Which is right for you?

• OnePlus 12

  The OnePlus 12 brings incremental upgrades, but the sum of those upgrades provides a well-rounded experience with fast performance, long battery life, and a stellar camera. 

  Pros

  • Speedy performance
  • Great battery life
  • Strong triple camera system

  Cons

  • Newer means higher price tag
  • Cameras could be better in low light
  • Doesn’t match Google/Samsung’s seven year software commitment

• 

  OnePlus 11 5G

  $630 $800 Save $170

  2023’s OnePlus 11 offers plenty as a current phone or even as a discounted upgrade, with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, a better set of cameras than the OnePlus 12R, and 80W charging.

  Pros

  • Hasselblad camera color profile pops
  • Same great 80W wired charging
  • Performance remains terrific

  Cons

  • Some spec gaps tougher to swallow (storage, telephoto)
  • No wireless charging
  • Becoming difficult to acquire

Hi there, phone shopper — thinking about upgrading to a new OnePlus flagship? You may be thinking of moving on from your OnePlus 11 to a fancy new OnePlus 12. Or, you could be coming from outside the OnePlus space altogether and considering both with the former as a money-saving alternative. We’re here to help you hone your decision-making process.

Price, specs & availability

Both phones are available to purchase unlocked for use with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon in the United States. You may need to double-check if you’re on a virtual carrier like Mint or Visible. The OnePlus 12 is available direct from OnePlus as well as Amazon, Best Buy, and other retailers, going for either $700 or $800, depending on the configuration. OnePlus no longer sells the OnePlus 11, and you’ll find limited stock at the retailers that still carry it. Refurbished devices are more of an option with older phones.

• 	OnePlus 12	OnePlus 11 5G
  SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
  Display	6.82-inch ProXDR LTPO, 3168 × 1440 (510ppi), 120Hz adaptive refresh	6.7-inch Super Fluid AMOLED, 3216 × 1440 (525ppi), 120Hz adaptive refresh
  RAM	12GB or 16GB LPDDR5X RAM	8GB or 16GB LPDDR5X RAM
  Storage	256GB or 512GB UFS 4.0	128GB UFS 3.1/256GB UFS 4.0
  Battery	5,400mAh	5,000mAh
  Ports	USB 3.2 Gen 1 (Type-C)	USB 2.0 (Type-C)
  Operating System	OxygenOS 14 w/ Android 14	OxygenOS 13 w/ Android 13
  Front camera	32MP f/2.4 Sony IMX615	16MP f/2.45
  Rear camera	50MP f/1.6 Sony LYT-808 main w/OIS, 48MP f/2.2 Sony IMX581 ultrawide (114°), 64MP f/2.6 OmniVision OV64B 3x telephoto w/OIS	50MP f/1.8 Sony IMX890 main w/OIS, 48MP f/2.2 IMX581 ultrawide (115°), 32MP f/2 IMX709 2x telephoto
  Connectivity	5G (no UWB), 4G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC	5G (no UWB), 4G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC
  Dimensions	164.3 × 75.8 × 9.2mm	163.1 × 74.1 × 8.53mm
  Colors	Silky Black, Flowy Emerald	Eternal Green, Titan Black
  Weight	220g	205g
  Charge speed	80W wired SUPERVOOC, 50W wireless AIRVOOC	80W wired SuperVOOC
  IP Rating	IP65	IP64
  Price	$800/$900	$700 or $800
  Release date	2024-02-06	2023-02-16

OnePlus 12 vs. OnePlus 11: The big differences

When we’re comparing two devices of matching caliber and separated by a release cycle, there are some differences you would hope you could take for granted and most of them are there in the OnePlus 12 over the OnePlus 11. In fact, there are a good handful of them. Horsepower gets a predictable bump up from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 to the Gen 3. The storage options slide from 128GB and 256GB to 256GB and 512GB while RAM on the base model gets a nice 50% boost to 12GB. The 128GB option on the OnePlus 11 uses a slower disk protocol thanks to no viable supply of UFS 4.0 storage at that size.

So far, the impression you might be getting is that more is good and bigger is better, and that theme flows into the actual physicality of the phones. The OnePlus 12 is slightly larger, thicker, and heavier than the OnePlus 11, pure and simple. The company says that with these minor blueprint adjustments, it can offer more, such as a larger vapor chamber to keep the phone cool under heavy workloads.

Other related points of interest include an 8% increase in battery capacity, a marginally larger display (which, in itself, has improved in contrast thanks to a 4,500-nit peak brightness), the inclusion of OnePlus’s proprietary AirVOOC wireless charging technology which, with an appropriate charging pad, can juice your OnePlus 12 up from zero to full in under an hour. We’re not sure if the lift in IP rating from IP64 to IP65 — the change indicates better resistance to intrusion from spraying water — has anything to do directly with the revised design, but it’s certainly a welcome one.

1:02

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If you’ve taken a look at the spec sheet, though, the line that will stand out the most will probably be on cameras. The OnePlus 12’s selfie shooter is twice the resolution of the OnePlus 11, for starters, and the 50MP main sensor, still from Sony, comes from a newer product line. But it’s the telephoto unit that will take the cake with another doubling of pixels and an extension of range from 2x to 3x, getting you a potentially better raw product. You can read Pocket-lint’s full review of the OnePlus 12, complete with photo samples to see its performance with your own eyes.

OnePlus 11 vs OnePlus 12: The same, more or less

Not to rain on the OnePlus 12’s parade, but we think you’ll still be able to enjoy the OnePlus 11’s level of performance if you pick one up — especially with the greater of the two configurations, which happens to be the one that can more easily be found at the moment. And when you layer on the OxygenOS experience, there are vanishingly few nitpicks. Both phones are getting four years of OS and security updates (the latter at a bi-monthly pace), so you’ll obviously miss out on a year of bug fixes and patches if you keep or get the older device. Both of those update terms, however, are shorter than Google and Samsung’s seven-year update promise.

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Leaping to a different tangent in software, the Hasselblad endorsement on the camera system isn’t for nothing. The camera firm provides its own color profile tuning for flagship OnePlus devices, and it does bring a lot to the table.

Probably the best feature, however, if you lean heavily on your phone throughout the day is the 80W SuperVOOC wired charging. Sure, you’ll be annoyed at having to tote around a huge wall wart and bright red cable, but you can’t beat a full charge in half an hour — and neither can most of the competition, really.

Which is right for you?

The OnePlus 12 presents the better value-for-dollar get — at least when looking at the device on its own and even with clearance pricing on the OnePlus 11. The inclusion of key features including more capable cameras and superfast wireless charging make this the easier choice if you can afford it. All the other improvements are just gravy. The biggest deterrent to getting the OnePlus 11, if we’re being honest, is the existence of the OnePlus 12R, a $500 option that mirrors much of the OnePlus 11’s payload.

All that said, if you already own a OnePlus 11, you’d do well to keep it for another few years unless you’re happy to spend money on a new phone (not to mention the cost of the upgraded wireless charging pad). You might also get the 11 over the similarly-priced 12R for the better set of cameras — the latter only has one “good” camera on the back. Ultimately, the decision may come down to whether or not you can find the OnePlus 11 in stock anywhere — stock is starting to dry up.

OnePlus 11

Good alternative

$630 $800 Save $170