OnePlus 12 will be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and feature a big camera upgrade says tipster

A post made on the Chinese social media site Weibo by tipster Digital Chat Station (via AndroidAuthority) indicates that OnePlus is looking to upgrade its camera array for the next flagship release. The tipster, who correctly leaked Qualcomm's new Snapdragon naming plan before it was announced by the chip designer back in 2021, now says that OnePlus  is testing a periscope camera on a product associated with a model number of "SM8650." The latter turns out to be the rumored identity code of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset.

So let's add up the clues. The device in question will be powered by Qualcomm's 2024 top-of-the-line application processor, it is expected to have a periscope camera, and it is being manufactured by OnePlus. It's not too hard to figure out that Digital Chat Station is writing about the OnePlus 12. In his Weibo post, the tipster says that both OnePlus and Realme, both brands that are under the umbrella of Chinese manufacturer BBK Electronics, are testing the inclusion of a periscope camera on phones that will sport the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC.

The post also notes that not all of the phones will use the OmniVision 64B image sensor which has backed several telephoto lenses using a periscope camera. A periscope camera offers greater optical zoom capabilities than you would normally be able to get from a device as small as a smartphone. That's because normally the focal length of the lens cannot exceed the thickness of the handset.

But with a periscope camera, the lens inside the device is folded up and mirrored prisms are used to help bend the light helping to take it from the lens to the image sensor. For example, without a periscope camera, the OnePlus 11 delivers 2x optical zoom. The Pixel 7 Pro, which does have a periscope camera, can give users up to 5x optical zoom and the periscope camera on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra gives users up to 10x optical zoom.

The OnePlus 12 is expected to be released early in 2024.