What’s the story so far?

This December, mobile-first tech brand OnePlus will celebrate its tenth anniversary. In that decade, the company has matured from raucous maverick to a part of the establishment in the smartphone market. So, beyond its first folding phone, what’s next?

All eyes are turning towards the OnePlus 12 in anticipation of what it will bring to the table. If you’re looking to get up to speed, don’t worry – we’re laying out a place setting for you.

OnePlus 12 release date and price

• December 5 2023 launch in China
• January 24 2024 global launch?

In the past few years, OnePlus has settled on announcing its new mainline phones in January before opening pre-orders in the following months – Western Europe usually hears about purchase details in February, and the United States in March.

It has now been confirmed that the OnePlus 12 will be launching a little earlier in December, at least in China. The brand’s president, Li Jie, confirmed the launch via a Weibo post. He stated December 5 2023 as the launch date, whereas previous news had suggested December 4. However, this small discrepancy could easily be due to time zone differences. Whatever the case may be, we’ll be hearing a lot more about the OnePlus 12 very soon.

When it comes to a global release, OnePlus may have inadvertently shared the release date as part of the terms and conditions for a giveaway contest it is running. The contest runs until January 23 2024, which is stated as “the day before the OnePlus 12 launch event in the India region.” So, there’s a very good chance that the OnePlus 12 will launch on January 24 in India, and that usually equates to the same launch date for Europe, too.

As for pricing, no one has floated numbers yet, so all we have is what the OnePlus 11 sold for: the base model featuring 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage was priced $699/£729 at launch while the 16/256 configuration was $799/£799.

OnLeaks / MySmartPrice

Design

• Alert slider on the left-hand side
• Three colourways: Black, White and Green Marble
• Mystery sensor in the camera array

The OnePlus 12 has a design that closely resembles the OnePlus 11, and while early renders showed an unusual-looking square periscope lens towards the bottom of the camera array, the confirmed design has a layout that’s much more familiar.

The circular “hob” or “stove” containing the rear cameras and Hasselblad branding gets carried over, but the contents within have shifted around. Instead of the three cameras and LED flash arranged in a square array, it seems that the OnePlus 12’s flash has been moved to the upper bezel surrounding the cameras. There’s also a mysterious fourth hole, matching the size of the three other lenses, but it’s not yet clear what its purpose is. Some suspect it may house a proximity or colour sensor, but time will tell.

The classic OnePlus alert slider is also in play, fans of the brand will be pleased to know, but it has been moved to the left side of this phone. Apparently, this is to improve antenna performance.

OnePlus said in a press release “Based on internal testing, it has been determined that the optimal position for gaming antennas is between the forefingers of the user when the phone is held in landscape orientation. However, the space is currently occupied by the Alert Slider on the OnePlus 11. By relocating the Alert Slider to the opposite side of the phone, better gaming antennas can be deployed on the OnePlus 12.”

Brar also mentions in an August tweet that the OnePlus 12 will have an IP rating – the OnePlus 11 had an IP64.

Display

• 2K LTPO BOE X1 OLED panel
• 3168×1440 resolution, 2600 nits peak brightness

OnePlus, Oppo and BOE held a joint press conference in late October to reveal more information about the displays that will feature on both the OnePlus 12 and the OnePlus Ace 3. No exact measurements were given, but the OnePlus 12 is expected to have a similarly sized display to its predecessor, with a similar resolution, too.

BOE calls the panel tech X1, and it has an A+ certification from DisplayMate for its exceptional brightness and colour accuracy. Exceptional is the right word, too, as this panel is said to be able to output an astonishing 2600 nits at peak brightness, compared to just 1300 nits offered by the OnePlus 11’s display.

It’s also said to be much more efficient, consuming 13 per cent less power than the previous generation of display. At the same time, it will come with per-pixel calibrating technology to ensure that the entire display shows accurate colours with less grain.

Just like the last model, this display offers a variable refresh rate that goes all the way from 1Hz – 120Hz. This helps to conserve battery life while ensuring the display is buttery smooth while scrolling or playing mobile games.

Internal specs

• Early adopter of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
• 12GB/16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage
• 5,400mAh battery, 50W wireless charging, 100W wired charging

OnePlus is in contention for being one of the first if not the first brand to use Qualcomm’s latest flagship hardware platform in a product. In this case, we know it’s going to be the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in the OnePlus 12. The exciting new chip which was recently announced as part of the annual Snapdragon Tech Summit.

The OnePlus 12 has already started appearing in some benchmark databases, too, which gives us an idea of the performance we can expect from the upcoming handset. 91Mobiles reports that the phone appeared on the GeekBench database, posting a score of 2,169 in single-core and 6,501 in the multi-core test. Comparatively, the OnePlus 11 scored 1,493 in single-core, and 5,112 in multi-core, so this is quite the uplift in performance.

The phone has also appeared on the AnTuTu database, scoring a whopping 2,110,808 points. Again, a massive improvement over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered OnePlus 11, which scored 1,027,699.

OnePlus president, Li Jie, said in a Weibo post that the OnePlus 12 is designed to “surpass the Pro version of all Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile phones.” So the company is certainly confident about the performance of its upcoming flagship. Time will tell if it actually exceeds the performance of its rival handsets.

OnePlus

OnePlus has stuck with two memory configurations for its flagship phones for the past few product cycles: 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage and 16GB+256GB. However, the leaked benchmarks show two configurations, one with 12GB of RAM and one with 16GB, so we may see these options instead. OnLeaks and SmartPrix claim this will be LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 4.0 storage – but we’ll keep our suspicions alive, for now.

Early speculation about battery capacity pegged it at 5,000mAh – a figure that hasn’t budged in recent updates. Late word from Yogesh Brar, however, indicates that there may finally be upward movement with a 5,400mAh tank this time around. Depending on the region, you may see wireless charging of up to 50W and wired charging of up to 100W.

Camera

• Main: 50MP Sony IMX900 series sensor
• Ultra-wide: 50MP
• Telephoto: 64MP Omnivision OV64B 3x w/ periscope
• Front: 32MP

OnLeaks and SmartPrix claim the most notable shifts will be in the cameras: the main camera will still be 50-megapixels in resolution, but the Sony IMX890 will be traded for an IMX900 series sensor. Our bet is the IMX989 that’s been used on the Oppo Find X6 and others, but it’s possible we may see a different or even brand-new sensor in that place.

Another trick that the OnePlus 12 may borrow from the Find X6 is the periscope telephoto lens, but paired with a 64-megapixel Omnivision OV64B instead – double the resolution of the OnePlus 11’s zoom camera and beating the 50-megapixel with Oppo – with what’s being reported as a 3x lens. The X6 was able to achieve 6x.

It’s also likely we’ll see last year’s 32-megapixel sensor in that punch hole at the top of the display.

OnePlus has yet to dish the details on the camera array, but it has shared an image taken with the OnePlus 12. Interestingly it’s an ariel shot, so clearly, someone strapped the unreleased mobile to a drone for this promotional image. All we know for now is that it was taken with a 70mm equivalent focal length, at f/2.6, so presumably it’s using the telephoto lens – and it looks mighty detailed.

OnePlus 12 rumours: What’s happened so far?

Here’s our intelligence timeline for the OnePlus 12:

27 November 2023: Here’s when the OnePlus 12 will be announced as expectations grow

Release date confirmation comes via a post to the Chinese social network, Weibo, by none other than Li Jie, the president of OnePlus.

20 November 2023: The OnePlus 12’s launch date has been confirmed, and it’s soon

The OnePlus 12 will be announced in December, beating Samsung’s flagship models to the market.

30 October 2023: OnePlus 12 appears in GeekBench and AnTuTu listings ahead of launch

The OnePlus 12 has surfaced early in some benchmark databases, posting impressive scores with the shiny new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor.

23 October 2023: Oppo, OnePlus and BOE hold a press conference to reveal the display tech that will feature on the OnePlus 12

BOE dishes some juicy details on the display that will debut with the OnePlus 12, with an amazing peak brightness of 2600 nits and per-pixel calibration.

6 September 2023: Updated renders claim to give us an accurate look at the upcoming OnePlus 12

New renders, courtesy of OnLeaks and MySmartPrice give us our best look at the OnePlus 12 so far, complete with a reconfigured camera array.

21 August 2023: These key OnePlus 12 upgrades scream premium handset

We get affirmations on the zoom factor of the telephoto camera and a battery capacity bump from Yogesh Brar.

20 July 2023: Disk and zoom specs revealed

OnLeaks and SmartPrix bring updated specifications to the speculation table, including a 3x optical zoom factor on the telephoto camera.

14 July 2023: Upgrading power specs?

Weibo stalwart Digital Chat Station (via Sohu) claims European and Canadian retail units might see a larger 5,500mAh battery in addition to the higher maximum charge rate of 150W by cable.

13 July 2023: December launch assurance

Max Jambor of Germany affirms a December launch for the OnePlus 12 in China (via MySmartPrice).

12 July 2023: Leaked OnePlus 12 renders come with rumours of new Hasselblad-tuned cameras

Our first renders of the phone come from Steve Hemmerstoffer, the person behind OnLeaks. A few updated specs are also included in this spill.

25 May 2023: OnePlus 12 might pack a periscope camera

Yogesh Brar relayed some key specs of what he claimed to be an engineering validation unit.