The OnePlus 11 offers most features that buyers would want from a flagship in 2023, but does it include an Alert Slider? OnePlus introduced the Alert Slider on its first-ever smartphone, the OnePlus One, which became an instant favorite among Android users in 2014 for its insanely high price-to-performance ratio. Since then, most OnePlus flagships offered the distinctive feature that allows users to switch between silent, vibrate, and ring modes, without having to go into settings. It is a unique OnePlus feature that's found on no other Android smartphone, although the iPhone has something similar, called the Mute Switch.

Over the years, the Alert Slider became a fan favorite among OnePlus users, but the company inexplicably decided to remove it on the OnePlus 10T, leading people to wonder whether it's back with the new phone. Thankfully, the company has brought back the Alert Slider on the OnePlus 11 after facing a ton of criticism from die-hard OnePlus users for ditching it on the OnePlus 10T. As with earlier devices, the Alert Slider is placed just above the power button on the right edge of the OnePlus 11, allowing users to quickly and conveniently put the phone on silent or ring modes.

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How The Alert Slider Works

Front view of the OnePlus 11 
Photo: Nadeem Sarwar/Screen Rant

For folks who have never used a OnePlus phone, the Alert Slider is basically a physical switch that can be used to easily shift between different sound profiles. When the switch is in the bottom position, the phone will be in ring mode, while positioning it in the middle will silence notifications but enable vibrate. Users can also push the switch all the way to the top to put the phone in silent mode. The Alert Slider works as advertised, and is one of the many thoughtful details that made OnePlus the powerhouse that it is today.

Naturally, it was a major surprise when the company decided to drop the Alert Slider on the OnePlus 10T last year. While OnePlus came up with excuses for removing the much-loved feature, they didn't cut any ice with consumers. According to OnePlus chief designer Hope Liu, doing away with the Alert Slider helped incorporate high wattage charging, a higher-capacity battery, and better antenna signal. However, the OnePlus 11 actually includes a larger battery than the 10T, with only slightly slower wired charging, further proving that the earlier excuses didn't hold much water.

The inclusion of the Alert Slider is just one of the many features that make the OnePlus 11 a well-rounded flagship. The phone features a high-refresh AMOLED display, a powerful processor, a decent camera array, and super-fast charging, making it one of the top premium smartphones of 2023. To top it all, it also undercuts the Galaxy S23 by $100, making it very competitive. Given the positive early response, it will be interesting to see whether the OnePlus 11 can get the company back on track after several lackluster releases over the past few years.

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Source: OnePlus