Phone season is in full swing. Last week Samsung unveiled its new flagship Galaxy S24 and the coming weeks will see a deluge of devices up to and including those unveiled at Mobile World Congress in late February. Today, however, is OnePlus’ time to shine.
The Oppo-owned phone maker has just debuted its latest flagship, the OnePlus 12. The days of the company putting up with the latest process are over at the top of the line. The premium handset features the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 that Qualcomm introduced at the end of last year.
OnePlus’ customizations on top of that are really on the buzz here, including the “Trinity Engine,” which it calls, “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 to know on the performance front are the aforementioned system-on-a-chip, which is paired with either 12 or 16 GB of RAM. Storage, meanwhile, will be either 256- or 512GB. The battery is a very healthy 5,400 mAh, which goes from zero to 100% in half an hour with the included 80W charger. Wireless charging, meanwhile, takes about twice as long.
There’s a triple-camera system on the back, with a 50-megapixel wide-angle (with optical image stabilization), a 48-megapixel ultra-wide, and a 65-megapixel telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom. The zoom goes up to 120x, but you’ll start to introduce noise into the photo after about 6x.
Image Credits: OnePlus
OnePlus also talks about 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 that the device knows when, say, it captures another person.
Meanwhile, a new “Master Mode” brings additional options to OnePlus’ Pro Mode, including adjustments to things like contrast, saturation, sharpness, and hue. OnePlus is also touting a more “authentic” portrait mode, thanks to Hassleblad sensors and algorithms.
OnePlus gets some points for doing good things on the design front. I think a lot of us were surprised by how cool the company’s first foldable was last year. There’s a lot of talk about the influence from luxury watches, but regardless the “Emerald Flow” design is a nice touch and OnePlus/Hasselblad know how to make a nice camera
The OnePlus 12 is available for pre-order starting today and will be released on February 6, starting at $1,070 for the 12GB/256GB model and $1,200 for the 16GB/512GB upgrade. Flagship specifications at premium prices. If that’s a bit much, the new OnePlus 12R starts at $500 – less than half the price.
