OnePlus 12R review: All the goodies of a flagship for $300 less
OnePlus 12R Intro
OnePlus released its flagship phone for 2024, the OnePlus 12, and now it is time for the company's mid-ranger, the OnePlus 12R, to come along and rock the mid-range market. But does it come with enough to impress for the starting price of $500?
Frankly, the 12R is what you might call a "safe" upgrade, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. You get a brand new, flagship-level chipset, a much brighter display, better durability, and longer battery life. And, considering all of the goodies that come inside the box, the price OnePlus is selling the 12R for is more than justified.
That being said, there are some details which need to be addressed, so let's dive in and see what the new mid-ranger from OnePlus has in store for us!
OnePlus 12R
What’s new about OnePlus 12R
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
- Gorilla Glass Victus 2
- IP65 water and dust resistance
- 4500 nits peak brightness
- 5500 mAh battery
Table of Contents:
OnePlus 12R Specs
| Specs | OnePlus 12R |
|---|---|
| Size and Weight | 163.3 x 75.3 x 8.8 mm 207 g |
| Display | 6.78" AMOLED 120Hz variable refresh rate 4,500 nits peak brightness |
| Processor | Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (4 nm) |
| Software | Android 14 |
| Cameras | 50MP main, f/1.8 aperture 8MP ultra-wide, f/2.2 2MP macro, f/2.4 16MP front |
| Battery Size | 5,500 mAh |
| Charging Speeds | 100W via cable No wireless |
| Prices | 8/128GB for $500 8/256GB for $600 |
OnePlus 12R Design & Colors
Nothing too radical or out of the ordinary
The OnePlus 12R keeps that large circular camera island that its predecessor had, which can be an acquired taste for some. The flagship OnePlus 12 that also released recently has the same design at the back, but somehow the R model doesn't give that premium feel. Then again, that's to be expected given the $300 price difference.
The phone feels heavy in the hand, and with its glass back and tactile buttons it really gives off a premium feel. Thankfully, despite its large size, it is easy to hold and use thanks to the curved edges and somewhat thin body. The back panel has a frosted look to it, but in actuality is a massive fingerprint magnet, so don't be fooled.
As for durability, besides the Gorilla Glass Victus 2 that protects the OnePlus 12R, the phone is also IP65 certified for water and dust resistance. Just know that this is not quite the same as the IP68 you see on more premium models, and you should avoid any situations where the phone can fall into a body of water. You can comfortable take it out in the rain, however.
As for colors, you can get the OnePlus 12R in Cool Blue (the one you see on our images) or Iron Gray.
The unboxing experience that OnePlus offers with its phones remains one of the best in the industry, especially as far as phones sold in the US are concerned. This is what's inside the OnePlus 12R box:
- OnePlus 12R with a pre-applied screen protector
- Fast-charging brick (80W)
- Type-A to Type-C charging/data cable
- Protective case
- SIM tray ejector
- OnePlus Red Cable Club cards
- Booklets and manuals
- Logo stickers
OnePlus 12R Display
The 12R inherits some flagship features
The OnePlus 12R comes with a massive, gorgeous OLED display measuring at 6.78 inches and a resolution of 1264 x 2780 pixels. It also comes with a variably 120Hz refresh rate and it was bright enough (4,500 nits peak brightness) for us to enjoy content on it in bright conditions. Quite frankly, this is on of the phone's best aspects.
Not to mention that the 12R also inherits the new water detection and reactive touch capabilities of its more expensive sibling that came out recently. We tested this new feature out, and the phone's display continued to be responsive even when there was plenty of sprinkled water on top. And that includes the responsive fingerprint reader embedded in the screen.
The display is also slightly curved at the sides, as opposed to most other phones that have come out recently. Now, usually we are not the biggest fans of curved displays, but the one on the 12R is not that extreme, so we didn't really mind it as we were using the phone, with light reflections remaining at a level that wasn't too distracting.
Display Measurements:
OnePlus 12R Camera
No telephoto camera, but high-level performance
The OnePlus 12R comes with three cameras on the back, which includes its main (wide) camera, an ultra-wide, and, sadly, we still have the a macro camera instead of a dedicated telephoto one. The hardware making up the camera system on the new R model from OnePlus is the same as it was on its predecessor, the OnePlus 11R.
However, we can't really complain, as you will notice the performance of the 50MP main camera is plenty good, especially for a phone that comes with a $500 price tag. That's understandable, given that it is powered by the Sony IMX890 image sensor, which by all accounts is still a capable one in 2024.
The ultra-wide camera also delivers surprising detail and good HDR performance. The one place where we were hoping to see an upgrade, however, was swapping that macro shooter for a dedicated telephoto one, but alas.
The good news is that the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset makes the camera app snappy, smooth, and lag free. We also feel that it has contributed to the overall image processing going on behind the scenes, which is noticeable in the accuracy of the portrait mode.
Main Camera - Day
The Main camera of the OnePlus 12R produces impressive images for a phone with a $500 price tag. There is enough sharpness for most use-cases, as well as good HDR performance with shadows and highlights generally showing plenty of detail.
What's also noticeable, especially when we compare to older models, is the more accurate reproduction of colors. Images appear more true-to-life, with natural hues.
Main Camera - Low Light
The main camera handles low-light conditions better than we expected it to. There is some noise, but it is handled well by the camera software, retaining enough detail and avoiding a smudgy, blurry look. The awesome color reproduction continues to be present in such conditions too.
Zoom Quality
With the lack of a dedicated telephoto camera, it goes without saying that zoomed in photos don't exactly have the desirable quality. A 5x digital zoom is decent enough to upload the image online, but the 10x zoom can only suffice as a tool to check something up close.
Portrait Mode
The portrait mode on the 12R is a bit aggressive and looks overly-processed, but as far as edge detection and precision goes, it handles the job pretty well.
Ultra-wide Camera
We were pleasantly surprised to see that the 8MP ultra-wide camera, which can easily be underestimated because of its low resolution, actually performed admirably. The image quality is good enough to snap some pretty photos. And the good news is that this camera also benefits from natural colors.
Selfies
The 16MP selfie camera is great on the OnePlus 12R. We have zero problems with its performance. Photos are sharp, they pop, and are well exposed.
Video Quality
One issue with the 12R that we wish OnePlus would change in the future is the inability to change from the main to the ultra-wide camera while recording video. You have to stop recording, and only then you have the ability to do so. other than that, we are very happy with the image quality, the image stabilization, and low-light performance.
We have rigorously tested the camera on the OnePlus 12R and above you can see the results of those tests. We carefully measure the performance of all cameras in various test scenes, ranking the performance across important metrics like exposure, subject exposure, color accuracy, detail, artifacts and more. We do these tests for both photos and videos.
You can learn more about our PhoneArena Camera Score testing protocol here.
OnePlus 12R Performance & Benchmarks
Flagship performance in a mid-range phone
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 that the OnePlus 12R is packing might not be the latest and greatest, but it is the next best thing! It is the same chipset that you can find inside phones like the Galaxy S23 series from last year, and its raw performance and power efficiency definitely shows with OnePlus' new midranger.
We got to test out the 16/256GB memory and storage variant of the 12R, so it probably comes as no surprise that it toppled any game and app we threw at it. The phone did not overheat even during longer gameplay sessions, it loaded up large files quickly, and we didn't notice any hiccups along the way.
One thing to note here that might be important to some people is that the 128GB and 256GB versions of the phone come with different types of storage, with the former equipped with UFS 3.1 whereas the latter with UFS 4.0 storage. UFS 4.0 is more that twice as fast and almost 50% more power efficient, so keep that in mind when choosing which one you want to buy.
Performance Benchmarks:
OnePlus 12R OS / Android version
The OnePlus 12R comes with Android 14 pre-installed, and all of the Google-smarts goodness that comes along with it. That includes improved customization options that allow users to alter their lock screen including the lock screen shortcuts too.
But of course, there is OnePlus' Oxygen OS 14, which comes with enhanced security and privacy, and the same simple and light version of Android that we know and love.
As for the topic of software support, things don't look that good for the OnePlus 12R, as it will only be getting 3 years of it. This means that the latest Android version the phone will get is Android 17. The company has promised 4 years of security patches though, so at least there's that.
OnePlus 12R Battery
Won't leave you hanging
Like its more expensive brother (the OnePlus 12), the OnePlus 12R comes with a massive 5,500 mAh battery. Despite the phone's high-res bright display, this puppy easily lasted us more than a day of use, and comfortably until the end of the second day if we weren't excessively using it.
Above, you can see just how well the OnePlus 12R did on our in-house battery tests.
OnePlus 12R Charging Speeds
(Image by PhoneArena)
The international version of the OnePlus 12R, which is the one we reviewed, comes with 100W of wired charging speeds, which is the same as with the OnePlus 11R. OnePlus advertises the phone being able to charge from 0-100% in about 26 minutes, although we expect that to be around 37-38 minutes just like with the pricier OnePlus 12.
Unfortunately though, there is no wireless charging on board.
OnePlus 12R Audio Quality and Haptics
The speakers on the OnePlus 12R get quite loud once you increase the volume to its maximum, but the more impressive part is that the audio does not noticeably decrease in quality. And, frankly, for most situations you will be plenty fine listening to whatever at just 80% volume or even lower. Call quality was crystal clear, and that includes on both ends of the call.
One small thing we did notice, however, is that there is a sense of imbalance between the top and bottom firing speakers. Now, that is to be expected as the one imbedded in the phone's earpiece cannot match the same performance of the bottom-firing speaker, which is typically larger since there is more space, but the difference was a bit jarring.
OnePlus has really stepped up its game in the past couple of years as far as haptic motors go, and this is clearly noticeable even with the more budget-friendly OnePlus 12R. Haptic feedback was precise and added to our experience with the device, instead of being a nuisance.
OnePlus 12R Competitors
The OnePlus 12R sits at a starting price of $500, which places it right in the middle of the mid-ranger category, also known as the sweet spot where you get the most for your money.
| OnePlus 12R Rivals | Advantages (over OnePlus 12R) | Disadvantages (vs OnePlus 12R) |
|---|---|---|
| Galaxy S23 FE (MSRP $599) | Dedicated telephoto camera Longer software support Higher durability Wireless charging | Older chipset Less RAM More expensive Slower charging |
| Pixel 7a (MSRP $500) | More durable Wireless charging | Significantly lower performance Almost an year older Worse display Worse haptics and fingerprint reader |
OnePlus 12R Summary and Final Verdict
OnePlus started its journey off as the "flagship killer," and we definitely see that heritage in the OnePlus 12R. The phone manages to get the best out of its more expensive variant, the OnePlus 12, such as the amazing display with OnePlus' new tech to make navigation easier when the phone is wet.
There is also the fact that you have a great main and ultra-wide cameras on board, which in most cases produce images that will leave you satisfied. That being said, there is no dedicated telephoto camera, and there is also the fact that you only get 3 years of software support in a time where most manufacturers are starting to offer at least 4.
Nevertheless, we think the pros outweigh the cons in this particular case, and can recommend this OnePlus mid-ranger, as it offers more than enough for what it asks in return.
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