Introduction :
The organization’s collection of sleek flagship phones for the Indian market includes the OnePlus 11R, which is the most recent model. In summary, these devices attempt to capture the essence of a flagship device while making some compromises to reach a lower price point.
Internally, the newly released Realme GT3 is nearly identical to the OnePlus 11R, which at this time shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. The OnePlus 11R may look identical to the more expensive OnePlus 11, but it isn’t. Additionally, it is similar to the OnePlus Ace 2, which is a Chinese-only version of the same device.
At-a-glance OnePlus 11R specifications :
- Body: 163.4×74.3×8.7mm, 204g.
- Display: 6.74″ Fluid AMOLED, 1B colors, 120Hz, HDR10+, 1450 nits (peak), 1240x2772px resolution, 20.12:9 aspect ratio, 451ppi.
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM8475 Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 (4 nm): Octa-core (1×3.19 GHz Cortex-X2 & 3×2.75 GHz Cortex-A710 & 4×1.80 GHz Cortex-A510); Adreno 730.
- Memory: 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 16GB RAM; UFS 3.1.
- OS/Software: Android 13, OxygenOS 13.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.8, 24mm, 1/1.56″, 1.0µm, multi-directional PDAF, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.2, 120˚, 1/4.0″, 1.12µm; Macro: 2 MP, f/2.4.
- Front camera: 16 MP, f/2.4, 24mm (wide), 1/3.09″, 1.0µm.
- Video capture: Rear camera: [email protected]/60fps, [email protected]/60/240fps, gyro-EIS; Front camera: [email protected]
- Battery: 5000mAh; 100W wired.
- Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); NFC; Infrared port; stereo speakers.
So what do we get and more importantly what do we lose compared to the more expensive OnePlus 11? A lot of things actually but not to the extent you’d actually notice. The display is still curved but has a slightly lower resolution, with around 35% fewer pixels. The chipset is last year’s flagship Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 rather than this year’s. The main camera is the same but the ultra-wide is different and the telephoto has been replaced by a 2MP macro.
Design :
In some lighting conditions, the OnePlus 11R and OnePlus 11 appear identical due to how similar their designs are. Previously, this had not been the case because neither the 9R nor the 10R appeared to be the year’s main models.
The 11R has a curved touchscreen on the front. Although OnePlus doesn’t specify the type of glass it uses for the front, which is rarely a strong sign, the glass was scratch-resistant in our tests. One way to distinguish the two phones is by the front camera, which is centrally positioned at the top of the 11R as opposed to being on the side of the 11.
The device’s chassis is made of plastic and has a glossy finish. The power button and alert slider, the latter of which was absent on the previous 10R, are both located on the right side of the phone.
The front of the 11R has a curved display. OnePlus doesn’t specify the type of glass it employs for its products, but The front of the 11R has a curved display. A The 11R’s power button is incredibly simple to hit and frequently gets accidentally depressed. This is particularly true if you’re using the included case, which somehow makes pressing this button a breeze.
A microphone and a second outlet for the upper speaker are located on the top of the phone. The third component in this set is a first for a OnePlus phone and is an infrared blaster that works with an app to transform the phone into a remote control for home utilities.
The volume rocker is on the left, and the second loudspeaker, a second microphone, a USB-C 2.0 connection, and a dual SIM slot are on the bottom.
Gorilla Glass 5 that has been etched to have a velvety texture and look covers the phone’s back. Over the years, OnePlus has excelled at this, and each of their most recent phones features amazing glasswork that is created to look like various materials. Although not particularly grippy and needing caution to handle, the 11R back is also impervious to fingerprints and smudges.
The rear of the phone is protected by Gorilla Glass 5 that has been etched to have a velvety texture and appearance. OnePlus has become an expert at this over the years, and each of their most recent phones has stunning glasswork that is made to mimic various materials. The 11R back is not only resistant to fingerprints and smudges, but it’s also not especially grippy and requires caution to handle.
The 11R and 11 are once more almost similar in terms of overall size and weight, differing in size by less than a millimetre. There is no discernible change between the two when switching between them.
The OnePlus 11R’s IP64 rating is not promoted, in contrast to the OnePlus 11’s. The rubber gasket around the SIM tray shows that the phone has some ingress protection built in, but we don’t advise placing too much trust in it.
Display :
The 6.74-inch AMOLED display on the OnePlus 11R has a resolution of 2772×1240 and a frame rate of 120Hz. The display resolution places it somewhere between the more expensive 1440p panels on other devices and the resolution of a typical 1080p smartphone.
Full Display P3 coverage and 10-bit colour depth are supported by the monitor. As is typical for OnePlus, the colour management makes you choose between sRGB and one of the broad colour presets. The images taken by the phone’s camera and stored in Display P3 will appear undersaturated if you choose sRGB, and oversaturated if you choose one of the wide colour presets. HDR is the lone exception, as it imposes its own colours rather than adhering to the manual settings.
Whichever setting you choose, it largely accurately displays colours for content that uses that colour space. Since the majority of material is still saved in the sRGB colour space, we chose to use this preset.
Although it’s not the brightest we’ve seen in direct sunlight, the OLED screen gets fairly bright. When compared to the OnePlus 11, the automated brightness adjustment performs well and isn’t as conservative by default.You get support for HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG. When compared to a Pixel 7 Pro with a 1500 nit display, which OnePlus claims to have, the OnePlus 11R repeatedly underperformed in terms of peak brightness when displaying HDR test patterns of various sizes. The device has a Bright HDR video setting, which, on other OnePlus phones, increases HDR brightness at lower encoded values to make the image pop more. However, the option seemed broken on the 11R because, ironically, it made the image darker when activated. The OnePlus 11R’s HDR functionality was average all around.
Refresh rate :
The display’s maximum frame rate is 120 Hz. According to OnePlus, the display can instantly cycle through 40Hz, 45Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz, and 120Hz values depending on the content. Although there is no content that matches the values of 40Hz and 45Hz, we are unsure of the reasoning behind them. Regardless, it didn’t matter because we never saw the phone hit those values. Only three frequencies were cycled by our test unit, which actually chose to operate at 120Hz most of the time.
Charging :
The OnePlus 11R shares the same features as the more expensive OnePlus 11, including a 5000mAh battery and 100W SUPERVOOC rapid charging. In our tests, the phone charged from 1% to 50% and from 1% to 100% in 9 and 26 minutes, respectively.
The battery life on the OnePlus 11R is good and should comfortably last a full day of use for the majority of users, even though we didn’t complete our comprehensive battery testing.
Speaker :
One stereo speaker is located at the foot of the phone, and the other is located inside the earpiece. In order to distribute sound more equally on both sides of the phone, the earpiece speaker has a second grille facing the side.
Although the vocals are strong and have a balanced, natural timbre, the audio quality isn’t exceptional; there isn’t much low-end, so the music doesn’t sound especially engaging. Nevertheless, the audio from YouTube videos or podcasts does sound adequate. Additionally, OnePlus deserves praise for ensuring that the two speakers sound fairly balanced; this prevents the impression that one speaker dominates the soundstage in terms of loudness or frequency response.
The phone lacks a headphone jack, but we were still able to use a passive USB adapter, and the DAC and amp on the phone produce excellent audio quality. Additionally, the phone supports Dolby Atmos for speakers and headphones as well as spatial audio for headphones with optional head tracking support for compatible products, like the OnePlus Buds Pro 2, which we have separately evaluated.
Software :
OxygenOS 13.0, which is designed on top of Android 13, powers the OnePlus 11R. As of the time of writing, our phone was running build A.08 and the January 2023 security fix. According to OnePlus, this device will receive three significant Android updates and four years’ worth of security updates.
At this time, the OxygenOS 13 saga is well known. Despite being advertised as a “lighter experience” that was more similar to stock Android, it ended up being ColorOS 13 with a moustache and fake spectacles. Even that is overstating the case at this juncture because the two are so similar.
Unfortunately, polish and care for detail are absent from the programme. The OnePlus software still has the impression that it was created by two guys in a room under pressure with no beta testers despite being integrated into a much bigger company.
Consider the rate at which the display is refreshed. The extremely aggressive refresh rate ramping down on the OnePlus 11 and 10 Pro, which frequently rendered the phones unusable in apps like Instagram and TikTok with a lot of scrolling and video content, has been brought up previously. Given how well-liked those two apps are, it is extremely strange that those phones shipped in that condition. Actually, those applications run smoothly on the OnePlus 11R.
The aforementioned 40Hz and 45Hz aren’t really functioning right now, and even when it’s not in use and is just lying idle, the phone actually spends a lot more time at 120Hz than it should. While Netflix isn’t, some applications, including the Gallery, YouTube, and Prime Video, are still oddly locked to 60Hz. The majority of the browsers we tested were all set to 90Hz and did not feel as good to use as the other applications. It appears more like an oversight than a deliberate choice that there was only one browser that operated at the full 120Hz advertised. Because we think the browser might be restricted to 90Hz in the upcoming OS update, we don’t even feel like discussing it.
Performance :
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor, which was released last year, powers the OnePlus 11R. It is coupled with up to a massive 16GB LPDDR5X memory and up to 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. The top-tier model served as the subject of our evaluation.
The 8+ Gen 1 has more than enough power to continue to be a top performer for a number of more years, so the statement about last year’s flagship was not intended as a jab. In actuality, the OnePlus 11R works remarkably well, offering blazingly quick responses and smooth animation—at least when the display is operating at 120Hz.
The quantity of information you can store in your memory is perhaps what was more impressive. Although we didn’t even have that many installed, we did have dozens of tabs open in two browsers while running every installed app in the background, and the phone still had about 4GB of memory left over. OnePlus says that you can run 44 apps in the background. And everything remained open in the backdrop.
Even though you might not always need the complete 16GB, there is no 12GB option, so if you don’t spend the extra money for the more expensive model, you are forced to settle for just 8GB. While by no means bad, it is no longer adequate if you multitask frequently and is also not especially future-proof. Given that the 16GB variant only costs INR 5000 more and also comes with the larger 256GB storage, we highly advise purchasing it.
Camera :
A 50MP Sony IMX890 main camera with a f1.8 lens and OIS, an 8MP f2.2 fixed-focus ultra-wide camera, and a 2MP fixed-focus macro camera make up the OnePlus 11R’s triple camera system on the rear. A 16MP fixed-focus f2.4 single camera is located on the front.
The OnePlus 11R and the more expensive OnePlus 11 vary greatly in this regard. The other two cameras on the back are some subpar equipment, even though the primary 50MP camera is the same on both phones (aside from the Hasselblad branding, but more on that later).
The days of various OnePlus phones having different camera software are thankfully over, as the camera software on all OxygenOS 13.0-running OnePlus phones looks remarkably similar to that on other OnePlus phones. Although the software still functions and appears the same, some of its features have been reduced.
The main camera on the OnePlus 11R performs admirably in dim light. The camera will activate Night mode even in the default Photo mode in the dark, so the results from both modes look the same. Normally, we’d show photos with both Night mode enabled and disabled, but this is a common feature of recent phones.
Conclusion :
The OnePlus 11R costs approximately INR 17,000 less than the similarly equipped OnePlus 11 at INR 39,999 for the 8/128GB variant and INR 44,999 for the 16/256GB model. We discovered the OnePlus 11R to be a very capable budget option to the flagship, much more so than the R-series’ earlier models.
The camera is where there are the biggest compromises, according to all the specifications. Although the OnePlus 11’s three cameras on the rear are all capable, the OnePlus 11R gets away with being referred to as a triple-camera phone simply due to a technicality. The macro camera would be more at home in a container, whereas the ultra-wide camera would fit better on a basic Nord. Thankfully, both phones’ primary cameras perform largely the same, much to the OnePlus 11’s dismay with its $150 million Hasselblad sticker.
Apart from the camera, there aren’t any significant changes between the two phones. Even when using them side by side, we were unable to tell much of a difference between them, despite the fact that the display has a marginally better resolution and the processor is slightly faster. In reality, because it aggressively reduces its refresh rate less than the OnePlus 11, the 11R was frequently a more pleasant phone to use. The IR blaster is also a neat feature that we believe more phones ought to have.
Since the camera is really all that matters, most people don’t feel like the extra expense is justified. Depending on your opinion of those ultra-wide samples and the absence of RAW photography, we believe the less expensive edition will serve you better.
