It’s time for the next generation of OnePlus phones, mainly the OnePlus 11 5G. If you are reading this article, it would have been officially unveiled in India already. We’ve had access to the device over the past few days, and while the full review will take a little longer, there are a handful of things we can tell you about about the phone. We can also tell you how it differs from its predecessor, the OnePlus 10T, in several key parameters such as design, display, camera, etc.
To be honest, it was always a no-brainer for its successor to beat the 10T as it didn’t set the bar particularly high. For me personally, after Oxygen OS 13, it was of course the company’s most disappointing product in the last year. It appeared to be more of an R series phone. In 2023, the need of the hour was not just to surpass it with some incremental updates, but to overtake it, and that’s exactly what OnePlus has attempted with the 11 5G.
We’re going to hold the camera samples and performance benchmarks for final review, not because we want to keep you waiting, but based on our experience so far, we expect another software update or two in the coming days that could change things up. Today, let’s look at the upgrades the OnePlus 11 5G brings to the table over its predecessor.
OnePlus 11 5G vs OnePlus 10T: Design
From the front, the OnePlus 11 5G looks more like the 10 Pro than the 10T, with a curved display, narrow bezels, and a hole in the top left of the screen for the selfie camera. The same goes for the back of the black variant we received, with a matte glass that serves as a throwback to the sandstone finish of the first OnePlus phone. For the first time since the OnePlus 8T/9R, you’re getting an aluminum frame on a non-Pro device, and better yet, the alarm pusher is back, which was inexplicably removed on the 10T.
While the position of the rear cameras is similar, the square camera island on the 10 series now gives way to a circular one on the 11 series. It’s hard to say which one looks better, but both don’t look bad, so no complaints. The OnePlus 11 is 0.3mm slimmer than the 10T, but the weight is pretty similar. The biggest change here is the display, and I’m not just talking about the curved edges but a lot more. Let me elaborate on that.
OnePlus 11 5G vs OnePlus 10T: Display
For the first time ever we have a QHD+ display on a non-Pro OnePlus phone. That’s a resolution of 3216 x 1440 pixels, as opposed to a Full HD+ resolution of 2412 x 1080 on the 10T. The display on both phones has a 120Hz refresh rate, but while the 10T uses a standard Fluid AMOLED display, the OnePlus 11 has an LTPO3 AMOLED screen with a variable refresh rate ranging from 1Hz all the way up to 120Hz for one better performance efficiency.
While both phones have 6.7-inch HDR10+ compatible displays, that’s showing Dolby Vision compliance here too. The OnePlus 11’s 10-bit display can get as bright as 1300 nits. The screen protector has also been upgraded from Corning Gorilla Glass 5 to Corning Gorilla Glass Victus.
OnePlus 11 5G vs. OnePlus 10T: processing hardware
No surprises here. OnePlus has opted for the latest and most powerful Qualcomm SoC, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2; the first phone with this SoC in India if I remember correctly. Speaking of storage, with the OnePlus 11 you get up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage. Not sure if the 512GB storage variant will be available soon. Needless to say, it’s lightning fast and scores are consistently higher than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip found in the 10T.
OnePlus 11 5G vs OnePlus 10T: Camera
A 50-megapixel primary camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera, and a 2-megapixel macro/depth sensor is the combination that OnePlus 2021-2022 will offer on most of its non-Pro phones. The Nord 2, Nord 2T, OnePlus 10R and OnePlus 10T all had the same thing and thankfully that streak is finally broken. The OnePlus 11 also has three cameras on the back, but the combination is drastically different.
You get a 50MP main camera with a Sony IMX890 sensor with OIS. The second camera is a 48 megapixel ultra wide shooter with auto focus. This is probably the first time we’ve had an autofocus ultra-wide camera on a non-Pro OnePlus phone since the OnePlus 7T. With this feature, your ultra wide camera can also be used as a macro camera in general. We will examine this aspect in more detail in the OnePlus 11 review.
The third camera here is a 32-megapixel telephoto portrait camera for clicking high-quality, professional portrait shots. Hasselblad is back to handle color calibration and also lend some pro tricks for portraiture. You also get a Pro mode for finer control over exposure, white balance, shutter speed and more if you want to play around with camera settings. We reserve our verdict on the camera performance for the final evaluation.
OnePlus 11 5G vs. OnePlus 10T: battery and charging
The battery capacity has increased slightly here from 4800 mAh on the 10T to 5000 mAh. However, thanks to its 150W SuperVOOC charger, the 10T still has the upper hand when it comes to charging times. OnePlus bundled a “relatively slower” 100W charger with the OnePlus 11, which claims to fully charge it in just 25 minutes, which is only about 5 minutes slower than its predecessor. I’ll update you with the exact charge time in a few days, but it’s definitely less than half an hour with the included charger.
First thoughts on OnePlus 11 5G
Our first impressions of the OnePlus 11 5G are quite positive and it feels like a big upgrade over the OnePlus 10T in most areas. In fact, at times it feels more like a successor to the OnePlus 10 Pro. OnePlus is yet to announce the price of this device at the time of writing and I sincerely hope they don’t get too greedy. They desperately need a win in early 2023 after a largely lackluster 2022. Let’s wait and see what cloud 11 rains down on us.
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