OnePlus 11 5G, OnePlus Buds Pro 2 Review: Noteworthy Upgrades

OnePlus 11 5G — the successor to the OnePlus 10 Pro 5G that debuted last year — made its debut in India on Tuesday. This handset may not have the word “Pro” in its name, but it is powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and supports 100W fast charging. The company also launched the OnePlus Buds Pro 2, which is claimed to offer big improvements over its predecessor. Meanwhile, the company also announced several other devices that will be available in the coming months, including the OnePlus 11R 5G, a new OnePlus Pad, the OnePlus TV 65 Q2 Pro, and the OnePlus Keyboard 81 Pro.

This week on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast, host Siddharth Suvarna talks to Reviews Editor Roydon Cerejo and Senior Reviewer Ali Pardiwala to discuss the OnePlus 11 5G and OnePlus Buds Pro 2 TWS earphones that were launched on Tuesday. We also discuss the other new OnePlus devices that were announced during the Cloud 11 launch event that will arrive in the coming months.

The OnePlus 11 5G is the company’s most powerful smartphone thus far and it didn’t have to make many changes from its predecessor, the OnePlus 10 Pro 5G. The company has also fixed some of our complaints that were present in the previous generation smartphone. You get a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC at a lower price than the iQoo 11 5G and the entry-level Samsung Galaxy S23. The company also launched another handset with a similar design, the OnePlus 11R, at the event.

Oddly enough, the OnePlus 11 5G doesn’t support wireless charging, a feature that was present on last year’s model. All cameras have been upgraded by the company, though. Macro mode is back and the ultra-wide camera is better, as we’ve noted in our review. However, it only has an (unofficial) IP64 rating and the selfie camera is considerably worse than the OnePlus 10 Pro. If things like wireless charging and better waterproofing are important to you, should you still consider last year’s model instead?

OnePlus 11 5G Review: The One to Beat?

The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 has launched two years after the company launched its first high-end earbuds, and brings notable upgrades such as a dual-driver setup and spatial audio with head tracking. These TWS earphones are great earbuds right out-of-the-box, unlike the older model which was updated with support for more codecs. For the time being, Hi-Res audio streaming is locked to phones that support the LHDC audio codec, which includes phones from Xiaomi, Oppo, or OnePlus.

We also saw the OnePlus Pad, the company’s first tablet, at the event. This device will arrive in April and appears to be aimed at productivity users with its more square-like (7:5) aspect ratio. We didn’t have a lot of time to use the device, but stay tuned to our website and YouTube channel for a review in the coming months. There are some features that will be exclusive to OnePlus phones such as tethering your OnePlus phone to share its 5G connection, or copy and paste between devices.

OnePlus Buds Pro 2 Review: Making a Good Thing Better

OnePlus also launched a new smart TV, the OnePlus TV 65 Q2 Pro, which is available in a single 65-inch display size. This TV is priced around the Rs. 1 lakh mark and doesn’t feature a retractable soundbar like its predecessor. It features a 70W speaker setup and a QLED display panel. It will also support Dolby Atmos, HDR content, and we will hopefully have a review for this device in the coming months.

Another pair of more affordable TWS earbuds were also announced by the company at the event — the OnePlus Buds Pro 2R. It doesn’t support spatial audio with head tracking like the OnePlus Buds Pro 2, and they also don’t support wireless charging. OnePlus’ new mechanical keyboard and the wireless router were also announced, but we didn’t get any hands-on time with them at the launch event.

Finally, OnePlus said it would show a new OnePlus concept smartphone at the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2023) and has teased, what appears to be, a foldable phone that could arrive in Q3 2023, but we don’t have any more details on these phones at this point.

You can listen to all of that in detail and more in our episode by hitting the play button on the Spotify player embedded above.

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