If you’ve kept an eye on OnePlus for as long as we have, you might think of it as an unlikely survivor of its own various machinations. December 2023 marked ten years since the Chinese tech brand’s founding, and it has a lot to celebrate, especially under a closer relationship with corporate sister Oppo.
It’s got a brilliant foldable phone, makes some popular devices for those who shun the Apple/Samsung paradigm, and it has been able to streamline software updates — despite the software not being entirely up to today’s handset standards.
OnePlus 12 vs OnePlus 11: Should you upgrade or stay the course?
Thinking about upgrading to the latest OnePlus phone? We break down what you’ll gain by ditching the OnePlus 11 for the newer OnePlus 12.
Whatever the reason you might be shopping for a new phone, OnePlus could be a good fit for your taste. We’re here to give you a better sense of the company’s latest offerings, whether you’re looking for something to tide you over or investing in a runner that can go the distance with you.
Best OnePlus phones: Our top picks
OnePlus 12R
1. Best overall OnePlus phone
Hardcore value
This is the best performance you can get from OnePlus for the least amount of money. The OnePlus 12R features a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, 80W charging, and a large, super-bright display.
- Can’t beat the power for price
- Stinking fast 80W charging
- OLED display has multiple strengths
- No wireless charging
- Really only one decent rear camera
The OnePlus 12R is somewhat of an anomaly in North America, but its role has definitely been known in places like India. The R-series is OnePlus’s way of serving markets with high consumption, but lower overall income. Older premium parts or newer, cheaper parts are packaged up in a flagship body, and you get much of the same experience as on a OnePlus 12, but at two-thirds of the cost.
The OnePlus 12R is so good I had to remind myself it’s a budget phone
With the 12R, OnePlus has returned to its roots by proving you don’t have to spend $1,000 for a stellar phone.
As we’ve said in our comparison between the OnePlus 12 and 12R, the matter at hand is which corners get cut. For the 12R, you don’t get all the fancy high-res cameras you do with the 12, but the color balance seems relatively the same, so you’re getting the same look in normally bright conditions.
Moreover, you’re getting more performance than you would with a similarly-priced phone running a new mid-range processor. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is no slouch in 2024, and it’ll last a long time with plenty of memory (especially with the slightly pricier $600 configuration). The 5,500mAh battery can charge from zero to 100% in half an hour. And while there are fewer pixels in the 12R’s OLED display, it’s just as bright and speedy as the OnePlus 12’s, so you’ll be scrolling down your feed for eons, indeed.
Plus, it’s guaranteed the same four years of OS and security updates as the OnePlus 12. The OnePlus 12R is a phone for people who use their phone. Tautology aside, this thing has the power to stay with you.
OnePlus 12
2. Best premium OnePlus phone
Latest and greatest
One of the first phones with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, the OnePlus 12 goes right up to the limits with 50W wireless charging, rich Hasselblad color tuning in its camera products, and pure computing muscle.
- Best display to date on a OnePlus device
- More RAM and storage for the base model
- Fourth-gen Hasselblad cameras deliver on color
- ColorOS leashes background apps heavily
- Telephoto product could be better
The OnePlus 12 is the newest phone. Thus, it has to be the best, right? Well, it is. In addition to being the best slab phone in the company’s portfolio right now, it’s just way, way better than its recent predecessors in terms of righting what we thought to be some longtime wrongs.
The new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset is on board along with options of 12GB and 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM — in its home market of China, where the phone first launched, OnePlus also offered a terrifying 24GB variant — and 256GB and 512GB memory, both using UFS 4.0 storage. We’re glad to see the flagship skip out on a 128GB option as dominant NAND supplier Samsung only has slower UFS 3.1 disks at that size. Wireless charging returns to the OnePlus flagship series with support of 50W AirVOOC power in addition to 80W (100W in China) SuperVOOC via cable.
9:33
OnePlus 12: Much more than an incremental update
The OnePlus 12 delivers on many promises, including strong performance, long battery life and stellar cameras. But it’s not perfect.
But what should catch your eye are the visuals on both the inbound and outbound sides. The Quad HD+ AMOLED display refreshes 120 times a second, is extremely colorful when handling HDR content, and can be extremely, extremely bright with a peak-of-peak brightness of 4,500 nits — more than enough to battle sunlight and drive up the contrast ratio to the billions.
Importantly, every camera on the device brings beefy hardware with 50MP, 48MP, and 64MP sensors allotted for the wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto units. Combine that with Hasselblad’s color profiling, and you’ve got crisp and contrast-heavy photos to share with family and friends after every outing.
At $800 and $900, depending on the configuration, you’re getting the absolute best out of what OnePlus can muster. For those prices, we’re definitely impressed.
OnePlus Open
3. Best foldable OnePlus phone
A foldable done right
Open wide, the OnePlus Open really nails the material build for a foldable phone. It’s sturdy, it’s sized correctly, and its software takes great advantage of the form factor to explode on multitasking.
- The folding display works well on both the folding and display parts
- Open Canvas software features are the star
- Camera performance great for the foldable category
- Lack of wireless charging
- Bulky camera system adds to overall heft
- Priced less than the Galaxy Z Fold 5, but only just
Executive Pete Lau made no secret that OnePlus and Oppo would share this product release, but it doesn’t seem as though anyone truly minded. What some know as the Oppo Find N3, we call the OnePlus Open. Yes, we know we’re calling the Open the best foldable OnePlus phone despite it being the company’s only foldable phone. Tough.
OnePlus Open: A no-compromise foldable phone
OnePlus took its time to get into the foldable phone market, but this is a staggeringly good way to show its hand.
In many places where Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold series is the only direct competitor to this device, the Open breathes some fresh air into the game. The physicality of the device is thought out well, from the hinge to the display’s usability. The Open Canvas software features simply let you breeze between apps. And the Open’s cameras handily beat the Fold 5’s snappers any day of the week.
Combine that with the typical OnePlus table stakes — including how it undercuts Samsung in price — and it would probably be the winner in our list if it weren’t for the fact that foldables are still so expensive in the first place.
OnePlus Nord N30 5G
4. Best budget OnePlus phone
Get it for free, if you can
Whether you hear it called the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite or the Nord N30, this is the company’s epitome of a budget phone for the 2023 model year. The display’s brightness, an enduring battery, and a decent primary camera are key features.
- Performant and capable display
- Runs well, lasts a long time
- Great photos from the main camera
- Samsung provides better displays at this price range
- Mediocre material build
- Other cameras don’t stack up
Our colleagues at our sister-sites Android Police and XDA-Developers reviewed the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite/ N30 –naming dependent on your region. For all the praise we’ve heaped on OnePlus for mastering the mix on its flagships, the Nord N30 does alright, especially if you’re shopping on a stricter budget.
The LCD panel here supports adaptive refresh at up to 120Hz, there’s enough running room provided by the Snapdragon 695, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage, and the 108MP primary camera can do wonders. That said, the company doesn’t exactly cut its corners here gracefully: the phone suffers from “accessory camera syndrome” with its 2MP macro and depth sensors.
The storage disk runs on the dated UFS 2.2 spec, and the LCD is a step-down from the N20’s OLED screen — the CE 2 Lite was distinct from the N20 and still had an LCD, see Android Police’s review of the N20 and ours on the CE 2 Lite — to list a few examples. Is it a bad $300 phone? By all means, not really. Could you do better? We would argue yes, with the Samsung Galaxy A34.
The good news (as of early February 2024) is that you can get the phone for free by bringing a number over to Metro by T-Mobile or $20 if you start a new line.
The bottom line: What is the best OnePlus phone overall?
We believe the $600 model of the OnePlus 12R is the phone to get right now. It offers the most performance you can get in that price range for North America and there’s plenty of overhead to forestall that next upgrade until maybe even 2029. The cameras aren’t the best, we admit, but if you’re just snapping pictures just to say you snapped a picture, the phone puts out a perfectly pleasant photo or video most of the time. And nothing beats a good, punchy display that can go from strength to strength.
OnePlus 12R
Editor’s Choice
As we said above, it’s the highest performing phone for value that a phone buyer can get. The best part of it all? You don’t have to save up as much to get it.
How did we choose these OnePlus phones?
We’re not going to sugarcoat it. The range of phones that OnePlus offers at any given time nowadays has shrunken significantly. As of early 2024 in North America, you’re easily able to buy the OnePlus 12, 12R, Open, and Nord N30 from the company itself, as well as the typical spread of retailers. You’ll be able to grab a few older models such as the OnePlus 11 on Amazon, but don’t be surprised if you only find refurbishes.
We’ve done our best to collate critical experiences across Pocket-lint and our sister sites to give you the best idea of what to expect from these devices.
Should I buy the OnePlus 12 or the OnePlus 12R?
If you’ve come to the end of this piece weighing whether to buy either of the latest OnePlus flagships, well, do we have the article for you. See our full comparison of specs and why recommend OnePlus 12 for some consumers and OnePlus 12R for others.
OnePlus 12 vs. OnePlus 12R: Does R stand for really different?
The OnePlus 12 is set up for a predictable fight in the flagship space. But what about the OnePlus 12R? Could it be an even better value for you?
Trending Products
