OnePlus 11 will be an important product for OnePlus to gauge its performance in the Indian market in 2023. It is a proper flagship smartphone that the company will be launching on Feb 7, 2023, in India at the Cloud 11 launch event. Along with the OnePlus 11, the company is also going to introduce the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 and the OnePlus TV 65 Q2 Pro, both of which are flagship products as well. Over the last few years, OnePlus has struggled to get the same love from customers in the flagship department as it did when it started selling devices. This is because of the sub-standard software experience that the company has been delivering to the users.
There's no doubt that the company tries to pack everything that it can in its smartphones to make the experience great for the customers. But things have not really been top-notch with OnePlus. One of the biggest backlashes for the company has been its pricing over the last three years. Since 2020, with the OnePlus 8 series, OnePlus has been significantly increasing the price of its flagship models. The OnePlus 10 Pro 5G launched for Rs 71,999 in India. On the back of a strong brand presence, OnePlus started playing in the leagues of Samsung, a globally recognised smartphone brand.
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Just like Samsung, OnePlus tried to offer customers a value product at every price segment. There were Nord devices for customers looking for affordable and mid-range options. Then there were the T devices and later the R devices with the OnePlus 9 series, which were priced lower than the top flagship models. Paying an expensive or high price wasn't the issue for OnePlus fans in India; the issue was the experience they were getting with it.
I have been a OnePlus user since January 2, 2018, now. I started my journey with OnePlus with the OnePlus 5T. It was a shockingly great device for just Rs 33,000 and came with 6GB of RAM + 64GB of storage. The OnePlus 6 and the OnePlus 7 series were also priced almost the same as the OnePlus 5 series. But the overall complete and smooth experience that the OnePlus 5T, OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 7 series devices delivered was just something that pushed the users to get really excited about the future OnePlus smartphones.
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What resonated with Indians was the strive of OnePlus to deliver "so much for so less". At the back of my mind, I knew that the OnePlus 5T I was holding could have been priced higher. It "deserved" to be priced higher. It was the same feeling for many OnePlus users I knew that had the OnePlus 5, 6, and 7 series devices. However, with the OnePlus 8 series, the feedback I started getting from users started feeling like OnePlus could be going down the wrong path here.
It wasn't that the devices that OnePlus was making weren't good. But maybe, because of the high price that the customers started paying for these smartphones started bugging them when they didn't get a very consistent experience. Any user would want a great experience if he/she is paying a high price to purchase a flagship smartphone today. That experience wasn't being delivered by OnePlus.
Honestly, I have used almost every device that has been launched by OnePlus in the last few years, and for some reason, the most consistent experience I got was with the OnePlus 9RT. I used it for several months before switching to the OnePlus 10 Pro 5G. Now, the OnePlus 10 Pro 5G is an excellent device as well. Is it priced too high? Maybe! But there has been a small software bug that I expected to be resolved with the OxygenOS 13 based on Android 13; however, that didn't happen. OnePlus 10 Pro 5G is great with the camera as well, but it's not as great as the other flagships around the same price points from Vivo and Samsung. You can potentially get the iPhones at around Rs 70,000 price point, which, again, perform really well in the camera department.
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Coming to the OnePlus 11
OnePlus 11 should be really good. Call it a gut feeling, but I believe, OnePlus must have improved a lot on this smartphone. First of all, I expect a better cooling system. Then, I saw some sample shots from both the OnePlus 11 and the iPhone 14 Pro Max, and I was slightly leaning towards the pictures from OnePlus 11. Also, these were night shots. So if the OnePlus 11 can deliver a better night photography experience than the iPhone 14 Pro Max, I can only imagine what it can do in other areas.
The design and specifications are already out. But what's still in the dark is the pricing of the OnePlus 11 5G. What would really make a huge difference is the price, and this is where OnePlus could change the game. There are talks online that OnePlus is going to price the OnePlus 11 5G starting at Rs 50,000 in India.
If, for a price of Rs 50,000, OnePlus can deliver what users are expecting of it and more, and if the company can keep doing the same with the other upcoming smartphones, I think, OnePlus would eat up the smartphone market share of giants in the premium and ultra-premium segment. And yes, that would be a great comeback for the brand in the Indian market.
It is worth pointing out that OnePlus has been performing really excellently in the mid-range category because of a strong and recognisable brand in India.
