With the Galaxy S23 Unpacked event on February 1 and the OnePlus 11 launching on February 7, the second month of 2023 is set to be a very busy one for the phones. While Samsung will certainly dominate the roost, many are looking forward to OnePlus’ latest flagship (already available in China).
It’s no secret that OnePlus has chased Samsung for several years at this point. I go back at least to the OnePlus 8 series where the prices really started to go up, as did the build quality of the phone and the cameras. However, OnePlus’ flagship phones still fall short of competing with Samsung in many ways.
Last year’s OnePlus 10 Pro put up a great fight, as this phone offered a lot for $899. However, at the end of the day, the $799 Galaxy S22 proved to be a better buy in most respects — OnePlus won our recommendation based on the 10 Pro’s excellent battery life.
OnePlus has another competitor in Google with the Pixel line growing in popularity with the Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 series. Google has also taken the old OnePlus’ place as value king, offering the Pixel 7 for $599 and the Pixel 7 Pro for $899. (And let’s not forget the awesome Pixel 6a for $449, which runs around the OnePlus Nord phones.)
Based on the rumors so far, OnePlus has a serious uphill battle to climb this year in a theoretical showdown of the Samsung Galaxy S23 vs. the OnePlus 11. The Galaxy S23 appears to be an impressive device, equal to the OnePlus 11 in many, if not all, ways. (We’ll need to wait and see how battery life is on both devices.) With a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, a triple-camera setup with a telephoto lens, and Samsung’s screen acumen, I’m afraid the Galaxy S23 will overshadow the OnePlus 11, no matter how good the latter is.
That is, unless OnePlus gets the price right.
The OnePlus 11 comes with a 6.7-inch QHD+ AMOLED display, which is larger than the Galaxy S23’s claimed screen size of 6.1 inches. In addition, the resolution is higher, but in these measurements the extra pixels aren’t worth much. I expect the biggest difference to be the refresh rate.
The OnePlus 11 features an adaptive refresh rate of 1-120Hz, which will outpace the Galaxy S23 unless Samsung changes things up. With the Galaxy S22, you only got the 48-120Hz range, which partially helped explain the discrepancy in battery life — something that held true with the Galaxy S22 Plus (which had battery capacity closer to the OnePlus 10 Pro). If that stays the same this year, OnePlus will have a major advantage for energy efficiency and smoothness.
Better yet, if the OnePlus 11 drops the price from the Galaxy S23. We expect the latter to cost $799, the same as last year, based on recent leaks. We don’t know what OnePlus plans to charge the 11 for, but even just $100 less would be huge.
If OnePlus gets the price right, it could beat Samsung in terms of how new devices rank on our lists of the best and best Android phones. Even if nothing changes from the OnePlus 10 Pro, which we know isn’t true, the $699 OnePlus 11 would be a killer deal.
Of course, there’s nothing you can do but wait until February 7th to find out what OnePlus has in store. And February 1 is not far away at all, when we’ll find out what Samsung has cooked up. Stay tuned here for both events along with our reviews to follow in the days that follow.
