Two days ago, OnePlus announced that its next major flagship smartphone – the OnePlus 11 – and new earbuds will saunter onto the smartphone scene at an event in February. Given that I just recently replaced my OnePlus 9 with the Google Pixel 6, and talked at volume about the absolutely horrible experience it was using the former as a daily driver for the past year, I should have been apathetic about this announcement, to say the least. And yet, here I am, a mild bit tingly in my nether regions about the potential of a solid B-team phone entering the fray. As nonplussed as I am about that emotion, one need look no further than the absolutely barren landscape that is the American smartphone market to understand why.
While OnePlus promises to “elevate the user experience from Cloud 9 to Cloud 11” [OnePlus marketing has always been one non-sequiter after the other, but gorram, we just had the OnePlus 10! WTF does this even mean??], I found that the OnePlus 9 drove in the complete opposite direction. I heard much better things about the OnePlus 9 Pro, which also supposedly played better on Verizon, with the network dynamic possibly being part of the root of the problem. But, of course, I’m neither OnePlus nor Verizon. That’s their problem. I just want a great phone that works on a great network. The big tell on whether or not I dare to get back in the pool with OnePlus is what its global availability is at launch and whether or not the OnePlus 11 Pro will release alongside the base model.
Given that leaked benchmarks showed a model running 16GB of RAM, and past top-tier SKUs were running 8GB, there is a good chance that those benchmarks were for the Pro model and that it is well-near ready with just over 6 weeks to go until launch. It will be a tough road to hoe dropping just on the cusp of what will surely be Samsung’s spring unpacked event and its barrage of conventional phones, meaning everything in the 2023 lineup minus the mid-tier (late spring) and foldables (fall).
But my eyes will be peeled. Because God knows there is nothing else of interest to buy on the US market. There is no more Essential phone, and the Nothing Phone, what could have been seen as a spiritual replacement, was more a ghostly echo of those times than a real contender. Razer is making a handheld, but it’s been tough for me to nail down its usability as a phone. I have zero problem using a tablet as a phone, and at 6.8 inches, it is only slightly larger than some of today’s superphones. And I use a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, which is larger in tablet mode. But none of the Razer or Verizon marketing show the Edge in use as a phone, so I am not going to bank on it providing a good phone experience. The NextBit Robin was an interesting notion, but nothing further has been heard from that tech and we assume whatever special sauce it had has been incorporated into the Edge since Razer acquired Nextbit.
Huawei and ZTE are gone. Using an ASUS ROG phone on US carriers is always a risk whether it and its antennas will be fully supported. And of course full support for Poco phones, amazing tech at rock bottom prices, and anything of Xaomi, Honor, or Oppo will grant you a nice digital paperweight and screen in the US, but not much more. Nope. Today we just get the Samsung Galaxy in 19 different flavors, the iPhone in about 10, and the Pixel. There has not been anything of whiz-bang nerdiness on the scene since foldables. So I guess my curiosity in the OnePlus 11 Pro will have to do, regardless of my nightmarish experience the first time and last time out with OnePlus. Fingers crossed.
Of course, it might no be too much to ask for Microsoft to put some oomph behind the Surface Duo while it’s running around spending $70bn trying to acquire Activision when it already has 23 game studios. Left high and dry since the abandonment of Windows Phone, the Surface Duo was one more crack of light in a bleary Microsoft dream of mobile hope.
That crack appears to have been a portal, though, like the one in Stranger Things and the only thing I got out of the the first Duo was a demogorgon in the car that converted to a Mind Flayer at home. Let’s hope OnePlus brings something nicer to our shores in 2023.
Rounding Off Infinity 