OnePlus 12 review: Almost as good as S24 Ultra, but at a far lower price

The OnePlus Open stole a lot of thunder from the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 last fall, being named the "best foldable phone of 2023" by our team at XDA, our sister site Android Police, and perhaps the most famous phone reviewer in the world, Marques Brownlee. Can the OnePlus newest slab flagship do the same to the recently launched Galaxy S24 series?

Considering that the OnePlus 12 starts at $800, you'd think it should be compared against Samsung's base model S24, which is the same price. But no, the OnePlus 12 is clearly better than that phone, with more RAM, a higher-res screen, a better zoom lens, and a much bigger battery that can charge faster. Going by specs and performance, I'd put the OnePlus 12 somewhere between the $999 S24+ and $1,300 S24 Ultra. And to be honest, it's closer to the Ultra end of that spectrum.

That fact alone should make it a win for OnePlus, but alas, Samsung has a slew of attention-grabbing generative AI features that the OnePlus 12 lacks, and the all-important U.S. carrier presence. So, the OnePlus 12 will likely fall under the radar and be underrated again.

I'll put it like this: if you tell me you want the S24 Ultra over the OnePlus 12 (and you don't mind the $500 price gap), I wouldn't argue with you. But if you tell me you are getting the S24 or S24+ over the OnePlus 12, I'd ask you to reconsider your decision.

About this review: This review was written after 11 days of using the OnePlus 12 provided by the company. It did not have input in this article.

OnePlus 12: Pricing and Availability

The OnePlus 12 is available for pre-orders today from Amazon, Best Buy and OnePlus's own website, and will go on sale officially on February 6th. The phone comes in two colors (green and black) and two storage configurations (12GB+256GB; 16GB+512GB). Officially, the two configurations are priced at $800 and $900 respectively, but there are a lot of deals and offers that lower the price.

During the pre-order period until the last minute of February 5th, all three retailers will give a free storage upgrade, meaning you'll get the 16GB+512GB model at the base $800 price. OnePlus's website has an instant $100 off offer for consumers who trade in any phone in any condition (so yes, even a completely broken 20-year-old flip phone works), and this offer lasts throughout the life cycle of the phone.

Hardware and design

Sleek, comfortable, but too familiar

The OnePlus 12 brings back the design language of the OnePlus 11, with a similar circular camera module that spills over to the sides and blends into the aluminum frame. This frame houses the power button and volume rocker on the right side and alert slider on the left. I adored this look last year, and that sentiment remains the same. The "emerald green" colorway I got has a tone that's between green and blue (more the former), and the Gorilla Glass 5 glass back has a pattern that makes it resemble a piece of marble or gemstone.

The 6.8-inch 3168 X 1440 OLED display is gorgeous. Its 1,600 maximum nits don't get quite as bright as the S24 Ultra's panel, but it has a much higher PWM (pulse-width modulation) Hz, which is the number of times a screen flickers per second. The higher the PWM, the better for our eyes. The OnePlus 12 has a PWM of 2,160Hz, while Samsung did not disclose the number for the S24 Ultra, external testing from several sources found its display PWM to be around 480Hz.

This isn't likely to be a huge deal, by the way. A low PWM negatively affects only a small percentage of the human population. But it is worth mentioning that Samsung's flagship phone screens have consistently trailed Chinese brands and the iPhone in this area.

The OnePlus 12 panel curves on the left and right sides, just like the last five OnePlus flagships. I have never disliked curved screens like many of my peers, but I do think the mobile trend has clearly moved towards the boxy shape with flat panels. The Pixel 8 Pro, S24 Ultra, and Xiaomi 14 Pro all made the switch to flat panels, and the OnePlus 12's design now feels a bit out of date, in my opinion.

The phone is comfortable to hold — its 220g and 9.1mm are not considered bulky by 2024 flagship standards. The thickness is impressive considering the OnePlus 12 packs a 5,400 mAh battery, larger than any other phone selling in the U.S. (except for those niche rugged phones). As usual, this battery charges much faster than the competition too if using the included 80W charger. There's 50W wireless charging, as well as stereo speakers. The IP65 rating is the only part of this phone that is behind other premium flagships, as Apple, Samsung and Google offer IP68.

Cameras

OnePlus' first Periscope zoom excels

The OnePlus 12 has a triple lens system covering the ultra-wide (14mm), wide (23mm), and telephoto (70mm) field-of-view. The zoom lens uses Periscope camera technology, a first for OnePlus (fun fact: the Periscope camera tech was in fact pioneered by OnePlus's parent brand, Oppo). This 64MP Periscope zoom camera has a relatively large 1/2-inch sensor (larger than the best zoom lens offered by Apple, Google and Samsung currently), and allows the OnePlus 12 to do a credible 6X zoom at near lossless quality using in-sensor crop.

Color consistency across all four lenses is good, without significant variation.

The zoom lens is impressive even in low light conditions, a testament to OnePlus's image processing, which has a new HDR algorithm. Below are 3X and 6X shots in low light conditions.

In side-by-side testing, the OnePlus 12's zoom lens beats the iPhone 15 Pro Max's 5X zoom, and is neck and neck against the S24 Ultra's 5X zoom. Below are 10X zoom samples from all three phones in less-than-stellar lighting inside an apartment.

Elsewhere, the OnePlus 12 brings back the same main cameras the OnePlus Open, a 50MP f/1.6 lens using Sony's LYT-808 sensor. This is a pixel-stacked sensor, meaning the sensor separates the photodiodes and pixel transistors into separate layers, which allows the relatively small 1/1.4-inch sensor to gather more light than its size should allow for.

From my testing, the OnePlus 12's main camera performs similarly to the Open's. This means photos are mostly good, with fast focus, and shallow depth-of-field, thanks to the fast aperture. Below is a gallery of main camera samples snapped by the OnePlus 12 and S24 Ultra, placed side-by-side with OnePlus on the left and Samsung on the right. Each image is followed by a 100% crop for pixel peeping. We can see that OnePlus 12's shots generally have slightly less noise than Samsung's, but the S24 Ultra has a bit more details. This is all only noticeable when pixel peeping. Otherwise, if viewing the images on Instagram, you'd only be able to spot differences in color science.

The OnePlus 12's ultra-wide sensor is solid, if unspectacular. During the day, it's prone to blown-out highlights, and at night, there's noticeable noise and soft details. Sharpness is a bit superior to ultra-wide shots by the iPhone 15 Pro Max or S24 Ultra, though, because OnePlus 12's ultra-wide uses a larger sensor.

The 32MP front-facing camera can shoot videos in 4K, which many Chinese phones cannot do for some reason. Photos from the front-facing camera are fine. It tends to brighten up the shot a bit more than American and Korean competitors. But at least it keeps my skin tone natural. I generally prefer Samsung's selfie camera the most out of all the phones, but OnePlus 12's front-facing camera is fine.

Video performance is good, with the OnePlus 12 able to seamlessly switch between lenses with less jerkiness than most Android phones (the Pixel 8 Pro is quite bad in particular). There's OIS for both the main and zoom lens, so even when filming 3X videos while I'm walking, the footage is respectable. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is still the video camera king, with the best transition between lenses and exposure adjustment, but the OnePlus 12's quality is no slouch at all. See for yourself below.

This means the OnePlus 12's camera system is excellent and absolutely among the best cameras for phones sold in the U.S. Outside the U.S., where the competition gets much stiffer, I'd still rank the OnePlus 12 cameras behind the Vivo X100 Pro (my vote for best smartphone cameras right now) and the Oppo Find X7 Ultra, but those phones are also more expensive.

Software and overall performance

Fast, efficient, and powerful, but where's the AI?

The OnePlus 12 ships with OxygenOS 14 based on Android 14, and it is typical OnePlus/Oppo software: fast, with buttery smooth animations. It's full of shortcut gestures to trigger actions, like draw a circle on a sleeping phone to launch the camera. And its multitasking system is superior to stock Android (or the software in the Pixel) because it can open apps in split-screen or a floating window. I have no real complaints about it. I've actually been saying for years I prefer ColorOS/OxygenOS over any other Android skin, and that's still mostly true.

However, the OnePlus 12 feels lacking in the AI department in 2024, particularly since it's launching in the same window as the Galaxy S24 series, which is all in on AI. It's not just Samsung though, the Google Pixel 8 series became the first phone to launch with generative AI capabilities, and Xiaomi followed suit with its 14 series that launched in China a few months ago (global launch coming next month). Since the entire Android world is bringing generative AI features to the phones, it feels a bit lacking here.

The thing is, most of Samsung's AI features aren't even necessarily Samsung inventions, but rather Google's. Circle to search is basically a smarter Google Lens integrated into OneUI. I guess Samsung, being a bigger company than OnePlus, could convince Google to give them some exclusivity on these features, but there's really nothing stopping many of those S24 AI features from being on the OnePlus 12.

But at least the OnePlus 12 nails everything else. Battery life is among the best I've seen in Android, thanks to its large battery. This is a phone that could go a full 14-15 hour day for me and still finish with over 20% left (I'm a very heavy user). The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is an excellent silicon and the OnePlus 12 doesn't do anything to get its way. In fact, the OnePlus VC cooling chamber does a good job at keeping performance consistent even during gaming sessions.

I really don't care about benchmark numbers much in 2024, but for the sake of readers, below are GeekBench 6 and 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test scores. Everything performs up to par.

The haptics are excellent, and the stereo speakers are fine; I've encountered no bugs or crashes. There's really not much to report on with the OnePlus 12 in the performance area other than that it's fast, smooth, and efficient.

Should you buy the OnePlus 12?

You should buy the OnePlus 12 if:

• You want tip-top 2024 Android performance but don't need the S Pen and generative AI features.
• You are buying a new flagship phone outright (without carrier subsidies) and want the best value.
• You are considering the base model Galaxy S24 (just get the OnePlus 12 instead unless you really need AI features).

You should not buy the OnePlus 12 if:

• You want a new phone that feels significantly different than devices before it
• You own a 2023 flagship and feel perfectly fine about its performance
• You don't mind paying more for the Galaxy S24 Ultra

The OnePlus 12 is a very good phone that ticks almost every box, except forward-looking generative AI features baked into the phone. At $800 (or $700 with the generous trade-in offer), it's absolutely one of the best values in phones right now — for people who buy outright. Unfortunately for OnePlus, in the U.S., consumers frequently rely on carrier subsidies and discounts, and that's a hurdle that the OnePlus 12 will likely struggle to break through.

In other regions where consumers are not as reliant on carriers, the OnePlus 12 has great appeal. This is an $800 phone that keeps up quite well with the $1,300 S24 Ultra. The OnePlus 12 makes the base model S24 look bad. Please don't buy the base model S24 over this phone, unless you really like Samsung (or dislike OnePlus).