The OnePlus 12: A Break from the Hype and the Clues to Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the Future of Mobile Phones

The new phone will be available in the US and Europe on February 6th. The entry-level model with 12 or 2 gigabytes of storage, 16 gigabytes of RAM, and 512 gigabytes of storage costs $799.99. The price of the 12R starts at $489 for 8 gigabytes of memory and 128 gigabytes of storage, but then goes up to $589 for 16gigabytes of memory and a whopping 257 gigabytes of storage. February 13th is when it will ship in the US and Europe.

While Samsung and Google are busy shipping mobile AI features as fast as they can, the OnePlus 12 kind of feels like a refreshing break from the hype. I think there are legitimate uses for AI on our phones, but I also think we’re a year or two away from them really hitting their potential. Meanwhile, OnePlus has made some meaningful tweaks to its current formula, rather than going all in on something new. It is working.

OnePlus’ partnership with Hasselblad continues, and it’s, like, 75 percent marketing hype. I think the collaboration has paid off in the color tuning, it’s some of the best in the business. The OnePlus 12 has a camera that knows what to do with warm backlighting, which is not as prone as previous cameras to overbright indoor scenes. Using the 50-megapixel main camera in the standard shooting mode, I got a lot more sharp photos of my kid in a dimly lit children’s museum than I expected. Portrait mode is a little trickier, but again, OnePlus isn’t alone in that struggle.

The OnePlus Buds 3: Constraints, Upgrades, and Other Inconsistencies of Using a Smart Device that is Not a Smartphone

Other OnePlus Buds 3 features include support for the LHDC 5.0 codec for higher-quality Bluetooth streaming if your phone supports it, an IP55 rating for sweat resistance, and multipoint support for connecting to multiple devices simultaneously. The earbuds go on open sale on February 5th in the US, when they’ll cost $99.99. They will cost 99 in Europe, and will go on sale February 13th.

I can’t speak for how this phone will perform years from now—you’ll have to take OnePlus’ word—but I can tell you that OnePlus is committing to four Android OS upgrades and five years of security updates, which is pretty darn good if you plan to hold on to your device for a long time. It’s still not as good as the seven years of software support Google and Samsung are now offering, though.

Compared to the new Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, I noticed the OnePlus 12 delivered slightly smoother gameplay in the same game and was marginally cooler to the touch, and it also did a better job of spreading the heat across the device; the S24 had more hot spots. The performance of the two phones were nearly indistinguishable, except for the graphically demanding game. Nowadays, most tasks will not feel different if you compare a device sharing a processor with one that doesn’t.

Instead, OnePlus worked with chipmakerQualcomm to create a fully featured phone that is attractive and well-rounded. In a world where the term “AI” is thrown around to hype everything, it’s refreshing to test a phone that just works.

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it — contracts that no one actually reads. It’s not possible for us to analyze all of these agreements. Since these are agreements most people can not negotiate, we started counting how often you have to agree to use devices when we review them.

The OnePlus 12: A big screen, a big upgrade over the OnePlus 11 (Raisingly basic), and its hysteresis

And I don’t want to undersell one of the 12’s main attractions: the screen. The panel is a good all-around panel despite it being less bright than the specifications suggest. More importantly, it’s big, and the people want big phones. I know my place, even though I am an exception to the rule. You can not find another panel of this size that looks as good at this price.

In low light, the telephoto will struggle to keep shutter speeds fast enough for moving subjects, but that’s a problem no phone maker has really cracked. There is plenty of light in the 3x. The flaws of a tiny mobile camera lens are amplified at 6x and the details look smudgy, but only if you really go looking. All in all, it’s a big upgrade from the OnePlus 11.

Source: OnePlus 12 review: refreshingly basic

Oxygen OS 14: Color OSification isn’t a bad idea, but it is definitely on the way. (It wasn’t really that bright for the OnePlus 12

If you disliked the color OSification of Oxygen OS, you probably won’t like this one either. I find it inoffensive. I still opt out of using the “shelf” — a designated page in the system UI for widgets that’s usually accessible by swiping down on the homescreen — and instead assign the downward swipe to open the notification shade, as the lord intended. Zen Mode has become more and more enjoyable for me lately. It’s been around since the OnePlus 7 Pro, and it plays the kind of ambient spa music I need to be listening to while I write. It locks you out of certain apps, too — also helpful to the writing process. Don’t buy a OnePlus phone if you have a note of appreciation for it.

Oxygen OS 14 is a lot like Oxygen OS 13. There’s a new Dynamic-Island-esque status indicator called Fluid Cloud that currently only seems to work with a handful of apps — none of the rides or food deliveries I ordered popped up in the little pill icon at the top of the screen, but timers do. I think we’re moving towards a future where every phone has its own Dynamic Island and I’m for it. This is a handy way to check time-sensitive stuff if you need to, and if there is one good feature to crib from Apple, it is this one.

OnePlus claims this screen has a peak brightness of 4,500 nits — that’s frankly bonkers bright. Most other flagships claim somewhere between 2,000 and 2,400 nits at their brightest, and that’s enough to keep the screen comfortable to use in direct sunlight. I didn’t have any trouble using the OnePlus 12 outside on a bright day, but I also didn’t see anything that looked even close to 4500 nits of brightness. Phone Arena provides an explanation, but it’s not as clear as to how screen brightness is measured. I used it without any problems on a bright day, but do not expect the eye-searing brightness the specifications suggest.

The beloved alert slider is here, and OnePlus has mostly reused the 11’s design for the 12. The rear camera “bump” is now see-through with a little sparkle that catches the light. The back glass panel is more slippery than a glossy panel because of its smooth finish. The whole thing is IP65 rated, which means it’s fully dustproof, while merely water resistant. Jumping up from IP64 means it’s better protected against water spray, so it should handle even the worst splashes and downpours fine. Just don’t expect to take it for a dip without consequences.

Source: OnePlus 12 review: refreshingly basic

How Did I Get Up? Bringing my phone with me on the train, and into the train with a fully-charged, fully charged device

I am so happy I can take it with me on the train and wake up to a fully charged device. There’s no Qi2 here, so if you were hoping for MagSafe-style accessories, you’ll have to settle for a third-party magnet case and “MagSafe-compatible.”

It’s possible that the extra 30 minutes of battery life was achieved by using the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and not through the process of direct negotiations with Qualcomm. That’s kind of impossible to test, however, I can say that I got through a full day of travel, including a two-hour flight delay, without a problem. When I finally got on board my flight, my seatmate mentioned that her phone was almost dead as she scrounged around for an outlet. I kept scrolling through Threads, untethered to wall wart or battery, just as smug as can be. That was with the always-on display enabled full time and with screen resolution at the highest 1440p setting, not the default 1080p.

These features are not new, really innovative, and are not included in new ads for their phones from either of these companies. But at this stage, AI on mobile devices hasn’t exactly proven itself to be indispensable. Sure, a Galaxy or Pixel phone holds some additional appeal beyond AI if you’re entrenched in their ecosystems — or if you’re hooked on a Galaxy Watch or the Pixel Recorder app (it’s me).