Just a month into 2023 and we already have two flagship phones in India powered by Qualcomm’s top-notch Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoCs. iQOO first launched its premium smartphone iQOO 11 with this processor and now OnePlus 11 has also arrived. Both the companies claim that their phones offer the best camera experience, but which phone will make the user happier? Well, find out the answer in this comparison, where we pitted the cameras of both the phones against each other and tested them in every possible scenario.
daylight landscape
I’ll start this comparison with a daytime landscape photo with HDR set to Auto. You can see that there is a lot of difference between the two pictures. The picture captured by the iQOO 11 has cool tones and is slightly saturated. In contrast, the colors on the OnePlus 11’s image are subtle, but the color tone here also doesn’t seem true to the original. Unlike the iQOO 11, the OnePlus 11 captures a warmer tone in photos, as seen on previous OnePlus devices.
One thing I would like to point out is that, while the iQOO 11 captures cool tones with saturated colors, the iQOO’s shot has different shades of grass than we normally see with our naked eyes , but it looks exactly the same in the OnePlus 11 picture. Same from corner to corner. Hence, iQOO 11 can be declared the winner for this round as it does not change the colors of any item.
the winner: iQOO 11
Daylight Ultra-Wide Angle
After the standard shot, I captured the same landscape in ultra-wide angle mode as well. Both the OnePlus 11 and iQOO 11 have the same color balance as seen in the previous daylight shot. The OnePlus 11 takes warm-toned photos, while the iQOO 11 takes cooler-toned photos. Also, the grass in these images looks similar to what we saw in landscape shots in daylight.
Here I would like to mention that OnePlus 11 has 48MP ultra-wide angle sensor while iQOO 11 has 8MP sensor, but after cropping the pictures completely I did not see much difference in detailing. Although I could see some high light clipping in the iQOO’s images, the 8MP camera sensor looks almost as sharp as the OnePlus 11’s 48MP camera, I was quite disappointed with OnePlus. Since, the iQOO captured colors that were more similar to the natural landscape, I would once again consider it a winner.
the winner: iQOO 11
2x optical zoom
Although the sensors are different, both phones include a lens capable of taking photos at 2x optical zoom. iQOO 11 has a 13MP telephoto lens, while OnePlus 11 has a 32MP camera. In the shots above, you can clearly see the difference in color balance between the two. The iQOO 11 clicked a picture with better color tones this time, while the picture taken from the OnePlus 11 looked similar. You will also notice that the stones above the fountain appear yellow in the OnePlus 11 snap.
However, when I zoomed in at full crop, the advantage of the higher megapixels was clearly visible in the OnePlus shot. The top area of the fountain and the trees in the background have more intricacy than the iQOO 11. On that account, the OnePlus 11 is the winner of this round.
the winner: oneplus 11
high resolution
Both the OnePlus 11 and iQOO 11 include a 50MP main camera, although there is a difference in the sensor specifications. The iQOO 11 comes with an f/1.9 aperture and is 23mm wide, while the OnePlus 11 sports an f/1.8 aperture and is 24mm wide. For this round, I used the High Res mode on both the phones. It’s strange enough, that the OnePlus 11 captures almost all images with a strong yellow tone, making photos look so casual that you might not feel like sharing them directly on social media. The iQOO 11 however, sometimes reduces the blue tone and tries to capture realistic scenarios.
Nonetheless, the purpose of this test is to evaluate the details captured by these powerful smartphones. Here, I have put the images with full crop where the iQOO outperforms the OnePlus phone in terms of detail. The snap of the OnePlus 11 is already unimpressive and the details on it are also not up to the mark. Here, iQOO 11 turns out to be the winner of this round.
the winner: iQOO 11
close up shot
After all the long shots, let’s look at the close-up shots. Both the OnePlus 11 and iQOO 11 struggle to capture colors accurately. You can see that the picture on the iQOO 11 looks overly vibrant with a prominent cool tone, while the saturation on the OnePlus 11 is well balanced but the overall shot appears slightly yellow. So, it becomes difficult to pick a winner, but when you zoom in on the pictures, the detailing of the OnePlus 11 is better than that of the iQOO 11. The pollen grains in the center of the flower are more pronounced on the OnePlus 11. As a result, OnePlus 11 emerged the winner in the close-up shot round.
the winner: oneplus 11
portrait shot
When we look at the portrait shot, the result looks completely different from what we saw in the previous pictures. The OnePlus 11’s frame has a slightly cooler tone. Also, you can see that my hair and beard have been highlighted in the image from the OnePlus phone, making my hair appear white. Whereas if you look at the image taken from the iQOO 11, you will notice that it has a warmer tone that was present in the previous OnePlus 11 images. However, if you look closely, the hair and beard in the shot of iQOO look somewhat similar to real-life scenarios. However, the edge detection of both the phones is quite good and we could not find any flaws in both the images. So, in my opinion, the iQOO 11 is the clear winner in terms of staying close to natural colours.
the winner: iQOO 11
low light
By now it is clear that the iQOO 11 has better camera performance in daylight scenarios, but when we look at these pictures, the tables turn. In this low-light test, the OnePlus 11 came out as the clear winner. The image captured by the OnePlus 11 is brighter and sharper, but the image captured by the iQOO 11 is overall darker and has some graininess. On that account, the OnePlus 11 wins this round.
the winner: oneplus 11
night mode
If we look at low light shots with Night Mode turned on, the result is the same. The iQOO 11’s image is still darker, but this time with less grain. On the other hand, the OnePlus 11 Snap is just as excellent at low-light photos without Night Mode turned on. Overall, the OnePlus 11 is capable of taking better pictures in low-light scenarios along with better brightness, the images also have great color balance. Thus, the OnePlus 11 comes out on top in the Night Mode test as well.
the winner: oneplus 11
daylight portrait selfie
After comparing the inside and outside of the rear cameras of both the phones, let’s take a quick look at the selfie camera. The above images were taken with both the devices in portrait mode. You’ll notice that the iQOO 11 couldn’t detect edges effectively and the backdrop seeped across my face, but the OnePlus 11 has flawless edge detection and offers a clean cut out. However, if you look at the colors in both the photos, the OnePlus 11 fails to impress me, as my face appears slightly red in this photo, and the saturation and contrast levels are on the higher side. On the other hand, the iQOO 11 managed to capture near-natural color tones on my face, and the overall saturation of the image is also similar to a real-life scenario. Hence, the selfie round also goes in favor of the iQOO 11, as it shoots photos with relatively natural looking colours.
the winner: iQOO 11
low light selfie
Also, in low-light selfies as well, the iQOO 11 clearly outperforms the OnePlus 11. The blue tone is quite noticeable in the picture taken with the OnePlus 11, and the saturation level is also quite high in low-light selfies. On the other hand, the iQOO 11 captures vibrant and natural-looking colors even in low-light selfies. Hence, to say that iQOO 11 leads the selfie game would not be wrong, be it daylight or low light, iQOO 11 is the clear winner.
the winner: iQOO 11
Decision
To sum up the findings, I can say that the OnePlus 11 is capable of capturing amazing low-light photos from the back camera, and in some photos the details in daylight scenarios are also slightly higher than the OnePlus 11. Is. On the other hand, the iQOO has better color balance in its photos, be it daylight shots from the back camera or low-light selfies, the iQOO 11 pleased me in almost all situations in this comparison. So, if you primarily use the phone’s camera for low-light photos, the OnePlus 11 could be a good choice, otherwise, the iQOO 11 is overall a better camera phone than the OnePlus 11.
