The OnePlus 11 is one of the major flagship smartphones we expect to launch during 2023, and we’ve got some new information on what the phone might bring when it arrives.
According to the well-known Twitter digital chat station (opens a new tab) (from Pocket-lint (opens a new tab)), the OnePlus 11 will feature a metal frame and a ceramic body, while RAM has also been boosted to 16GB. The OnePlus 10 Pro comes with up to 12GB of RAM.
There’s apparently another upgrade: According to the same source, the OnePlus 11 will be one of the first phones to feature UFS (Universal Flash Storage) 4.0 for its internal storage, offering twice the data speed of current UFS 3.1 technology.
Claim and counterclaim
These will certainly be interesting and attractive upgrades for the next-generation OnePlus flagship, although we’ve seen ceramic builds before on the OnePlus X as well as a few models from Oppo, which has now merged with OnePlus.
As always, be cautious with these kinds of rumors, even if the sources are reliable (after all, plans can change and inside information can be wrong). Tech journalist Max Jambor(opens in new tab) is another expert who often makes correct predictions, saying that the OnePlus 11 will not actually have a ceramic body.
Jambor did agree with the UFS 4.0 rumors, though, so it appears OnePlus is keen to pack as much cutting-edge tech as possible into its next high-end product. The phone is expected to launch in the first few months of 2023.
Analysis: OnePlus in 2023
OnePlus hasn’t been quite consistent in its phone launches in recent years, with a global pandemic and a merger with Oppo and everything else going on — which means we’re not quite sure what 2023 will hold.
Throughout 2022, we have the OnePlus 10 Pro, OnePlus 10T, OnePlus Nord 2T, and OnePlus Nord CE 2. As you can see from this list, the focus has been on mid-range phones, with only the OnePlus 10 Pro considered a true flagship.
There was never a standard OnePlus 10, for reasons we don’t quite know yet. Maybe OnePlus felt the Pro moniker was more important, or maybe it felt this year’s phone launch calendar was already too crowded.
Come 2023, the situation may be reversed: According to our friend Max Jambor, next year we will get the OnePlus 11 instead of the OnePlus 11 Pro, although the “standard” phone will apparently have “pro” components inside.