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I played Marvel Snap on this phone and my iPhone 14 Pro and there was no contest between the two. The OnePlus 11 handled all of the flying particles and waves, all of the motion effects, and all of the subtleties of the graphics with ease.
The battery on the OnePlus 11 is an interesting story, with many twists and turns, but a happy ending. The good news is that the battery lasts all day, if you don’t party too hard with all of the super performance settings, high resolution cameras, and sweet, smooth gaming action. Needless to say, I dropped the phone occasionally, and it slipped off my desk a few times. Buy a case for this phone – you’ll thank me later. That said, there’s one huge design flaw that may keep me from telling anyone to buy it. I have been reviewing phones since 2006, before the first iPhone. I was an established critic and prolific reviewer when Samsung recruited me in 2011 to review top secret devices and competitor phones internally. I then led the product review program until I left in 2017. I have worked with reviewers honing techniques across publications including TechRadar, Consumer Reports, Digital Trends, and CNET. It’s not the brightest screen you can buy, but it makes up for that in contrast and dazzling color. OnePlus also supports both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ standards for dynamic range. The iPhone 14 has the same color accuracy support, but can’t match the refresh rate, and doesn’t look quite as vibrant.The OnePlus 11 simply screams with performance. The fast processor paired with the high-refresh screen make for an amazing experience playing the newest games, editing photos, or even just using the interface.
One feature I especially enjoyed was the ability to use the selfie camera for video while screen recording. This let me take videos of gameplay action with a reaction shot inserted in the corner. I could play my son on Marvel Snap, then send him a video of me reacting gleefully as I pounded his puny cards into the void, HULK SMASH! OnePlus says the phone can charge to 50% in 10 minutes, and a full 100% in only 25 minutes. That didn’t pan out in my tests. In 10 minutes I reached between 40-45% charge every time. I was sometimes fully charged in just under 30 minutes, but never 25. The OnePlus 11 is rated IP64, which means it can keep out fine dust particles and larger solids, but for water and liquid, it can only handle a direct spray. You can’t dunk it in water, you can’t take it into the bathtub, and you can’t drop it in the toilet. If you take it to the beach, it'll be fine on the sand, but stay away from the waves or the water slide. Staying in charge for longer is effortless with smart battery technology to prevent dead battery cells.That’s also because the OnePlus 11 is much larger than competitors in this price range, or even some more expensive devices. It features a 6.7-inch panel, which is much bigger than the 6.1-inch screen on the iPhone 14 or Galaxy S23. That means it’s a bigger phone to hold and manage, but that extra real estate really pays off. I had no trouble with gameplay, and the best framerate I could manage playing Call of Duty Mobile was 90fps in the game’s Ultra frame rate mode. With the full graphics panel set to maximum, I got a smooth 60fps every match. Those competitors also have smaller, 6.1-inch displays. The OnePlus 11 gives you more screen (and more pixels) for your money, but if you want a smaller display you’ll need to look elsewhere.
It’s hard to decide which competitors deserve the direct price comparison. The OnePlus 11 is the best OnePlus phone you can buy this year, but it costs less than an iPhone 14 or a Galaxy S23, let alone the various ‘Pro’ and ‘Ultra’ models Apple and Samsung offer.In the end, I’d rather have fast charging than wireless charging, if I had to choose. As an avid photographer, I’d rather charge my dead phone for a half hour then go shoot the rest of the day. I have wireless charging in my house and car, but I don’t use it often because I don’t leave my phone sitting in one place. When that happens, the OnePlus 11 has fast charging. Very, very fast charging. Faster than whatever phone you own, as long as your phone isn’t also a OnePlus, or another Chinese brand willing to push the envelope on fast charging.
The OnePlus 11 also uses LTPO display technology, so it should be able to sport an always-on display without draining the power, or slow down the refresh rate when the phone doesn’t need the speed. The OnePlus 11 charges so fast that the 110 Volt outlets in the US can’t handle the proper electrical push required, so chargers are a bit slower here, but still faster than any Samsung, Google, or Apple phone you can buy. My DSLR still does a much better job, and OnePlus will only go so far as to call this DSLR-like image quality. In fact, there are a lot of phones that can do more, since the OnePlus range is quite limited.That said, there were big problems. Whenever I zoomed in to an unusual length, the software would muddy the image, and details started to look like an impressionist painting. The longest-distance zoom does an amazing job with optical image stabilization, so it was easy to line up my shot. Unfortunately, that shot looked horrible, with few usable details by which to identify the subjects far away. In any case, the OnePlus 11 never disappointed, in terms of performance. I didn’t quite realize how powerful this phone is until I tried playing 8K video on my laptop. My Microsoft Surface Laptop Go, admittedly underpowered, couldn’t smoothly play the videos my phone let me scrub through with ease. You won’t be disappointed with this phone’s performance in any way. If you like the idea of getting a flagship smartphone for even less money, the Google Pixel 7 is the only phone that has the OnePlus 11 beat. It doesn't have the big screen (or battery), and it relies on AI for its camera powers. It still saves you more, takes great photos, and looks cool.
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