Our Verdict
The OnePlus 12 is a feature-packed phone and out-and-out flagship with no compromises, especially for its reasonable asking price. It is a beast of a device when it comes to raw performance and battery life, leaving plenty of competitor flagships in its wake. We'd welcome a higher IP rating and AI features, but at this price point, there's little more we can ask for.
- Stunning display
- Unmatched performance
- Excellent battery life
- Great cameras
- IP65 isn’t exactly flagship level
- Lacking AI features
Throughout OnePlus’ existence, its flagship phones have never felt like the top-of-the-line handsets we’re used to seeing from brands like Samsung and Apple. The company has often made smart compromises to keep prices low to meet user expectations for the price point. While that has always been good news for people wanting a flagship-like phone for less, those willing to spend extra on additional niceties had to look elsewhere. That was true of the last OnePlus flagship, the OnePlus 11. However, things have taken a turn for the better this year with the OnePlus 12.
OnePlus has listened to user complaints and made a flagship that goes neck and neck with any other premium Android. The OnePlus 12 ticks a lot of the right boxes. It gets the basics right while offering quite a few extra features you might expect from a high-end phone. Overall, I have little to complain about, and this review will tell you exactly why it deserves a spot in our best OnePlus phones guide. So, let’s dive in.
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Price and availability
The OnePlus 12 first came out in January 2024 and has since made its way to most major global markets, including the US and the UK.
With the upgrades the OnePlus flagship got this year, its prices have also increased. I have the Silky Black colorway, available in two RAM and storage configurations: 12GB + 256GB and 16GB + 512GB. The former starts at $800, while the latter is closer to $900. The greenish Flowy Emerald color is available only with the 16GB + 512GB option and costs the same as the Silky Black version.
Specs
Features
One significant way OnePlus phones have differentiated themselves from the rest of the Android crop is with that handy alert slider. It sits on the OnePlus 12’s left edge and lets you quickly silence your phone without fiddling with the settings. I can’t tell you how often I put my OnePlus 12 on silent while it was still in my pocket, saving the effort of bringing it out and putting it away again. Besides that, the OnePlus flagship also gets an IR blaster with an app to help you control your home appliances using your handset. So, if you ever lose your TV remote, you needn’t bother looking for it.
Hardware features aside, OnePlus’ OxygenOS has always helped the brand stand out. The OnePlus 12’s Android 14-based OxygenOS 14 operating system comes packed with some of the most convenient and practical features of any Android phone. For instance, you can long-press the on-screen fingerprint scanner from the lock screen to quickly access quick app options, like using Shazam to identify a song.
I use the floating window feature most, where, as the name suggests, I can have an app open in a small window overlay over another app. I often use the calculator app in this arrangement to crunch some numbers when I have to split a bill. If you asked me to go back to the old method of going back and forth between two apps for a simple task like this, you’d have to deal with a very irritated person.
Despite having plenty of fantastic features, OxygenOS doesn’t feel bogged down under the weight of your demands and is as fluid as ever (more on this in the performance section below). That said, it’s still unfortunate that when brands like Google and Samsung (and now even Apple) add generative AI features to their phones, OnePlus appears to be slightly behind the curve, at least right now.
Design
The OnePlus 12 doesn’t look much different from its predecessor unless you look closely. The camera island is a touch bigger, and the off-center placement of the circular camera module makes the phone instantly recognizable in a crowd. It is great to see OnePlus embracing this circular arrangement to create a consistent design language.
The colorway we have here is Silky Black, and as its name suggests, the phone feels velvety to touch from the back. The other color option, Flowy Emerald, has a marble-like look, which I got to experience in person at the launch event. The OnePlus 12 in green is something you flaunt without using a cover, or resort to a transparent case at best if you’re a bit clumsy.
It is a relatively big and weighty handset for a non-foldable. But the weight distribution is on point, so the phone doesn’t feel like it’d fall out of your grip even when using it with a single hand. However, adding a case adds to the phone’s thickness and bulk, with which your wrist may not be too pleased.
Hardware-wise, the 12 has a pair of speakers, one each on the top and bottom. Those speakers can get loud enough to fill the room, though I’d have liked them even more had they been a little less tinny. The top also houses that IR blaster we mentioned earlier, while the bottom has a USB-C port (a fast USB 3.2 Gen 1 variant!) for charging and data transfer needs.
Display
Unlike the recent trend of flat displays, OnePlus has boldly stuck with a curved display on the OnePlus 12. While you may prefer one or the other, it remains a fact that the OnePlus 12’s display is among the best OLED panels out there. At 6.82 inches, the phone looks massive, but that display is a delight to watch your favorite Netflix series on when you’re out of the house. Even under direct sunlight, the 12’s peak brightness of 4,500 nits means the display is always easily discernable.
The reason the phone feels so fluid to use is this OLED screen. The dynamic refresh rate makes the animations smooth across the board, so it seems faster than it already is. The latest Gorilla Glass Victus 2 covers the OLED panel, and I am happy with the color calibration. It makes the display look punchy but doesn’t go overboard with saturation, so you should be fine with the default display mode.
Cameras
When I switched to the OnePlus 12 earlier this year, I had already been using the OnePlus Open for a few months. OnePlus overhauled its flagship camera setup with the Open last year, and the same set of upgrades also made it to the OnePlus 12.
A major change came in the form of a dedicated 3x telephoto lens. While the optical 3x zoom does a fine job of capturing faraway things without losing details, its portrait shots shine the brightest. This camera takes some staggering portrait images, with near-spotless edge detection and color processing that works well for my friends and my family’s brown skin tone.
Speaking of color processing, the OnePlus-Hasselblad partnership does wonders for how the photos end up looking. I prefer the 12’s color science over many other phones, especially for daylight shots. The main camera takes some delightful shots with accurate colors that don’t seem oversaturated. The phone can maintain these colors across its main, ultrawide, and telephoto cameras for the most part. There are still some slip-ups where the white balance misses the mark between two subsequent shots, but it’s not consistent enough to be an issue.
The OnePlus 12’s camera isn’t perfect, though, visibly struggling when the lighting isn’t adequate. Its low-light shots in normal mode won’t blow your mind, though the adequate Night Mode makes up for it pretty well. Results when using the Night Mode are decent, even if there is very dim light; all you need to get it right are ultra-steady hands.
With a big software update following the phone’s launch, OnePlus added Master Mode. Master Mode gives you basic controls over image saturation and contrast to bridge the gap for people who want to tweak their camera settings but aren’t comfortable with DSLR-like controls. But if you want those kinds of in-depth controls, you can toggle from Auto to Pro and get a full suite of settings to make the most of the excellent camera hardware.
With all these features, the camera app on the OnePlus 12 is quite fun to use. It is smart enough to automatically switch between macro and text scanner modes, depending on the scene. There’s also a built-in film mode to capture widescreen videos with pro controls. You just won’t tire of playing around with this phone’s camera.
Performance
Calling the OnePlus 12 a performance monster would be fitting. Even after using the phone for an extended period, I have not experienced a single stutter in my day-to-day use. The animations are smooth, the apps load quickly, and switching between them is a breeze. I’ve returned to apps and picked up where I left off the previous day with no issues. The version I’m using has 16GB of RAM, which has to be the reason behind this, but even the base 12GB of RAM is plenty for all kinds of use cases and is more than what the laptop I typed this review on has.
Like many other flagship phones of 2024, the OnePlus 12 has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 under the hood. I am an occasional gamer, and my go-to titles are Call of Duty and Asphalt 9, which run without a hiccup. The phone warms up a bit while gaming but doesn’t get uncomfortable. That’s coming from someone who braves India’s harsh summers. The OnePlus 12 is by far the best-specced phone in its price bracket, and it consistently makes the most of that hardware.
Another perk that comes with Snapdragon processors is the network modem. The phone gets you all the latest wireless standards, translating to rock-solid network reception in the real world. That’s something you can’t always say about Pixel phones, which use inferior modems and aren’t as reliable.
Battery
At this point, it has started to feel like I’ve been raving about the phone incessantly. But I can’t help it; the OnePlus 12 is that impressive, and I’ve saved the best bit for last. Power-hungry high-end processors on flagship phones often result in less battery life, but the OnePlus 12 defies that logic. It has a 5,400mAh battery, significantly larger than the Galaxy S24 Ultra. That means the phone lasts at least a full day without giving me any battery anxiety, even after using a mix of 5G and Wi-Fi. Not just that, it often has enough juice to spare to last half a day more.
On top of that, the phone comes with superfast 100W wired charging that takes about half an hour to fill that hefty battery up. While fast wired charging has meant that I never missed wireless charging, the company has included its proprietary 50W wireless charging this time, which is faster than many wired charging speeds from other flagship phones. For context, the iPhone 15 Pro maxes out at around 25 while wired, so the OnePlus 12 offers double the wattage while wirelessly charging. There’s also reverse wireless charging if you want to charge your earphones on the go but don’t have a spare USB-C cable.
Should you buy the OnePlus 12?
Unless it wasn’t already clear, I can’t help but recommend this phone. Even though the OnePlus flagship has gotten pricier than ever, the OnePlus 12 still gives tough competition to its peers and even leaves them in the dust in almost every area that matters. It has a top-notch display, reliable performance, and battery life to match. The handset is a great package overall and the cameras are also flagship-class.
OnePlus phones have often felt like they are just a few steps away from being truly great. The OnePlus 12 finally changes that notion, as it gets you most of what the Galaxy S24 Ultra offers but at the price of a Galaxy S24. There’s room for improvement; OnePlus could have attempted to reach a better IP rating and included more AI tricks. Still, if I were looking to spend $800 on a phone today, the OnePlus 12 would be it.
Alternatives
If, for some reason, you think that the OnePlus 12 isn’t for you, there are a few similarly priced phones for you to check out.
Google Pixel 8 Pro
Google’s Pixel lineup stands out for its software experience, which remains unmatched thanks to the ton of smart features that Pixel phones get exclusive access to. Of them all, my favorite is Now Playing, which detects the songs playing around you even when the phone is offline. The Pixel 8 Pro gets you the best of the Pixel world, and with its follow-up just around the corner, it is currently selling for a steal. For more details, check out our Google Pixel 8 Pro review.
Samsung Galaxy S24
The Galaxy S24 is the smallest phone in the latest family of Samsung flagships. The biggest change to this year’s lineup is the introduction of Galaxy AI, which brings a ton of AI features to the phone that make it exciting to use, with many more on the way. Samsung has an industry-leading software commitment and ensures wide availability in the US and elsewhere with carrier partnerships, unlike OnePlus, so there is a greater chance of you stumbling upon a Galaxy phone in a store. If you want to know more, read our Samsung Galaxy S24 review.