OnePlus 11R hands-on review

Camera

The OnePlus 11R has a triple camera system on the back, consisting of a 50MP Sony IMX890 main camera with an f1.8 lens with OIS, an 8MP f2.2 fixed-focus ultra-wide camera, and a 2MP fixed-focus macro camera. On the front is a 16MP fixed-focus f2.4 single camera.

This is one of the biggest differences between the OnePlus 11R and the more expensive OnePlus 11. While the main 50MP camera is identical on both phones (minus the Hasselblad branding, but more on that later), the other two cameras on the back are some bargain basement stuff.

The camera software is visually very similar to that on other OnePlus phones running OxygenOS 13.0 and the days of different OnePlus phones having different camera software are thankfully behind us. But while the software looks and works the same, there are some cut back in terms of the feature set.

Camera app

The video resolution options are rather limited. While the main camera can record up to 4K in 30fps and 60fps, the ultra-wide camera can only go up to 1080p 30fps, and then the macro camera doesn't shoot video at all. Even the front camera is still limited to just 1080p 30fps. And while the Film mode lets you adjust things like shutter speed, ISO, etc. for video and even shoot in log or HLG, it only records in 21:9 at 30fps.

But the biggest omission is on the photo side, where the Pro mode does not let you shoot in RAW. This leaves the Pro mode feeling somewhat pointless.

The OnePlus 11R supports saving images in HEIF and 10-bit color. You can save 8-bit images in JPEG or HEIF but enabling 10-bit forces HEIF (as JPEG does not support higher than 8-bit). As we have noted in the past, something about this combination of 10-bit and HEIF makes the images incompatible with Windows, as none of the applications on that platform can open these images correctly. The only way to view them is on the phone itself or on a Mac.

Daylight

Moving on to the daylight image quality, the main camera on the OnePlus 11R performs really well. Images have natural and accurate color reproduction and white balance, details are about as good as you can expect from 12MP resolution, there is no aggressive sharpening or haloing, no visible aliasing around power lines, and noise in the shadows is well under control. The tone mapping is also pleasing without being overly contrasty or flat. Overall, the daylight images from this camera are some of the best we have seen.

Main camera

Compared to the Hasselblad-branded OnePlus 11, the OnePlus 11R produces similar-looking results. The level of detail is obviously the same but there are minor differences in color. For example, the 11 will always produce more vibrant, saturated images with warmer color temperatures while the 11R leans more toward accurate, neutral colors. The 11 has slightly better shadow detail at times while the 11R has more contrast. Still, there are times when the two look nearly identical so you have to wonder if the $150 million label on the back is anything more than that.

OnePlus 11R • OnePlus 11

The differences widen substantially when talking about the ultra-wide camera and this is where things go off the rails for the OnePlus 11R. The 8MP ultra-wide camera with fixed focus consistently produces soft, hazy images with undersaturated colors and flatter contrast. It struggles to match the colors of the main camera, so going back and forth between the two produces vastly different results.

Ultra-wide camera

OnePlus 11R • OnePlus 11

And finally, there's the 2MP macro camera, which exists to fill the third empty slot on the back of the phone. The problems here are twofold. First, the camera itself is poor, producing bad colors and non-existent detail. Second, having what is essentially a wide-angle camera as macro means you have to stick it right up next to your subject, which results in visible distortion and causes the subject to be covered by the phone's shadow or reflection. The depth of field is also nonexistent so there is no subject separation happening.

Macro camera

The OnePlus 11R does not have a telephoto lens. All zooming is done digitally, even at 2x. The phone does not seem to take a crop from the middle of the sensor to produce a lossless 12MP image. Instead, it seems to crop the middle of the full-width 12MP image and then blow it back up to 12MP. Quality is still passable at 2x, especially for just viewing on the phone's screen but falls apart at closer inspection and higher zoom levels.

2x digital zoom

The 16MP front camera images seem to be captured internally at 4MP and then upscaled back to 16MP. This means they aren't as detailed as you'd expect but since this is the front camera we are talking about it's not that important. Color performance and dynamic range are both fine.

Lowlight

The OnePlus 11R has a very respectable low light performance on the main camera. Normally, we'd show images with both Night mode enabled and disabled but as with many recent phones, the camera will enable Night mode even in the standard Photo mode in the dark, which means results from both modes look identical.

Main camera

The only reason to use the dedicated Night mode is if you have stabilized the phone, at which point you can get much longer exposures on the Night mode, especially if you enable the tripod mode.

Ultra-wide camera

The impressive night mode processing saves the ultra-wide camera from being a total failure here as images are largely usable. There are still notable color differences from the main camera (and reality) but it is less distracting than it is during the day.

Video

The main camera can record 4K video at 30fps or 60fps. Video quality is generally very good, with a good level of detail, accurate colors, good dynamic range, and very good stabilization. The only issue is the occasional stabilization artifact, which manifests as parts of the video jiggling while the area around it is stable.

Videos from the ultra-wide camera are not good. Not only are they limited to 1080p at 30fps but the image is also very soft with a lot of noise in the shadows and the same dull colors as the still images.

As mentioned before, you can also record videos in log profile or HLG HDR but this can only be done through the Film mode, which only records in 21:9 and 30fps at 4K on the main camera and 1080p on the ultra-wide. You can also disable stabilization in this mode, which lets you shoot using the full width of the sensor.