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OnePlus 11 vs Realme GT3: Which Is The Best Value Android Flagship?
OnePlus 11 and Realme GT3: as different as it gets. But which one to choose?
OnePlus launched its latest flagship OnePlus 11, last month globally. It aims to replace OnePlus 10 Pro, and OnePlus has even announced that it will not launch OnePlus 11 Pro.
The OnePlus 11 comes with almost every feature you want in a flagship. But the phone was launched at a price lower than most flagships in different markets.
Realme made waves at MWC 2023 by announcing the world’s fastest-charging smartphone, Realme GT3. The headlining feature of the phone is its 240W super fast charging, which charges the phone from 0-100% in 9 minutes 30 seconds.
OnePlus 11 vs Realme GT3
Realme GT3 and OnePlus 11 come dangerously close to each other in pricing in various markets, but just not in the European market. But still, both phones deserve to be compared with each other. Both phones are so different, yet they have some similar features. Let’s compare both phones and check which is the better phone out of the two!
Design and Display
Regarding design, Realme GT3 and OnePlus 11 are as different as they can get. OnePlus is going for a mature and classy design with the OnePlus 11, while Realme GT3 is as funky as it gets. OnePlus 11’s design is an evolution of the company’s previous flagship OnePlus 10 Pro. The square camera array has made its way to a circular disc, which looks pretty good, in my opinion.
Realme GT3, on the other hand, comes with a funky design, the camera array looks familiar, but there’s an LED strip that runs beside the camera array, inside which you can see the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 logo. The LED strip is used for notifications and indicates the charging status.
OnePlus 11 has a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 2K (1440 x 3216 px) and a refresh rate of 120Hz. It has a peak brightness of 1200 nits and has Dolby Vision and HDR10+ certification. Realme GT3 has a 6.74-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 1.5K (1240 x 2772 px) and a refresh rate of 144Hz. It has a peak brightness of 1400 nits and a refresh rate of 144Hz.
OnePlus 11 has the advantage of a higher resolution and being an LTPO3 panel. It also is a curved panel if you’re into a curved display instead of a flat one. Realme GT3, on the other hand, has the advantage of a higher refresh rate, but it isn’t a significant factor influencing the buying decision. Overall, OnePlus 11 has the advantage of having a better display.
Performance and Battery Life
OnePlus 11 falls in the flagship category with its specification, while Realme GT3 aims to be the new flagship killer. It reflects on the choice of chipsets on these devices. OnePlus 11 is powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, while Realme GT3 is powered by Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is the latest and greatest flagship chipset from Snapdragon, while Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is the previous generation flagship. The performance gap between the chipsets might not be evident in normal use, as both are some of the most powerful chipsets on the Android side. Both phones can handle anything thrown at them, but OnePlus 11 will have a slight edge over Realme GT3 in performance. It would be evident on heavy games like Genshin Impact, but both would perform similarly on light gaming and common apps.
OnePlus 11 has two variants in Europe and the US – 8GB RAM + 128GB internal storage and 16GB RAM + 256GB internal storage. Realme GT3, on the other hand, comes with five different variants depending on the market – 8GB RAM + 128GB internal storage, 12GB RAM +256GB internal storage, 16GB RAM + 256GB internal storage, 16GB RAM + 512GB internal storage, and 16GB +1TB internal storage. Realme has yet to reveal which variants will be available in Europe; let’s wait for the sales to start.
Coming to battery life, the OnePlus phone has a higher capacity battery, but Realme has a huge lead in the charging technology. OnePlus 11 has a 5,000mAh battery with support for 100W super fast charging (80W in the US market).
Meanwhile, Realme GT3 has a 4,600mAh battery but supports ultra-fast 240W charging. Realme GT3 takes just under 10 minutes to charge its battery, while OnePlus takes 25 minutes fully. If it’s up to me, I will choose a faster-charging phone over a slightly bigger battery any day.
Camera Specs & Quality
OnePlus 11, as we mentioned, is aiming to be a proper flagship, while Realme GT3 would be a flagship killer. It reflects on the camera of the phones as well. OnePlus 11 has a complete camera setup, while Realme GT3 camera specs look like a mid-ranger on paper.
OnePlus 11 has a 50MP primary camera, a Sony IMX890 sensor with f/1.8 aperture and support for OIS. The secondary cameras are also stacked; it has a 48MP Sony IMX581 sensor with a 115° field of view and a 32MP Sony IMX709 2X telephoto sensor. OnePlus 11 also carries forward the Hasselblad colour calibration for its cameras, which brings Hasselblad colour science and Hasselblad Master Mode, essentially a filter for photos, but works pretty well.
Realme GT3 also has a 50MP primary camera, which uses the same sensor as the OnePlus 11, and the Sony IMX690 sensor. It also supports OIS and has an aperture of f/1.9. The secondary cameras, on the other hand, are a disappointment compared to OnePlus 11. It comes with an 8MP ultra-wide camera and a 2MP macro sensor. The primary camera is promising and should produce good results, similar to the OnePlus 11 primary camera, but OP11 has the advantage of Hasselblad branding and its filters.
OnePlus 11 has a better camera setup, both in on-paper specs and camera outputs. Take a look at the official camera samples of the OnePlus 11:
Here are the official camera samples of Realme GT3:
NOTE: These are the official images shared by Realme for Realme GT Neo 5, which is the name with which the Realme GT3 was launched in China.
Software and User Experience
OnePlus 11 comes with OxygenOS 13 based on Android 13, while Realme GT3 comes with Realme UI 4.0 based on Android 13. You might think there are big differences between the software and user experience with OnePlus and Realme phones. But that’s not the case; they’re as close as ever, as Realme UI and OxygenOS are now based on ColorOS 13, Oppo’s custom skin. As Realme and OnePlus are sub-brands of Oppo, all three brands come with the same software experience: ColorOS 13.
Realme UI 4.0 and OxygenOS 13 come with similar features. Both come with all the customization you need on a custom skin, such as themes, AoD customization, edge lighting, fingerprint animation customization, and more. They also have useful features such as partial screenshots, screen recording with internal audio, dual mode music share, focus mode and more.
But there are some differences with the custom skins; OxygenOS 13 comes with the traditional OnePlus font. Meanwhile, RealmeUI uses the Roboto font by default. There is an option to set Real Choice font or realme Sans font in the settings. More differences come with the slightly differently-designed system apps. Also, Realme UI 4.0 comes with different bloatware and advertisements bundled with its OS, which puts it at a disadvantage compared to OxygenOS 13.
The user experience is slightly better on OnePlus 11 as it doesn’t come with bloatware or ads, but other than that, both are just too similar. If you uninstall the bloat and turn off the ads, you get almost the same user experience on both phones.
Price and Value for Money
OnePlus 11 starts from $699 in the US market, while it costs €849 in the European market. For the higher variant of 16/256GB, the phone costs $799/€919.
Realme GT3, on the other hand, is priced at $649 (approx. €610). However, the company hasn’t revealed the phone’s pricing in Euros for the European market.
OnePlus seems to have made quite a disparity in the pricing compared to the US and European markets. It is quite a value-for-money offering in the US market, but when compared to that pricing, European pricing seems to be quite on the higher side.
Realme GT3, on the other hand, costs $649 for the base variant. It is a much more value-for-money offering. The price of the Realme GT3 cannot be compared to the US pricing of the OnePlus 11, as Realme GT3 isn’t available in the US market.
So, if you’re from the US market, OnePlus 11 is an excellent value for money, but if you’re in Europe, Realme GT3 looks like a much better value for money offering. OnePlus 11 is readily available, but Realme is yet to announce the availability of the Realme GT3, and you need to wait for it to become available on various markets to buy it.
Conclusion
OnePlus offers a flagship experience with OnePlus 11. It is priced well and undercuts flagships from Samsung and Google in the US market. But it seems like OnePlus has missed its step in the European market. The European pricing makes it a competitor to Samsung Galaxy S23. Even the Pixel 7 Pro costs less than OnePlus 11.
If you’re from the US, OnePlus 11 is one of the best value offerings available. You don’t need to consider Realme GT3 as it isn’t available in the market.
If you’re in Europe, OnePlus 11 doesn’t offer the same value as the US and Indian markets. But the phone offers everything you need in a flagship smartphone. It comes with decent cameras and provides a great screen.
Realme GT3, on the other hand, is a flagship killer that offers almost everything you want in a flagship, and also it is the world’s fastest-charging smartphone.
Deciding between OnePlus 11 and Realme GT3 depends on what you want from a smartphone. If you want a mature, all-rounder smartphone with decent cameras, you can get the OnePlus 11.
On the other hand, if you’re in the market for a value-for-money offering that does almost everything you want in a flagship and has ultra-fast charging, you can choose Realme GT3 and wait for it to release.
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