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OnePlus 12
Latest of the greatestThe OnePlus 12 costs less than $1,000 and comes with a state-of-the-art processor, Hasselblad camera system, and excessively fast charging.
Pros- Impressive Hasselblad cameras
- Sharper display
- Astonishingly fast wireless charging
Cons- OxygenOS presents some issues on capable hardware
- Lead on everyday performance can be considered marginal
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OnePlus 12R
Renegade in the mid-range marketEven with some corners cut, the OnePlus 12R stands on its own as a great value proposition if you value maximizing your everyday life on Android over most everything else.
Pros- Tad larger battery
- Even with fewer pixels, display is still mighty
- OxygenOS features may go further here
Cons- 128GB option uses slower disk
- No wireless charging
Key Takeaways
- The OnePlus 12R is a budget-friendly option, priced at $500 or $600, while the OnePlus 12 is the more premium of the two at $800 or $900.
- The OnePlus 12 has a more advanced camera system with multiple high-resolution sensors and collaboration with Hasselblad, while the OnePlus 12R has a single large-res camera and smaller sensors for ultrawide and macro shots.
- Both phones share similar design elements, software features, and offer four years of software updates, but the OnePlus 12R has some compromises in terms of memory, storage options, and charging capabilities.
It's new phone season once again for OnePlus. We've become familiar with the Chinese manufacturer coming out with two flagship-tier phones at a time. A couple of years ago, the company did away with releasing a Pro model alongside a more affordable, but limited counterpart.
In 2024, it's bringing back the two-tiered strategy, but is complementing its masthead product with something from a slightly different bloodline for the first time in North America. So, what does the OnePlus 12R have to offer against the OnePlus 12? Let's break it down.
Price, specs & availability
Both phones will be available unlocked from Amazon and Best Buy in the United States and Canada as well as direct from OnePlus. Each phone comes in two colors and two memory configurations. You'll be able to use either OnePlus 12 or 12R on your plan at AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon.
The OnePlus 12R is the more budget-friendly of the two, coming in at $500 or $600, depending on the configuration, while the OnePlus 12 will go for $800 or $900. Pre-orders start Jan. 23, with shipments of the OnePlus 12 first starting Feb. 6, while the OnePlus 12R ships one week later, on Feb. 13.
OnePlus 12 OnePlus 12R SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Display 6.82-inch ProXDR LTPO, 3168 × 1440 (510ppi), 120Hz adaptive refresh 6.78-inch ProXDR LTPO, 2780 × 1264 (450ppi), 120Hz adaptive refresh RAM 12GB or 16GB LPDDR5X RAM 8GB or 16GB LPDDR5X Storage 256GB or 512GB UFS 4.0 128GB UFS 3.1 or 256GB UFS 4.0 Battery 5,400mAh 5,500mAh Ports USB 3.2 Gen 1 (Type-C) USB 2.0 (Type-C) Operating System OxygenOS 14 w/ Android 14 OxygenOS 14 w/ Android 14 Front camera 32MP f/2.4 Sony IMX615 16MP Rear camera 50MP f/1.6 Sony LYT-808 main w/OIS, 48MP f/2.2 Sony IMX581 ultrawide (114°), 64MP f/2.6 OmniVision OV64B 3x telephoto w/OIS 50MP f/1.8 Sony IMX890 main w/OIS, 8MP ultrawide Sony IMX355 (112°), 2MP macro Connectivity 5G (no UWB), 4G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC 5G (no UWB), 4G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC Dimensions 164.3 × 75.8 × 9.2mm 163.3 × 75.3 × 8.8mm Colors Silky Black, Flowy Emerald Iron Gray, Cool Blue Weight 220g 207g Charge speed 80W wired SUPERVOOC, 50W wireless AIRVOOC 80W wired SUPERVOOC IP Rating IP65 IP64 Price $800/$900 $500/$600 RAM and Storage 12/256GB, 16/512GB 8/128GB, 16/256GB Security In-display fingerprint sensor In-display fingerprint sensor
OnePlus 12 vs OnePlus 12R: Premium vs. Premium 'B'
OnePlus's R-series of devices isn't related to its acclaimed budget-oriented Nord lineup, but it does cost less for the company to build than its flagship OnePlus phone because it's designed to target a handful of markets with less disposable income, but healthy consumer demand -- we're primarily talking about India, but you'd be able to find R phones in other parts of South Asia. Companies taking this route will cut most of their corners by using less expensive components or top-tier parts from the previous product cycle to help meet a certain price point.
As such, the OnePlus 12 gets the latest Snapdragon 8 series processor while the OnePlus 12R sports the literal last-gen version. The displays are of the same basic technology and feature many of the same capabilities, such as being able to adapt their refresh rate between 1Hz and 120Hz to suit the content on screen and a peak brightness of 4,500 nits when playing out HDR vision. Even though both devices support spatial audio for wireless accessories, the holistic audio experience is a key difference for the 12 as it touts powerful, stereo Dolby Atmos speakers and an interface to tune your personal spatial audio experience.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3: Detailing the 2024 flagship mobile platform
This is everything you need to know about the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile platform and what it means for 2024 flagship smartphones.One particularly annoying point of difference is in the memory department: the OnePlus 12R features a 128GB storage option which uses the UFS 3.1 standard. All the other storage options are on the twice-as-fast UFS 4.0. To mention an analog, Samsung supplies many of its Galaxy phones with its own flash drives, and you'll find the same protocol gap jumping between 128GB and 256GB as it reportedly does not make a UFS 4.0 disk in the 128GB size.
You might still be wondering where the $300 difference is and we'd argue that the most dramatic delta lies in the cameras. The OnePlus 12 is equipped with massive, pixel-rich sensors for wide, ultrawide, and telephoto shots and is blessed with tuning (and branding) from storied brand Hasselblad. The OnePlus 12R has one bazooka camera that ends up acting as an all-purpose juggernaut, while the ultrawide and macro cameras use smaller sensors with fewer trimmings.
You may be steered toward the OnePlus 12 if you shoot pics and clips on a frequent basis and expect nearly everything you shoot to come out looking fantastic. But if you're looking for serviceable pictures and don't want to invest too much time in the camera experience, you may actually value the compromise on the OnePlus 12R.
OnePlus 12 vs OnePlus 12R: What's shared and what's surprising
All of that said, they do still come from the same "family," if you will. The OnePlus 12 and 12R look much alike on the outside, right down to the famed alert slider near the top of the right edge -- it's still nice to have a physical switch for turning on Do Not Disturb mode -- and a decent expanse dedicated to vapor cooling chambers. They also both have in-display fingerprint sensors, for what that's worth. And they also share plenty of software features since they dip from the same well in OxygenOS 14, based on Android 14. Either way you go, you'll get four years of software updates -- presumably for both platform changes and security patches.
Zooming in on OxygenOS for a minute, OnePlus is as obsessed as ever about managing the performance of its phones for the long term and its Vita (short for "vitalization") suite of tools serves that obsession. CPU-Vita sets parameters for task scheduling, display control, and a horde of other minute activities that should give users more time before the battery goes kaput for the day. ROM-Vita has some tricks to reduce disk fragmentation and retain as much usable space as possible.
How multitasking works on the OnePlus Open
With its Open Canvas user interface, OnePlus has reimagined what multitasking looks like on a foldable phone.On the other hand, RAM-Vita rededicates storage space for active memory and may be used to complement Super Lock to keep up to six apps active -- OnePlus is notorious for cutting off background processes to save on RAM. I only put such an emphasis on this angle to note that you may find these features more useful on the base model OnePlus 12R than on the OnePlus 12 or even the more capable variant of the 12R.
The biggest surprise in examining the 12 and 12R together might be in the power department. As it was launched in China back in December, the OnePlus 12 originally came with a maximum intake rate of 100W via its proprietary SuperVOOC protocol. Breaking out of its home country's borders, though, the phone has gone with a more conservative (but still-fast) 80W. You'll still need a special power adapter and cable, both of which come in the box, to get those top speeds. You'll also need a special AirVOOC wireless charging pad to get the 50W speeds as advertised. On the more affordable OnePlus 12R, you'll still get the same 80W SuperVOOC charging speed through a wired connection, but it forgoes any sort of wireless charging capability.
The battery is also slightly (negligibly, in our opinion) larger on the 12R, too. It's a little weird, to say the least, that the cheaper device gets the larger power plant and the faster charging speeds. When you consider that it'll take 12 minutes or less to get from empty to 50% on either phone and 30 minutes to top up, how much of an impact does this difference make? Not much, we'd guess.
One more bit of sharing and this one is a bit disappointing -- both phones don't have radios for ultra wideband frequencies. This means you won't be able to access high-capacity, high-speed 5G networks in popular venues and tap into special locator tags or screen sharing protocols.
Which is right for you?
If you're set on buying a new OnePlus phone in 2024, the best value you're going to get will probably be with the 256GB OnePlus 12R -- yes, that one in particular. If you're looking for mastery of core competencies such as battery longevity and flying through apps and games, this configuration will do it for a well-spent $600. You're also getting the same software support window as your fellow OnePlus 12 buyers and nearly all the same OxygenOS goodies (and flaws) that make the company's phones quite distinctive. It's a worthy workhorse even if the 12R's spec sheet has a few stale lines.
OnePlus 12R
The North American market lacks options for powerful phones priced between $400 and $700 and the OnePlus 12R does its part to remedy the gap.
On the other hand, if you're a camera maximalist, OnePlus has been doling out some delicious visuals as its relationship with Hasselblad has matured. With the OnePlus 12, you'll be getting the firepower you deserve in the cameras, in the computing, and in the pipelines between. You'll also have a sharper display with which to review your fruits and enjoy a bunch of Netflix, Hulu or whatever Premium service you're currently streaming.
OnePlus 12
If the camera experience comes first for you and all the other benefits the OnePlus 12 brings are ancillary, get this phone.