First impressions of OnePlus 11R 5G: the new “budget” flagship

The OnePlus 11R 5G is OnePlus’ new “value flagship” successor to the OnePlus 10R 5G (Review) with better design and better specs, and without a big price jump. The 11R 5G is priced at Rs. 39,999 for the 8GB RAM and 128GB storage variant and Rs. 44,999 for the 16GB RAM and 256GB storage variant. It won’t go on sale until February 28, but we got a sneak peek at the OnePlus 11R 5G at the company’s Cloud 11 launch event in New Delhi.

The OnePlus 11R 5G is very similar to the OnePlus 11 5G, and while it only weighs a little less, it somehow feels significantly lighter. There are no visible antenna strips along the glossy frame, hinting at the possibility that it is made of plastic. However, I’m glad OnePlus has kept the Alert slider on this model, and despite being cheaper than the 11 5G, the display still has curved edges on both sides.

Speaking of which, the OnePlus 11R 5G has a 6.74-inch AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 1240 x 2772 pixels. The display supports HDR10+ video playback, but not Dolby Vision like the 11 5G. One of the highlights of the OnePlus 11R 5G is its Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC, making it one of the most affordable smartphones in India powered by this SoC. You should expect very good gaming performance from this phone, which we will test in our full review.

The OnePlus 11R 5G has an AMOLED display with curved edges.

The OnePlus 11R 5G also borrows some features from the flagship OnePlus 11 5G, such as 100W fast charging capability and 5000mAh battery capacity. The OnePlus 10R and OnePus 10T offered 150W charging, but it’s by no means slow. The main camera, which has a 50-megapixel Sony IMX890 sensor along with optical stabilization (OIS), is also common to these models. OnePlus has a more affordable 11R 5G, as well as an 8MP ultra-wide and modest 2MP macro camera.

It’s hard to gauge the actual performance of any smartphone after using it for just a few minutes, but judging by OxygenOS 13’s smoothness and specs alone, this could be a very good gaming smartphone in its segment in India. One cool feature I was surprised by is the infrared (IR) emitter on top of the 11R 5G for controlling IR devices like TVs and air conditioners. The IR Remote app also comes with the phone.

We will provide you with more information about the OnePlus 11R 5G as soon as we receive our review unit. In the meantime, don’t forget to check out all of our OnePlus 11 5G (review) and OnePlus Buds Pro 2 (review) reviews.

Disclosure: OnePlus sponsored flights and hotel stays in New Delhi for their event.