OnePlus 12 Review: A Flagship Phone That's Almost Perfect

Speaker 1: The one plus 12 is an absolute powerhouse with amazing battery life, but is it actually worth your money? Let's find out. One plus's latest flagship phone is packed with potent tech from its glorious screen to its insanely powerful processor. Its battery life is great and it charges in lightning fast time too. It's a phone that works really hard to justify its flagship title, but then it needs to as the one plus 12 is more expensive than last year's [00:00:30] one plus 11. Let's dive in and take a closer look Visually, the one plus twelves design doesn't stray too far from the one plus elevens. It features an almost identical circular camera unit set into a curving glass back with a glossy aluminum frame. The twelves gloss back is frosted now though, and my green review model features this wavy pattern that I quite like feels good to hold with quite a solid feel to it that I think feels more premium than last year's quite [00:01:00] slippery 11. Speaker 1: Obviously though looks are subjective, but it might be worth seeing if you can go hands-on with a model before you spend your money. I like that the volume buttons have been moved to the same side as the power button now, which I found generally makes them easier to use with one hand while the iconic OnePlus toggle slider is now on the opposite side, the phone is IP 65 rated to help keep it safe from spilled drinks or if you take calls in the rain and using the phone in the rain should be a bit easier as well as the display [00:01:30] has been designed to still register inputs even when it's wet. I sprinkled the phone with tap water and even though it was covered in droplets, it still registered all of my inputs at 6.82 inches. The one plus 12 screen is big enough to give you plenty of room for playing your mobile games while as high resolution and vivid colors means that all content looks great. Speaker 1: One plus claims that it is the brightest screen ever found on a smartphone with a whopping 4,500 [00:02:00] knits peak brightness. Now theoretically that makes it around twice as bright as the iPhone 15 Pro Max, but those are lab-based figures and in real world usage that difference isn't so huge, but there's no question that it is very bright, so it does make it a good phone for using outdoors. It runs for latest Qualcomm Snapdragon eight Gen three processor backed up by 16 gigabytes of RAM as the most cutting edge chip from Qualcomm. It is safe to expect this new processor to be an absolute powerhouse [00:02:30] genin impact played at maxed out settings with incredibly smooth 60 frames per second gameplay with absolutely zero lag or stuttering scene at any point. Ditto for asphalt nine Legends on 3D Marks Wildlife Extreme Graphics Benchmark. It's beaten scores from both the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Samsung's brand new Galaxy S 24 Ultra. In fact, for scores it achieved on that test with some of the highest I have ever seen, general navigation around the interface is of course extremely Speaker 2: Nippy and buttery smooth [00:03:00] and in fact, generally I found nothing that could really slow it down, but Wampus reckons that some of the bigger benefits of its various software optimizations is that it'll keep it running smoothly for longer. I've only been testing this phone for a little over a week, so I'm going to have to come back to that in months time to see if it's still performing as it should. It running Android 14 at its core with one plus's own Oxygen OS skin over the top. I quite like the interface because it's very neat and easy to use whether you are an Android beginner [00:03:30] or you are very experienced with smartphones. One plus is offering four years of software support and an additional fifth year of security support and that's the same that offered with the one plus 11 and both Google and Samsung are offering at least seven years of support on their phones and longer support periods mean that your phone will be safer to use for longer, that's better for you, it's better for the planet and while five years total isn't bad, it is disappointing not to see OnePlus trying to up its game here. Speaker 2: [00:04:00] The other aspect to OnePlus is various software optimizations is in power efficiency and together with a capacious 5,400 million power battery, this phone delivers superb battery life. After three hours of YouTube streaming at full brightness, this phone had dropped from full to only 95% remaining, which is one of the best efforts I have ever seen on this test. In short, I'm very impressed with the battery on this thing, but if you do happen to start to run low on [00:04:30] power, then putting it back into the phone is a very quick process. In the us The one plus 12 supports 80 watt fast charging, which should take the phone from empty to full in a little over 30 minutes. My UK model takes that even further with a hundred watt fast charging. Now that should take it from empty to full in about 26 minutes or empty to half full in only 11 minutes. Fast charging like this is one of my favorite features of any phone because it means you don't need to worry about running out of juice towards the end of the day. The phone [00:05:00] also has wireless charging, something not seen on last year's one plus 11 and it's fast two supporting 50 watts, wireless charging as long as you can find a compatible charger. Speaker 2: One plus phones have typically offered great processor performance but have been let down by pretty average cameras and unfortunately that's the same story here. One plus 12 comes with three rear cameras and in daylight shots in the main camera are decent. Exposure is generally good. There's plenty of detail to [00:05:30] be seen and colors are mostly quite accurate. There's less color shift when you switch between Maine and ultra wide lenses two, which was something I found to be a particular problem on the last model. The three times zoom lens captures zoomed in shots with adequate detail and even the six times zoom can produce some good looking images. As long as you are shooting in bright conditions, it's a shame not to see a longer telephoto zoom here as I absolutely love the five times optical zoom Speaker 3: On the iPhone 15 Pro max and the Pixel eight pro [00:06:00] at night performance significantly drops. Images from all lenses are surprisingly dark with the ultra wide in particular producing very underexposed shots. I actually often preferred nighttime images taken on the one plus 11. The optical zoom has been very hit and miss at night with some shots looking okay while others have come out with such mushy details that they look out of focus. I've been rather surprised at the poor nighttime performance here as the larger image sensor and wider aperture of [00:06:30] the main camera should allow it to capture more light and indeed in more low light rather than specifically night mode conditions. I did find the camera was able to take some good looking images, but overall I am underwhelmed by the camera performance on the one plus 12. It's definitely capable of taking nice looking images in good conditions and maybe those of you just wanting snaps of your family and friends will be well-served, but it's definitely not up there with its flagship rivals with its night mode in particular letting [00:07:00] it down. Speaker 3: There is plenty that I like about the one plus 12. It's extremely powerful. It's battery life is superb and it's display is big and bright and vibrant, but there are some problems which I don't like. The camera is not great, particularly at night and while its software support is not the worst around, I really hope to see OnePlus extending it even further to match what both Google and Samsung are offering. Still, if you're after a high performance phone for gaming [00:07:30] with a battery little put up with punishment, and as long as you are not that into your photography, the one plus 12 is definitely worth a look. What do you think to one plus's latest phone? Is it the model for you or have you got your site set elsewhere perhaps on Samsung's latest S 24 line? Do of course, leave your thoughts in the comments below and you can check out the box below this video for a lot more information.