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OnePlus 11 Review: It Works Hard to Earn Its Flagship Title

We reviewed the OnePlus 11 over three weeks. In our tests, the new flagship was powerful, but not perfect.

The OnePlus 11 is the company’s first true flagship to launch in 2023 and it offers plenty to get excited about. From its slick refreshed design, to its hyper-powerful processor and fast charging skills, this phone works hard to earn its flagship title.

But it’s not a massive overhaul from last year’s already excellent OnePlus 10 Pro. It’s similar in design, it’s got a hefty (arguably redundant) boost in power and the new camera setup, while good, isn’t a big leap forward. If you were hoping to see a radical new OnePlus phone, you may be disappointed. Owners of recent OnePlus devices shouldn’t consider upgrading.

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OnePlus 11

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Like

  • Incredible performance for gaming
  • Slick, refreshed design
  • Hyper-fast charging
  • Five years of security support

Don’t Like

  • Cameras are good but not great
  • Better waterproofing on rivals

Price is certainly on its side. The $699 OnePlus 11 base model ( 729 or roughly AU$1,270) comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Even the higher-end review model I tested, with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, will only set you back $799 ( 799), undercutting its rivals by a decent chunk. The phone’s biggest competition comes from the superb Google Pixel 7 Pro, which at $899 isn’t a big step up in cost (it’s $999 for the equivalent 256GB model, although there’s no boost in power with the extra storage here).

The Pixel 7 Pro was one of our favorite phones of 2022, earning a coveted CNET Editors’ Choice award when it launched in October thanks to its superb cameras, slick interface and attractive design. It’s an amazing phone, and one of my favorite ways to experience Android 13.

Where the OnePlus 11 excels is in its raw power, offering blistering speeds for gaming and heavy multitasking. It charges quicker than Google’s phones, too. The Pixel’s Tensor G2 processor isn’t built for straight-line speed, but still handles anything you’ll find in the Play Store. The Pixel’s pure Android 13 software is clutter-free, and the cameras generally perform better — especially with the addition of the 5x optical zoom lens, which the OnePlus lacks.

Then there’s the new Samsung Galaxy S23, which starts at $800 and comes with a 6.1-inch display, a triple-camera setup, 8GB of RAM and the latest Qualcomm 8 Gen 2 processor. It’s the same chip you’ll find in the OnePlus 11, though it’s been customized for Samsung. With the S23 range going on sale on Feb. 17, we’ll have to wait and see how the new Samsung and OnePlus’ phones stack up against each other.

OnePlus 11: A refreshed design, now with added waterproofing

OnePlus’ flagship has arrived in 2023 with a fresh look, swapping out the square camera unit of the 10 Pro for a circular one, fringed with metal that curves gracefully to meet the edge of the phone. My review model’s green tone looks both stylish and smart, while the curving glass on both the front and back makes it satisfying to hold.

I love the phone’s look. It manages to appear different from its predecessors, while still looking familiar enough to feel part of the same family. The glass is toughened Gorilla Glass, so don’t worry too much about shattering it. The new phone one-ups the 10 Pro by coming with an IP64 rating for protection against water. The lack of waterproofing on most versions of the 10 Pro was annoying as it’s something we’ve come to expect on all flagships. So, it’s good to see more official protection here.

Read more: How Waterproof Is My Phone? IP Ratings Explained

That said, IP64 only offers mild protection against water splashes while rivals — including the Pixel 7 Pro, iPhone 14 range and Galaxy S23 range — all have IP68 ratings which protect them from actual submersion in water for at least 30 minutes. IP64 is better than nothing though and will certainly help keep your phone safe when you take calls in the rain.

At 6.7 inches, the display is sizable enough to do justice to mobile games, while its maximum 3,216×1,440-pixel resolution makes everything look nice and crisp (you can opt for a lower resolution to help eke out the battery life). It’s a SuperAMOLED panel that supports Dolby Vision HDR and HDR 10 Plus, meaning it’s bright, bold and capable of properly showing off compatible HDR content.

Its adaptive frame rate can shoot up to 120Hz to provide a smooth experience for high-intensity tasks like gaming, but can dynamically drop to only 1Hz to save power for less demanding tasks like web browsing or showing the always-on display.

There’s an in-display fingerprint scanner, which works well. Longtime OnePlus fans will be pleased to see the alert slider on the right of the phone, which lets you instantly set the phone to silent or vibrate. The slider was notably absent on last year’s OnePlus 10T.

OnePlus 11: Potent power

Powering the phone is the aforementioned Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, backed up by a meaty 16GB of RAM (on my review model). It’s a potent chip that put in some seriously impressive scores on our suite of benchmark tests, landing it comfortably among the most powerful phones around.

Benchmarks don’t mean everything, of course, but rest assured that this phone will handle anything you care to throw at it. Its graphics performance is particularly strong. Demanding games like Genshin Impact, PUBG Mobile and Asphalt 9: Legends (all at max resolution) displayed at consistently high frame rates for smooth gameplay.

OnePlus touts the phone’s «optimized RAM allocation,» «hardware-accelerated ray tracing» in games and «best in class» lighting and illumination effects, which is all well and good, but there aren’t any games available on Android yet that support things like ray tracing. It’s like having a car capable of driving on MagLev tracks — amazing technology, sure, but no way of actually putting it to use just yet.

In the real world, all that power means the phone is swift to use. Simply navigating around the Android interface is fast, smooth and free of the lag or stutters that might signal poorly configured hardware. There’s little that can slow it down. It handled video streaming and photo editing perfectly well.

That swift experience is helped by the phone’s Oxygen 13 OS software. Based on Android 13, Oxygen OS is a lightweight Android skin with a clean look that’s easy to use. I liked it straight out-of-the-box, but you can customize the system fonts and the always-on display to give it a more personal touch.

OnePlus extended its support period to four years for Android updates and an additional fifth year for security updates. That’s the longest the company has ever supported a phone for and means that the OnePlus 11 will still be safe to use five years from now.

OnePlus 11: Cameras that could do better

There are three main cameras on the back of the OnePlus 11; a 50-megapixel main camera with an f/1.8 lens and optical image stabilization, a 48-megapixel ultra-wide camera with close focusing macro capabilities and a 32-megapixel portrait camera with a 2x optical zoom. It’s a fairly predictable triple-camera setup, but that portrait camera disappoints me.

That 2x zoom is a step down from the 3.3x zoom seen on the OnePlus 10 Pro and a big step down from the 5x telephoto zoom on the Pixel 7 Pro. Zoom skills might not seem like the most important feature, but if you want to take great images in any environment, a powerful zoom can be an invaluable tool.

Instead of using a wide lens and simply capturing everything in front of you in one image, a long zoom lens lets you find more interesting compositions within those scenes by cropping out distracting road signs, cars or crowds of people. A telephoto lens is typically part of any professional photographer’s kit bag (including my own) and I absolutely love using the zoom on the Pixel 7 Pro — and the whopping 10x optical zoom on the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. Even the 3x on the iPhone 14 Pro gives me more room to work with.

Not having a proper telephoto lens on the OnePlus 11 feels like I have to make compromises in my photography that I wouldn’t with other phones. It’s not as fully rounded of a photography package as a result.

OnePlus has again partnered with iconic camera maker Hasselblad, which has apparently calibrated the camera for better colors. However, I’m not sure it’s doing either company much good as the results are hit-and-miss. While some shots look true-to-life, with punchy colors and pleasing contrast, others look oversaturated, with heavy-handed HDR processing that lifts shadows and tones down highlights to an unrealistic degree.

Taken with the main camera, this image above is beautifully exposed, with warm colors and plenty of detail.

This shot above of a ruined cottage deep in the forest is vibrant and pin-sharp. It’s a great snap all-round.

The close-up shot above is absolutely packed with detail and the colors look spot-on. Nice work, OnePlus.

Vibrant blue sky, lovely detail on the building to the left and a lovely flash of color from the rainbow. The phone has captured this scene above well.

This scene doesn’t impress me though. The phone’s software has really gone hard on the HDR processing, lifting the shadows here to such an extent that the shot above looks unrealistic.

Taken on the iPhone 14 Pro, this comparison image above is darker, but the deeper shadows against that bright blue sky are much more realistic and this shot looks much more natural as a result.

The OnePlus 11’s main camera has again lifted the shadows quite a lot in the snap above. The sky has more of a teal tone to it, which doesn’t reflect reality.

The Pixel 7 Pro’s shot above has a deeper contrast and more natural color tones both on the buildings and in the sky.

Switching to the ultrawide camera, the OnePlus 11’s heavy-handed auto HDR resulted in the image above where the sky looks almost fake against the buildings. There’s also a noticeable color shift between the OnePlus 11’s main camera and ultrawide — a detail I’d noticed on the OnePlus 10 Pro, too.

By not reducing the brightness in the sky to the same extent, the Pixel 7 Pro’s shot above looks more authentic.

Using the macro mode on the ultrawide lens, the OnePlus 11 has delivered a great close-up shot above. I love the rich, vibrant green tones.

By comparison, the iPhone 14 Pro’s macro mode has produced the shot above where the green tones are quite washed out and yellow-ish. I don’t like it as much.

The OnePlus 11 Pro lacks the zoom prowess of some of its competitors, but its 2x lens does allow for decent portrait shots. The colors in the image above are a little cold, and there’s not a ton of detail on my face. But the blur effect is nice.

The iPhone 14 Pro’s 3x portrait mode has resulted in a closer-up portrait (it was shot from the same position), and I think there’s better background blur (known as bokeh) here. The details on my face are sharper too, and although the color tones give a warmer look to the image above. It’s a strong yellow effect that I don’t like any more than the cold look of the OnePlus 11’s shot.

There’s no question, though, that I’d miss having a larger zoom. Above is an image from the 2x zoom lens on the OnePlus 11.

The 5x optical zoom of the Pixel 7 Pro lets you get creative zoomed-in shots, like above, that are out of reach for the OnePlus.

As part of the Hasselblad partnership, the phone comes with a variety of color presets created by Hasselblad ‘Master’ photographers. Take a look above. I don’t really like them and would much prefer to simply edit images my own way using any of the very good photo editing apps on the Google Play store.

At night the camera performs very well however. I was impressed at the brightness it was able to achieve, delivering brighter images (see above) than even the iPhone 14 Pro, albeit with less detail.

The iPhone 14 Pro’s night mode shot above has a touch more detail on some of the distant buildings, but it’s not as bright as the shot from the OnePlus.

It’s brighter than night mode shots from the Pixel 7 Pro, too. See above.

It’ll shoot video at up to 8K resolution, but its standard 4K footage will be plenty for most, offering HDR footage that helps keep bright skies under control. Colors look good in videos and while the optical image stabilization helps smooth out shaky hands, it can result in upright objects in your footage (trees, for example) appearing wobbly as the sensor tries to correct the movement. Check out the video below for some clips recorded on the OnePlus 11.

The camera can take some great shots overall. If photography isn’t a huge focus for you, and you just want crisp, vibrant shots of your friends or your kids at the beach then you’ll be well served by the OnePlus 11 — particularly if you like taking photos at night. If you’re looking for a more well-rounded photography experience then look toward the Pixel 7 Pro.

OnePlus 11: Solid battery and fast charging

The phone runs on a 5,000mAh battery that’s capable of getting you through a full day of use, as long as you’re reasonably careful in how you use it. With the display set to its maximum 3,216×1,440-pixel resolution, at 120Hz refresh rate and with screen brightness on max, the battery dropped from full to 92% remaining after 1 hour of streaming a YouTube video. After the second hour it had dropped to only 85% remaining, which isn’t a great performance.

With the resolution dropped to 2,412×1,080 pixels and the refresh rate at a maximum of 60Hz, it didn’t even drop below 100% after an hour of YouTube streaming and only dropped to 95% after a second hour — not bad at all. But 30 minutes of gaming in Genshin Impact with all settings on max comfortably knocked 10% off the battery.

With more conservative settings you won’t need to worry too much about your phone dropping dead halfway through the afternoon, and you should still have plenty of juice remaining when you put it on charge at night. Demanding gamers can ramp up the settings when you want to enjoy every last detail, but make sure you’ve got your charger nearby.

Thankfully, even if you do drain the battery with gaming or YouTube streaming, getting the juice back in is a speedy process. The phone supports 100-watt fast charging in the UK (80W in the US) which will fill the battery from empty in only 25 minutes — or 27 minutes on the 80W model. That’s quicker than the 1 to 2 hours you can expect a full recharge of the Pixel 7 Pro to take.

OnePlus 11: Should you buy it?

If you’re looking for a high-performance phone to tackle gaming, video streaming and all of life’s essentials, the OnePlus 11 is an excellent phone to consider. It’s got power enough to tackle anything in the Google Play store, it looks great and its fast-charging means that battery life isn’t an issue. The five years of security support is a nice bonus, too.

And while the camera setup is far from the best around, it’s perfectly capable of taking shots of your kids on holiday you’ll be excited to share with your wider family and friends.

But it’s the price that stands out here, being one of the cheapest flagships you can buy, undercutting both the Pixel 7 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S23. If photography isn’t your top priority but you do want ultimate performance for gaming on the go, the OnePlus 11 is certainly worth your time.

How we test phones

Every phone tested by CNET’s reviews team is actually used in the real world. We test a phone’s features, play games and take photos. We examine the display to see if it’s bright, sharp and vibrant. We analyze the design and build to see how it is to hold and whether it has an IP-rating for water resistance. We push the processor’s performance to the extremes using both standardized benchmark tools like GeekBench and 3DMark, along with our own anecdotal observations navigating the interface, recording high-resolution videos and playing graphically intense games at high refresh rates.

All the cameras are tested in a variety of conditions from bright sunlight to dark indoor scenes. We try out special features like night mode and portrait mode and compare our findings against similarly priced competing phones. We also check out the battery life by using it daily as well as running a series of battery drain tests.

Technologies

These Continuous Glucose Monitors Have Been Recalled Due to Faulty Speakers. What You Need to Do to Stay Safe

There have been 56 serious injuries reported related to this Class I recall. If you use Dexcom’s continuous glucose monitoring systems, this is what you need to know.

Dexcom customers, listen up: Certain continuous glucose monitoring receivers have been recalled due to speaker malfunctions, which can cause you to miss alerts or alarms for dangerous blood sugar levels. Since May 2025, there have been 112 complaints globally, with 56 reported injuries. 

Missing an alert from your continuous glucose monitor may result in health consequences like vomiting, seizures, loss of consciousness and hypoglycemic or hyperglycemic symptoms. 

Certain Dexcom G6, G7, One and One Plus receivers are included in this recall. The One and One Plus receivers are available outside of the US. 

Dexcom is one of the most popular continuous glucose monitor brands, and many people with diabetes use Dexcom devices to track their glucose levels in real time.

According to Dexcom’s update, even without the audio output from the speaker, your receiver will still alert you through vibration and visual prompts. However, that’s only so helpful when many people keep their receivers in their pockets or bags. People who use the mobile app for glucose values, alerts and alarms will still be able to do so without interruption.

What you should do right now

A continuous glucose monitoring system has three parts: the glucose sensor you wear, a transmitter and the small receiver you keep for alerts. The receiver is being recalled, not the sensor you wear, so you shouldn’t expect the readings you get from your device to be inaccurate.

If you use a Dexcom continuous glucose monitor, check the complete list of affected devices for the model and serial number. You can also go to Dexcom’s website to see if your device is affected. These numbers are on the back of your receiver.

If your device is affected, contact Dexcom immediately for a free replacement. Continuous glucose monitors aren’t something you can just stop using, so it’s essential to get in your replacement order as soon as possible. Remember, while you wait, that there’s a chance your receiver speaker isn’t working correctly and you will not be alerted with a sound to spikes or drops in your blood sugar.

You should regularly test the speakers each time you charge your receiver. When you plug the receiver in, the Speaker Test screen will appear for a few seconds. To test your sound, follow the directions on the screen. If it doesn’t beep, then it’s time to contact Dexcom. Remember that it’s important to continue testing your speaker over time. Checking it once doesn’t mean it can’t fail in the future. Even if your device isn’t under recall, this is a good habit to have.

You can also test your receiver’s speaker at any time through the device’s menu. For support during this recall, contact Dexcom technical support at 1-844-478-1600.

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Technologies

Tariff Inflation Is Looking Real, So I’m Tracking 11 Key Products for Price Moves

A new report found inflation on the rise in June, another indicator of the affect Donald Trump’s tariffs are having on the US economy.

Throughout the second Trump administration, tariffs have become the defining aspect of the president’s economic agenda, and while they might have been an obscure subject before, now consumers and businesses alike are worrying: will they cause prices to increase? It’s a question more relevant than ever, as President Donald Trump punts another major deadline down the road and a new Consumer Price Index summary showing that inflation was 2.7% in June, the biggest jump since February.

Amid those worries, I’ve been tracking prices every day for 11 key products likely to be hit by tariff-induced price increases, and the answer I’ve come to so far is this: Not so much, at least not yet. The winding road of tariff inflation still stretches before us into an uncertain future, so the threat of price hikes continues to cloud the horizon.

To date, I’ve seen two noteworthy price increases, one for the Xbox Series X and the other for a popular budget-friendly 4K TV. Some other products — including Apple’s popular AirPods — have gone on sale for brief periods. 

CNET Tariff Tracker Index

Above, you can check out a chart with the average price of the 11 products included in this piece over the course of 2025. This will help give you a sense of the overall price changes and fluctuations going on. Further down, you’ll be able to check out charts for each individual product being tracked. Based on the numbers so far, the average has gone up noticeably since the start of the year, but this has been driven mostly be a big shifts for a few products, as most price are still stable.

We’ll be updating this article regularly as prices change. It’s all in the name of helping you make sense of things, so be sure to check back every so often. For more, check out CNET’s guide to whether you should wait to make big purchases or buy them now and get expert tips about how to prepare for a recession.

Methodology

We’re checking prices daily and will update the article and the relevant charts right away to reflect any changes. The following charts show a single bullet point for each month, with the most recent one labeled «Now» and showing the current price. For the past months, we’ve gone with what was the most common price for each item in the given month. 

In most cases, the price stats used in these graphs were pulled from Amazon using the historical price-tracker tool Keepa. For the iPhones, the prices come from Apple’s official materials and are based on the 128-gigabyte base model of the latest offering of the iPhone 16. For the Xbox Series X, the prices were sourced from Best Buy using the tool PriceTracker. If any of these products happen to be on sale at a given time, we’ll be sure to let you know and explain how those price drops differ from longer-term pricing trends that tariffs can cause.

The 11 products we’re tracking

Mostly what we’re tracking in this article are electronic devices and digital items that CNET covers in depth, like iPhones and affordable 4K TVs — along with a typical bag of coffee, a more humble product that isn’t produced in the US to any significant degree. 

The products featured were chosen for a few reasons: Some of them are popular and/or affordable representatives for major consumer tech categories, like smartphones, TVs and game consoles. Others are meant to represent things that consumers might buy more frequently, like printer ink or coffee beans. Some products were chosen over others because they are likely more susceptible to tariffs. Some of these products have been reviewed by CNET or have been featured in some of our best lists.

Below, we’ll get into more about each individual product, and stick around till the end for a rundown of some other products worth noting.

iPhone 16

The iPhone is the most popular smartphone brand in the US, so this was a clear priority for price tracking. The iPhone has also emerged as a major focal point for conversations about tariffs, given its popularity and its susceptibility to import taxes because of its overseas production, largely in China. Trump has reportedly been fixated on the idea that the iPhone can and should be manufactured in the US, an idea that experts have dismissed as a fantasy. Estimates have also suggested that a US-made iPhone would cost as much as $3,500.

Something to note about this graph: The price listed is the one you’ll see if you buy your phone through a major carrier. If you, say, buy direct from Apple or Best Buy without a carrier involved, you’ll be charged an extra $30, so in some places, you might see the list price of the standard iPhone 16 listed as $830.

Apple’s been taking a few steps to protect its prices in the face of these tariffs, flying in bulk shipments of product before they took effect and planning to move production for the US market from China to India. A new Reuters report found that a staggering 97% of iPhones imported from the latter country, March through May, were bound for the US. This latter move drew the anger of Trump again, threatening the company with a 25% tariff if they didn’t move production to the US, an idea CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly shot down in the past. This came after Trump gave a tariff exemption to electronic devices including smartphones, so the future of that move seems in doubt now.

Duracell AA batteries

A lot of the tech products in your home might boast a rechargeable energy source but individual batteries are still an everyday essential and I can tell you from experience that as soon as you forget about them, you’ll be needing to restock. The Duracell AAs we’re tracking are some of the bestselling batteries on Amazon.

Samsung DU7200 TV

Alongside smartphones, televisions are some of the most popular tech products out there, even if they’re an infrequent purchase. This particular product is a popular entry-level 4K TV and was CNET’s pick for best overall budget TV for 2025. Unlike a lot of tech products that have key supply lines in China, Samsung is a South Korean company, so it might have some measure of tariff resistance. 

After spending most of 2025 hovering around $400, this item has now seen some notable upticks on Amazon, most recently sitting around $450. This could potentially be in reaction to Trump’s announcement of 25% tariffs against South Korea this week.

Xbox Series X

Video game software and hardware are a market segment expected to be hit hard by the Trump tariffs. Microsoft’s Xbox is the first console brand to see price hikes — the company cited «market conditions» along with the rising cost of development. Most notably, this included an increase in the price of the flagship Xbox Series X, up from $500 to $600. Numerous Xbox accessories also were affected and the company also said that «certain» games will eventually see a price hike from $70 to $80.

Initially, we were tracking the price of the much more popular Nintendo Switch as a representative of the gaming market. Nintendo has not yet hiked the price of its handheld-console hybrid and stressed that the $450 price tag of the upcoming Switch 2 has not yet been inflated because of tariffs. Sony, meanwhile, has so far only increased prices on its PlayStation hardware in markets outside the US.

AirPods Pro 2

The latest iteration of Apple’s wildly popular true-wireless earbuds are here to represent the headphone market. Much to the chagrin of the audiophiles out there, a quick look at sales charts on Amazon shows you just how much the brand dominates all headphone sales. While Prime Day might be in the rearview mirror at this point, you can grab a pair of these earbuds for $169, a $30 discount from where they’ve been most of the year.

HP 962 CMY printer ink

This HP printer ink includes cyan, magenta and yellow all in one product and recently saw its price jump from around $72 — where it stayed for most of 2025 — to $80, which is around its highest price over the last five years. We will be keeping tabs to see if this is a long-term change or a brief uptick. 

This product replaced Overture PLA Filament for 3D printers in this piece, but we’re still tracking that item.

Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank

Anker’s accessories are perennially popular in the tech space and the company has already announced that some of its products will get more expensive as a direct result of tariffs. This specific product has also been featured in some of CNET’s lists of the best portable chargers. 

Bose TV speaker

Soundbars have become important purchases, given the often iffy quality of the speakers built into TVs. While not the biggest or the best offering in the space, the Bose TV Speaker is one of the more affordable soundbar options out there, especially hailing from a brand as popular as Bose. 

Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush

They might be a lot more expensive than their traditional counterparts but electric toothbrushes remain a popular choice for consumers because of how well they get the job done. I know my dentist won’t let up on how much I need one. This particular Oral-B offering was CNET’s overall choice for the best electric toothbrush for 2025.

This product hasn’t seen its price budge one way or another most of the year, but while Prime Day might have come and gone, there’s still a $10 coupon listed on Amazon right now, letting you save a little bit of money for the time being.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook

Lenovo is notable among the big laptop manufacturers for being a Chinese company making its products especially susceptible to Trump’s tariffs.

For now, its price has been largely unchanged in the last few months. You can, however, grab it on Amazon right now at a $20 discount, but we’ll have to see how long that actually lasts.

Starbucks Ground Coffee (28-ounce bag)

Coffee is included in this tracker because of its ubiquity —I’m certainly drinking too much of it these days —and because it’s uniquely susceptible to Trump’s tariff agenda. Famously, coffee beans can only be grown within a certain distance from Earth’s equator, a tropical span largely outside the US and known as the «Coffee Belt.» 

Hawaii is the only part of the US that can produce coffee beans, with data from USAFacts showing that 11.5 million pounds were harvested there in the 2022-23 season — little more than a drop in the mug, as the US consumed 282 times that amount of coffee during that period. Making matters worse, Hawaiian coffee production has declined in the past few years.

All that to say: Americans get almost all of their coffee from overseas, making it one of the most likely products to see price hikes from tariffs. While this particular bag of beans from Starbucks hasn’t seen its price budge for most of the year, in recent days it ticked up by less than a dollar on Amazon, which could be a sign of further increases to come.

Other products

As mentioned, we occasionally swap out products with different ones that undergo notable price shifts. Here are some things no longer featured above, but that we’re still keeping an eye on:

  • Nintendo Switch: The baseline handheld-console hybrid has held steady around $299 most places — including Amazon — since it released in 2017. Whether that price will be affected by tariffs or the release of the Switch 2 remains to be seen. This product was replaced above with the Xbox Series X.
  • Overture PLA 3D printer filament: This is a popular choice on Amazon for the material needed to run 3D printers. It has held steady around $15 on Amazon all year. This product was replaced above by the HP 962 printer ink.

Here are some products we also wanted to single out that haven’t been featured with a graph yet:

  • Razer Blade 18 (2025), 5070 Ti edition: The latest revision of Razer’s largest gaming laptop saw a $300 price bump recently, with the base model featured an RTX 5070 Ti graphics card now priced at $3,500 ahead of launch, compared to the $3,200 price announced in February. While Razer has stayed mum about the reasoning, it did previously suspend direct sales to the US as Trump’s tariff plans were ramping up in April.
  • Asus ROG Ally X: The premium version of Asus’s Steam Deck competitor handheld gaming PC recently saw a price hike from $799 to $899, coinciding with the announcement of the company’s upcoming Xbox-branded Ally handhelds.
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Technologies

Donkey Kong Bananza Review: Like Mario And Zelda Smashed Together on Switch 2

DK is turning the Switch 2 into a must-have right out of the gate.

Summers are about big, fun, mind-numbing movies. Great escapes in the best of ways. I need that right now, and maybe you do too. I’m happy to say that Donkey Kong Bananza is here to whisk you off to multilevel worlds of satisfyingly smashing madness, to cheer you up and give you an excuse to punch the heck out of things. It’s a game my 12-year-old son has loved playing along with me, although I’ve had to find ways to wrestle the game back to play for myself.

I was wowed by Bananza during an early preview a few weeks ago, but after a few weeks of play at home, it’s even better. This is my favorite Switch game since… I have no idea when. Maybe since Super Mario Odyssey.

The catch is that you need the new Nintendo Switch 2 console to play it. Donkey Kong Bananza won’t work on the original Switch — or on any other gaming device. Of course, that’s the whole idea.

Nintendo needed home run games for its new Switch 2 console, and it hit a grand slam with the new Donkey Kong. I still haven’t finished the game, but I already know it’s the best reason to buy a Switch 2 yet. 

Donkey Kong Bananza is available for $70 from Nintendo.com and other retailers. We’re also keeping track of Nintendo Switch 2 restocks if you’re still seeking a console.

Smashing story with co-op options

In a lot of ways, Bananza feels like Zelda and Mario met in the middle. 

The story’s weird, but what Mario (or Nintendo) game isn’t? Donkey Kong’s world has been threatened by a sinister bunch of apes, after a large meteor knocks a mining company deep into the planet’s core. The adventure involves diving down into those sublevels — it’s Donkey Kong Hollow Earth, or Journey to the Center of the Kongiverse. The big difference in this game is that you can destroy just about anything, burrowing and tunneling throughout the game’s large 3D maps.

Technically, this isn’t a true collaborative co-op game, but there’s a mode where Pauline — a young girl who mysteriously fell from the sky and becomes Donkey Kong’s friend — can throw her voice, literally, at things to destroy them. A second player takes over as Pauline and aims and shoots words at enemies, and can absorb material powers from nearby rocks and objects. It’s more engaging than the hat-throwing co-op in Odyssey. 

You can Game Share Bananza with a local Switch 2 or Switch 1 in co-op mode to play on two screens, or just play on one. For this review, I wasn’t allowed to Game Share to a second Switch.

The Mario mojo

Bananza is made by the Super Mario Odyssey team, and its 3D platforming feels like a Mario sequel. You can wander through large but still self-contained sublevels that remind me of the Kingdoms in Super Mario Odyssey. As you descend to new levels, the characters you meet and the level’s game mechanics shift up a bit. The levels aren’t as drastically different or quite as weirdly whimsical as the ones in Odyssey, but they feel a lot busier.

Jumping and punching are the main ways to control things, but there are plenty of other moves. There’s also a skill tree of abilities to unlock and power up, which uses points you accumulate by collecting giant, crystal bananas (just go with it). Donkey Kong can also buy new outfits, much like Mario Odyssey, but these outfits (or pieces of outfits) give extra perks, like cold resistance or faster energy recovery.

Each of the levels has goals and sub-bosses to fight, but also secret subchallenges to discover — some of them 3D, some 2D side-scrolling. There are other things to find, in every direction, on any potential hillside or surface, if you just pummel your fists and dig. The free-digging usually involves either finding more crystal bananas or various-sized fossils, which can be collected and redeemed for costumes. There’s gold to accumulate, too, which acts as general currency. But even as I rush to the next goal on any level, I’m equally tempted to just start digging around and see what’s going on somewhere else.

The Zelda zeitgeist

Here’s where Bananza really starts to feel like a lower-key Zelda game, especially when it comes to finding characters and following sub-missions. You can talk to lots of the strange characters in each sublevel, and some share important news. You’ll get directed to a particular goal, and on a 3D map, you can track your progress or warp to other spots. But as the game’s progress starts to wind up and down through sublevels, it begins to feel a lot more quest-y than any Mario game. 

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom kept coming to mind for me. That game’s vast overworld and underworld — and its various ways of finding passages between — is very much like Bananza. Also, like recent Zelda games, you can climb just about anywhere (or surf chunks of rock you rip out of the ground). The outfit perks feel Zelda-like, and so does the game’s sense of real-time, chaotic physics. Some puzzles involve understanding the environment and manipulating it, much like I did many times in Tears.

There’s also a sense of persistence in Bananza. You can create little home bases that let you rest up and change outfits. You’ll meander off and come back to locations. Mario Odyssey had some of this too, but Bananza feels more lived in.

Unlike recent Zeldas, though, this game’s challenges are relatively contained. You won’t have long lists of subquests or stories to lose track of. After spending months away from Zelda, and coming back not remembering what I was meant to do next, I appreciate Bananza’s simpler vibe.

A whole new yet familiar feel

Most importantly, Bananza just feels fresh. I get a little tired, sometimes, of diving back into new Zeldas and Marios that layer legends on top of legends. Donkey Kong’s universe is different from previous Kong games, especially the giant, wrinkled Elders who preside over subworlds like spirits, granting extra transformation powers. This is where the «Bananza» name comes in.

Accumulating enough gold triggers a chance to become a spirit animal. There’s a Bananza version of Kong that has stronger punches, an ostrich that can fly and drop egg bombs, and a zebra that can run fast over ice and water. (I haven’t unlocked any others yet.) 

After a week-plus of playing, I’m still consistently surprised by what I’m encountering. But I’m also finding it familiar and comfortable, just like a big summer movie. And that’s what this is: Nintendo’s big blockbuster summer game, one of the best I can remember. Something I don’t want to end, and I’m glad to have more to explore.

I’m also surprised by other things: there’s no online mode, which I don’t mind but feels surprising after Super Mario Wonder’s clever additions. The game download size is only 8GB, shockingly small compared to Switch 2 launch games like Cyberpunk 2077, which were nearly 60GB. I was getting worried about how much storage space I’d have on the Switch 2 over time, but if more games are like Bananza, things will be OK.

My youngest son was instantly interested in Bananza, so much so that he didn’t want me playing without him. I had to, though, so I could carve enough time out to play. We’re going to backtrack and play again, and he’ll start playing, too. Will Bananza feel as replayable and infinitely fun as many of Nintendo’s best? I can’t entirely tell yet, but there’s already so much I’ve skipped over in so many levels, I don’t doubt it. There’s also a 3D art mode thrown in as a bonus where you use the Joy-Cons to sculpt and paint ape heads and bunches of bananas.

Donkey Kong makes it worth buying a Switch 2

Bananza is a great sign for where Nintendo’s heading with the Switch 2. It feels like a more evolved version of many Switch games of the past, but just like Mario Kart World, the other major Switch 2 exclusive, it takes the good ideas even further. Bananza is also an extension of Nintendo’s universe, including the Super Mario Movie, which has a Donkey Kong that looks like this one, and Super Nintendo World, which has a Donkey Kong land, too. And yes, Super Nintendo World’s Donkey Kong Power-Up bands even work like Amiibo with this game. 

This is a game as vibrant and kinetic as Sony’s fantastic Astro Bot and similarly full of things to search for and do. In comparison, Super Mario Odyssey now seems surprisingly quiet and chill. 

And yes, this game is worth getting a Switch 2 for — that was the idea all along. It’s nice to see that Nintendo really pulled it off, though. Combined with Mario Kart World, this is a heck of a one-two punch. I’d still love a proper 3D Mario sequel someday, but Bananza is practically that right now.

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