I used the Pixel 8a and OnePlus 12R, and one is a better value

With how expensive our favorite smartphones are getting, it’s easy to forget that it has never been a better time to buy a midrange device. Samsung and Motorola are providing a surprising number of features in the ultra-budget price range, but you have to make quite a few compromises if you want to pay just a few hundred dollars for a smartphone.

That’s why the $500 price point is the sweet spot for people who want the best value. The Google Pixel 8a and the OnePlus 12R both cost exactly $500, and they’re not too far off from their higher-priced counterparts, the Google Pixel 8 and OnePlus 12. I’ve spent a few months with the Pixel 8a, and I’ve used it alongside the OnePlus 12R for over a week. I think I know who these midrange phones are for, and it’s not as clear-cut as you might imagine.

What I liked about the OnePlus 12R

The display is top-notch, and much brighter than the Pixel 8a

The OnePlus 12R has the best display of any midrange phone I’ve tested, and that’s because it’s in the same league as the standard OnePlus 12. The panel size is slightly smaller, measuring 6.78-inches, but it’s still plenty big, and was an easy adjustment coming from my iPhone 15 Pro Max. The exact resolution is 2780 × 1264, but I was more impressed by the brightness.

OnePlus advertises a 4,500-nit rating for the OnePlus 12R, compared to the 2,000-nit rating of the Pixel 8a. Although we’ve debunked these exorbitant peak brightness claims in the past, OnePlus is clearly doing something right here. Its midranger looks brighter in the sun, and the difference is extremely perceptible in the photo above.

The Pixel 8a screen isn’t bad for the price, but the OnePlus 12R’s screen performs way better. Unfortunately, it isn’t all good. OnePlus is still using a curved panel, meaning the screen becomes distorted around the curve at nearly all viewing angles, and it’s also weird to hold. If a curved screen bothers you as much as it bothered me, you might have no choice but to pick the Pixel 8a.

The OnePlus feels like a flagship, whereas the Google Pixel 8a feels like a good budget phone

The best way I can describe the difference between the OnePlus 12R and the Pixel 8a, is that the former is a flagship-grade device being sold at a midrange price, whereas the latter is simply a solid budget phone.

The display quality and size are big reasons why the OnePlus 12R feels like a flagship, but there are others. It’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and can be configured with either 8GB or 16GB LPDDR5X memory, and it feels snappy. It also has OnePlus’ industry-leading fast charging technology, supporting 80W speeds that get you a fully-charged phone in around 30 minutes.

What I liked about the Google Pixel 8a

The smaller (and flat) display is great for people who love small phones

I do appreciate that the Pixel 8a is smaller and lighter than the OnePlus 12R — not every phone needs a screen nearing 7-inches in size.

You might also think the OnePlus 12R’s glass back is more premium than the Pixel 8a’s plastic back, but the truth is the back of the OnePlus 12R feels more slippery and less satisfying to hold than the Pixel 8a, and it’s likely heavier because of that design choice.

The Google Pixel 8a has a 6.1-inch display, and the size difference between these phones will be the deciding factor for a lot of people. If you like compact phones and want to comfortably use your device one-handed, don’t be afraid to pass on the OnePlus 12R.

Software support, Pixel Camera, and Google AI are real benefits to buying a Pixel 8a

I’m still a fan of stock Android, and I love what Google has done with the Pixel Launcher in recent years. The Pixel 8a uses stock Android 14, and to me, that’s reason enough to go with Google.

Don’t get me wrong, OxygenOS 14 isn’t bad by any means, and it’s based off the same Android 14. Which skin is best will come down to preference, but software support is more objective. With the Pixel 8a, you get a whopping seven years of full OS upgrades. OnePlus only guarantees three full Android updates and four years of security patches.

It’s worth considering software smarts in general, such as those that are part of Google AI and Pixel Camera. Some features are exclusive to Pixel phones, and if you’re interested in mobile AI, I’d recommend picking up the Pixel 8a. Though I didn’t use AI for much beyond testing purposes, I do find features like Magic Editor and Best Take to be, at the very least, impressive, if not outright useful.

One area where the Pixel 8a seems to decisively beat the OnePlus 12R is in camera quality. I found the OnePlus 12R rear camera system to be wildly inconsistent. Just take a look at the two photos below, which were both snapped with the OnePlus 12R only seconds apart:

The first image has deeper, vibrant colors and high saturation, while the second image lacks that fullness of color and appears brighter overall. The second photo is actually the one that’s more true-to-life, but the point stands: you don’t really know what you’re going to get from the OnePlus 12R camera. Throughout my camera testing, this lack of consistency became a trend.

In this series, the first photo is captured with the OnePlus 12R and the second with the Google Pixel 8a.

You can expect the camera on the Google Pixel 8a to perform way more consistently than the OnePlus 12R, and better in most situations. Google’s midranger uses the same main 64MP sensor as the Pixel 7a, but that isn’t a problem. And although the OnePlus 12R has a third rear camera — a 2MP macro — you can see in the shots above that the tiny sensor doesn’t produce significantly better macro shots than the Pixel 8a.

The bottom line is that Google is still the king of midrange smartphone camera quality. The thing I’m really missing here is a telephoto lens for optical zoom, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that feature will make its way down to the A-series and R-series soon.

The final say

Both are great phones, but OnePlus delivers more bang for your buck

So, which one would I buy? It has to be the OnePlus 12R. I like to think that the compact form factor, excellent software, and better cameras of the Pixel 8a would be enough, but after spending years using a flagship, the OnePlus 12R is the phone that matches that level of quality. A big deciding factor for me is the display quality of the OnePlus 12R, namely the brightness. I use my phone too much to accept a lower-quality panel.

Throw in the Qualcomm chipset, fast charging, and attractive design, and there’s enough for me to use the OnePlus 12R as my daily-driver. Looking at the spec sheet, it’s impressive that this phone only costs $500. In some ways, it matches up better with the Pixel 8 Pro than the midrange Pixel 8a, and that tells you all you need to know.

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  My pick

  OnePlus 12R

  $400 $500 Save $100

  The OnePlus 12R is a true flagship-killer, offering a fantastic display and a still-great chip in a $500 package. It’s just as big as a typical phone, sporting a 6.78-inch display. You’ll want to pick this one if you care about what’s on the spec sheet.

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  Good alternative

  Google Pixel 8a

  The Google Pixel 8a is clearly a budget version of the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, but it still has great software and an excellent camera. You’ll want to pick this one if you want a smaller phone; or, if you care about the intangibles, like Google’s image or AI processing prowess.