I bought OnePlus Ace 2 (OnePlus 11R).
Performance comparable to a gaming smartphone
The OnePlus Ace 2 is a smartphone powered by Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1.
Despite its budget price, it is powerful enough to play the highest quality Genshin at nearly 60 FPS.
If you root it, you can even play at 120 FPS with frame interpolation.
This review is done on PHK110_11_A.08, 16GB+256GB version.
- Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 for high performance and power savings
- Vivid AMOLED display with 120Hz support
- 5,000mAh battery with 80-100W charging capability
- Stereo speakers with strong bass
- Frame interpolation to 120FPS possible for Genshin with rooting
- USB 2.0 port
- Edge display
- High brightness mode not functioning
- Fewer bands supported
| OnePlus Ace 2 PHK110 op5913l1 | |
|---|---|
| OS | Android 13 |
| RAM | 12GB / 16GB LPDDR5X |
| Storage | 256GB / 512GB UFS 3.1 |
| SoC | Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 |
| Display | 6.74inch FHD+ 2772 x 1240 Aspect ratio 20.12:9 120Hz AMOLED |
| Size | 163.4 × 74.3 × 8.7mm |
| Weight | 204g |
| SIM | nano SIM + nano SIM |
| Rear Camera | 50MP (OIS / Sony IMX890) + 8MP (Ultra-wide OV08D10) + 2MP (Macro OV02B10) |
| Front Camera | 16MP (S5K3P9) |
| Battery | 5,000mAh |
| USB Port | USB Type-C (USB 2.0) |
| Bands | 2G: GSM 850/900/1800MHz 2G: CDMA BC0 3G: UMTS (WCDMA) bands 1/4/5/8 4G: TD-LTE bands 34/38/39/40/41 4G: FDD-LTE bands 1/3/4/5/8/28A 5G: NR:n1/n3/n5/n8/n28A/n40/n41/n77/n78 |
Index
- 1 Performance comparable to a gaming smartphone
- 2 Loose edge display
- 3 Smooth to the touch back surface
- 4 Good photo quality even on budget phone
- 5 100W charging and VoLTE supported
- 6 Alert Slider is back on the budget phone
- 7 Capable of playing Genshin at an average of 56 FPS
- 8 If rooted, you can play Genshin at 120 FPS
- 9 Conclusion
Like the OnePlus 11, it is manufactured as a product of OPPO.
It says it is sold and guaranteed only in mainland China.
AndroPlus
Accessories include instruction manual, protective case, stickers, charging cable, and charger.
The protective film is applied.
The charger is equipped with a USB Type-A port.
Unfortunately, in 100V regions, it can only produce up to 11V / 7.3A → 80.3W.
Loose edge display
The OnePlus Ace 2 has a 6.74″ FHD+ 2772 x 1240 resolution display.
It is an edge display with not very steep curves.
Probably the same panel as the OPPO Find X6.
It is a diamond pixel array.
Although it is made by Tianma and not Samsung, it is vivid, has good color reproduction and good viewing angles.
When measuring the brightness with the LX-1336B during all-white HDR video playback with automatic brightness adjustment on, it reached a maximum of 468 nits.
Even with Bright HDR video mode turned on, the maximum is only about 562 nits, and like the OnePlus 11, the high brightness mode does not seem to work.
This makes it a little harder to see outdoors.
The total touch latency measured by the WALT Latency Timer was 39 ms.
Widevine L1 allows HD quality streaming playback on Amazon Prime Video and other sites.
It’s still L1 even after bootloader unlocking, but I can no longer play HD playback on Amazon Prime Video.
The in-screen fingerprint sensor is located at the bottom of the screen.
The authentication speed is quite fast.
Smooth to the touch back surface
The back of the OnePlus Ace 2 black is smooth and fingerprint resistant.
It may get some color transfer if something else rubs on it, but it can be removed by rubbing it with your finger.
The glass around the camera does not seem to be very strong, and I got scratches at the flashlight…
The weight is 208g including protective film.
Good photo quality even on budget phone
The OnePlus Ace 2 is a smartphone that is more conscious of SoC performance and cost performance than camera performance, but it uses the Sony IMX890 OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) camera as its main camera, which is sufficient for everyday use and can take reasonably beautiful photos.
All photos taken in handheld and auto mode are stored here.
Although the 2x zoom gives a slightly faded look from 1x, not much detail is lost.
It can also be used for telemacro where objects are photographed from a little further away.
Zooming is possible up to 10x.
Noise tends to appear slightly in night scenes.
Although it is easy to make mistakes in processing, especially in the red area, this bright and clean image is sufficient considering the fact that this is not a camera-oriented phone.
100W charging and VoLTE supported
The bottom of the OnePlus Ace 2 includes a USB Type-C port, SIM slot, and speaker.
It is capable of fast charging at up to 100W, and its charging technology, such as the SUPERVOOC S chip, does not significantly affect battery life even after 4 years of use.
The maximum capacity can be found in the settings.
The following bands are supported by OnePlus Ace 2:
- 2G: GSM 850/900/1800MHz
- 2G: CDMA BC0（ 800MHz ）
- 3G: UMTS(WCDMA) bands 1/4/5/8
- 4G: TD-LTE bands 34/38/39/40/41
- 4G: FDD-LTE bands 1/3/4/5/8/28A
- 5G: NR:n1/n3/n5/n8/n28A/n40/n41/n77/n78
VoLTE of global carriers are supported by default.
Some carriers are affected by region locking, though…
AndroPlus
The upper speaker is a dual-use type for calls, so the volume is slightly different on the left and right sides.
Bass is strong and treble is clear, though a little choppy.
In the settings, you can turn on stereophonic sound as well as Dolby Atmos.
The “Fixed” mode can be used with any earphones, and head tracking is also possible with compatible earphones.
Unlike spatial audio, which is supported natively by the earphones and the music itself, I have the impression that the bass and treble are simply enhanced to make them easier to understand.
To enjoy true spatial audio, you will need to have earphones that support it.
The audio output delay was 30.4 ms when measured with the WALT Latency Timer.
The IR infrared port on the top allows the OnePlus Ace 2 to be used as a remote control for air conditioning, TV, etc.
Alert Slider is back on the budget phone
The alert slider was removed for a short while after OnePlus went OPPO, but the alert slider is back on the OnePlus Ace 2 (same as OnePlus 11).
One touch toggles between silent and silent mode.
Volume buttons are located on the left side.
Capable of playing Genshin at an average of 56 FPS
The OnePlus Ace 2 is powered by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 (the regular version, not the low clock version).
Although it is a previous generation, it is still made by TSMC and boasts high performance and power-saving capabilities that are a far cry from the Snapdragon 888 and 8 Gen 1, which were made by Samsung.
In Geekbench 5, the package name disguised version (i.e., not affected by the manufacturer’s improper boosting) had a single-core of 1037 and a multi-core of 3698, while the normal version had a single-core of 1041 and a multi-core of 3740.
There was no significant change, and it seems that performance is not controlled by the package name determination.
AndroPlus
In Geekbench 6, it was 1367 single-core and 4023 multi-core.
AI performance measured in Geekbench ML with TensorFlow Lite/NNAPI was score 405.
In the Wild Life Extreme Stress Test in 3DMark, which disguises the package name, the score was 2803 to 1978, the temperature increase was 21°C to 41°C (20°C increase) and the battery consumption was 19%.
It seems that the system has been adjusted to facilitate continued high performance.
PCMark Work 3.0 (package name disguised), which measures performance in everyday use such as document manipulation, scored 11336.
The memory is LPDDR5X and the storage is the same Samsung KLUEG4RHGB-B0E1 used in the realme GT2 Explorer Master Edition with UFS 3.1.
Although random reads are slow, Genshin’s load time was the same as the vivo X90 Pro+ with UFS 4.0, so there are few situations where you would notice the slowness in a real environment.
Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is may not able to maximize the performance of LPDDR5X, and memory copy speed was slower than 8 Gen 2 and LPDDR5X equipped devices.
When measured with WeTest PerfDog by playing Genshin with the highest quality, 60FPS setting, around Sumeru, the average was 56.2 FPS at power consumption of 105.27 mW per FPS.
The battery temperature was only warm to the touch, with a maximum rise to about 36°C.
The game mode can also be set to a performance mode called Pro Gamer.
Anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, and other adjustments are also available.
Touch and swipe sensitivity can also be adjusted.
If rooted, you can play Genshin at 120 FPS
In the default state, the option to interpolate frames in the global version of Genshin appears, but unfortunately, it does not actually work.
However, if you root and install the cn2global Magisk module I created, you can enable it.
The HDR option will also be available, and frame interpolation will be available on YouTube too.
The system determines that it is 60FPS, so the measurement results must be doubled.
Measured with TakoStats at the highest quality, 60FPS setting, the average was 111.976 FPS and 49.18 mW per FPS.
This means that the power consumption is almost the same as when playing at 60FPS natively and the frame rate is twice as high.
The battery temperature rise is also the same at about 36°C.
The change is subtle enough to be noticeable, but you can feel the lukewarm movement when there is scrolling or pan/tilt movement.
The HDR effect makes colors darker and details easier to see, but it feels strange if you are used to the normal version.
Conclusion
- Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 for high performance and power savings
- Vivid AMOLED display with 120Hz support
- 5,000mAh battery with 80-100W charging capability
- Stereo speakers with strong bass
- Frame interpolation to 120FPS possible for Genshin with rooting
- USB 2.0 port
- Edge display
- High brightness mode not functioning
- Fewer bands supported
The OnePlus Ace 2 has a fairly high performance for the price thanks to its Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, and is recommended for those who want a high-performance phone with a good camera there or a sub for gaming.
If you root it, you can also use frame interpolation, making it a very interesting phone for enthusiasts.
If you don’t want to root it, it would be easier to buy a global OxygenOS version sold at GIZTOP or other places, as it has the Play Store installed and the location history and auto-start restrictions removed.
The OnePlus Ace 2 is available in China from 2799 yuan.
Globally, it is available as OnePlus 11R.