Review: OnePlus 12

At Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event last week, the spotlight was on #GalaxyAI, the Google-powered artificial intelligence inside Samsung's new Galaxy S24 smartphones. The hardware took a backseat. OnePlus' latest phone, on the other hand, doesn't have many of these AI tricks; it doesn't have top billing in the smartphone world after all.

Instead, OnePlus worked with chipmaker Qualcomm to polish the hardware and software in the OnePlus 12, crafting a powerful, fully featured Android phone that's attractive and well-rounded—nothing more, nothing less. In a world where the term “AI” is thrown around to hype everything, it's refreshing to test a phone that just works.

Photograph: OnePlus

OK, I have to address the design first because this thing is a looker. The OnePlus 12 comes in Silky Black and Flowy Emerald, and why on earth would you pick black when you can get this showstopper of a green? It has a lovely marble-like design that oozes luxury and is a conversation starter (the massive camera bump helps too). The emerald option is only available with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage, hence the higher $900 price (OK, that's a good reason to buy black). The black's base version is $800 and comes with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. That's still more space than you'll find on most phones at this price.

On to the meaty stuff. OnePlus says its close collaboration with Qualcomm enabled several improvements on the OnePlus 12 over its peers using the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset. It calls this “CPU-Vitalization,” which purportedly offers lower power consumption and thereby less battery drain when performing the same kinds of tasks, plus smooth performance even after years of usage.

You'll hear similar terms in the marketing of the OnePlus 12, from the “Trinity Engine” and RAM- and ROM-Vitalization to Hyper Touch … yawn. All you need to know is that this is a very snappy smartphone. Launching apps and moving between them is buttery smooth. After 45 minutes of Genshin Impact at its highest graphical settings, the handset was relatively warm but didn't have overtly hot spots. And in that time it only lost around 10 percent of battery life.

Compared to the new Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, I noticed the OnePlus 12 delivered slightly smoother gameplay in the same game and was marginally cooler to the touch, and it also did a better job of spreading the heat across the device; the S24 had more hot spots. Outside of this graphically demanding game, the OnePlus 12 and Galaxy S24 Ultra were nearly identical in performance. Phones are really fast and responsive nowadays, so most day-to-day tasks aren't going to feel too different when comparing devices sharing a processor, CPU-Vitalization or not.

I can't speak for how this phone will perform years from now—you'll have to take OnePlus' word—but I can tell you that OnePlus is committing to four Android OS upgrades and five years of security updates, which is pretty darn good if you plan to hold on to your device for a long time. It's still not as good as the seven years of software support Google and Samsung are now offering, though.

Battery life has been impressive. OnePlus stuffed a 5,400-mAh cell in here, and I can easily eke out two days of average use. On one particular day when I spent a lot of time on my phone, taking photos and videos, navigating, and streaming music, I was left with 52 percent by bedtime. Yay! Better yet, you can always go from zero to 100 within 30 minutes if you use OnePlus' included charging cable and adapter. You can also go wireless. Yes, OnePlus has finally listened and brought back wireless charging. However, if you want fast wireless charging, you'll need to pair the OnePlus 12 with the company's wireless charger, which can recharge it to full in under an hour.

The only gripe I have with the display is the curved edges. Samsung and Google have both started ditching these curved screens, and I am all for it. Sure, curved displays look cooler, but it's nicer to hold a phone with full metal edges that aren't a part of the screen. The phone won't mistake your grip for other touch interactions, which is certainly something that has happened on the OnePlus.

The AMOLED screen otherwise is sharp, can fluctuate the refresh rate from 1 Hz to 120 Hz, and gets nice and bright. OnePlus claims a peak brightness of 4,500 nits, which is almost double the brightness of any other phone, but this is a bit misleading. It's not like the entire screen will be blindingly bright. Generally, I didn't notice a major difference over the S24 Ultra or even the Pixel 8 Pro when I was out walking about. It's bright enough to see the screen in direct sunlight and I don't know why you'd need something that much brighter.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Two last points I want to touch on before I get to the cameras. First, there's now an infrared (IR) blaster on this phone. You might be overjoyed by that, or you might not care. It used to be a thing several years ago on phones from Samsung, LG, and HTC, but not so these days. It means it's possible to control specific appliances via your phone. For example, I was able to configure the IR app on the OnePlus 12 with my LG TV and control it without having to grab my TV remote. Nifty.

Second, OnePlus says it has made the screen more resistant to interruptions from raindrops. It called this “Aqua Touch” and showed off a video demonstrating the ability to use the OnePlus 12's screen more easily in the rain versus another smartphone. It hasn't rained the past week here in New York City (just this thing called “snow”), so I simulated a rain-like experience in my shower, making sure that the water jets didn't directly hit the screen. Well, it was impossibly hard to use both the OnePlus 12 and the Galaxy S24 Ultra, so I wouldn't put much stock into this feature.

It would be better, perhaps, if OnePlus added an IP68 water-resistant rating like every other flagship smartphone. The OnePlus 12 is only rated IP65, which means you have to be careful with this phone around the pool, as it's not been tested to survive submersions.

It's hard to miss, but there's a triple-camera system on the back of the OnePlus 12: a 50-MP primary sensor, a 64-MP telephoto with 3X optical zoom, and a 48-MP ultrawide. Overall, it's hard to complain—the results from the cameras are pleasing.

It does have trouble capturing motion, like when I try to take a photo of my dog. It doesn't get skin tones, white balance, or colors completely right. The HDR could also use some polishing—colors tend to get washed out when it has a bright scene mixed with dark spots. But I'm reasonably happy with this camera system. Check out the camera samples in the gallery below! The Pixel 8 Pro and S24 Ultra have the better cameras overall, but OnePlus makes a solid showing here.

The 3X optical is especially nice for portraits (see the pics of the cat!), and the 6X cropped zoom sensor can also produce solid results, though it's usually not as sharp as the 5X optical zoom on the S24 Ultra. I did have some fun playing around in OnePlus' Master mode, the new name for its “Pro” camera mode, which lets you tweak the settings before you take the shot, if that's up your alley.

The OnePlus 12 has all the top specs and features you'd want in a smartphone, all for $800. However, in some ways, it still feels like it's playing third fiddle to Samsung and Google. It might have sounded like I was knocking the AI features Samsung announced, but I have used them. The auto-transcribing Voice Recorder app was helpful during a meeting last week. I like that I can resize subjects in my photos and move them around with Samsung's Generative Edit feature. Or the ability to add slo-mo to any video with just a tap. Google's Pixel phones have even more smart capabilities that I use every day. Samsung and Google are also offering longer software support.

By focusing on polishing the hardware and software experience, OnePlus has made a Very Good Phone in the OnePlus 12. The battery life is great, the cameras are above average, and the whole thing is fast in how it performs and how it charges. But, honestly, OnePlus does need to start thinking about making its software even smarter—whether it's by working with Google to port over features, as Samsung did, or by developing its own. Just maybe don't go completely crazy on the AI hype train.

The OnePlus 12 is available for preorder now, and official sales start February 6. As a preorder bonus, you can take advantage of a free memory upgrade (get the 512-GB model for the price of the 256-GB version), and you can also snag OnePlus' wireless charger for free. Also, you can trade in any phone in any condition to get an easy $100 off, but this promotion will be available for the lifespan of the device.