Known for its seamless combination of cutting-edge technology and consumer-friendly pricing, the OnePlus 12 has garnered significant attention from both tech enthusiasts and casual users alike. With its sleek design, powerful hardware, and innovative software, this smartphone sets a high standard for 2024.
In this article, 123 Review’ll explore its key features, performance, and how it compares to other flagship devices in the market.
Design and Build Quality
Specifications and Materials
The OnePlus 12 makes an immediate impression with its premium design, which is a testament to OnePlus’s continued dedication to craftsmanship. The device is framed with aerospace-grade aluminum, known for its light weight and durability, offering a robust yet sleek feel. The choice of materials on the back panel gives users two options: frosted glass or eco-leather. The frosted glass variant has a matte finish that resists fingerprints and smudges, while the eco-leather option delivers a soft-touch feel, giving the phone a more natural texture. These material choices appeal to different user preferences, ensuring that the OnePlus 12 caters to both the visually inclined and the tactilely sensitive. OnePlus has also prioritized protection with Gorilla Glass Victus 2, which covers both the front and back panels. This offers superior protection against drops and scratches, making the phone more durable for everyday use. The device is also rated IP68 for water and dust resistance, providing added peace of mind in wet or dusty environments.
Ergonomics and Aesthetic Appeal
When it comes to ergonomics, the OnePlus 12 excels in offering a balanced, comfortable grip. Despite its large 6.7-inch display, the curved edges and slim profile ensure that the phone fits snugly in hand. The weight distribution is carefully calibrated, preventing the device from feeling top-heavy. Button placement is intuitive, with the power button and volume rocker easily accessible with one hand. The alert slider, a signature feature of OnePlus phones, returns on the OnePlus 12, allowing users to quickly toggle between silent, vibrate, and ring modes with a simple switch. Aesthetically, the camera module has been redesigned for symmetry, contributing to a clean, modern look. It integrates seamlessly into the body of the phone, avoiding the bulkiness that is common with some flagship camera systems. The subtle branding and minimalist design language maintain the sleek and sophisticated appearance that OnePlus is known for.
Display Performance
Features of the 2K 120Hz ProXDR Display
The OnePlus 12 is equipped with a 6.7-inch AMOLED display featuring a 2K resolution (3216 x 1440 pixels). This translates into incredibly sharp visuals, making it perfect for streaming high-definition content, gaming, and general multimedia use. The 120Hz refresh rate ensures that animations are smooth, and scrolling feels fluid, offering a responsive and premium experience. What sets the OnePlus 12 apart is its ProXDR display technology, which enhances dynamic range by optimizing contrast, brightness, and color rendering. The ProXDR display is designed to provide a more immersive experience by making the visuals pop with vibrant colors and deeper blacks. Whether you’re watching a movie or playing a game, the enhanced contrast ratio and sharp details create a cinematic feel. The display also supports HDR10+ for streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, ensuring that content is displayed in its highest quality possible.
Brightness and Color Accuracy
One of the standout features of the OnePlus 12’s display is its peak brightness of 2500 nits, which is among the brightest in the market. This level of brightness makes it easy to view the screen even under direct sunlight, ensuring readability in all lighting conditions. The display adjusts brightness dynamically based on the ambient lighting, optimizing visibility while conserving battery life. In terms of color accuracy, the OnePlus 12 is a frontrunner, covering 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. This makes it ideal for professionals who require precise color rendering, such as photographers, videographers, and graphic designers. The screen reproduces colors that are true to life, ensuring that photos, videos, and other media appear exactly as intended. For added convenience, the OnePlus 12 offers multiple color calibration modes, allowing users to choose between more saturated or natural tones, depending on their preferences.
Camera Capabilities
Overview of the Hasselblad Camera System
In the OnePlus 12, the partnership with Hasselblad continues to flourish, resulting in a triple-camera setup that rivals the best in the industry. The primary sensor is a 50 MP Sony IMX890 sensor, offering exceptional clarity and detail in every shot. This is complemented by a 48 MP ultra-wide lens and a 64 MP telephoto lens, each optimized for different shooting conditions. The collaboration with Hasselblad ensures that color calibration is fine-tuned, producing more natural and vibrant images across a range of lighting scenarios. Hasselblad’s famed Natural Color Calibration brings out true-to-life colors in every photo, enhancing hues without oversaturating them. This is especially noticeable in portrait and landscape photography, where skin tones appear more realistic, and skies and greenery maintain their natural vibrancy. For professionals, the Hasselblad Pro Mode offers advanced controls, such as manual adjustments for ISO, shutter speed, and white balance, allowing for a tailored photography experience.
Telephoto and Ultra-wide Performance
The 64 MP telephoto lens of the OnePlus 12 offers 3.5x optical zoom and up to 100x digital zoom, allowing users to capture distant subjects with impressive detail and minimal loss of quality. This makes it ideal for photographing landscapes, wildlife, or even urban scenes where getting closer to the subject is not feasible. The telephoto lens also performs exceptionally well in low-light conditions, with improved optical image stabilization (OIS) that reduces blurriness in nighttime or fast-moving scenes. The 48 MP ultra-wide lens offers a 120-degree field of view, making it perfect for wide-angle shots. Whether you’re capturing a vast landscape, a large group of people, or architectural structures, the ultra-wide lens ensures that everything fits into the frame without significant distortion. The lens also supports macro photography, allowing users to get close to their subjects and capture intricate details that would otherwise go unnoticed.
Performance and Hardware
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Processing Power
Under the hood, the OnePlus 12 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, which is a powerhouse of performance. Built on a 4nm process, this chip offers a significant boost in speed and efficiency compared to its predecessor. With up to a 25% increase in CPU and GPU performance, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 ensures that the OnePlus 12 can handle intensive tasks such as 4K video editing, resource-heavy gaming, and AI-powered applications with ease. The advanced AI engine integrated into the chipset helps optimize performance based on user behavior, allocating resources dynamically to ensure smooth multitasking. This means that whether you’re switching between apps, running complex programs, or streaming high-definition content, the phone will maintain seamless performance without lag.
RAM and Storage Options
The OnePlus 12 comes in two main configurations: 12GB or 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB or 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage. The LPDDR5X RAM ensures that memory-intensive applications run smoothly, and multitasking is effortless, even with several apps running in the background. This is particularly beneficial for users who rely on their phones for productivity tasks or gaming, where performance hiccups can be a major drawback. Storage-wise, the OnePlus 12 offers the latest UFS 4.0 technology, which significantly increases data transfer speeds, making loading times for apps, games, and large files faster than ever before. The base model comes with 256GB, while the premium version boasts 512GB of storage, providing ample space for photos, videos, apps, and games. Unfortunately, like most flagships today, the OnePlus 12 does not offer expandable storage via microSD.
Battery and Charging
Battery Capacity and Longevity
The OnePlus 12 is equipped with a 5500mAh battery, one of the largest in its class. This battery provides all-day battery life, even with demanding use cases such as gaming, video streaming, and heavy multitasking. Thanks to the energy efficiency of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor and the optimizations in OxygenOS, the battery performance is excellent, with significant power management features that minimize consumption during idle times. With intelligent power-saving modes and adaptive battery technology, the OnePlus 12 learns user behavior and adjusts its battery usage accordingly. This means that the phone conserves power when not in use and prioritizes energy for apps that require it most, ensuring maximum longevity throughout the day.
Fast Charging and Wireless Charging Features
OnePlus has always been known for its fast charging technology, and the OnePlus 12 is no exception. The phone supports 150W SuperVOOC wired charging, which can fully charge the phone from 0% to 100% in just under 20 minutes. This makes it incredibly convenient for users who are always on the go and don’t have time to wait for their phone to charge. Additionally, the 50W wireless charging ensures that the phone can be charged rapidly even without a cable, which is among the fastest wireless charging speeds in the industry today. For added convenience, the OnePlus 12 also supports reverse wireless charging, allowing users to charge other Qi-enabled devices such as earbuds, smartwatches, or even other smartphones using the back of the phone. This feature is particularly handy in situations where carrying multiple chargers or power banks is impractical.
Software Experience
OxygenOS 14 Features
Running on OxygenOS 14, the OnePlus 12 offers a streamlined and customizable software experience. OxygenOS has always been praised for its near-stock Android feel, but with added features that enhance usability. The interface is clean and fast, with little to no bloatware, ensuring that the user experience remains smooth and responsive. OxygenOS 14 introduces several new features, including enhanced privacy controls, a more customizable Always-on Display, and improved smart battery management. The Zen Mode, a popular feature from previous versions, returns with new customization options, allowing users to take breaks from their devices to focus on tasks or relax without distractions. Additionally, Shelf has been improved, offering a more intuitive way to access widgets, quick settings, and recent apps with a simple swipe down from the home screen.
Update Support and Longevity
OnePlus has committed to providing four years of Android updates and five years of security patches for the OnePlus 12, making it a future-proof investment. This level of update support ensures that users will have access to the latest features, security enhancements, and performance optimizations for years to come. For those looking for a device that can stand the test of time, the OnePlus 12 is a reliable option.
Comparison with Competitors
OnePlus 12 vs. Samsung Galaxy S24
When comparing the OnePlus 12 to the Samsung Galaxy S24, both phones offer top-tier performance, but they cater to different types of users. The Samsung Galaxy S24 boasts one of the best displays in the market with its Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel and offers S-Pen support, making it an excellent choice for creative professionals and power users. On the other hand, the OnePlus 12’s Hasselblad camera system gives it an edge in photography, particularly for users who prioritize natural color calibration and enhanced low-light performance. In terms of charging, the OnePlus 12 outshines the Galaxy S24 with its 150W wired and 50W wireless charging speeds, whereas the Galaxy S24 maxes out at 45W wired charging.
OnePlus 12 vs. iPhone 15
When stacked against the iPhone 15, the OnePlus 12 holds its ground with better specifications in some key areas. The iPhone 15 may have a more polished iOS ecosystem, but the 2K 120Hz ProXDR display on the OnePlus 12 offers superior resolution and refresh rate compared to the 60Hz panel on the iPhone 15. Additionally, the OnePlus 12’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset is more power-efficient and slightly faster in multi-core performance compared to the A16 Bionic chip in the iPhone 15. One area where the iPhone 15 has an edge is in software optimization and the seamless integration within the Apple ecosystem. However, for Android users looking for a flagship experience with more customization, faster charging, and superior display technology, the OnePlus 12 stands out as a strong contender.
Unique Features
Infrared Blaster and Additional Functionalities
The infrared blaster on the OnePlus 12 is a rare feature in modern smartphones, allowing users to control a wide range of household appliances, such as TVs, air conditioners, and sound systems, directly from their device. This additional functionality turns the OnePlus 12 into a universal remote, adding convenience for users who want to consolidate their control of various devices. The phone also includes dual stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support, delivering rich, immersive sound for both gaming and media consumption. Additionally, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3 ensure that the phone is equipped with the latest wireless connectivity standards, offering faster data speeds and more reliable connections.
Gaming Features and Optimization
For gamers, the OnePlus 12 offers several optimizations to enhance gaming performance. The HyperBoost 2.0 technology ensures stable frame rates during gameplay, reducing stuttering and lag, even in graphically demanding games. The vapor chamber cooling system helps manage heat, allowing for longer gaming sessions without the risk of overheating. The phone’s touch sampling rate has been increased to 1000Hz, making it incredibly responsive to touch inputs, which is particularly beneficial in competitive gaming where reaction time is crucial. The dedicated Gaming Mode also blocks notifications and allocates system resources to prioritize performance, giving gamers an uninterrupted experience.
Conclusion
The OnePlus 12 is a comprehensive flagship smartphone that excels in design, performance, and innovation. With its 2K 120Hz ProXDR display, powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, and versatile Hasselblad camera system, the OnePlus 12 delivers a well-rounded experience for users who demand the best from their smartphones. Whether you’re a professional photographer, a gaming enthusiast, or simply someone who appreciates cutting-edge technology, the OnePlus 12 offers something for everyone. With robust battery life, ultra-fast charging, and long-term software support, this device is built to stand the test of time, making it one of the top contenders in the flagship market for 2024.
