OnePlus 11 Pro Leak Shows The Alert Slider Is Not Dead Yet

There is no denying that 2022 has turned out to be a tumultuous year for OnePlus. As part of its renewed focus on its home market of China and the rest of Asia, 2022 witnessed OnePlus drastically change its launch schedule. If this wasn't all, OnePlus accelerated the process of the "Oppo-ification" of OnePlus in 2022, with ColorOS and OxygenOS becoming virtually indistinguishable from each other.

We knew OnePlus was treating 2022 differently right from when the company announced the launch of the OnePlus 10 Pro as a China-only device back in January 2022. Given that OnePlus typically launches its flagship devices in April-May, the January announcement of the OnePlus Pro did take everyone by surprise. OnePlus also decided against launching a vanilla OnePlus 10 model — deviating quite a bit from its usual launch strategy. The Oneplus 10 Pro eventually made it to other markets — including the U.S. — a few months later.

In August 2022, OnePlus finally launched its non-pro flagship device for 2022 in the form of the OnePlus 10T 5G. This flagship smartphone missed out on several things from the "Pro" model — including the Hasselblad branding for the cameras and the alert slider — which was a staple on Oneplus flagships for several years. But just when everyone started believing that the OnePlus alert slider was on its way out, the first leaked renders of the Oneplus 11 Pro indicate that this feature could be making a comeback with the next-gen OnePlus flagship.

This past week, leaker Digital Chat Station claimed that OnePlus was looking to launch the OnePlus 11 before the end of the year. Furthermore, the report went on to claim that this smartphone will almost certainly come powered by Qualcomm's next-generation flagship chip — the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Aside from these predictive guesses, however, DCS did not share any other details about the OnePlus 11 lineup.

Two days later, OnLeaks collaborated with Indian tech publication Smartprix to leak the first renders of the OnePlus 11 Pro. As evident from the images below, the OnePlus 11 Pro gets a completely redesigned camera bump — a design choice that will almost certainly evoke polarized reactions. The camera bump is also noteworthy for the prominent Hasselblad logo stamped on it.

Hey #FutureSquad! I'm back from the Future with 2023's first major leak!😏

Here comes your very first and very early look at the #OnePlus11Pro through crispy sharp 5K renders!

On behalf of @Smartprix -> https://t.co/0esErP2wRa pic.twitter.com/hE1xrysDcU

— Steve H.McFly (@OnLeaks) September 12, 2022

From the renders, it looks very plausible that the OnePlus 11 Pro will retain the OnePlus trademark physical alert slider switch. With the alert slider supposedly coming back on the OnePlus 11 Pro, it is becoming increasingly evident that the company plans to make this a feature exclusive to its "Pro" series flagship devices.

OnLeaks stopped short of sharing other features of the OnePlus 11 Pro and also added that the final production version of the phone might end up looking slightly different from his renders that were based on an early prototype.