A no-nonsense flagship for a great price

It may be bizarre to see a brand new system name again to a time lower than a decade in the past. However tech strikes quick and with the , it looks like somebody made a cellphone for the pre-AI period. As a substitute of magic editors and a bunch of machine studying, newest flagship is extremely easy. It has a pleasant display, a strong construct, dependable cameras, nice efficiency and even higher battery life. So whereas it gained’t show you how to summarize a gathering or remaster a photograph, the OP12 covers all of the fundamentals with aplomb. And with a beginning worth of $800 ($200 lower than a equally outfitted S24+), it’s an ideal deal too.

Design and show: A old-school silhouette with trendy specs

The form of the OnePlus 12 appears to be impressed by older telephones just like the that includes tapered edges and rounded corners. This makes the cellphone very snug to carry, the draw back is that there’s some distortion across the display the place it curves. Fortunately, OnePlus’ 6.8-inch 3,168 x 1440 panel appears to be like so good it’s possible you’ll not discover. It includes a nominal peak brightness of 1,600 nits that may go all the best way as much as 4,500 nits in sure conditions (like direct daylight), so it by no means appears to be like boring or washed out. The display additionally helps a 120Hz variable refresh alongside a brand new 2,610Hz PWM (pulse width modulation) approach to assist stop the display from flickering when set to very low brightness (underneath 70 nits).

Round again there’s an enormous and considerably ungainly digicam module surrounded by a sheet of Gorilla Glass Victus 2 with a beautiful matte end. It’s extra textured than your typical frosted glass however not as scratchy as the corporate’s old-school sandstone backs and it feels so good I might have a tough time masking it with a case. The OP12 additionally sports activities an IP65 score for mud and water resistance, which isn’t fairly nearly as good as what you get from rival Samsung and Google telephones. Nevertheless, that is the best score ever on a OnePlus and it’s nonetheless greater than sufficient to deal with issues like rain and splashes. And in contrast to most handsets nowadays, OnePlus included an IR blaster so you’ll be able to simply regulate settings in your TV or soundbar without having a devoted distant.

Efficiency: Tremendous speedy

Whereas the OP12 could have a nostalgic design, its efficiency is nearly as good because it will get for Android handsets. It includes a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip together with both 12GB or 16GB of RAM and as much as 512GB of storage. Regardless of some underwhelming benchmarks (which different shops have additionally encountered), the cellphone feels extremely fluid. Flipping between apps is tremendous clean whereas video games load and play and not using a trace of stuttering. To assist guarantee incessantly used apps are all the time on the prepared, OnePlus has a reminiscence optimization characteristic that may hold as much as six apps suspended within the background for as much as 72 hours, so that you don’t must reload your favourite recreation unnecessarily.

Cameras: Hasselblad’s cumbersome module delivers

The OP12’s triple-lens setup holds up effectively in opposition to the with a 50-MP predominant cam, a 48-MP ultra-wide and a 64-MP telephoto digicam. Through the daytime, photographs had been vivid and energetic and I recognize OnePlus’ extra impartial white steadiness in comparison with Samsung’s hotter tones. At evening, whereas photographs had been only a contact softer and darker than comparability pictures I took utilizing the , they weren’t far behind. Lastly, utilizing the 3x telephoto digicam I managed to seize a really sharp image of a squirrel regardless of its finest efforts to dart away. Simply ensure you disable the choice so as to add a Hasselblad watermark to your photographs the primary time you launch the digicam app.

Battery life and charging: The most effective but

Among the best issues in regards to the OnePlus 12 is its battery life and charging speeds. On our native video rundown check, the cellphone’s 5,400 mAh cell lasted 26 hours and 40 minutes, which is the longest time we’ve seen on any handset. That’s greater than two hours longer than the (24:29) and a greater than six hour enchancment on final 12 months’s (19:45).

OnePlus proprietary charging tech additionally delivers breakneck wired and wi-fi charging speeds. When utilizing its included energy brick and cable, the cellphone went from 10 to 55 p.c battery in simply 10 minutes. Alternatively, when positioned on the corporate’s wi-fi pad (which is on the market individually for ), the OP12 went from 10 to 37 p.c battery in 10 minutes. To place that into context, after I carried out the identical check with the S24U, it solely managed to go from 10 to 30 p.c battery in 10 minutes utilizing a Samsung charger and a appropriate cable. Sadly, you’ll solely get these speeds with OnePlus’ first-party equipment, so if you happen to use customary USB-PD or Qi chargers, issues are slower.

Wrap-up

In comparison with different big-name telephones which can be turning to AI to enhance their capabilities, the OnePlus 12 is an uncomplicated system that mixes good {hardware} with a strong construct. It has a big, punchy show with nice efficiency and unparalleled battery life. And whereas OnePlus does plan on including AI options by way of , the 12 doesn’t want them to supply a compelling package deal. And with a beginning worth of $800, it’s $200 cheaper than an equal Galaxy S24+ and that’s earlier than you think about that knocks off one other $100 with the trade-in of any cellphone, no matter age or situation. In a world the place smartphones have gotten more and more complicated, the OnePlus 12 is an easy various that handles all an important issues with ease.