Excerpted from the February 16, 2023 edition of Sree's Sunday Note.
It’s that time of year again: Smartphone makers are rolling out new units and OnePlus aims not to get left behind with the debut of the OnePlus 11 5G, an Android powerhouse with hardware which holds up well against more expensive competition.
The OnePlus 11 5G looks sleek with its bright 6.7-inch, 120Hz, 2K AMOLED display on the front and three-lens Hasselblad camera array on the back, but it’s what’s sandwiched in between that OnePlus highlighted in its recent launch event in New Delhi.
Instead of focusing only on the OnePlus 11 5G’s impressive photo and video capabilities, OnePlus promoted the patented technologies and other innovations built into its new flagship phone.
For example, the OnePlus 11 5G comes with up to 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, but it also comes with the company’s RAM-Vita, a new artificial-intelligence-based technology which speeds up app performance. Not only does the system set aside memory for the most-used apps, but it also reduces the amount of memory used by the apps, thus allowing as many as 44 apps to run in the background, according to OnePlus.
“It’s time to say goodbye to app kills and restarts,” said Tuomas Lampen, OnePlus head of strategy for the EU during the Feb. 7 launch event.
The OnePlus 11 uses Qualcomm’s powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 main processor chipset, the same used by competing flagship Android smartphones. At a pixel density of 525 pixels per inch, the OnePlus 11 5G’s 6.7-inch screen is sharper than the 6.7-inch screen on the Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max (460ppi) and the 6.8-inch display on Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Ultra (500ppi).
Its sizeable 5,000 mAh battery promises long battery life, but power use is reduced by technology which lowers the screen’s refresh rate when 120Hz isn’t needed. The battery can be charged in as fast as 27 minutes using an 80-watt charger, according to OnePlus.
The OnePlus 11 5G is powered by the Oxygen 13 operating system, which is built on top of Google’s Android 13 software. Using Oxygen allows OnePlus to perform its own hardware performance tweaks like one which speeds up data transfers between the Snapdragon main processor and memory.
The rear Hasselblad camera array includes a 50MP f/1.8 main camera with optical image stabilization, a 32MP portrait camera and a 48MP ultrawide camera with a 115-degree field of vision while the front of the phone has a 16MP selfie camera.
The OnePlus 11 5G is available for preorders in Titan Black or Emerald Green at $699 with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage and $799 with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
But OnePlus isn’t done yet: It promised a peek at a “OnePlus 11 Concept” at the upcoming Mobile World Congress mobile technology conference in Barcelona, Spain.
My tech tips appear regularly in Sree's Sunday Note.
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