As good as the OnePlus 11 is, in some ways it’s a disappointment; lacking some key features that we’d expect at its price and standing. But this might not be a problem the OnePlus 12 faces, going by the latest specs leak.
This comes from Yogesh Brar – a leaker with a solid track record – who claimed on X (formerly Twitter), that among other things, the OnePlus 12 will have an IP rating. Technically, the OnePlus 11 already has an IP rating, but its IP64 certification highlights that its water resistance is far beneath that of a lot of most high-end phones.
Brar lists the IP rating as one of the key upgrades on the OnePlus 12, so presumably that means it will have a better rating than its predecessor. For reference, most of the best phones have an IP68 rating, which as well as the dust resistance already offered by the OnePlus 11, means they’re (fresh) water resistant typically to depths of 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes. So, with any luck the OnePlus 12 will sport the same rating.
OnePlus 12 key upgrades- Better cameras (50+50+64MP)- Bigger battery (5,400mAh)- IP rating- Premium build- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3- 100W fast wired, 50W wireless chargingOnePlus 12 is the upgrade that should have been launched 2 years back..August 21, 2023
Brar’s post contains other “key upgrades" too, many of which we’ve heard before, but which are worth reiterating. They include a 5,400mAh battery (which would be a higher capacity than most phones have), better cameras (with two 50MP sensors and a 64MP sensor), a premium build, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset (which is likely to be the best chipset available to Android phones in at least the first half of 2024), and 100W wired and 50W wireless charging.
Brar had previously claimed that an engineering configuration of the OnePlus 12 had a 5,000mAh battery, so this 5,400mAh claim differs from that, but is in line with another OnePlus 12 battery leak, so there’s a good chance it’s accurate.
That leak also mentions most of the other specs above, with the rumored camera upgrade being another notable one, as in our OnePlus 11 review we noted that the camera array isn’t very versatile.
A premium phone at a premium price
Another interesting detail is the mention of a premium build, as while that’s not very specific, we did note in our review that the design of the OnePlus 11 “isn’t as refined and polished as an iPhone or even a Samsung Galaxy.” So all in all the OnePlus 12 sounds like it’s shaping up to be the phone we wished the OnePlus 11 had been.
And we’re not done yet, as in replies to this post Brar also added some more details, saying among other things that the OnePlus 12’s screen will apparently have a peak brightness of over 2,000 nits. That would make it one of the brightest screens of any phone, topping even the best iPhones, and we were certainly impressed by Apple's top phone's 2,000-nit brightness in our iPhone 14 Pro Max review.
Other details they mention include that the OnePlus 12 will apparently have reverse wireless charging (a feature the OnePlus 11 lacks), and that it will have the same 16MP selfie camera as the current model. The only real bad news in all this is that – unsurprisingly – all these upgrades will apparently lead to a price increase. They don’t say how much by, but for reference the OnePlus 11 starts at $699 / £729 / AU$1,199, so you’ll likely have to pay more than that.
Still, if these leaks pan out then this could easily be one the best OnePlus phones and likely one of the best phones period, so a price increase is understandable. We should find out just how good the OnePlus 12 is in a matter of months, with leaks suggesting it will land in China in December, then launch globally in January.
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