IN PICS | OnePlus 12 5G Showcase: 7 Things Worth Noting About The Latest 'Never Settler'

Its Price Has Got A Plus — It comes in a typical red OnePlus shoebox-shaped package, but the OnePlus 12 5G has a slight price hike. While the OnePlus 11 5G had started at Rs 56,999, the OnePlus 12 5G starts at Rs 64,999. To be fair, the base OnePlus 11 5G was an 8GB+128GB model, whereas the base OnePlus 12 5G is a 12GB+256GB model, so one gets more for those extra bucks. Interestingly, for the second year in a row, OnePlus has not released a Pro variant of its flagship. Has that era ended? [All Image Credits: Nimish Dubey & Akriti Rana]

Looks Elegant, And Ever So Familiar — It is elegant, but the OnePlus 12 5G can be mistaken for the OnePlus 11 5G, especially the black variant (go for the Flowy Emerald, if you want a OnePlus that looks different). It is bigger and heavier (220g) than the OnePlus 11 5G, but the design basics are the same — curved display in front, aluminium frame, and glass back with a large, dark circular camera unit. There's no talk of titanium (praise be), but this is a tough phone with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 in front, Gorilla Glass on the back, and IP65 dust and water resistance — up from IP64 on the OnePlus 11, but still short of the IP68 on the iPhone.

Big, Brilliant Display, Flagship Chip And Memory — The OnePlus 12 5G comes with the largest display (non-folding types) on a OnePlus — a 6.82-inch quad HD ProXDR AMOLED display with advanced LTPO and 120 Hz refresh rate, and a maximum brightness of a staggering 4,500nits (the Galaxy S24 has 2600 nits)! In the best OnePlus flagship tradition, it also gets the Snappiest Dragon chip of all — the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, similar to the one of the Galaxy S24 Ultra. You get 12GB+256GB and 16GB+512GB RAM and storage variants, with speedy LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage. This ‘Never Settler’ is made for speed.

Hasselblad Still Drives Cameras — The OnePlus Hasselblad collaboration continues on the OnePlus 12 5G. The phone comes with a Sony LYT 50-megapixel main sensor with OIS, and a 48-megapixel ultrawide camera, but we suspect the star of the camera show will be the 64-megapixel telephoto sensor (up from 32 on the OnePlus 11 5G), which comes with OIS, 3x optical zoom, 6x in-sensor zoom and even 120x digital zoom. There are plenty of Hasselblad effects and modes in there, particularly in the portrait zone. The selfie camera has been bumped up to 32 megapixels as well. On paper, this is an imposing camera lineup, easily the best we have seen on a OnePlus.

Big Battery, Super Fast Charging — The OnePlus 12 5G comes with the biggest battery on a OnePlus phone, a massive 5,400mAh, up from 5,000mAh on the OnePlus 11. And like all OnePlus flagships, the OnePlus 12 5G too comes with insanely fast charging - 100W SuperVOOC charging — and a 100W charger in the box as well, which claims to charge that huge battery in about half an hour. Wireless charging also returns to the OnePlus with the OnePlus 12 5G (the OnePlus 11 5G did not have it), and it comes with a typical OnePlus speed — 50W, which is faster than the 45W charging speed of the Galaxy S24 Ultra.

Still Breathing Oxygen, OS Wise — The OnePlus 12 5G runs on OxygenOS 14, the latest version of its interface, on top of Android 14. As always, it is clean and clutter-free, with very little bloatware. Unlike many other brands in recent times, OnePlus has not spoken much of the AI capabilities of its software, preferring to stress its smoothness and ease of use. The phone comes with four years of assured Android updates, and five years of security updates — less than the seven years on the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the Pixel 8 series, but more than adequate for most users.

Formidable, But Facing Competition — It has an elegantly minimalistic design. And magnificently maximalistic specs. But that increased starting price of Rs 64,999 means that the OnePlus 12 5G will face some equally well-specced competition. Its most notable competitor is likely to be the iQoo 12 5G, which brings a similar processor at a starting price of Rs 52,999, and some might also be tempted by the still very good iPhone 14 and Pixel 7 Pro, both of which are available at close to Rs 65,000. Whether this ‘Never Settler’ unsettles others or gets unsettled itself will be revealed in the coming days.