Price, specs, news, and features

Besides the likes of Google and Samsung, OnePlus is one of the few major players left in the Android ecosystem in the US. While the company’s flagship phones can’t rival the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra or the iPhone 15 Pro Max in camera specs or features, they undercut the competition with their amazing price-to-performance ratio. And that’s good enough to make the OnePlus 11 rank highly in our favorite Android phones list, to say nothing of its excellent OnePlus Open foldable.

The OnePlus 11 launched globally all the way back in early 2023 — and even earlier in some regions — threatening to already make it “old” by the standards of the smartphone world. Thankfully, the OnePlus 12 is finally available worldwide — we’ve even reviewed the phone if you’re curious how it holds up against the AI-focused competition. If you’re thinking of making the OnePlus 12 your next daily driver, here’s everything you need to know.

OnePlus 12: Name, design, and specs

The BBK-owned OnePlus switched to a simpler naming scheme with the launch of the OnePlus 11 in 2023. There was no “Pro” or follow-up “T” model, just the regular 11. For 2024, the company is sticking to that change in pattern, especially with the current one working so well and proving easy to understand.

Thanks to an early announcement for China, we already knew OnePlus phone so special — at least on paper. Now, with the global launch behind us, we know everything there is to know. Unsurprisingly, the company has decided to iterate on the OnePlus 11’s overall design, keeping the bulk of its chassis unchanged while tweaking a few small details for something a little more refined. The large — and, depending on your viewpoint, gaudy — camera module remains on the back, blending into the overall frame of the phone, but the glass now sports a new texture depending on the color.

If you’re after a matte finish on your phone, you’ll want to go with the black or green variants. The white model — new for this year, though not available in every region — appears glossy in pre-release images. But if you’re looking for something truly unique, the company’s new flagship hue is the way to go. Dubbed Flowy Emerald, the device looks as gorgeous as its name is awkward. With patterned blue-green glass, it looks like OnePlus truly has something a little new this year.

These colors aren’t the only change, either, as the company has built a new antenna allowing for the alert slider to the left side of the phone. This gives the power and volume buttons a little more breathing room on the right side, all while matching an unfolded OnePlus Open. These changes come with some improvements to antenna performance within the phone that the company is aiming towards impressing gamers, but personally speaking, I don’t think most users will notice.

OnePlus is using a massive 6.82-inch 1440p display manufactured by BOE capable of reaching 1,600 nits in high brightness mode and a whopping 4,500 nits at peak brightness. It’s powered by Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 — no surprise there — along with up to a full terabyte of storage and up to 24 gigabytes of RAM. You won’t see a number quite that high when buying the phone in the US and other global regions, though; it’s kept to a much more reasonable 16GB of memory.

The good news doesn’t stop there. The OnePlus 12 supports USB 3.2 for faster data transfer speeds, perfectly matching the fast-charging rates we’ve come to expect from the brand. Even better, though, is the return of 50W wireless charging, capable of fully restoring the 5,400mAh cell included in under an hour when using an AIRVOOC charger. If that’s not fast enough for you, the 100W wired charging can go from 0 to 100 percent in just 26 minutes — plus, 10W reverse wireless charging keeps your Qi-capable smartwatch powered up on the road. Sorry, Pixel Watch 2 fans.

Unfortunately, the phone is only certified for IP65 water and dust resistance — not the IP68 certification that we usually see from modern smartphones. That said, you will find the inclusion of an IR blaster — previously seen on last year’s foldable, and a nice old-school addition at that.

OnePlus 12: Camera

OnePlus phones have never really been known for cameras as their big selling point. While the company has tried to change that in recent years through its Hasselblad partnership, the best camera phones still come from Google, Samsung, and Xiaomi. That’s not to say OnePlus phones ship with bad cameras; we were fairly impressed with the OnePlus 11’s camera in our review, and the OnePlus Open could be considered the best foldable camera system available in the US. The OnePlus 11 felt short in the optical zoom department though, as its 32MP telephoto camera only offered 2x zoom — a far cry from the competition.

First up is a Sony 48MP LYT-808 main sensor — last seen on the OnePlus Open — alongside a 64MP OV64B 3x telephoto lens and a 48MP IMX481 ultra-wide shooter. While the zoom level won’t be as good as the Google Pixel 8 Pro or the Galaxy S24 Ultra, the 3x telephoto should capture notably better photos than what the OnePlus 11 can currently manage. Up front is a 32MP IMX615 sensor, and everything features the usual Hasselblad color tuning. With all that power under the hood, the OnePlus 12 might just end up impressing you with its imaging performance. Our reviewer certainly found its image output pretty impressive.

OnePlus 12: Software

Software quality from OnePlus took a huge hit after its partnership with Oppo. While the full merger between OxygenOS and ColorOS was called off, the two skins still share a unified codebase. There are still quite a few issues, but OnePlus has worked hard throughout 2022 to address the bugs with OxygenOS. On the OnePlus 11, things are looking up, with the phone running its Android 13-based OxygenOS 13 with far more stability. Even better, the company’s update schedule promises four major OS updates for the device and five years of security patches.

The OnePlus 12 features Android 14-based OxygenOS 14 here in the states (in China, the phone actually does run ColorOS). Although you’ll get the usual roundup of Android 14 features, we’re relatively disappointed with the focus on buzzwords coming from the company. Thankfully, the phone’s software update policy should be the same as the OnePlus 11, meaning it will get four OS updates after launch. It’ll also support 32-bit apps, despite the phone’s processor no longer doing so — great news for that Flappy Bird APK you refuse to give up.

OnePlus 12: Price and release date

The OnePlus 11 launched in China right at the start of 2023, followed by its international spread in February. For the OnePlus 12, we didn’t even need to wait that long, with the phone arriving in China in early December. Although Samsung’s Unpacked event beat the company to the punch, the OnePlus 12 is still one of the first Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered Android smartphones to hit the market. The company held its international launch on January 23rd, kicking off 2024 with style, with devices set to ship on February 6th.

As for pricing, the OnePlus 12 starts at $800, a $100 price increase from last year. Considering the inclusion of wireless charging and a better camera system, it’s still a relatively fair price point for a flagship as powerful as this. That price gets you a 12GB/256GB configuration, with the 16GB/512GB model priced at $900. If you want that Flowy Emerald color, you’ll need to buy the $900 variant, though a guaranteed $100 minimum trade-in for any phone, any condition through the OnePlus storefront should make that price a little more palatable.

OnePlus 12: An iterative upgrade

As expected, the OnePlus 12 doesn’t seem to be a massive departure from the OnePlus 11. This isn’t necessarily a a bad thing — instead of reinventing the wheel, OnePlus has seemingly focused on addressing the key issues that plagued its 2023 flagship. But considering we’ve already seen what Samsung has brought to the table in 2024, it’s clear the upstart will have plenty of competition to battle throughout the year.