OnePlus 12 Breaks Ground As First Phone To Use Sony's LYTIA Camera Sensor
Last year's OnePlus 11 brought the company back into the flagship game with plenty of power, efficiency, and class-leading charging speeds at a price that undercut its competitors. A Hasselblad-tuned camera package rounded up the show by offering above average to excellent image quality.
Showing that OnePlus isn't a one-trick pony, the OnePlus 12 is gearing up not merely to be a flagship chaser, but to level the playing field altogether. The company has confirmed that its new phone will feature a new Sony LYTIA mobile image sensor. This makes sense as OnePlus' parent company Oppo has been working in partnership with Sony to incorporate the Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation-developed sensor tech into its future flagships. Apparently, the OnePlus 12 will be the first to get a higher-end 50MP sensor for its main camera, probably the IMX966.

The sensor itself will be 1/1.4-inch built on Sony's dual-layer stacked transistor pixel know-how. A similar setup premiered in the Xperia 1 V earlier this year using the Exmor IMX888 and, more recently, the OnePlus Open. One benefit of this setup is that is can capture as much light as a larger 1-inch sensor while keeping the sensor package comparatively smaller. Night photography has been a hit-or-miss with the OnePlus 11, so this bit of news could really raise the game against the current low-light leaders from Samsung, Apple, and Google.
OnePlus' post doesn't state the launch window, but we're expecting it to be either mid-December (which would mark the company's 10th anniversary) or January 2024. Between possessing the latest camera tech and being one of the first phones to run the blazing fast Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the OnePlus 12 could be another big winner, especially if OnePlus can stay close to or at the original $700 MSRP of the previous phone.
Main image credit: OnLeaks