If you’re planning on buying the OnePlus 11, the company’s new flagship, be careful. It seems like the Chinese OnePlus 11 models are region-locked, so you’ll want to avoid those.
Chinese OnePlus 11 models seem to be region-locked
It’s not that difficult to avoid them, but it’s worth noting nonetheless. If you’re visiting China, plan to import the device from China, or something like that, don’t do that. Buy the device in your region, that’s your safest best.
The OnePlus 11 is officially available in a ton of countries, both the US and Europe are included in the equation. So, just get the device straight from the company, or through a carrier. A proper reseller is also an option, as long as we’re talking about a non-China unit.
So, what leads us to believe that the Chinese OnePlus 11 models are region-locked? Well, something that appeared on the Russian 4PDA forum. Someone over there said that a OnePlus 11 unit bought in China worked fine for about two weeks, but then it got locked.
The post said that a message popped up, saying the following (rough translation): “You are using a region-customized phone. Its calling functions are restricted in your region. Please contact customer service for support”. At that point, restricted calling functionality took place. We don’t know if that affected the cellular data as well.
Once that post appeared, people started digging around for more info. The TeleService.apk showed this warning message. Then people dug around the config files that list the MMCs of the regions where the region-locking behavior triggers.
These restrictions apply in countries where global units are available, it seems
They did discover that the restrictions apply when the Chinese unit is used in one of the listed markets. Quite a few markets are listed, though, including India, Brazil, Russia, Italy, and more. It actually seems like all countries where the global unit is available are listed.
OnePlus obviously does not want Chinese models being used where global units are available, and that makes sense. The Chinese variant comes with different software, and it’s not made for global markets.
Now, the region-locking can be lifted, but you’ll need a 16-digit unlock code. That is something ONePlus customer support can provide, but the question is will they want to. So, just keep in mind that you shouldn’t buy a Chinese version of the OnePlus 11, unless you live in China.