OnePlus 12 will deliver flagship specs at premium price

Phone season is in full swing. Last week Samsung introduced its new Galaxy S24 flagship, and the next few weeks will see a deluge of devices up to and including those unveiled at Mobile World Congress at the end of February. Today, however, is OnePlus’ time to shine.

The Oppo-owned phone maker just debuted its latest flagship, the OnePlus 12. The days of the firm holding out on the latest process are over at the top of the line. The premium handset sports the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 that Qualcomm introduced at the tail end of last year.

OnePlus’s tweaks on top of that really lay into the buzzwords here, including the “Trinity Engine,” which it calls an “advanced proprietary platform that intelligently unlocks the full potential of smartphone hardware.”

If your eyes just glazed over, I can’t say I blame you. The main things you need to know on the performance front is the aforementioned system-on-a-chip, which is paired with either 12- or 16GB of RAM. Storage, meanwhile, is going to be either 256- or 512GB. The battery is a very healthy 5,400mAh, which goes from zero to 100% in a half hour with the included 80W charger. The wireless charging, meanwhile, takes about twice as long.

There’s a three-camera system on the rear, with a 50-megapixel wide angle (with optical image stabilization), 48-megapixel ultra-wide and 65-megapixel telephoto with 3x optical zoom. Zoom goes up to 120x, but you’re going to start introducing noise into the photo after around 6x.

OnePlus is also talking up a new HDR algorithm here. The company says the algorithm “knows what it sees,” and can adjust lights and shadows accordingly. This appears to be a reference to AI-based image recognition, so the device knows when, say, it’s capturing another person.

Meanwhile a new “Master Mode” brings additional options to OnePlus’ Pro Mode feature, including adjustments to things like contrast, saturation, sharpness and tint. OnePlus is also touting a more “authentic” portrait mode, courtesy of the sensors and Hasselblad algorithms.

OnePlus gets some points for doing good things on the design front. I think many of us were surprised by how nice the company’s first foldable turned out last year. There’s a lot of talk about being influenced by luxury watches, but regardless, the “Emerald Flow” design is a nice touch, and OnePlus/Hasselblad know how to make a nice camera bump.

The OnePlus 12 is up for pre-order starting today and goes on sale February 6, starting at $1,070 for the 12GB/256GB model and $1,200 for the 16GB/512GB upgrade. Flagship specs at flagship prices. If that’s a bit too steep, the new OnePlus 12R starts at $500 – less than half the price.