Technologies

OnePlus 11 vs. Pixel 7 Pro: Testing the Cameras on Both High-End Phones

The newest OnePlus and Google Pixel phones each have triple camera setups. We tested both to figure out which is the best at taking pictures.

The OnePlus 11 is a powerful Android phone with a slick new design and great extras like hyperfast charging. But these days, a good phone also has to take good pictures. The OnePlus 11’s triple camera array takes high-quality shots, which you can read more about in the full review for the OnePlus 11. But I also wanted to see how it stacks up against its main rival, the Google Pixel 7 Pro.

The Pixel 7 Pro earned a coveted CNET Editors’ Choice award last year because of its specs and superb camera, so I knew it was going to be a fun «shoot-out» to determine which one captures the better photos.

I charged both handsets up and headed off around beautiful Edinburgh, Scotland, to see what’s what.

The OnePlus 11’s shot above is certainly more vibrant than the image from the Pixel 7 Pro, but it looks oversaturated, with quite a teal tone to the sky. As a result, the OnePlus image looks less natural. It’s something I found generally with the OnePlus 11 camera in testing it for my review.

Switching to the ultra-wide lens, the OnePlus 11 has again produced a more vibrant shot (see above). It’s not that it’s a bad photo — if you want bright, punchy shots of your friends having fun, it’ll suit you well. But it’s worth keeping in mind if you prefer more natural-looking shots like the one from the Pixel.

Both phones captured bright and well-exposed scenes in the photos above. But the HDR on the OnePlus 11 is too aggressive in lifting the shadows, resulting in quite a «processed» look. It’s again produced a blue sky that leans more into teal tones, while the Pixel 7 Pro’s shot looks more true-to-life overall.

Take a look above where it’s exactly the same story when we switch to the ultra-wide lens; overly lifted shadows and toned down highlights resulting in quite an HDR look to the image, to my eye.

I don’t feel the OnePlus 11 has done great in the photo above either, but mostly due to the color balance which has resulted in quite a teal-colored sky and a yellow-green tinge to the buildings on the left.

One of the things I found most disappointing in my OnePlus 11 review is that it lacks a proper telephoto zoom lens, instead having just a 2x zoom for portrait shots. I love a zoom lens on a phone as it allows you to find interesting compositions in your surroundings that might be lost to your friends and their wide-angle-only phone cameras. In the photo above, the OnePlus 11’s 2x lens only goes so far in getting a closer-up view of the buildings against the river.

With its 5x optical zoom, the Pixel 7 Pro can get a much closer view. Check out the Pixel’s photo above. I always enjoy taking photos with the Pixel’s zoom lens as I feel I can get a lot more creative with the zoom than I can with just a wide-angle lens.

Where the OnePlus 11 excels though is in its night mode photos.

The OnePlus 11 has achieved a brighter image above, which is especially noticeable on the main building in the center of the frame. I think the colors look better too, and there’s generally more detail to be seen throughout the image.

And it’s the same in the photos above. The OnePlus 11 captured a much brighter shot, with clouds in the night sky being particularly noticeable.

Both images above suffer from significant flares when shooting toward bright light sources, but most phones tend to have this problem. It’s not really any worse on either phone, so it’s just something you’ll need to keep in mind when shooting at night.

Which is the better camera phone?

Throughout my testing, I’ve found that the OnePlus 11 quite consistently delivers shots that are highly saturated and show heavy-handed HDR processing that lifts shadows and tones down highlights to a sometimes unrealistic extent. By contrast, the Pixel 7 Pro’s images are more true to life, with accurate colors and more satisfying shadow areas that haven’t been ‘fixed’ (read: lightened) by the camera software.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that this is largely subjective. As a photographer, imaging skills are a top priority for me in a phone. I want a camera that takes more realistic photos, with more «neutral» contrast and exposure, so that I have a better image to potentially apply my own edits or effects to later on. As a result, I prefer the shots from the Pixel 7 Pro. But if photography is maybe less of a concern and you instead want vibrant, punchy images straight out of the camera that you can instantly share with family and friends, then perhaps you’ll enjoy the vivid look of the OnePlus 11’s pictures. It’s certainly got the edge when it comes to night mode too.

What’s not subjective though is the lack of a bigger zoom on the OnePlus 11. That 2x lens is fine for portraits, but it’s nothing compared with the superb 5x zoom on the Pixel 7 Pro, which is probably my favorite camera lens found on any of today’s top phones. The Pixel 7 Pro feels like I’m putting a full camera bag of equipment in my pocket; a superb ultra-wide, a great standard zoom and an excellent telephoto. With it, I know I can grab interesting compositions in almost any environment I find myself in and it’s why the OnePlus 11 doesn’t feel like a fully capable photography phone.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for May 18, #707

Hints and answers for Connections for May 18, #707.

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

Today’s Connections puzzle is a mix of difficult and easy. The purple category does what most purple categories do, and makes you really break down how you think about the words. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: School days.

Green group hint: About there!

Blue group hint: Sure, let’s go.

Purple group hint: The Scarlett Letter.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Tasks for a student.

Green group: Encouraging responses in a guessing game.

Blue group: Up for anything.

Purple group: What «A» might mean.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is tasks for a student. The four answers are assignment, drill, exercise and lesson.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is encouraging responses in a guessing game. The four answers are almost, close, not quite and warm.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is up for anything. The four answers are easy, flexible, game and open.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is what «A» might mean. The four answers are area, athletic, excellent and one.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for May 18, #441

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 441 for May 18.

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 will probably be easier if you have some basic knowledge about a certain type of vessel. You don’t really need to have ever been on one, since the answers show up in books and movies all the time. 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: Riding the wind.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: famed song by Christopher Cross.

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:

DULL, TILE, TILER, SEER, GALE, GALES, HAIL, SAIL, LEEK, GLUE, HALL, TALL, HEAT

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’ve got 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:

HELM, HULL, KEEL, MAST, STERN, RIGGING, RUDDER, TILLER

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is SAILBOAT. To find it, start with the S that’s four letters down on the farthest row to the left, then wind across, up and down.

Technologies

Google I/O 2025: How to Watch and What to Expect

With Android 16 out of the way, Google I/O will certainly be all about AI.

Google I/O 2025 takes place on May 20 and 21 with Google’s big keynote happening on day 1. We expect Big G to talk about its myriad innovations across its ever-expanding portfolio of products — almost certainly with a huge focus on AI every step of the way. If we collectively cross our fingers, promise to be good and eat all our vegetables then we may even be treated to a sneak peek at upcoming hardware.

Read more: Android 16: Everything Google Announced at the Android Show

Google also hosted a totally separate event that focused solely on Android. The Android Show: I/O Edition saw the wrappers come off Android 16, with insights into the new Material 3 Expressive interface, updates to security and a focus on Gemini and how it’ll work on a variety of other devices.

By breaking out Android news into its own virtual event, Google frees itself to spend more time during the I/O keynote to talk about Gemini, Deep Mind, Android XR and Project Astra. It’s going to be a jam-packed event, so here’s how you can watch I/O 2025 as it happens and what you can look forward to.

Google I/O: Where to watch

Google I/O proper kicks off with a keynote taking place on May 20, 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT, 6 p.m. BST). It’ll almost certainly be available to stream online on Google’s own YouTube channel, although a holding video is yet to be available. There’s no live link on the I/O website yet, either, though you can use the handy links to add the event to your calendar of choice. Expect links to a livestream to be available closer to the day.

What to expect from Google I/O 2025

Little chat about Android 16: As Google gave Android 16 its own outing already, it’s likely that it won’t be mentioned all that much during I/O. In fact at last year’s event, Android was barely mentioned, while uses of the term «AI» went well over a hundred.

Android XR: Google didn’t talk much about Android XR during the Android show, focusing instead on the purely phone-based updates to the platform. We expected to hear more about the company’s latest foray into mixed-reality headsets in partnership with Samsung and its Project Moohan headset, so it’s possible that this is being saved for I/O proper.

Gemini: With Android being spun out into its own separate event, Google is evidently clearing the way for I/O to focus on everything else the company does. AI will continue to dominate the conversation at I/O, just as it did last year (though hopefully Google can make it more understandable) with updates to many of its AI platforms expected to be announced.

Gemini is expected to receive a variety of update announcements, including more information on its latest 2.5 Pro update which boasts various improvements to its reasoning abilities, and in particular to its helpfulness for coding applications. Expect lots of mentions of Google’s other AI-based products, too, including DeepMind, LearnLM and Project Astra. Let’s just hope Google has figured out how to make this information make any kind of sense.

Beyond AI, Google may talk about updates to its other products including GMail, Chrome and the Play Store, although whether these updates are big enough to be discussed during the keynote rather than as part of the developer-focused sessions following I/O’s opening remains to be seen.