Just a month into 2023 and we already have two flagship phones in India powered by Qualcomm’s top-notch Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC. iQOO was the first to launch its premium smartphone, the iQOO 11, with this processor, and now the OnePlus 11 is also here. Both companies claim that their phones offer the best camera experience, but which one will make the user snap-happy? Well, find out the answer in this comparison, where we put the cameras of both phones against each other and test them in every possible scenario.
Daylight landscape
I’ll begin this comparison with a daytime landscape photo, with HDR set to auto. You can see that there is a significant difference between the two images. The photo captured by iQOO 11 has a cool tone and is a bit saturated. In contrast, the colours on the OnePlus 11 image are subtle, but the colour tone here also doesn’t appear to be true to the original. Unlike the iQOO 11, the OnePlus 11 captures a warmer tone in the photos, as seen in prior OnePlus devices.
One thing I’d like to point out is that, while the iQOO 11 captures cool tones with saturated colours, the grass in the iQOO’s shot has different shades that we generally see with our naked eyes, but on OnePlus 11’s photo it seems exactly the same from one corner to the other. Hence, the iQOO 11 can be declared the winner for this round as it doesn’t alter the colours of any object.
Winner: iQOO 11
Daylight ultra-wide angle
Following the standard shot, I captured the same scenario in ultra-wide angle mode as well. The OnePlus 11 and the iQOO 11 both have the same colour balance as seen in the previous daylight shot. The OnePlus 11 captures warm-toned photos, whilst the iQOO 11 captures cooler-toned pictures. In addition, the grass in these snaps appears to be the same as we saw in the daylight landscape shots.
Here I’d like to point out is that the OnePlus 11 has a 48MP ultra-wide angle sensor while the iQOO 11 has an 8MP sensor, but after zooming the photos to full crop I didn’t notice much of a difference in the detailing, although I could observe some high light clipping in iQOO’s images, the 8MP camera sensor looks almost as sharp as the OnePlus 11’s 48MP camera, I was quite disappointed by OnePlus. Since, the iQOO captured colours that were similar to the natural scenario, I would once again consider it the winner.
Winner: iQOO 11
2x optical zoom
Although the sensors are different, both phones include a lens which is capable of taking photos at 2x optical zoom. The iQOO 11 sports a 13MP telephoto lens, while the OnePlus 11 has a 32MP camera. In the shots above, you can clearly notice the difference in colour balance in both. The iQOO 11 captured an image with a better colour tone this time, while the photo captured from OnePlus 11 looked the same. You’ll also observe that the stones on top of the fountain in the OnePlus 11 snap look yellow in colour.
However, when I zoomed in to full crop, the advantage of the high megapixels was clearly seen in the OnePlus shot. The top area of the fountain and the trees in the backdrop have greater intricacy than on the iQOO 11. On that account, the OnePlus 11 is the winner of this round.
Winner: OnePlus 11
High resolution
Both the OnePlus 11 and the iQOO 11 include a 50MP main camera, although the sensor specifications differ. The iQOO 11 comes with an f/1.9 aperture and is 23mm wide, whereas, the OnePlus 11 has an f/1.8 aperture and is 24mm wide. For this round, I used the high res mode on both phones. It’s quite strange, that the OnePlus 11 captures almost all the images with a strong yellow tone, which makes the photo look so abrupt that you won’t like to share them directly on social media. The iQOO 11 however, sometimes decreases the blue tone and tries to capture real-like scenarios.
Nonetheless, the purpose of this test is to evaluate the detailings captured by these mighty smartphones. Here, I have put the images with full crop where the iQOO outperforms the OnePlus phone in terms of detail. The OnePlus 11’s snap isn’t already appealing and the detailing on this is also not up to the mark. Here, the iQOO 11 becomes the winner for this round.
Winner: iQOO 11
Close up shot
After all the long shots, let’s look at close-up shots. Both the OnePlus 11 and iQOO 11 struggle to capture the perfect colours. You can see that the iQOO 11’s photo looks overly vibrant with a prominent cool tone, whilst, on the OnePlus 11 the saturation is well-balanced but the overall shot appears slightly yellowish. Hence, choosing the winner becomes difficult, but when you zoom the pictures, the detailing on the OnePlus 11 comes out to be better than the iQOO 11. The pollens at the centre of the flower are much clearer on the OnePlus 11. As a result, OnePlus 11 becomes the winner in the close-up shot round.
Winner: OnePlus 11
Portrait shot
When we look at the portrait shot, the outcome appears to be completely different from what we saw in the previous photographs. The OnePlus 11 has a little cooler tone in the frame. Also, you can see that my hair and beard are brightened up in the OnePlus phone’s image, making my hair appear whiter. While if you look at the photo taken from the iQOO 11, you will notice that it has a warmer tone which was present in the previous OnePlus 11’s snaps. Although, if you look closely, the hair and beard in the iQOO’s shot are somewhat close to what they look like in real-life scenarios. However, both phones’ edge detection is considerably good and we didn’t find any flaw in either of the images. Therefore, in my opinion, the iQOO 11 is the clear winner in terms of retaining close to natural colours.
Winner: iQOO 11
Low light
It’s clear by now that the iQOO 11 has better camera performance in daylight scenarios, but when we look at these photographs, the tables appear to have flipped. In this low-light test, the OnePlus 11 comes out to be the clear-cut winner. The image captured by the OnePlus 11 is brighter and sharper, but the photo taken by the iQOO 11 is overall darker and has some grains. On that account, the OnePlus 11 wins this round.
Winner: OnePlus 11
Night mode
If we look at the low light shot with night mode turned on, the result is the same. The image from iQOO 11 is still darker, but there are fewer grains this time. The OnePlus 11 snap, on the other hand, is just as excellent as low-light photo without night mode turned on. Overall, the OnePlus 11 is capable of taking superior photographs in low-light scenarios along with better brightness the images have great colour balance as well. Thus, the OnePlus 11 comes out on top in the night mode test as well.
Winner: OnePlus 11
Daylight portrait selfie
After comparing the ins and outs of both phones’ rear cameras, let’s quickly look at the selfie camera. The images above were captured in portrait mode from both devices. You’ll notice that the iQOO 11 couldn’t detect the edges effectively and the backdrop is seeping all over my face, but the OnePlus 11 has flawless edge detection and provides a clean cut out. However, if you look at the colours in both photos, the OnePlus 11 fails to impress me, as my face in this picture appears a bit red, and the saturation and contrast levels are also high. On the other hand, the iQOO 11 managed to capture a close-to-natural colour tone on my face, and the overall saturation of the image is also identical to a real-life scenario. Hence, the selfie round also goes in favour of iQOO 11, as it shoots pictures with relatively natural-looking colours.
Winner: iQOO 11
Low light selfie
Furthermore, in low-light selfies also, the iQOO 11 clearly outperforms the OnePlus 11. The blue tone on the picture taken from the OnePlus 11 is fairly noticeable, and the saturation level in the low-light selfie is also quite high. On the other hand, the iQOO 11 captures eye-pleasing and natural-looking colours in low-light selfies as well. Therefore, stating that the iQOO 11 leads the selfie game won’t be wrong, be it daylight or low light, the iQOO 11 is the clear winner.
Winner: iQOO 11
Verdict
To summarise the findings, I can say that the OnePlus 11 is capable of capturing amazing low-light photographs from the back camera, and in quite a few pictures the detailing on the OnePlus in daylight scenarios is also a bit higher than the iQOO 11. On the other hand, the iQOO has superior colour balance in its photos, whether it’s daylight shots from the back camera or low-light selfies, the iQOO 11 pleased me in almost all of the situations in this comparison. Hence, if you primarily use the phone’s camera for low-light photos, the OnePlus 11 can be a good choice, otherwise, the iQOO 11 is overall a superior camera phone in most conditions than the OnePlus 11.
