Best OnePlus phones in 2024

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. We’re beyond the ten-year anniversary since the Chinese tech company first began its ventures, and it has a lot to celebrate — especially under a closer relationship with corporate sister Oppo.

OnPlus has a brilliant foldable phone, and it’s continuing to make some stellar alternatives for those who prefer to purchase outside the Apple and Samsung ecosystem. OnePlus has been able to streamline software updates — despite the software not being entirely up to today’s handset standards.

Whatever the reason you might be shopping for a new phone, OnePlus could be a good fit for your taste. I’m 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 phone overall

Thanks to its price and performance, the OnePlus 12R is the best in the current series

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.

As said in this 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.

Best premium OnePlus device

Looking for a good premium alternative to an iPhone or Pixel? The OnePlus 12 should be on your radar

OnePlus 12

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.

Pros

• Best display to date on a OnePlus device
• More RAM and storage for the base model
• Fourth-gen Hasselblad cameras deliver on color

Cons

• 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. I’m 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.

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.

Best foldable from OnePlus

You have to hand it to the OnePlus Open, it’s a very compelling foldable

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, I know we’re calling the Open the best foldable OnePlus phone despite it being the company’s only foldable phone — tough.

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.

Best budget-friendly device from OnePlus

Want to save some cash but want contemporary features, take a look at the Nord N30 5G

OnePlus Nord N30 5G

Get it for free, if you can

$250 $300 Save $50

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.

Pros

• Performant and capable display
• Runs well, lasts a long time
• Great photos from the main camera

Cons

• Samsung provides better displays at this price range
• Mediocre material build
• Other cameras don’t stack up

My 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 bottom line: What is the best OnePlus phone?

I believe the $500 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, I 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.

Editor’s Choice

OnePlus 12R

As I 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 we chose these OnePlus phones

I’m 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.

I’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.

OnePlus Open

A foldable done right

$1500 $1700 Save $200

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.

Pros

• 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

Cons

• Lack of wireless charging
• Bulky camera system adds to overall heft
• Priced less than the Galaxy Z Fold 5, but only just

FAQ

Q: 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 we recommend OnePlus 12 for some consumers and OnePlus 12R for others.

Q: What is the best price I can get on a OnePlus device?

OnePlus devices range in price. The latest OnePlus devices can reach upwards of $1,699 without discounts. However, on the flip side, OnePlus does offer its Nord N30 5G at a fairly reasonable cost. Supporting a 6.72-inch display, 108-megapixel camera, 8GB of RAM, and more, the Nord N30 5G can be found for as little as $299.

Q: Does OnePlus offer trade-in bonuses?

When purchasing a new OnePlus device through the company, you’re eligible to trade in your existing device. Via the “OnePlus official trade-in partner,” you’ll be able to get an estimated trade-in value from your existing phone to go towards a new device. You can select to get Trade-in Instant Credit to be applied to your device automatically. Alternatively, you can get the value issued as cashback once the device is shipped and verified. However, the full cost of the phone will need to be paid upfront. In many cases, you can get $50 when upgrading with the OnePlus Trade-in program.