OnePlus has been on a tear recently. First, the company released the OnePlus Open last fall to rave reviews. I personally thought it was the best foldable of 2023, as I detailed in my roundup of my favorite smartphones of the year. I was already convinced that OnePlus had achieved the best foldable with that phone, even though the company didn’t include wireless charging for some reason. The OnePlus Open is still the best foldable deal out there today, especially when you look at the specs (so long as the lack of wireless charging isn’t a deal-breaker for you).

Now, OnePlus has gone one better with a new device—so let’s dive into how the company has finally delivered on its promise of a flagship-killer with the OnePlus 12.

OnePlus 12 Specs (Except The Camera)

The OnePlus 12 comes with all the specs you’d expect from a flagship phone, including a standard configuration with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Compared to the similarly priced Samsung Galaxy S24 ($799), the OnePlus already has double the storage and 50% more RAM. To put it another way, it has the same storage and RAM as the more expensive S24+ and S24 Ultra models. (It’s also worth remembering that the S24 and S24+ don’t ship with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 outside of the U.S. and a few other countries.) The OnePlus 12 has a 5400 mAh battery, while the S24+ and S24 Ultra have 4900 and 5000 mAh, respectively. The base-model S24 has only a 4000 mAh battery, so the OnePlus 12 has a 35% bigger battery, which should make a massive difference with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and an even bigger difference against the Exynos 2400 used in Samsung models outside the U.S.

In terms of display tech, OnePlus also went for a competitive 120Hz 6.8-inch QHD+ display, but opted for one with an astonishingly bright 4500-nit peak brightness. This is especially helpful outdoors in extremely bright environments but isn’t sustainable for long periods. The OnePlus 12 also fixes my biggest complaint with the OnePlus Open: the lack of wireless charging. The OnePlus 12 does even better with a 50-watt proprietary wireless charger (and still supporting the Qi wireless charging standard at lower wattages). It also supports 80-watt wired charging, which is currently the limit of most GaN chargers at 110 or 120 volts. Wireless or wired, this phone seriously outperforms the S24 series, with triple the wireless charging speed and almost double the wired charging speed. OnePlus has also included reverse wireless charging, which is a must-have feature if you offer any wireless charging accessories, and can come in handy in other circumstances, for instance when a friend’s phone has died. Even better, with the 5400 mAh battery, you won’t be worried about sharing juice.

OnePlus also didn’t skimp on connectivity, offering 4×4 MIMO 5G and leveraging Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 5G modem and eSIM and DSDA support. Having the 4×4 MIMO should result in better uplink speeds and signal, improving both battery life and coverage. (I haven’t confirmed this for myself because I haven’t used the phone long enough to evaluate this.) Another bonus is that OnePlus also went with Qualcomm’s Wi-Fi 7 chip, the FastConnect 7800, which only the S24 Ultra offers in Samsung’s lineup. With the FastConnect 7800 also comes all of Qualcomm’s AptX codecs; however, it appears that OnePlus did not adopt the more advanced nearly-lossless AptX Adaptive or lossless Snapdragon Sound codecs. OnePlus also continues to use facial recognition and an optical fingerprint sensor for unlocking the phone, even though I believe that ultrasonic fingerprint sensing is superior for many reasons. (Ultrasonic sensing is what Samsung uses on its S24 line.) A sonic sensor allows you to unlock the phone with a single press and without turning on the screen, it is much more tolerant to moisture and it offers a larger scanning area in many cases.

The Experience

Everything in an Android phone starts with the OS. The OnePlus 12 features OxygenOS 14, which is based on Android 14.0 and has a reputation for being a fast Android experience. OnePlus has historically been good at updating its phones, squashing bugs and making camera tweaks. There have been a couple of updates since I got this phone in January, so the company is actively improving the phone as I’m using it.

This OS feels similar to previous versions of OxygenOS and includes many Android 14 improvements, which results in a very smooth and enjoyable experience, albeit one that is not particularly memorable. When it comes to Android phones, I prefer that OS customizations be minimal and not impact the overall performance; for the most part, OnePlus has done that here.

One notable thing missing from the OnePlus 12 that Samsung devices have is a first-party AI application (or a suite of them). Mind you, I don’t think those apps add much to the S24 series at this point; the most compelling feature is Circle to Search, which Google will likely ship on most Android devices by the end of the year. In the long term, I believe OEMs such as OnePlus will benefit from working with third parties that develop superior AI apps to compete with Samsung’s strategy of first-party AI apps.

Speaking of performance, I did benchmark the OnePlus 12 against the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 devices from Samsung and the latest iPhone. The OnePlus 12 outdid almost all of them in terms of CPU performance, with only the iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone 15 Pro Max beating it on the GeekBench 6 Single Core benchmark. However, in multicore, the OnePlus 12 beat the iPhone 14 Pro Max and came within 10% of the iPhone 15 Pro Max. On 3Dmark, a gaming graphics benchmark, the OnePlus obliterated the iPhones and virtually tied with the S24 Ultra. On PCMark, a systemwide benchmark, the OnePlus 12 was handily beaten by many devices, but made up for that with a 3Dmark Solar Bay ray tracing result that beat all devices. PCMark is a somewhat outdated benchmark, while Solar Bay tests a relatively new feature in ray tracing, which is why it is more relevant. In short, the OnePlus 12 lives up to its reputation for outstanding performance, especially keeping up with or beating the S24 Ultra in almost every metric.

The Camera

The camera has long been an engineering focus for OnePlus, and it’s an area where I truly believe the company has overcome its past underperformance and become a leader. In fact, the OnePlus 12 camera is one of the best smartphone cameras I have used. It starts with the Lytia LYT-808 sensor from Sony, the latest flagship sensor featuring pixel stacking. The same sensor is found inside the OnePlus Open, which also takes incredible photos. Accompanying this advanced 50 MP sensor is a 64 MP OmniVision OV64B sensor for telephoto 3x and 6x sensor crop images, as well as a Sony IMX 581 ultrawide sensor at 48 MP.

Compared directly to Samsung, the primary camera sensor appears to have a lower resolution, but realistically, Samsung is mostly using that sensor for digital zoom and oversampling in low-light conditions. Besides, 200 MP images are not practical for capture or use; as such, OnePlus’s approach is far more rational. The 32 MP front-facing camera is also extremely sharp—arguably too sharp, sometimes, when it makes you realize how many imperfections you have in your face.

The video capabilities of this phone are equally impressive, with support for 8K at 24 FPS and 4K at 60 FPS, even though I’d like to see a 4K at 120 FPS option as well. I believe innovating with 4K is more beneficial than supporting 8K, so I’m glad that OnePlus opted for Dolby Vision HDR support. Most people simply don’t have 8K displays, and capturing that much resolution is highly computationally expensive and takes up tons of storage. The OnePlus 12 has slow motion at 1080P with 240 FPS and 720P at 480 FPS, which require decent lighting so that the footage does not appear noisy.

OnePlus still co-markets and co-develops its camera software with Hasselblad, including features such as the XPAN camera simulation mode. At this point, it feels like OnePlus has gotten its camera act together, and this is a true flagship camera in both well-lit and low-lit environments. I’ve been mostly impressed by the camera quality across photos and videos, and I’ve had people ask me repeatedly which camera I’m using when sharing OnePlus 12 photos.

Some early reviews of this camera when it was using older firmware give it poor marks, but I have never experienced bad image quality from it. My only gripe is that the 3x and 6x zooms don’t quite reach the 10x optical phones’ reach, and I don’t think digital 10x is a good solution. I believe that Vivo has proven that a 10x optical zoom with a high-resolution sensor is the best approach—and that compromises don’t need to be made.

The Value

At launch, OnePlus had a very aggressive offer through which it was selling its model with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage (normally $899) for the same price as the model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage at $799. That deal has ended, and now we have a much clearer picture of the OnePlus 12’s value proposition. The company also offers $100 instant trade credit for any phone in any condition, which makes this an even better deal. OnePlus is not selling this phone at any carrier stores, only directly and through Best Buy, even though it will work on all three U.S. carriers very well (albeit without mmWave on Verizon). I believe the $799 SKU is a good deal compared to Samsung’s S24 and S24+, and the $899 SKU is extremely competitive against the S24+ and S24 Ultra, which cost $999 and $1,299, respectively. OnePlus also sweetens the deal with six-month financing with 0% APR and $30 off Buds 3, which I found to be a good pair of earbuds, although nothing stunning.

Compared to the OnePlus 11, the new model is a pretty sizeable upgrade in terms of camera size, but otherwise an incremental improvement. I would definitely recommend upgrading if you’re coming from anything older than a OnePlus 11. OnePlus has also introduced the OnePlus 12R, a more budget-conscious device that doesn’t enter into the discussion here with its significantly reduced specs and $499 price.

Wrapping Up

I believe that OnePlus has built something special with the OnePlus 12. It is now my default Android recommendation over the S24 for anyone who wants a phone with great specs at an even better price. I don’t think that OnePlus is making much money on this phone, but that’s all the more reason why people should go out and get it. While I don’t believe that the OnePlus 12 is necessarily in the same class as the absolute top-of-the-line S24 Ultra or the iPhone 15 Pro Max, it does offer an incredible value and genuinely great experience. If anything, I would say that my biggest complaints with the OnePlus are the lack of accessories and the fact that my favorite case for the OnePlus 12, the carbon fiber aramid case, is sold out.

While some people may knock this phone for not having the same AI capabilities as the Samsung S24 series, the reality is that they run on the same processor, and any third-party AI apps are probably going to run the same or faster on this device. All in all, OnePlus didn’t make any compromises with this phone, and it truly lives up to the company’s Never Settle motto.