In the OnePlus 11 Full Review, I gave it a good rating. the OnePlus 11 is indeed a worthwhile phone, but not everyone can afford a sub-flagship. Most people are probably more excited about this one, the OnePlus Ace 2. It’s only $410 in China for the 12+256 version, which I think should mean the “Flagship Killer” is really coming back.
By the way, the OnePlus Ace 2 has another global name, OnePlus 11R, and all the specs are the same except the Ram and Rom capacities are different, so you can consider this video as a Full Review of the OnePlus 11R as well.
Design
It’s easy to tell that the OnePlus Ace 2 and 11 are family just by the design itself. If you like the design of the OnePlus 11, then you will definitely like the design of Ace 2 as well. The most obvious change is the Hasselblad logo is gone, but I think the lens module becomes better looking without the Hasselblad logo.
The frame also changed from metal to plastic, but the weight did not become much lighter. And the fingerprint area has become more down, which is the reason for the cheaper price.
The good thing is that the alert slider has not been removed and add an IR blaster. I prefer the blue Ace 2 to the green OnePlus 11, and the frosted back panel is less likely to collect fingerprints. I don’t think the Ace 2’s design is too impressive, but it’s still above the pass line.
Performance
Yes, the OnePlus Ace 2, like the 11, is focused on “performance”. It uses the normal Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, which is a bit stronger than the downclocked 8+ Gen 1 version of the K60 in terms of scores. And to make Genshin Impact run more smoothly on the OnePlus phone, OnePlus spent 100 million RMB to set up an optimization lab with miHoYo. The official webpage says that Genshin averages 59fps, so at least Genshin won’t let us down on Ace 2, right?
Well, it did. In high-performance mode, we were just fighting mushrooms on Sumeru. The performance is more average or even poor. And temperatures are particularly high. If you turn off the high-performance mode, you instead get lower temperatures and a higher average frame rate. Compared to the Redmi K60, the strategies are different and each has its own pros.
But if you play for more than 20 minutes, it will still be locked at 30fps for a while. The CPU Throttling Test results show that the cooling system is not as good as they advertised. The gaming performance of Ace 2 is not that good, it is just the average level of 8+ Gen 1 phone.
Ace 2 has a frame insertion mode for games, but there are many limits. Most of the games that can be enabled in frame insertion mode are Chinese games. And once the temperature is too high, this mode will not be turned on.
Ultra-steady frames mode is the only feature that can really improve your gaming experience, and it does stabilize the frame rate a lot after you turn it on. But the temperature is still very high. To be honest, since OnePlus is back to OPPO, the performance is not as strong as before. That slogan on the box is just a gimmick. If you really care about the gaming experience, I suggest you consider 8 Gen 2 phones or a gaming phone.
Display
The OnePlus 11 could have been perfect, but unfortunately, its Samsung E4 screen wasn’t as friendly to the eyes. And there were a lot of people worried about the green lines issue. This time Ace 2 has changed. Comes with a 1240P screen from Tianma. Except for LTPO and resolution, all specifications of this screen are better than OnePlus 11’s, especially the more eye-friendly aspect.
Turn on the high-frequency PWM switch in developer mode and it will upgrade from 360Hz dimming to 1440Hz dimming at low brightness. The daily touch sampling rate is 125Hz and can reach 375Hz when gaming. Better than OnePlus 11, but both are worse than Redimi K60.
So all in all, I think this display is really better than the OnePlus 11. If you’re looking for a better screen at the same price point, there’s only the K60 to choose from.
Camera
The Ace 2’s main camera is the same IMX 890 sensor as the OnePlus 11. Because the K60’s camera is so weak, the competitor we found for it is the OnePlus 11. Indeed the IMX 890 is a good sensor. Even if the OnePlus 11 has the help of Hasselblad, there is not much difference between them. Without the watermark’s help, I probably wouldn’t be able to tell which one was taken respectively by myself.
What’s even more impressive is that even with the 2x crop in the main camera, it still takes about the same photo as the optical 2x lens of the OnePlus 11. So I think the Ace 2 is as good as the 11 with the main camera.
From ultra-wide camera, they are more different. The OnePlus 11 still keeps it at the same level as the main camera, but it is the shortcoming of Ace 2 when it tries to increase dynamic range. The edges of the leaves are turning purple.
At night, scenes with a lot of light performed quite well. But when there is not enough light, the noise becomes more and the sharpness decreases, just like the K60’s ultra-wide camera.
The Ace 2 does not support 8k video, the main camera supports up to 4k 60fps, and the ultra-wide camera is 1080P 30fps. the main camera footage is similar. Pay attention to people’s clothes, maybe the dynamic range of the OnePlus 11 is a little higher, but the gap is not that big. The Ace 2’s ultra-wide camera is a little less in clarity and noise control, and the image will be shaky.
The bad news is that the Ace 2’s charging speed has taken a step back. 100w charging isn’t particularly fast, but 25 minutes for a full charge isn’t slow either. At least you get the exact same charging speed as the OnePlus 11 for $170 less, which is worth it.
It’s not just the charging speed that’s the same, the battery life is almost identical as well. Both phones are average and there’s not much to say about them.
The OnePlus Ace 2 is very similar to the 11. They focus on performance but don’t stand out. Instead, it’s the camera system that impresses us. This time OnePlus is simply gonna make us a price we can’t refuse. Maybe as a OnePlus 11R, it’s a bit expensive. But as an Ace 2, it’s absolutely cheap. If you know how to swap Color OS for Oxygen OS, you should know how to buy this phone to get the cheapest deal.
If you still have a little bit of love left for One Plus, you can try this. If not, you can wait for our full review of the realme GT Neo 5. That would be another flagship killer.
