Technologies

The OnePlus 11 Is Coming Soon, and I Can’t Wait to Try It

The new phone could be the first time we see camera hardware resulting from OnePlus’ partnership with Hasselblad.

To no one’s surprise, OnePlus’ next phone is called the OnePlus 11 5G. It’s currently available in China, and the phone is set to launch globally on Feb. 7. It follows last year’s pretty great OnePlus 10 Pro and comes on the heels of the OnePlus 10T which left a bad taste in our mouths because of its questionable compromises and a confusing value proposition.

Lucky for us, OnePlus provided a peek at the 11 back in December. And now, the new phone is on full display on OnePlus China’s website. After devouring it with the help of Google Translate, I am reminded of Leonardo DiCaprio’s often-quoted line from the film Django Unchained.

«Gentlemen, you had my curiosity. But now you have my attention.»

I already had high hopes for the 11 because it would be the third-generation phone to be released during OnePlus’ partnership with the iconic camera company Hasselblad. Up to now, Hasselblad’s influence has largely been behind-the-scenes with camera tuning and nifty software features like the Xpan panoramic-style. The OnePlus 11 could be the first time we see actual new camera hardware resulting from the partnership.

I should also point out that details and nuance can be lost in translation, so please keep that in mind as you read on.

The OnePlus 11 looks fantastic

The 11’s design picks up where the 10 Pro left off. Translated, the site states that the OnePlus 11’s look was inspired by a «black hole in science fiction.» But instead of a square-ish camera bump found on the 10 Pro, the 11’s is circular on top with tapered sides that flow into the edge of the phone. It’s reminiscent of a clasp on a leather attaché. When the phone is in landscape, the camera bump’s shape looks almost like the silhouette of Darth Vader’s helmet.

The site shows off the phone in two colors. There is a matte green color, that isn’t quite British racing green, and a textured black finish, which according to translated text is «silk glass.» I gather this means the finish looks textured but to the touch is just flat glass.

My CNET colleague Andrew Lanxon got his hands on a OnePlus 11. While we have to wait a bit to hear his thoughts about testing it, he did share some photos of the phone on Twitter.

There aren’t many photos of the front, but it has a display with waterfall edges that flow off the right and left sides of the phone. The front-facing camera is housed in a hole punch-shaped cutout on the top left side.

An alert slider is visible in a product video on the site that also shows flashy stylized closeups of the OnePlus 11. OnePlus previously confirmed that the button would return after its absence on the OnePlus 10T. The 11 joins the likes of the Nubia Red Magic 8, which has a similar hardware slider for putting the phone into gaming mode.

The OnePlus 11 has the latest Android hardware

The phone has a 6.7-inch AMOLED screen with a variable refresh rate that tops out at 120Hz. The display is LTPO 3. Last year’s 10 Pro had an LTPO 2 display. LTPO stands for low-temperature polycrystalline oxide, which allows displays to have a high refresh rate without killing your battery. According to the translated text, LTPO 3 is smoother and even more power efficient. A graphic claims that the display can drop down to 1Hz, which is the same refresh rate the iPhone 14 Pro uses for its always-on display.

On the inside, the 11 runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip which according to a OnePlus press release has 35% faster CPU performance and a 25% faster GPU. The 11 is one of the first phones with the new Qualcomm chip. The 11 also comes with 16GB of RAM and either 256GB or 512GB of storage.

Powering everything are dual 2,500 mAh batteries that support 100W fast charging. Last year’s 10 Pro had the same dual-battery setup and supported 80W fast charging, except for US models which were capped at 65W fast charging. The OnePlus 10T supports 150W charging globally and 125W in the US. For perspective, the iPhone 14 Pro supports 20W fast charging. OnePlus says that the 11’s batteries can charge from empty to 100% in 25 minutes.

The cameras are the same but different

The OnePlus 11 has a 50-megapixel main and 48-megapixel ultrawide camera system that’s similar to the 10 Pro’s. It also has a telephoto camera with a 32-megapixel sensor and 2x optical zoom compared to the 10 Pro’s 8-megapixel sensor and 3.3x optical zoom.

Sony made all of the image sensors including the one in the new telephoto camera. But you have to wonder if OnePlus and Hasselblad chose the 32-megapixel sensor and short tele-lens combo because it yields better photos than the tele on the 10 Pro. If that is the case, it’s the first time we see camera hardware design that stems from the OnePlus and Hasselblad partnership.

Translated text suggests the new telephoto camera can take photos with more accurate colors. OnePlus China’s site says that portrait mode pics have better-simulated bokeh that mimics the look of images taken with Hasselblad’s XCD medium-format lenses.

Sample photos from the 11 look good, with balanced colors and highlights that roll off for skin tones. We should take these photos with a big grain of salt because nearly every phone maker’s website flaunts impressive photos taken with their phones – ah, marketing! Sadly, there isn’t any mention of whether these photo improvements will apply to video recording.

Is there a OnePlus 11 Pro?

From everything I read on the website, the OnePlus 11 is the best-spec’d OnePlus phone ever made. It seems to be the «pro» model this year despite lacking the nomenclature. Its 6.7-inch screen is the same size as the one on the 10 Pro. In fact, OnePlus China’s President Li Jie said there is no «pro» version of the OnePlus 11 in response to a question on the Chinese social network Weibo.

That would mark a continued departure from OnePlus’ previous product strategy. Until recently, OnePlus had released three models of its flagship phones, a regular version, a «pro» one and later in the year a T model. For example, in 2020 there was a OnePlus 8, 8 Pro and 8T. The pro models typically have larger displays with a higher resolution and a third rear camera with a telephoto lens compared to the regular version.

Last year, the company released only a OnePlus 10 Pro without a standard model.

What’s next for the OnePlus 11?

The new phone launches in China on Monday, Jan. 9. OnePlus is having a global launch event in India on Tuesday, Feb. 7, where it will also show off the OnePlus Buds Pro 2. I am truly looking forward to trying the phone out for myself, especially that new telephoto camera.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Dec. 5 #642

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Dec. 5, No. 642.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a fun one, and the theme is interesting. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Feeling peckish?

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Can I see a menu?

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

BAKE, BAKER, BONE, BONES, SIRS, FUNS, FACT, BUTT, DIET, DIETS, GREW, STEW, GOUT, DINE, NEST, NETS, TEAK

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

BAKERY, CAFE, BISTRO, BUFFET, BREWERY, STEAKHOUSE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is DININGOUT. To find it, start with the D that is three letters to the right on the top row, and wind down.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Friday, Dec. 5

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Dec. 5.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Three of the clues involve a now-infamous Gen Z/Gen Alpha joke, so you might want to have a young person nearby. Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Beaver’s building project
Answer: DAM

4A clue: Unit of distance originally equivalent to 1,000 paces
Answer: MILE

5A clue: Number of dwarfs or deadly sins
Answer: SEVEN

6A clue: Extra-large film format
Answer: IMAX

7A clue: Crosses (out)
Answer: XES

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Difficult-to-work-with stars
Answer: DIVAS

2D clue: U.S. soccer star ___ Morgan
Answer: ALEX

3D clue: Roughly half of the adult population
Answer: MEN

4D clue: 5-Down-5-Across, for one
Answer: MEME

5D clue: Broadway musical about the wives of Henry VIII
Answer: SIX

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Technologies

The Mystery of the iPhone 17 Pro’s Missing Night Mode for Portraits

Is it a bug? Is it a technical issue? Or did Apple just yank a camera feature that wasn’t popular?

It’s a mystery. Night mode isn’t available in Portrait Mode on the iPhone 17 Pro, and no one seems to know why. Yet.

Night mode automatically brightens photos and captures more details, even in low-light conditions. You can adjust the exposure time manually. In Portrait mode, the camera focuses sharply on the subject you’re snapping and blurs the background, creating a depth-of-field effect.

The first clue that Night mode for Portrait mode was gone came from an Apple support document titled Take Night mode photos with your iPhone camera. It states what many iPhone aficionados already know: «Night mode automatically brightens photos and captures more detail in low light.»

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Night mode for the iPhone 17 Pro is listed in two separate parts of the iPhone online user guide (here and also here) for selfies and time-lapse photos. But it isn’t included on the guide’s list for snapping Night mode photos in Portrait mode. The feature is still available on iPhone Pro and Pro Max on the 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 series.

Upon investigation, CNET staffers verified that, indeed, Night mode is no longer an option in Portrait mode with the iPhone 17 Pro.

An Apple representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

When the iPhone 17 Pro was launched in September, Andrew Lanxon, CNET’s lead photographer in Europe, was impressed by the camera upgrades over the iPhone 16 Pro, including optical zoom that doubled to 8x, a telephoto camera sensor 56% larger than before and 48 megapixels of resolution.

Lanxon, a professional photographer and YouTuber, was excited to get shooting with the iPhone 17 Pro. But apparently, he will have to do without Night mode in Portrait mode.

Why did Apple do it?

Why was Night mode removed? «There doesn’t appear to be a hardware reason for it,» said CNET senior writer Jeff Carlson. «The Lidar camera that helps with low-light focusing and depth perception is still there. Perhaps it’s a software issue, but as of the iOS 26.2 release candidate, the feature isn’t present.»

Carlson found it curious that it’s taken three months since the launch of the new pro model before people noticed that it’s missing. He speculates that the feature was possibly removed because it «wasn’t being used and Apple could devote other processing resources elsewhere,» he said. «Perhaps something broke in the development of the new operating system and revamped Camera app, and it hasn’t been a high enough priority to fix in the regular release schedule.

«People have gotten used to having iPhone models that enable shots that are otherwise difficult for smartphone cameras, especially on a flagship like the iPhone 17 Pro,» Carlson said. «I hope the feature returns to give everyone the most control over the photos they capture.»

One parallel might be what Samsung did earlier this year — removing S Pen Bluetooth connectivity on the new S25 Ultra. Samsung said they removed the feature because not many people were using it. Is Apple doing the same thing with Night mode for portraits?

Some people miss it, some don’t

A subreddit on the topic appeared to be a mix of «who cares» and «oh darn.» Redditor kaoss_pad was «low key happy» that the feature had vanished, saying that «it would often surprise me and activate when I didn’t want it and ruin a moment.»

Some Redditors weren’t even aware of the feature. CultofCedar posted, «lol didn’t even notice that wasn’t a thing,» and Successful-Cover5433 wrote, «I didn’t even know you could.»

A couple of folks weren’t happy about the mysterious disappearance, including nsfdrag, who posted, «Kind of a bummer, I like the feature.»