After a few months of using the OnePlus 12, we already know it’s a standout smartphone that strikes a winning balance. But at $799 (AU$1,210) in the US and £849 (AU$1,625) in the UK, how easy it is to recommend will depend on how much the phone costs where you live.
Putting price differences aside for a moment, the OnePlus 12 offers a compelling mix of performance, design, and features. It’s made of premium materials, has standout styling in the green version we tested, and with a mighty Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor and a huge 5,400mAh battery, it also goes full-throttle for a long time.
OnePlus’s latest flagship also sports a Hasselblad camera system that’s very similar to that of the OnePlus Open, which performed brilliantly when we tested it, combining a 50MP primary camera with a periscope zoom setup and an auto-focusing ultra-wide camera.
Now that 2024’s seen fresh competition from the Motorola Edge 50 Pro, Honor 200, and other lower-cost options, it’s the perfect time to revisit the OnePlus 12 and ask the question, is it still a great option on both sides of the pond?
OnePlus 12 design and screen
The OnePlus 12 enjoys a sleek and sophisticated design and is available in two finishes: Flowy Emerald and Silky Black. With a 9.15mm profile and weighing 220g, it's slightly chunky and heavy, even for a flagship smartphone. The curved edges and tapered frame do help the phone feel less bulky, while the camera module’s textured surround adds some flair.
The phone is protected by Gorilla Glass 5 on the back and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the front. It's also IP65 water and dust-resistant, so it can handle a splash but not a dunk.
OnePlus’s trademark alert slider gives you quick access to silent and vibrate modes. A typical selection of ports and buttons adorn the right side – power and volume buttons – and at the base is a USB-C port and SIM slot.
The OnePlus 12 boasts a 6.82-inch QHD+ display with a pixel density of 510 pixels per inch of screen. Its official peak brightness is 1,600 nits in standard viewing, and this climbs up to 4,500 nits for HDR content.
On top of ensuring excellent visibility in all lighting conditions, OnePlus’s Pro XDR feature enhances the viewing experience for photos by utilizing the full range of brightness in the native gallery app and Google Photos. This feature makes highlights pop and adds depth to images, though it can sometimes make the highlights appear slightly overblown.
The OnePlus 12’s adaptive refresh rate is also competitively smooth, ranging from 1-120Hz so menus glide smoothly.
With a pre-fitted screen protector, the phone gives you an extra layer of protection right out of the box, though unlike past OnePlus phones, there’s no included case this time around.
OnePlus 12 camera specs
The OnePlus 12 features a versatile triple camera system with a 50MP main camera, a 64MP telephoto camera, and a 48MP ultra-wide camera. The wide camera also supports three default primary camera focal lengths: 23mm, 28mm, and 35mm, so you can capture photos with a more punched-in point of view.
Main camera: The primary camera has a 50MP 1/1.43-inch Sony LYT-808 sensor, a wide f/1.6 aperture lens with OIS, and a 23mm equivalent focal length.
Telephoto camera: The OnePlus 12's telephoto camera combines a 64MP 1/2-inch OmniVision sensor with a 3x periscope lens with a 70mm equivalent focal length. The lens is f/2.6 and has PDAF and OIS.
Ultra-wide camera: With autofocus as close as 4cm, the OnePlus 12’s ultra-wide is the final piece of its camera system. It combines a half-inch sensor with a 14mm focal length, an f/2.2 aperture, and a 114º field of view.
Selfie camera: The 32MP front camera has an f/2.4 aperture, a 21mm focal length, and supports 4K capture at up to 30fps.
The OnePlus 12 also introduces Master Mode to the OnePlus line with full manual control and customizable saturation, contrast, sharpness, and vignette amount in Pro mode JPEGs.
As for video credentials, the phone can shoot 8K video at up to 30fps from the main camera, 4K video at up to 60fps across all rear cameras, and 10-bit 4K 60fps HDR (Dolby Vision) from the main camera.
OnePlus 12 camera review
The OnePlus 12’s camera is impressive thanks to refined photo processing that realistically balances shadows and highlights. The main camera captures rich colors, and realistic but extensive dynamic range as well as crisp detail. The large sensor and wide aperture allow for impressive low-light performance, capturing bright and detailed photos even in challenging lighting conditions.
The telephoto camera delivers clear and detailed shots with its 3x optical zoom, maintaining good image quality up to 6x digital zoom. This makes it perfect for capturing mid-distance subjects without significant loss of detail, and it’s also excellent for product photography between the 70-85mm range. A big part of this versatility is the telephoto lens’s nearest focus distance of around 20cm.
Even the ultra-wide camera adds versatility, allowing for expansive landscape shots and detailed macro photography. Autofocus ensures that close-up subjects are sharp and clear and OnePlus’s processing helps elevate results beyond the occasionally lacklustre ultra-wides on other phones.
In bright environments, video from the OnePlus 12 looks rich with strong dynamic range and solid stabilization, even at 8K which isn’t typically the case. The front camera’s 4K video capture keeps vlog-style footage crisp and video calls looking on-point, though struggles as the lights drop, as do the ultra-wide and telephoto cameras around the back when recording video.
OnePlus 12 additional features
Powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, the OnePlus 12 delivers top-tier performance. The base model includes 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, with a pricier option packing 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. With flagship-grade UFS 4.0 storage and LPDDR5X RAM, data transfer speeds and overall system performance are on point on paper and in real-world use.
Gaming on the OnePlus 12 is a top-tier experience, even four months after the phone launched in the West. Its specs haven’t been superseded, and 3D titles like Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves look stunning on its quality display.
Thanks to efficient thermal management, the OnePlus 12 keeps its cool even when gaming, though, once you fire up performance mode to eke out a little extra from the processor, it does warm up.
Running on OxygenOS 14, based on Android 14, the OnePlus 12’s interface is smooth and stable. It’s less overbearing than HyperOS on the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, though still has a couple of features that make it feel less simple than a Google Pixel-grade clean Android experience.
The Smart Sidebar, File Dock, and enhanced gallery tools improve productivity if you don’t mind the extra clutter, and ease of use. Within the gallery, there’s also a feature that lets you cut out subjects and copy them as transparent PNGs or save them as stickers with a long press.
When it comes to futureproofing, OnePlus promises four years of OS updates and five years of security updates, so while you can't expect it to feel fresh quite as long as an Apple iPhone, Google Pixel, or Samsung Galaxy, it's still competitive on that front.
The OnePlus 12’s 5,400mAh battery lasts for a full day with heavy usage, even with a fair bit of gaming and photography. It supports 80W wired charging for a full charge in under 30 minutes and 50W wireless charging which is very competitive. While the wired charging speed is slightly reduced from the OnePlus 11’s 100W, the addition of wireless charging is a significant improvement.
OnePlus 12 verdict
For anyone in the US, at its price, the OnePlus 12 is one of the best camera phones of 2024. It’s exceptionally well balanced with its high-end features, impressive performance, and powerful camera system.
If you’re in the UK or Europe, the OnePlus 12’s recommended price is a tougher sell, going up against phones like the Pixel 8 Pro and Honor Magic 5 Pro. It holds its own, however, isn’t the clear flagship value champ it is in the US.
Whatever its price, though, if you’re in the market for a flagship phone that offers excellent performance, a versatile camera system, and a premium design, that’s exactly what you get with the OnePlus 12, and with its Hasselblad-tuned camera system and new Master Mode update, it’s a capable imaging tool and smartphone with very few chinks in its armor.
