‘OnePlus 11 a premium phone with no real identity’, says Nothing CEO Carl Pei

In a continuation to his series of reviewing other smartphones which are a direct competition to Nothing Phone (1), CEO Carl Pei on Monday released a video discussing the newly launched OnePlus 11.

His first impression of OnePlus was its rounded edges and the sparkling texture around the camera, which he praised. He then said the issue he faced was with the buttons on the side of the phone.

"Your fingers like you're unsure whether you're actually pushing the button. This is more like an OCD thing. So there's like a mute switch here and there's a power button here. But if you look at it from a vertical perspective, they're not aligned. And this really bugs me out," he explained.

Pei, who was a co-founder and director of OnePlus Global till 2020 said that the 'elephant in the room' that needs to be addressed is the design of the phone. He said, "There's no real identity because each generation looks very different from the previous one. Sometimes the cameras are in the middle, and sometimes on the side. Sometimes the name switches here and sometimes it's not. There's a Hasselblad logo here. There's a OnePlus logo over here if you remove both logos it would be really hard to tell for any person on the street."

Pei, from his experience of being at OnePlus in the company's initial years, tried estimating the cost of making the phone that now retails at $699.

He said, "So based on our estimations, this product should cost about $260 to make but that's not including some of the licensing fees like licensing fees to Hasselblad different camera algorithms, etc. So maybe I would have guessed maybe it's $480 Those have to do with your sales strategy."

Pei's verdict

"The verdict for my OnePlus 11 review is that it's it's a really solid premium piece of hardware. It's got a few hardware details that most people probably won't notice but annoy me a little bit which is fine," he said.

Though Pei seemed to have liked the new OnePlus phone, it still didn't make a cut for his recommendation as at the end of the video, he said, "I think for both tech enthusiasts and more casual users. I actually recommend the iPhone for those who like iOS and the Pixel phones for those who like Android."