x levels. In both, the cameras perfectly segment the subject and the background. At the 2x, tuned for half-body portraits, the phone uses the telephoto lens to mimic the bokeh effect of the Hasselblad XCD 65mm. Likewise, there is a bokeh effect similar to Hasselblad XCD 30mm available at 1x setting for the wide-angle lens to capture both the subject and its surroundings with natural shallow depth of field. In both the settings, the results look captivating. There is no stage light feature, like Apple iPhone, available here for portraits but the custom portrait solution by OnePlus and Hasselblad seems to have them built-in for no-frill experience.

Besides portraits, Hasselblad partnership with OnePlus extends to image filters too. There are three new filters – Serenity, Radiance, and Emerald – and each of them add zing to the imaging experience. The Serenity is for portrait imaging, Radiance for humanity and cultural things, and Emerald for landscapes.

It is important to note that the above features are in addition to the existing features co-created by OnePlus and Hasselblad such as colour calibration in Pro mode, 12-bit RAW+, and more.

Aside from Hasselblad features, the cameras are good and work well irrespective of lighting conditions. There is a symmetry in colours, frame, and details across sensors. Therefore, the experience is consistent. The weakest link in the imaging set-up is the front camera sensor. Not that it is bad, but not up to the mark to complement the overall imaging set-up.

Coming to the videos, the phone can do up to 8K resolution videos at 24fps and 4K resolution videos at 60fps. Both these are from the main camera with no provision to switch between available sensors before and during the recording. Video quality is good but not pro-grade. Likewise, stabilisation is modest but one expects better from cameras with optical image stabilisation. That said, the OnePlus 11 5G is good for photography, but so for videos.

Performance

Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 system-on-chip, paired with 16GB RAM (LPDDR5x) and 256GB (UFS 4.0) on-board storage, the performance is flagship-grade with no throttling even after extended usage. Gaming is one of the areas where the phone impresses with consistent performance and power efficiency. Besides, there is no heating issue to hamper the experience. The phone warms up when stretched with power-intensive workloads, but that is it.

Adding to the experience in a positive way is the Android 13 operating system-based OxygenOS 13 interface. It does not look anything like the old OnePlus interfaces, but there is no reason to complain because it is still clean, smooth, and non-intrusive.

Battery and charging

The OnePlus 11 5G has a dual-cell battery of a 5,000mAh combined capacity. With moderate usage, the phone sails through a day on a full charge with a display set to QHD+ resolution at 120Hz refresh rate. The phone ships with an 100W fast-wired-charger, which replenishes the completely drained battery fully in about 40 minutes. As stated above, there is no wireless charging here.

Verdict

It is a pro move by OnePlus to include a two-side curved screen, alert slider, and Hasselblad imaging on its non-pro smartphone. The lack of ingress protection rating and wireless charging may unsettle some, yet the OnePlus 11 5G at Rs 61,999 (review unit: 16GB+256GB) is a pro-grade smartphone even if it does not have it in the name.