The recently-launched OnePlus 11 might not be the best Android phone currently on the market, but it's definitely among the best phones the company has released in years. It marks a significant shift in OnePlus' product strategy and harkens back to the company's early days by offering flagship hardware at a relatively affordable price point. As noted in our OnePlus 11 review, it's a polished "almost flagship" that provides a good value proposition, but it falls short in a few key areas.
We expect OnePlus to improve things further with its next flagship, presumably the OnePlus 12. Here are a few ways the company can deliver an even better phone next year.
Better telephoto camera
Although the OnePlus 11 has solid primary and ultrawide cameras, its telephoto camera leaves a lot to be desired. The 32MP telephoto camera is limited to 2x optical zoom, which is rather short compared to the telephoto cameras on competing flagships. Even some of OnePlus' previous phones offered up to 3.3x optical zoom. With Samsung's Galaxy S23 Ultra offering up to 10x optical zoom and the Pixel 7 Pro offering up to 5x optical zoom, the 2x telephoto camera on the OnePlus 11 can't compete.
We'd like OnePlus to offer at least the same level of optical zoom on the OnePlus 12, if not more. Although the OnePlus 11 captures great images at 2x and 3x ranges, zooming beyond 5x significantly impacts image quality.
OnePlus can address this by offering a 3.3x telephoto camera on the OnePlus 12, which can greatly improve its telephoto performance while still keeping the price low. OnePlus might actually end up doing that, as the company is reportedly testing a new device with Qualcomm's unannounced Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip that features a periscope zoom camera. Although it's too early to say whether it's the OnePlus 12 or not, the flagship chipset leads us to believe it might as well be OnePlus' next flagship.
A less Oppo-fied software experience
Although OxygenOS 13 on the OnePlus 11 delivers a fast, smooth software experience, it's barely distinguishable from ColorOS 13 on Oppo devices. We want OnePlus to give OxygenOS a more unique identity on its next-gen flagship, and we're sure fans of the original OxygenOS would love to see that change. Such a change may seem unlikely, especially considering that OnePlus recently merged the OxygenOS codebase with ColorOS. But some tweaks here and there to give the "new OxygenOS" a different visual appeal and perhaps fewer gimmicks isn't a tough ask.
OnePlus could easily remove some of the ColorOS features that don't add much value, like Omoji — a blatant rip-off of Apple's Memoji feature that lets you create personalized emoji. It could also give OxygenOS a more distinct visual look. While the new Aquamorphic Design is great, it's identical to the design language of ColorOS 13. A few changes to the color palette and settings layout, along with a simplified quick settings panel, can help OxygenOS stand out.
While we want OnePlus to get rid of some ColorOS features, OxygenOS should retain some of the more useful additions in subsequent releases. For instance, the O-haptics feature, updated Always-On display, powerful screenshot editing tool, and enlarged folder view are handy additions that should stick around.
Lastly, OnePlus also needs to step up its game regarding software updates. The company hasn't done a great job of delivering stable, bug-free updates of late, and it would be great if OnePlus can iron out all the kinks by the time the OnePlus 12 hits the market.
Wireless charging support
While most modern flagships offer wireless charging support, the OnePlus 11 does not. The device does support 100W wired fast charging (80W on the U.S. model), which is plenty fast. Still, it's a bummer you can't charge it wirelessly, especially because OnePlus offered 50W wireless charging support and reverse wireless charging on the OnePlus 10 Pro.
We don't expect OnePlus to offer 50W wireless charging on the OnePlus 12 since it would greatly increase its cost, but the company should provide at least 15W wireless charging support on the next-gen model. This will bring the phone up to par with flagships from Samsung and Google without a significant price increase.
Faster USB-C port
It comes as no surprise that OnePlus has cut some corners to keep the OnePlus 11's price low. For instance, the device has a slow USB 2.0 Type-C port, which pales in comparison to the USB 3.2 Type-C port on the latest flagships from Samsung and Google. Its predecessor, the OnePlus 10 Pro, featured a faster USB 3.1 Type-C port, and we expect OnePlus to offer the same spec on the OnePlus 12, if not better.
For the unaware, USB 2.0 is limited to peak transfer speeds of 480Mbps, while USB 3.0 and USB 3.1 offer max transfer speeds of up to 5Gbps. This makes the newer standard around 10 times faster, allowing you to transfer files and images from the phone to a connected device at significantly faster speeds.
What do you want to see on the OnePlus 12?
The OnePlus 11 is a great phone at its price. It offers impressive performance thanks to the flagship Qualcomm chipset, great primary and ultrawide cameras, amazing battery life, and a smooth software experience. We want OnePlus to retain these characteristics, as it helps the device give stiff competition to similarly-priced flagships like the Google Pixel 7. But the phone isn't perfect and has room for improvement, which is where the aforementioned changes come into play. Our suggestions could make the OnePlus 12 a better package overall and might even land the device a spot in our list of the best phones next year.
Since we're still months away from OnePlus launching its next flagship, we'll have to wait a while to see how things pan out. If you don't have the patience of a saint and want a new phone in the $700 price range, you should buy the OnePlus 11 by following the link below. We can assure you that you won't be disappointed. Once you've ordered the device, consider checking out our roundups of the best OnePlus 11 cases and OnePlus 11 screen protectors to add an extra layer of protection to your brand-new device.
OnePlus 11
The OnePlus 11 is the company's return to form, offering an almost-flagship experience at a lower price point than what Samsung charges.