The OnePlus 12 is a premium all-around phone

Price when reviewed: $799.99 | Check price at Amazon

The OnePlus 12 is the company’s top-tier 2024 flagship, including all of the bells and whistles you’ve come to expect from high-end smartphone technology – and then some. It’s not only elegant, but also boasts one of the greatest displays available in 2024, a Hasselblad-branded camera system, and a lengthy battery life, as well as much-requested features like wireless charging.

If you’re thinking about buying the OnePlus 12, you should do so since OnePlus understands its target audience and designed this phone specifically for them. It’s the coolest-looking phone I’ve seen in a long time, if not ever, while others are boring metal slabs. You’ll get longer battery life, faster charging, and a brighter screen, all for hundreds less than the competition’s Ultra and Pro versions. OnePlus makes some sacrifices, but they may not matter to you, and its winning design combined with no-nonsense software makes it the coolest smartphone available at any price.

OnePlus 12 KEY FEATURES

The OnePlus 12 is designed to compete with phones that cost hundreds of dollars more, thus it represents excellent value, particularly when compared to phones in the same price range. The OnePlus 12’s 6.8-inch OLED display provides an excellent viewing and gaming experience, thanks to advanced features such as an LTPO-enabled 120Hz refresh rate, compatibility for all HDR formats, and a maximum brightness of 4500nits. This is one of the most visually appealing phones I’ve ever used, especially in the Flowy Emerald finish. I still wish it could go underwater. The OnePlus 12 can reach potentially hazardous brightness levels, but it is also sufficiently sharp and colorful to compete with the finest.

The Hasselblad co-engineered camera system produces excellent results in most settings, and the addition of a high-resolution periscope lens allows you to get closer to the action than ever before. A very elegant camera that excels at portraits and selfies, but lacks the flexibility and zoom of the greatest camera phones. Stellar performance, especially when compared to competing phones at this price, propels the OnePlus 12 forward, and we even enjoy the lack of AI functions for now. Amazing battery life outperforms the greatest phones you may pick, and it charges faster, whether wired or wireless.

The OnePlus 12 isn’t as tough as the competitors, and it’s not IP68 water-resistant. Even worse, OnePlus does not provide as many years of Android upgrades and security patches. The OnePlus 12 takes wonderful portrait photos, but if you need a zoom lens to capture your child on the field or stage, or if you want to snap macro close-ups, this camera isn’t perfect.

ONEPLUS 12 UNBOXING

The OnePlus 12 comes in the standard red cardboard box but with a huge ’12’ debossed on the cover and some less prominent OnePlus and Hasselblad branding here and there. Inside, you’ll find a 100W adaptor (80W maximum when hooked into a 110V outlet) and a USB-A-to-C connection.

Our European retail bundle lacks a protective case, as did the previous two generations, but the 12’s box includes one for the Indian market. Aside from the instructions, the paper sleeve above the phone always contains three stickers to spread the OnePlus love over your other devices, as well as a ‘Red Cable Club’ membership card for savings on accessories.

CAMERA

• Quirky camera system requires some skill but yields rewards.
• Excellent selfies and strong portraits
• Unique color tuning works when it does.

If you want a camera that takes extremely cool-looking images, especially of people, the OnePlus 12 was designed for you. If you’re seeking precise color and detail, look elsewhere. The cooperation between OnePlus and Hasselblad is now in its fourth generation, and the cameras continue to generate unmistakably unique photographs, if not what most people anticipate or prefer from their smartphone cameras.

According to OnePlus, Hasselblad has tweaked its camera processing (i.e., it did not help construct the lenses) to mimic vintage Hasselblad portrait lens designs. I’ve never shot with a Hasselblad camera, but in my comparison of the greatest camera phones available, including the latest Galaxy S24 Ultra and the iPhone 15 Pro Max, the OnePlus held its own, and in selfies and portraits, the pictures were frequently superior from the OnePlus.

This isn’t a versatile camera configuration. The zoom lens is wonderful for adding bokeh and dramatic blur to photos, but this phone cannot shoot at long distances like the Galaxy S24 Ultra. It also struggled to focus close-ups, resulting in blurry macros and some food images that had to be retaken.

If you enjoy street photography or candid photographs, the OnePlus 12 will be ideal, since it includes a variety of shooting modes, Pro settings, and filter options to help you take beautiful images. This isn’t the best camera on our list, but it gets credit for its distinct style, which is frequently cooler than the laboratory-accurate images you’ll get from the iPhone and Galaxy.

DESIGN AND SCREEN

• Not too dissimilar to the OnePlus 11’s design
• The new etched finish is eye-catching
• 6.8-inch OLED panel with 2K resolution and 120Hz refresh rate.
• Peak brightness: 4500 nits

The OnePlus 12 isn’t a complete redesign of the flagship, with a pretty similar design to its predecessor – but given that the OnePlus 11 was quite the looker, I don’t believe it’s a major concern. Importantly, minor tweaks to the general appearance distinguish the OnePlus 12 not only from its predecessor but also from the majority of the premium smartphone market.

When glancing at the phone from the front, the change is less noticeable, but when you flip it over, the difference is clear. The OnePlus 12 features a fairly distinctive pattern on the back that is believed to be inspired by nature – at least in the Flowy Emerald finish.

It’s not a look we’ve seen before, but the etched pattern garnered a lot of attention throughout the review time, with several individuals commenting on the phone’s appearance. That pattern even merges into the huge circular camera housing for a more consistent appearance, and it complements the green aluminium frame flawlessly. It’s worth mentioning that the phone is also available in a more muted black finish if you prefer something more subtle, but I believe the Flowy Emerald will be far more popular.

Regarding the camera hump, while it is substantial, I do not believe it detracts from the overall design. I believe it’s quite elegant, with a polished metal frame that goes nicely with the aluminum frame. The housing also contains a small amount of glitter for added bling. All of this contributes to the OnePlus 12’s ease of identification, as most smartphones appear identical from the front. Add a matte coating that resists fingerprints, a curved screen, and rounded edges, and you’ve got something that feels amazing in your hand. It’s not especially sleek at 220g and 9.2mm thick, but it feels rather robust.

The OnePlus 12’s display is a visual treat, with every piece of premium screen technology packed into the 6.8-inch panel. Let’s start with the basics: it boasts a 2K resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate with LTPO 3.0 compatibility that allows it to dip down to 1Hz, and a truly astounding peak brightness of 4500nits, making it a joy to use in any lighting circumstances.

OnePlus has also adopted Honor’s 2160Hz PWM dimming, which is activated when the display brightness falls below 70nits. It won’t benefit everyone, but if you have eye strain when using your phone, the OnePlus 12 may help. There’s also premium screen technology like Dolby Vision, HDR Vivid, HDR10+, and the same ProXDR tech as the OnePlus Open, all driven by a dedicated PixelWorks X7 display chipset. That’s a lot of marketing jargon, but it means that the OnePlus 12’s 6.8-inch OLED display is an absolute stunner no matter what you’re up to.

The curved nature of the display will likely be like marmite for some; it makes swipe navigation gestures feel nicer, and it certainly makes the phone easier to wield than the similarly sized Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, but it also means there’s a slight shadow on the two long edges of the screen where it curves when looked at head-on, and the palm rejection tech, like most curved phones, isn’t perfect. Whether or not this is a dealbreaker is up to personal opinion, but even as someone who prefers flat screens, I found the OnePlus 12’s curved display easy to adjust to.

HOW’S THE PERFORMANCE?

• Outstanding performance in gaming and productivity
• No AI features to slow down the newest Snapdragon

The OnePlus 12 performed admirably in all of the tasks I assigned it. With a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, it nearly equals the Galaxy S24 Ultra, which outperformed Apple’s latest iPhone 15 Pro in performance testing. The Galaxy is slightly overclocked, so the OnePlus 12 is a little slower, but the difference isn’t noticeable unless you just care about benchmark scores. In real-world gaming, photo editing, and UI navigation, the OnePlus 12 moves as quickly as I could have hoped.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra wastes performance on lag-inducing AI capabilities that require more processing or communication with a cloud server. Using an S24 Ultra feels slightly slower because you’re constantly waiting for the phone to do anything new. The OnePlus 12 foregoes such new features. There is no Circle to Search or Magic Editor in the Photos app. I don’t miss those functions just yet, so I enjoy the performance improvement.

OnePlus boasts about its cooling capabilities and the Oxygen OS’s capacity to keep your CPU, RAM, and storage functioning smoothly for an extended period. Frankly, I’m wary of any claims made by a firm that doesn’t understand the distinction between ROM and storage, as stated on the OnePlus 12 website. I experienced no performance issues, but I take OnePlus’ statements with a grain of salt.

Buy it if...

• Excellent display, including Dolby Vision.
• Great battery life, super-fast charging, and wireless connectivity are back.
• The rear cameras provide consistently excellent stills photography performance, especially in low light.
• Selfies are better than most.
• Excellent video stabilization.

Don't buy it if…

• IP65 rating for submersion-grade IP68 is the most common spec in the high-end category.
• The daylight video quality is somewhat disappointing.

FULL SPECIFICATION