OnePlus 12 Review: The Return Of The Flagship Killer
OnePlus 12 Audio Quality, Benchmark Performance And Battery Life
We tested the OnePlus 12 on T-Mobile and Telus’ sub-6GHz 5G and 4G LTE networks in San Francisco and Vancouver (Canada), and didn’t experience any problems. Calls sounded clear and data speeds matched our expectations. While the OnePlus 12 is also compatible with AT&T and Verizon’s networks, it lacks mmWave 5G support – unlike Apple, Samsung, and Google’s flagships. This isn’t a deal breaker, but it’s worth mentioning.
As you’d expect from a modern flagship, the OnePlus 12 packs excellent stereo speakers (side firing drivers at the top and bottom edges) with Dolby Atmos. This handset also supports both analog and digital audio devices over USB Type-C for wired listening, but obviously, there’s no headphone jack. On the wireless front, the OnePlus 12 includes aptX HD, LDAC, and LHDC codecs for high-quality audio over Bluetooth.
Recently, Geekbench was upgraded to version 6, which includes new ways of testing multicore configurations and uses higher-resolution assets. Since this benchmark is newer, we don't have as many data points, but as you can see, the OnePlus 12 performed quite well in this test.
Here the OnePlus 12 shows similar performance to previous generation models, slotting just above the OnePlus Open. It should be noted that PCMark is getting more burst clock speed limited it seems with each new crop of devices, as evidenced by the ROG Phone 8 Pro (also Snapdragon 8 Gen 3) that clocks behind the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered Galaxy Z Flip5, when set to standard mode, versus its goosed-up X-Mode, which takes the number 1 spot.
According to AnTuTu, the OnePlus 12 offers a slight increase in performance vs. previous generation Android handsets, matching the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro, when not in X-Mode, in terms of its overall score.
Now we're seeing the kind of performance improvement we expected from Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-equipped devices like the OnePlus 12. This phone clearly beats Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered devices like Samsung's Galaxy S23 Ultra in these graphically rich, gaming-oriented benchmarks.
Here we only see a slight improvement to the overall score over Snapdragon 8 Gen-2-equipped flagships. Still, the OnePlus 12 performed extremely well in this test, almost matching the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro at its X-Mode setting.
Here the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered OnePlus 12 delivers a notable improvement in performance versus the fastest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-equipped devices, and just barely beats the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro, a gaming phone that's also powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. These scores are effectively the same, however, and well within the margin of variability for the benchmark.
Battery life is outstanding. This isn’t really surprising, considering the OnePlus 12 packs a generous 5400mAh battery (split into two 2700mAh cells for fast charging), which beats anything from Google, Apple, or Samsung. In our PCMark Work 3.0 battery test, the OnePlus 12 lasted a whopping 20 hours and 27 minutes. As such, we're confident this phone will last an entire day of heavy use on a full charge without breaking a sweat.
When it’s time for a refill, the OnePlus 12 supports SuperVOOC 100W fast wired charging (80W in markets with 120V outlets, like North America) plus USB-PD. As a bonus, there’s a 100W SuperVOOC charger in the box, which strangely comes with a USB Type-A port. But wait, there’s more. Unlike its recent predecessors, the OnePlus 12 also boasts AirVOOC 50W fast wireless charging, which is Qi-compatible (up to 15W). Finally.
Reception And Sound Quality
As you’d expect from a modern flagship, the OnePlus 12 packs excellent stereo speakers (side firing drivers at the top and bottom edges) with Dolby Atmos. This handset also supports both analog and digital audio devices over USB Type-C for wired listening, but obviously, there’s no headphone jack. On the wireless front, the OnePlus 12 includes aptX HD, LDAC, and LHDC codecs for high-quality audio over Bluetooth.
Performance And Battery Life
The OnePlus 12 boasts Qualcomm’s flagship 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, which is paired with either 12 or 16GB of LPDDR5x RAM, and either 256 or 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage (without microSD support). Needless to say, this phone feels blazing fast. It handled everything we threw at it like a champ, from our usual collection of communication, social media, and productivity apps, to our favorite entertainment and gaming apps.
Our benchmarks confirmed this subjective experience, with the OnePlus 12 ranking at the top in many of our tests. As for sustained performance, the OnePlus 12 achieved a stability score of only 55.2% after twenty iterations of 3DMark’s Wild Life stress test. But, looking at the graph, the stability score remained stable for the first seven iterations, but then seesawed between ~95% and ~55% every four iterations, which represents intermittent thermal throttling.
OnePlus 12 Geekbench Results
Geekbench is a cross-platform benchmark that simulates real-world processing workloads in image processing and particle physics calculation scenarios. We tested all of the smartphones featured here with Geekbench's single and multi-core workloads.
GeekBench is a purely synthetic benchmark and can be heavily targeted for optimization. Regardless, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor delivers a notable improvement in single and multi-threaded performance over previous generation Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-equipped Android flagships.
OnePlus 12 PCMark For Android Results
UL's PCMark for Android is an excellent suite of tests if you want to benchmark a wide range of tasks on a handset -- things like image and video editing, as well as lighter-duty, everyday workloads such as email and web browsing. When you see the test running live, it's clear the scripted application tests are carefully selected and tuned to make use of the mobile platform in a very controlled way.
Here the OnePlus 12 shows similar performance to previous generation models, slotting just above the OnePlus Open. It should be noted that PCMark is getting more burst clock speed limited it seems with each new crop of devices, as evidenced by the ROG Phone 8 Pro (also Snapdragon 8 Gen 3) that clocks behind the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered Galaxy Z Flip5, when set to standard mode, versus its goosed-up X-Mode, which takes the number 1 spot.
OnePlus 12 AnTuTu 8 Benchmarks
AnTuTu’s latest benchmark returns a number of metrics ranked with somewhat nebulous scores, rather than frame rates or time to complete. Here we're running the latest version of AnTuTu across multiple Android devices. AnTuTu returns four top level performance results which are all included here: CPU, RAM, 3D, UX (or User Experience), along with a total score.
According to AnTuTu, the OnePlus 12 offers a slight increase in performance vs. previous generation Android handsets, matching the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro, when not in X-Mode, in terms of its overall score.
OnePlus 12 Graphics And Gaming Benchmarks Results
Now, let's take a look at how the OnePlus 12 stacks up in GFXBench, which has been one of the standard mobile graphics/gaming performance benchmarks for years. To ensure that display refresh (v-sync) and resolution aren't limiting factors, we're comparing off-screen test results here. GFXBench tests OpenGL ES graphics workloads and we're specifically testing OpenGL ES 2.0 and 3.0, as well as Vulkan in the latest iterations.
Now we're seeing the kind of performance improvement we expected from Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-equipped devices like the OnePlus 12. This phone clearly beats Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered devices like Samsung's Galaxy S23 Ultra in these graphically rich, gaming-oriented benchmarks.
OnePlus 12 3DMark Slingshot Tests
UL's 3DMark Sling Shot is one of several modules in the 3DMark mobile suite. Unlike previous gen 3DMark mobile tests, Sling Shot is a much more advanced OpenGL ES 3.1 and Metal API-based benchmark that employs more advanced rendering techniques, like volumetric lighting, particle illumination, multiple render targets, instanced rendering, uniform buffers, and transform feedback. We're running this test in off-screen mode once again to remove display resolution differences from the equation. This allows us to compare cross-platform results more reliably.
Here we only see a slight improvement to the overall score over Snapdragon 8 Gen-2-equipped flagships. Still, the OnePlus 12 performed extremely well in this test, almost matching the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro at its X-Mode setting.
OnePlus 12 Wild Life Benchmark Tests
3DMark's Wild Life benchmark is newer and more demanding than Slingshot, and it allows powerful devices to shine. So, how did the OnePlus 12 do?
Here the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered OnePlus 12 delivers a notable improvement in performance versus the fastest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-equipped devices, and just barely beats the Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro, a gaming phone that's also powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. These scores are effectively the same, however, and well within the margin of variability for the benchmark.
OnePlus 12 Additional Features And Battery Life
Other specs are pretty standard for a modern flagship. You’ll find sub-6GHz 5G on board, plus CAT 20 LTE, dual-band WiFi 7 (802.11be), Bluetooth 5.4 (LE), NFC, and dual-band A-GPS/ GLONASS / Galileo / BeiDou / QZSS / NavIC positioning – not to mention the usual collection of sensors. The optical in-display fingerprint sensor is quick and reliable, and so is face unlock. In addition, haptics feel absolutely fantastic.
Battery life is outstanding. This isn’t really surprising, considering the OnePlus 12 packs a generous 5400mAh battery (split into two 2700mAh cells for fast charging), which beats anything from Google, Apple, or Samsung. In our PCMark Work 3.0 battery test, the OnePlus 12 lasted a whopping 20 hours and 27 minutes. As such, we're confident this phone will last an entire day of heavy use on a full charge without breaking a sweat.
When it’s time for a refill, the OnePlus 12 supports SuperVOOC 100W fast wired charging (80W in markets with 120V outlets, like North America) plus USB-PD. As a bonus, there’s a 100W SuperVOOC charger in the box, which strangely comes with a USB Type-A port. But wait, there’s more. Unlike its recent predecessors, the OnePlus 12 also boasts AirVOOC 50W fast wireless charging, which is Qi-compatible (up to 15W). Finally.
