OnePlus 12 Review: Checks all the boxes

Just like that, the flagship killer brand that aimed to never settle is turning 10 this year, and the OnePlus 12, the tenth anniversary flagship, is pretty special. It inherits everything that the OnePlus 11 got right and rights the few wrongs that existed. It’s, for lack of a better phrase, the first OnePlus in a long time that isn’t just good for the price; it’s damn good for any price. Period.

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Bumping up the price has seen the OnePlus 12 launch with a litany of hardware improvements, most noticeably more memory in the base variant and double the storage at both INR 64,999 and INR 69,999 price points. The design looks largely similar to the OnePlus 11, with the circular camera module that blends seamlessly into the aluminium frame, yet the Flowy Emerald finish on the Gorilla Glass 5 rear panel is rather distinctive this year.

It’s got this satiny texture that’s more marble or stone to the touch than glass, and it gives the perfectly balanced 12 a great handfeel to boot. Interestingly, you get an infrared blaster this year — a first for a OnePlus flagship—and the return of wireless charging (after its exclusion on the 11). There’s 50 W wireless charging, which is faster than the wired charging on the Samsungs and the iPhones. A minor letdown is IP65 dust and water protection, which means the OnePlus 12 can handle rain and the grimy contents of your bags or pockets, but not a dip in the pool.

Around the front, the OnePlus 12 gets an upgraded 6.82-inch 2K AMOLED display with LTPO tech that dynamically varies between 1 Hz and 120 Hz based on the content on the screen. It’s a sharp screen with 1,600 nits of brightness fit for outdoor use under bright sunlight and an insane 4,500 nits when viewing HDR10+ or Dolby Vision content.

The panel is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and has curved edges, eschewing the recent trend of employing boxy designs and flat panels in favor of a more premium hand-feel. It has a new Aqua Touch feature, though, that ups the screen touch sensitivity when the screen is wet, making it far more usable in the rain than other flagships — a practical feature other brands should look at using as well.

Now, since it is a OnePlus flagship, you’d expect no less than the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset with up to 16 GB of memory and 512 GB of storage, and there’s even a faster USB port this time around — a common complaint with OnePlus phones. The Android 14-based Oxygen OS 14 runs snappily on the device, as do the latest graphically intensive games, the latter aided by the large vapour cooling structure.

What’s impressive are the gains in battery life. With the larger 5,400 mAh battery and software optimisations, the phone can easily power through a day of heavy use (or nearly two days of moderate) with all the settings dialled up to 12! Fast 100 W charging ensures you’re up and running in about 30 minutes.

Camera performance builds on the big strides OnePlus has made in recent years with the Hasselblad partnership, and this year sees a new 50 MP f/1.6 Sony LYT-808 primary shooter and a 64 MP periscope-style telephoto camera with 3X optical zoom. The primary sensor takes terrific images, filled with detail and solid dynamic range and colour accuracy, and it even holds its own in low-light situations. The new telephoto is a delight to use, managing 3x and 6x in-sensor zoom very well, particularly for portrait shots.

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The 48 MP ultrawide and the 32 MP selfie shooter do well to round out the setup with no major flaws. In a year when everything seems to be about how generative AI can help boost photo editing, the OnePlus 12 felt a bit lacking, choosing instead to focus on making a better phone overall and doing a bang-up job of it! And that is the story of the OnePlus 12, the most competitive OnePlus flagship in a very long time, one that punches well above its price class to earn a solid recommendation. 

Rating: 9/10

Price: INR 64,999 (12 / 256 GB) onwards