OnePlus 12R First Impressions: Almost Flagship

The OnePlus 12R was unveiled alongside the flagship OnePlus 12 at the Smooth Beyond Belief event held in New Delhi, India. While it may not have the exact top-of-the-line specifications as its bigger brother, it is still a powerhouse. The handset has the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, a flagship SoC from last year. It looks similar to last year's OnePlus 11R, but that's good. I have used the new OnePlus 12R for some time, and here are my first impressions of it.

The OnePlus 12R feels nice to hold straight out of the box, thanks to the slightly curved back and front. The phone has a metal frame and slim bezels all around the front. The iconic Alert Slider is now in a new position, the original position it was in when OnePlus introduced it with the OnePlus 2. The power and volume buttons are on the right edge. A USB Type-C port, speaker, microphone, and SIM card slot are available at the bottom, and you get an IR blaster, a second mic, and another speaker at the top.

The phone is available in iron grey and cool blue colours. We've got the Cool Blue variant to play with, and yes, it does attract fingerprints. The Gray variant will probably deal better with fingerprints as it has a matte finish. However, you can use a case and keep the fingerprints off the beautiful rear panel of the phone.

At the front, the OnePlus 12R features a large 6.78-inch fourth-generation AMOLED LTPO panel that the company calls ProXDR for some reason. It is surrounded by slim bezels all around and also houses an in-display fingerprint scanner. The panel offers adaptive 1-120Hz refresh rate, 1.5K resolution, up to 1000 Hz touch response rate, Dolby Vision, HDR 10+, and 1,600 nits of brightness (4,500 nits peak). The display is protected by Corning's Gorilla Glass Victus 2, and you also get a cool feature that lets you use the display even in the rain. It gets an IP64 rating as well.

OnePlus 12R comes with a 50-megapixel Sony IMX890 primary rear camera

Moving to the rear, the phone features a familiar camera module we've seen with the OnePlus 11 and later. It gives the phone a distinct design, and I like it. The module is quite large, though, and the phone is prone to a wobble when laid on its back. You get a triple rear camera setup on the OnePlus 12R. There's a 50-megapixel Sony IMX890 primary sensor with OIS and PDAF, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide unit with 122-degree FoV, and a 2-megapixel Macro sensor. I will thoroughly test the camera on the phone, but with the little time I had with the phone, the primary camera can shoot some really good pictures in daylight. At the front, you get a 16-megapixel sensor. Stay tuned for my full review to find out how the cameras perform.

OnePlus 12R is available in India in two variants. You can choose between 8GB RAM + 128GB storage or 16GB RAM and 256GB storage. And, of course, you get fast LPDDR5X RAM and up to UFS 4.0 storage. Only the 256GB variant gets the faster UFS 4.0 storage. In terms of connectivity, the phone offers Bluetooth 5.3, dual-band Wi-Fi 7, NFC, an IR blaster, and the usual set of GPS options.

OnePlus 12R packs a 5,500mAh battery with 100W fast charging support

The phone has a large 5,500mAh battery and a 100W charger in the box. It does lack wireless charging, though, and this feature has been kept aside for the OnePlus 12. The company also provides a case; the phone comes pre-applied with a screen protector. I also tried out the dual speakers on the phone, and I must say that they can get quite loud and also offer some bass. The software on the phone is also quite good, and I did not find a lot of bloatware, but I will dig deeper in the coming days. It runs Android 14-based OxygenOS 14.0 and has plenty of OnePlus-exclusive customisation options. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be cool AI features present on phones such as the Google Pixel 7a and the recently launched Samsung Galaxy S24.

I was thoroughly impressed by the OnePlus 12R in my brief time with it. The phone has all the features that make it almost a flagship, and at a starting price of Rs. 39,999, it seems to me like an excellent deal. However, I will have to spend more time with it to reach conclusions. To find out if you should get the OnePlus 12R over some of its competition, stay tuned for my full review.