The OnePlus 12 is an incredible smartphone. The digital camera takes nice pictures, the battery is long-lasting, and the supplies are top-notch, but it surely’s the identical previous story with OnePlus. I consistently have to show it on and off to relegate minor bugs that detract from the general expertise.
This doesn’t make the cellphone horrible. Quite the opposite, it’s slightly good, however in comparison with different units, it may possibly generally be annoying.
That being stated, OnePlus followers can be completely happy in regards to the return of the wi-fi charger… even when it means making it the heaviest OnePlus flagship cellphone in a very long time.
XL design
The cellphone appears like a barely bigger OnePlus 11 to my eyes, however the battery is a bigger 5,400 mAh as a substitute of 5,000, and there’s a wi-fi charging pad, so not solely is it bigger, but it surely’s barely heavier, too. Over time, I’ve gotten used to it, however because the OnePlus and others have gotten bigger over time, I can undoubtedly really feel the pressure on my pinky finger.
I’d be extra forgiving if the OnePlus 12 utilized Qi2 magnetic charging, however as a substitute, OnePlus has opted for 50-watt super-fast wi-fi charging should you purchase a OnePlus AIRVOOC wi-fi charger. I couldn’t take a look at out the most recent model of the charger, however the one launched alongside the OnePlus 9 Professional nonetheless works as marketed right here. That stated, 50-watt wi-fi charging isn’t an enormous sport changer since I exploit wi-fi charging to energy up in a single day or when my cellphone is at my desk. In each conditions, I often have round 3-9 hours for my cellphone to energy up slowly.
Subsequently, as standard with OnePlus telephones, I hardly ever even cost in a single day anymore since I really feel so snug topping it up with the 80-watt SUPERVOOC quick charging within the morning or earlier than mattress. Plugged in, it takes underneath half-hour to go from 10 % to 100. One of the best half in regards to the cellphone is that it comes with this glorious 80-watt charger within the field. The truth that the charger has a USB-A port continues to be a bit annoying because the world strikes to USB-C all over the place, but it surely’s not the top of the world.
Total, I’m pleased with the battery life on the OnePlus 12, however I’ve additionally been preserving the display set to 1080p and the refresh charge set to auto since I wished to get essentially the most battery life every day.
Talking of the display, this panel has a peak brightness of 4,500 nits, which is extremely vibrant on paper, however in apply, it doesn’t really feel twice as vibrant as the two,000-nit show on my iPhone or the 1,500 nits on the OnePlus 11. That stated, outside could unlock the show’s full potential since I’ve no complaints there. That stated, the height brightness is just for small elements of the show when viewing HDR content material, so the extraordinarily vibrant 4,500 nit score feels barely overblown when the cellphone solely feels marginally brighter in apply than its predecessor.
The rear panel on my unit has a moulted inexperienced color known as ‘Flowey Emerald’ that’s meant to emulate the flowing patterns of the Dart River within the Southern Alps. Whereas the again sample is attention-grabbing, tying it to the ice-blue Dart River feels unusual because it appears extra like a pretend inexperienced marble sample. On the finish of the day, it’s a refined shift on the usual emerald colors different OnePlus telephones have used, however to me, it’s a bit of boring and I might have beloved OnePlus to supply extra colors this yr.
Total, the design and battery are very ‘massive and in cost’ for higher or worse. For many who like smaller telephones, the OnePlus 12 is probably going too massive, however followers of big telephones just like the Galaxy Extremely collection is likely to be tempted by the OnePlus 12’s extra throwback design. Whereas Samsung is likely to be shifting to flat shows, OnePlus nonetheless has curved edges if that’s your desire. When testing the cellphone, I didn’t encounter too many miss-taps due to the perimeters, however on a big cellphone like this, I hardly ever tried to do duties one-handed.
A digital camera improve to care about
I’m completely happy to report that the OnePlus 12 barely improves on the already implausible digital camera system from the OnePlus Open. The corporate was one of many first to make use of Sony’s top-end LYTA sensors in its principal lens. This LYTA-808 sensor makes use of stacked expertise to seize extra color depth and light-weight, ensuing within the potential for actually pleasing pictures.
That stated, these enhancements solely apply to the primary lens, so just like the Open, the zoom and ultra-wide cameras really feel a step behind. Normally, they nonetheless take nice pictures, however I’m at all times pushing for extra unification amongst varied digital camera lenses on one cellphone.
Whereas the first lens options Sony’s top-of-the-line sensor expertise, there are bigger and higher LYTA sensors within the ‘900 collection’ that use 1-inch sensors featured on the Oppo Discover X7. That stated, 1-inch sensors are uncommon in North America, and the LYTA-808 competes squarely with Samsung’s sensor within the S24 Extremely and the most recent iPhone 15 collection.
Truly, the lens is implausible for pictures. With enough lighting, it takes sharp photographs with the softness of an actual digital camera, and there’s a ton of element. OnePlus continues to be partnered with Hasselblad, which provides the digital camera an edge in color copy. It’s not at all times good, however generally there are very nice orange hues that give the pictures a defining look.
In synthetic lighting, OnePlus oversharpens barely, however the photographs nonetheless look good. In low gentle, the entire cellphone’s lenses carry out admirably, and I used to be shocked with how nicely they held up so long as I held regular. If you happen to introduce motion, the cellphone appears to make use of extra processing to brighten the picture, resulting in bizarre, smoothed-out pictures that generally look vaguely AI. The cellphone’s processing additionally generally weirdly highlights individuals and pets, which might break the shot by making it look pretend, in an try and make it brighter.
This can be a recurring pattern with smartphone pictures that I hope will get ironed out within the subsequent few years. In an effort to make each single shot look good, computational pictures algorithms now edit your photographs greater than ever. On a vibrant photograph, that is hardly ever noticeable as a result of the algorithm doesn’t must work very laborious to brighten issues. Nonetheless, in a darkish photograph, it usually turns into obvious that further smoothing was utilized to my face or I used to be brightened. Hopefully, photograph algorithms can discover a candy spot quickly that helps darkish photographs look extra pure.
Total, I used to be pleased with all of the lenses and the digital camera options packed inside, like XPan mode and the great portrait blur results that emulate classic Hasselblad lenses. You too can set the default focal size to 35mm, which may also help smartphone cameras punch above their weight class by giving a tighter picture body with the potential for a barely extra blur when you have got a distance between the foreground/background and the topic.
Operating out of Oxygen
Whereas just a few bugs could be attributed to new cellphone jitters, I discover all of it too frequent with OnePlus units, and the 12 has been no completely different. Within the two weeks I’ve used the cellphone, I’ve needed to reset the system each second day at least, and on just a few days, I’ve wanted to reset it greater than as soon as.
Essentially the most urgent situation is that generally my messages simply occur to come back hours late. It’s laborious to note these since each events simply assume the opposite is ignoring them, however when on a couple of event, I’ve gotten messages that ought to have been despatched on the similar time, minutes and even hours aside.
Past that, the Google search bar widget on the house display retains going into ‘initialization’ mode, ensuing within the app restarting each time I contact the search bar. For one dreamily lengthy minute, my clock was caught at 12:08 for a real-world time of 28 minutes. Once more, none of those are phone-breaking bugs, however mixed with earlier OnePlus experiences, it’s value stating.
It’s additionally a bit disappointing that someway Google and Samsung are getting the latest Android AI ‘Circle to Search’ characteristic whereas OnePlus is left behind. As an alternative, the corporate appears to be including new options with gaming in thoughts, like its ‘Trinity Engine,’ which helps the cellphone keep clean and quick efficiency as gaming classes get extra intense. In my expertise, video games like COD cell ran nicely, but it surely additionally performed nice on the previous two generations of OneOplus flagships, so it looks like much less of a win this yr, and I might have rathered some new AI options as a substitute.
