OPPO K11 Hands-on Experience Bringing Flagship-level Imaging Experience to 500 Million Users

'OPPO K11 provides flagship-level imaging experience to 500 million users'

【PhoneAuto Review】Compared to high-end flagship phones constantly exploring in the field of imaging, the current mid-range phones are still stuck in aspects such as “cost-effectiveness,” “high performance,” and “large memory.” It seems that no one has noticed that users in this price range also have a demand for taking good photos.

The newly released OPPO K11 inherits the imaging capabilities of OPPO’s flagship phones and comes with the mission of popularizing flagship imaging for 500 million users. As OPPO’s main online mid-range model, the K series has always won the favor and recognition of many users with its high cost performance, exquisite design, and good performance. So, can this new phone bring us surprises? Can it continue the brilliance of its predecessor?

The OPPO K11 adopts the currently popular straight-edged design, with a thickness of only 8.23mm. Paired with a 2.8D glass back panel, not only does the K11 appear visually thinner, but it also provides a comfortable grip, without the feeling of being rough.

• Tech Q&A Is the Samsung Z Flip 5 worth waiting for? What sets the Mate 60 Lingdong Island apart?
• Machine Q&A Is the Honor X50 worth buying? Which one should I choose between the Red Magic 8S Pro and the iQOO 11S?
• Beats Studio Pro Embrace more people with a brand new internal design

The back panel of the phone adopts a glossy matte overlay design, which gives the illusion similar to the OPPO Reno9 series at first glance. In fact, the back panel of the OPPO K11 adopts an integrated design, with only the lens module using a different design from other areas.

The color version I received this time is Moon Shadow Grey. The machine incorporates the material design of flash sand on the inner side of the transparent cover, creating a visual effect that makes me mistakenly think it is a splicing process with a matte texture and transparent surface coexisting. Thanks to this design, the back panel of the phone retains the smooth feel and texture while avoiding the “messy” appearance caused by fingerprints.

In terms of the lens, the OPPO K11 adopts the Lingmo dual-ring design. In order to better protect the lens and prevent scratching, the device is equipped with a stainless steel lens protection ring on the outer ring of the lens. The metal CD texture also has a delicate taste.

The front of the OPPO K11 is equipped with a 6.7-inch 120Hz OLED high-definition eye protection screen. The screen-to-body ratio is as high as 93.4%, coupled with a super high resolution of 2412×1080. Whether it is daily use or gaming, it can ensure that users have a smooth and immersive experience.

When introducing the screen of the OPPO K11 at the beginning, I added the attribute of eye protection because compared to other models of the same price, this phone is more sincere in terms of eye protection.

Firstly, the OPPO K11 supports a high-frequency PWM dimming of 2160Hz, which can solve the problem of screen flickering in low-brightness scenes. For example, when playing with the phone before bed, compared to models that do not support this function, the OPPO K11 can better guarantee the user’s eye health.

Secondly, the device also supports a million-level backlight, which makes the brightness changes of the screen smoother and more eye-friendly. It avoids problems such as the brightness changes not being smooth enough, unnaturalness, and discomfort during the user’s use process after turning on the automatic brightness.

Finally, this latest OPPO K11 has passed the TÜV Rheinland low blue light certification in Germany, which indicates that this model can control the proportion of high-hazard short-wave blue light in the display spectrum, reduce blue light while ensuring the balance and normal restoration of the screen colors.

In today’s smartphone market in China where domestic manufacturers are constantly “overlapping” each other, high-end flagship models “overlap” in terms of imaging capabilities, while mid-range models “overlap” in terms of configurations. This seems to have become the conventional development direction. However, looking at the price distribution of smartphones used by consumers, it is found that mid-range smartphones have nearly 500 million existing users (priced between 1000 yuan and 3000 yuan), accounting for the majority of China’s current smartphone market. Does this mean that mid-range smartphone users do not have a need for good photography?

This latest release, the OPPO K11, is designed to bring flagship-level imaging experience to mid-range smartphone users. In terms of hardware, this model uses a 50-megapixel IMX890 flagship main camera with OIS optical image stabilization.

The Sony IMX890 has a sensor size of 1/1.56 inches and is equipped with a large aperture of f/1.88. The individual pixel size reaches 1μm. Compared to the OV64B sensor used in the previous generation OPPO K10, which had a sensor size of 1/2 inch and a pixel size of 0.7μm, the IMX890 has an 84.3% increase in light intake. Therefore, the OPPO K11 has stronger photosensitivity and can easily take good photos in low-light, night scenes, and backlit environments. In addition, the OIS optical image stabilization has more stable imaging capabilities in capturing and low-light environments, delivering clearer images.

From this photo, it can be seen that thanks to the excellent light intake of the IMX890, the OPPO K11 can faithfully reproduce the different levels of brightness and darkness of the red color in this artwork presented under indoor lighting, giving users a stronger visual experience.

In terms of imaging hardware, OPPO K11 has selected the flagship IMX890 sensor. In terms of software, OPPO K11 naturally does not lag behind and has gathered three flagship imaging algorithms, which have greatly upgraded the imaging experience in portrait, snapshot, and night scene aspects.

The first one is the “natural portrait bokeh engine”. This algorithm has deeply optimized the portrait mode of OPPO K11, improving the blur effect and accuracy of segmentation when shooting with front and rear cameras, making the blur effect of the photos more natural and layered, thus presenting a DSLR-like depth of field effect.

The second flagship imaging algorithm is the “dynamic snapshot engine”. With the blessing of AI algorithm, OPPO K11 has improved the recognition and snapshot success rate in dynamic scenes, increasing it by 130% compared to the previous generation OPPO K10. Therefore, when capturing flexible and active children and cute pets in daily life, OPPO K11 can provide good assistance.

The last one is the “ultra-clear image quality engine”. It can effectively reduce the picture noise in night scene shooting through multi-frame fusion, AI denoising, HDR fusion, and other multi-dimensional processing, presenting a purer and clearer picture, and also reasonably suppressing the highlights in night scenes and restoring the brightness and darkness changes seen by the naked eye.

With the popularity of smartphones, the problem of battery life has always been unresolved. Charging a feature phone once and using it for several days has become a thing of the past.

For smartphones, a large battery will make the body bulky, and high charging power will not be compatible with high-capacity batteries. Therefore, smartphone manufacturers have been trying to find a balance between fast charging and large batteries. The OPPO K11 is the best balance point that OPPO has found in this price range.

The OPPO K11 adopts the combination of SUPEERVOOC Long-Life 100W Super Flash Charging and a 5000mAh large battery. The official claims that it can charge the battery from 1% to 100% in an average of 26 minutes. After testing, it took only 10 minutes to charge to 51% from zero battery, 20 minutes to charge to 89%, and only 24 minutes to fully charge, which is two minutes faster than the official data. This charging speed allows users to restore a low battery phone to a good usage state during fragmented time, such as in the morning when getting ready or during lunch breaks.

In terms of battery life, the author conducted an extreme scenario test – charging the phone for 5 minutes from zero battery and then playing the game “King of Glory”. The game settings were set to the recommended graphics settings. After playing 8 ranked matches, the OPPO K11 was left with only 2% battery. In order to avoid the situation of automatically shutting down and affecting teammates, the author stopped the test. In the conservative scenario of charging for five minutes, the OPPO K11 can play “King of Glory” for 1 hour and 57 minutes. This battery life performance can basically alleviate users’ concerns about battery life anxiety.

OPPO K11 not only focuses on battery life and fast charging, but also considers the safety and stability of battery usage. Based on the “customized battery management chip” from the European and Canadian Group, this model also adds “intelligent battery algorithm” and “bionic repair electrolyte technology” to extend battery life. Official data shows that after 1600 charge and discharge cycles, OPPO K11 still retains 80% of its capacity.

In addition, OPPO K11 also supports Smart Charge 3.0 technology, including five functions: long-term charging protection, aging battery protection, extreme cold mode, intelligent extreme speed mode, and battery health display. It can solve charging pain points for different scenarios and different user groups. The long-term charging protection is particularly suitable for heavy smartphone users, such as online car-hailing drivers and food delivery riders. After intelligent algorithm learning and judgment, the OPPO K11 will automatically enter the “charging protection” mode and stop charging the battery when it reaches 80%, thus directly powering the phone through the adapter, significantly reducing battery aging and extending the phone’s lifespan.

Compared to flagship models with ultra-high performance, mid-range phones need to be more cost-effective in their chip selection. They not only need to be powerful, but also practical and have low power consumption. This time, OPPO K11 chose the well-regarded Qualcomm Snapdragon 782G, which is the successor to the Snapdragon 778G series. It adopts TSMC’s 6nm process, with a main frequency of 2.7GHz and a 1+3+4 three-cluster architecture, achieving a balance between performance and power consumption.

In the AnTuTu test, this OPPO K11 with 12GB+512GB of memory scored nearly 720,000 points, with a CPU score of 229,055 and a GPU score of 163,917, which meets our expectations. It is worth mentioning that although this model only offers three memory configurations: 8GB+256GB, 12GB+256GB, and 12GB+512GB, it supports expandable external memory cards up to 1TB, which is more practical for me than directly providing a 1TB memory option.

In daily use, the OPPO K11 is equipped with memory gene recombination technology to provide users with a better and smoother user experience. The “instant bandwidth” can increase the data volume captured in nanoseconds in memory by up to 16 times, greatly improving memory utilization and operation response speed. “Asynchronous memory” can clear congested memory channels, allowing the phone to remain stable and smooth even during prolonged use, improving smoothness by 50% in heavy load scenarios. “App preloading” uses AI learning to allocate and schedule background application memory in advance, improving memory allocation efficiency and ensuring the ability of hot start, greatly reducing user waiting time.

In addition, the OPPO K11 has also obtained TUV Rheinland’s A-level smoothness certification for 48 months, ensuring that the phone does not experience obvious lag during 4 years of use.

In the “gaming” scenario, which has higher hardware requirements, the OPPO K11 performs equally well. During a previous test of battery life, in a 2-hour period of playing the game “King of Glory,” the OPPO K11 did not experience any lag or frame drops. Thanks to the 11068mm graphite cooling and 4129mm VC liquid cooling, the entire device did not feel hot, and I didn’t even notice any temperature changes. After actual temperature measurements, the highest temperature on the back of the device was only 35.5°C, providing a cool feeling in the scorching summer.

In other aspects, the closed stereo dual speakers, X-axis linear motor, infrared remote control, and multifunctional NFC are all integrated into the body of this OPPO K11, which has a thickness of only 8.23. This ensures that users have a detailed and immersive experience.

Overall, for users with a budget of around 2000 yuan who want a good camera phone, OPPO K11 is undoubtedly the best choice. The flagship-level IMX890 and OIS optical image stabilization hardware combination, combined with the imaging algorithms of the three flagships, make OPPO K11 have a camera level that is not inferior to flagship phones.

In addition, OPPO K11 has not forgotten its consistent characteristics in the journey of popularizing mid-range phones. The back glass with a sense of design, the thin body, and the long-lasting fast charging all make OPPO K11 a new phone with sufficient competitiveness in the 2000 price range.

We will continue to update Phone&Auto; if you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us!