OnePlus 12 is out with a massive battery, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and improved cameras

Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and а sophisticated cooling system

The OnePlus 12 features the latest Qualcomm silicon - the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. We already saw a couple of Gen 3 launches from the Far East but this time OnePlus has coupled this fast processor with a sophisticated cooling system, comprised of a big vapor chamber and a dual-cycle heat dissipation structure.

The result is a very potent chipset that also runs quite cool in extended heavy-load scenarios. There's also a 24GB RAM option, thanks to the new 24GB LPDDR5X chip recently launched by Hynix. The memory configurations start at 16/256GB and go all the way up to the aforementioned 24GB of RAM, coupled with 1TB of storage. That's more RAM than you get on many laptops!

Improved camera system

OnePlus teased the camera system of the OnePlus 12 a couple of days ago, sharing some samples from the main, ultrawide and telephoto cameras. The star of the show is the new Sony Lytia LYT-808 image sensor under the main lens. It's a 50MP sensor using Sony's dual-layer transistor pixel technology that first debuted on the Sony Xperia 1 Mark V.

This sensor sits under 23mm wide lens with f/1.6 aperture and judging by the samples, it can produce some impressive shots. There's some AI magic going on in the background as well, as OnePlus uses the new Super Light and Shadow Engine, coupled with the Hasselblad lenses and the aforementioned Sony sensor.

The telephoto lens is also very interesting, it uses the OmniVision OV64B 64MP large sole sensor, sitting under a periscope lens system capable of 3x optical zoom. When we pair that with the 2x lossless crop from the big sensor we get the equivalent of 6x optical zoom from this camera.

The ultrawide is a pretty standard deal. It uses a Sony IMX581 sensor under an f/2.2 aperture lens with 14mm focal length.

Brightest screen in the industry?

The OnePlus 12 features a collaboratively developed OLED screen, it's a BOE x OnePlus endeavor. The panel itself is 6.82 inches, slightly larger than the 6.7-inch screen on the OnePlus 11, and it has great color calibration and a mind-boggling peak brightness of 4,500 nits. We'll have to test these claims but on paper this makes it the brightest smartphone display to date, beating the 4,000-nit achievement of the Redmi K70 Pro launched earlier.

Big battery and big charging

The battery inside the phone is a 5,400mAh cell, which is one of the largest in a flagship phone of this kind.

There's also 100W wired fast charging support and 50W wireless, making this phone one of the fastest charging Android phones around (keep in mind that the US-bound version of the OnePlus 11 might be limited to 80W wired charging).

Pricing and availability

The OnePlus 12 is already available for preorder in China, while the global announcement will happen in early 2024.

The price in China is ever so slightly higher than the price for the company's last year flagship. The base 12/256GB model starts at ¥4,299 (around $600) and you also have a 16/512GB version, a 16GB/1TB version, and the insane top model with 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage which costs  will cost ¥5,799 (or around $820). International pricing is yet to be announced.