While the OnePlus 11 has already been tipped for three big upgrades the first live photo of the upcoming flagship suggests that those looking for one of the best camera phones might find themselves disappointed.
That’s because the image courtesy of MySmartPrice shows that OnePlus still hasn’t given the telephoto camera a periscope lens for a more powerful zoom. To make matters worse, with the news that there will only be one OnePlus 11 model, we can’t expect this to be added to a different version of the same phone.
Rumors are rife that Apple's iPhone 15 will feature a periscope zoom lens, and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra already uses a 10x periscope camera. The Pixel 7 Pro features a 5x periscope lens. So OnePlus has some ground to make up. At a rumored price of $899, it is perhaps understandable that the OnePlus 11 won’t feature the components budget required to add the expensive periscope lens, though that's the same price as the Pixel 7 Pro.
Like the OnePlus 10 Pro, Swedish photography expert Hasselblad is expected to return to tune the OnePlus 11's camera. It should also still have three shooters on the back, rather than four like older Pro OnePlus phones, and the trademark OnePlus alert slider, another feature missing from the 10T.
Some things about the camera have changed though, such as the look of the overall camera block. We expect it to feature a circular camera island, rounding off the edges from the square OnePlus 10 Pro, and to have sloping sides to blend it in with the body of the phone. That's all well and good, but we'd rather the hardware under the hood get a shake-up.
With further reports indicating that the OnePlus 11 will feature the same QHD 6.7-inch scree, it seems like this new model could be more focused on iteration than innovation. Whatever the case, we'll likely find out soon as OnePlus could launch the 11 series this month in China (via Digital Chat Station). However, the global launch may only happen in spring of next year, as was the case with the OnePlus 10 Pro this year.
