The OnePlus 12R is a fantastic phone, but it looks even fancier in its new Genshin Impact Edition, announced this week at MWC 2024.
Costing £699/$649, this is the latest in OnePlus' special-edition phones partnered with the popular action-RPG, but this year, with the OnePlus 12R focused even more on gaming, the team-up seems even more ideal.
The OnePlus 12R Genshin Impact Edition stands out from its siblings with a brand new Electro Violet colorway and an anti-glare "Silk Glass" back. That's then enhanced by lightning and peacock feather-inspired decorations to match with the design of Keqing, the GI character that the phone's design is built around.
The matte aluminum frame's been recolored too, but the top edge is now “electro-etched.” It looks normal at a glance, but it will reflect Keqing's name onto a surface when you catch the light just right.
The redesign applies to the software too. OxygenOS is almost unrecognizable with all the new icons, wallpaper and always-on display designs, animations and sounds. Some of those new noises are actually Keqing voice lines from the game too.
Even if, like me, you’re not a super fan of Genshin Impact, there’s no denying the phone looks stunning in a way that its basic blue or gray versions do not. But there’s more to this phone than just a fancy purple reskin.
More substantial changes
As you might expect, the OnePlus 12R Genshin Impact Edition is optimized for playing the game. OnePlus promises faster load times and speedier fast travel, Hyper HDR rendering to enhance in-game brightness and lighting effects and special memory management to keep the game running in the background for up to three days without closing it. Sounds handy for when you have to do other tasks on the phone, like looking up walkthroughs or replying to messages.
OnePlus also claims the phone can offer an average of 59.5 fps frame rate while playing GI for up to 3 hours without needing external cooling. That's impressive considering this special edition still users an older Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset.
But the single smartest change is the charger. It's still a 100W brick (80W for the U.S. due to voltage differences) that will provide a full refuel in just over half an hour, but now it comes with a right-angled USB-C cable that makes it far easier to charge while holding the phone horizontally, for instance, while gaming. Plus the purple cable lights up when charging your phone for an extra fun touch.
As you'd expect from a special edition phone, it's packaged in a sumptuous box with plenty of extra goodies like an acrylic Keqing standee, a customized SIM tool, a phone stand, pin badges and stickers, a poster and a custom case. It's designed to be a full-on display stand for your phone so you can impress your friends and family, or at least make it clear to them what your favorite game is.
You're probably better off using this phone properly rather than keeping it in the display box though. This is after all still a OnePlus 12R at heart, which comes with a 5,500 mAh battery which offers incredible battery life, 16GB RAM and 256GB storage, a high brightness display with Aqua Touch capabilities to keep it usable when your hands on the phone is wet, and triple rear cameras including a 50MP main sensor. It's one of our favorite phones of the year so far as a result.
if you're interested in getting a OnePlus 12R Genshin Impact Edition for yourself, pre-orders are open from February 28 to March 30, with open sales beginning on March 31. And if you prefer a plainer experience, the standard but still fantastic OnePlus 12R is already available from $499.
