OnePlus 12
The OnePlus 12 costs less than $1,000 and comes with a state-of-the-art processor, Hasselblad camera system, and excessively fast charging.
OnePlus 12R
Even with some corners cut, the OnePlus 12R stands on its own as a great value proposition if you value maximizing your everyday life on Android over most everything else.
Chinese manufacturer OnePlus is known for releasing two flagship-tier phones at a time. A couple of years ago, the company did away with releasing a Pro model alongside a more affordable, but limited counterpart.
In 2024, OnePlus brought back the two-tiered strategy but is complementing its masthead product with something slightly different for the first time in North America. So, what does theOnePlus 12Rhave to offer against theOnePlus 12? Now that both devices have been out for a while, we can compare to see if the more premium phone is really worth the extra cost.
Price, specs & availability
The 12R is the budget version
In the US and Canada, both phones are available unlocked from Amazon and Best Buy as well as directly from OnePlus. Each phone comes in two colors and two memory configurations. You can use either OnePlus 12 or 12R on your plan at AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon.
The OnePlus 12R is the more budget-friendly of the two, coming in at $500 or $600, depending on the configuration, while the OnePlus 12 goes for $800 or $900.
OnePlus 12 vs OnePlus 12R: Premium vs. Premium ‘B’
The biggest difference is the camera, but that’s not all
OnePlus’s R-series of devices isn’t related to its acclaimed budget-orientedNordlineup, but it does cost less for the company to build than its flagship OnePlus phone. That’s because it’s designed to target a handful of markets with less disposable income, but healthy consumer demand – we’re primarily talking about India, but you’d be able to find R phones in other parts of South Asia. Companies taking this route will cut most of their corners by using less expensive components or top-tier parts from the previous product cycle to help meet a certain price point.
As such, the OnePlus 12 gets the latest Snapdragon 8 series processor while the OnePlus 12R sports the last-gen version. The displays are of the same basic technology and feature many of the same capabilities, such as adaptable refresh rates between 1-120Hz to suit the content on the screen and a peak brightness of 4,500 nits. Even though both devices support spatial audio for wireless accessories, the holistic audio experience is a key difference for the 12 as it touts powerful stereo Dolby Atmos speakers and an interface to tune your personal spatial audio experience.
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One particularly annoying point of difference is in the memory department: the OnePlus 12R features 128GB and 256GB storage options, both of which use the UFS 3.1 standard.
You might still be wondering where the $300 difference comes from, and we’d argue that the most dramatic difference lies in the cameras. The OnePlus 12 is equipped with massive, pixel-rich sensors for wide, ultrawide, and telephoto shots. The OnePlus 12R has one bazooka camera that acts as an all-purpose juggernaut, while the ultrawide and macro cameras use smaller sensors with fewer trimmings.
You may be steered toward the OnePlus 12 if you shoot pics and clips frequently and expect nearly everything to come out looking fantastic. But if you’re looking for serviceable pictures and don’t want to invest too much time in the camera experience, you may actually value the compromise on the OnePlus 12R.
OnePlus 12 vs OnePlus 12R: What’s shared and what’s surprising
They are more evenly matched than you’d expect
The OnePlus 12 and 12R look much alike on the outside, right down to the famed alert slider near the top of the right edge – it’s still nice to have a physical switch for turning on Do Not Disturb mode – and a decent expanse dedicated to vapor cooling chambers. They also both have in-display fingerprint sensors, for what that’s worth, and they also share plenty of software features since they dip from the same well in OxygenOS 14, based onAndroid 14. Either way, you’ll get four years of software updates – presumably for both platform changes and security patches.
Zooming in on OxygenOS for a minute, OnePlus is as obsessed as ever about managing the performance of its phones for the long term, and its Vita (short for “vitalization”) suite of tools serves that obsession. CPU-Vita sets parameters for task scheduling, display control, and a horde of other minute activities that should give users more time before the battery goes kaput for the day. ROM-Vita has some tricks to reduce disk fragmentation and retain as much usable space as possible.
How multitasking works on the OnePlus Open
With its Open Canvas user interface, OnePlus has reimagined what multitasking looks like on a foldable phone.
On the other hand, RAM-Vita rededicates storage space for active memory and may be used to complement Super Lock to keep up to six apps active – OnePlus is notorious for cutting off background processes to save on RAM. You may find these features more useful on the base model OnePlus 12R than on the OnePlus 12 or even the more capable variant of the 12R.
The biggest surprise in examining the 12 and 12R together might be in the power department. As it was launched in China back in December, the OnePlus 12 originally came with a maximum intake rate of 100W via its proprietary SuperVOOC protocol. Breaking out of its home country’s borders, though, the phone has gone with a more conservative (but still fast) 80W. You’ll still need a special power adapter and cable, both of which come in the box, to get those top speeds. You’ll also need a special AirVOOC wireless charging pad to get the 50W speeds as advertised. On the more affordable OnePlus 12R, you’ll still get the same 80W SuperVOOC charging speed through a wired connection, but it forgoes any sort of wireless charging capability.
The battery is also slightly (negligibly, in our opinion) larger on the 12R. It’s a little weird that the cheaper device gets the larger power plant and the faster charging speeds. When you consider that it’ll take 12 minutes or less to get from empty to 50% on either phone and 30 minutes to top up, how much of an impact does this difference make? Not much, we’d guess.
Sadly, both phones lack radios for ultra wideband frequencies. This means you’re able to’t access high-capacity, high-speed 5G networks in popular venues and tap into special locator tags or screen-sharing protocols.
Which is right for you?
More expensive doesn’t always mean better
If you’re set on buying a new OnePlus phone in 2024, the best value you’re going to get will probably be with the 256GB OnePlus 12R – yes, that one in particular. If you’re looking for mastery of core competencies such as battery longevity and flying through apps and games, this configuration will do it for a well-spent $600. You’re also getting the same software support window as your fellow OnePlus 12 buyers and nearly all the same OxygenOS goodies (and flaws) that make the company’s phones quite distinctive. It’s a worthy workhorse even if the 12R’s spec sheet has a few stale lines.
The North American market lacks options for powerful phones priced between $400 and $700 and the OnePlus 12R does its part to remedy the gap.
On the other hand, if you care a lot about the camera, go with the OnePlus 12. You’ll be getting the firepower you deserve in the cameras, and you’ll also have a sharper display to review your photos and enjoy a bunch of Netflix, Hulu, or whatever premium service you’re currently streaming.
At the end of the day, the 12 and 12R are undoubtedly among thebest OnePlus phonesavailable, but they are far from the only options. The company even makes a foldable phone called the OnePlus Open, which givesSamsung’s Galaxy Z Fold seriesa run for its money. If you’re on a tighter budget, consider the Nord N30 5G.
If the camera experience comes first for you and all the other benefits the OnePlus 12 brings are ancillary, get this phone.
