FEB 12, 2024
NimishAndAkriti
In recent years OnePlus has been coming out with a more affordable variant of its flagship, generally suffixed by an R. This is generally a phone that resembles the 'proper' OnePlus flagship in many regards, but generally has a slightly less powerful processor. AND a much lower price. This year, the OnePlus 12 is the flagship and comes for Rs 64,999. Those who find that too exp can try its R version, the OnePlus 12R, which starts at a much lower Rs 39,999!
In terms of design, the OnePlus 12R is a dead ringer for the OnePlus 12, which means that yes, it too looks like the OnePlus 11 - elegant but not innovative. You get a glass front and back here too, with a similar large circular camera unit (no Hasselblad branding though). The back of the OnePlus 12 is much more glossy - our Cool Blue unit was a forensic person's dream, picking up fingerprints easily. It does look good, though, and has an IP64 rating!
The star of the show is without doubt the curved 6.78 inch AMOLED display of 1264 x 2780 resolution and 120 Hz refresh rate. It is slightly smaller than the 6.82 inch display on the OnePlus 12 and has a slightly lower resolution, but is brilliant and has the same crazy 4500 nits maximum brightness. The 12R runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, which is a step behind the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 on the OnePlus 12, but is still very much flagship level!
Perhaps the most spectacular difference between the OnePlus 12 and 12R is in terms of cameras. The OnePlus 12R gets no Hasselblad cameras and no special 64 MP periscope sensor or a 48 MP ultrawide. It still has a very good 50 MP main sensor with OIS, but is backed by a more ordinary 8 MP ultrawide and 2 MP macro combo. And while the OnePlus 12's selfie camera was bumped up to 32 MP, the 12R's selfie snapper stays at 16 MP. There's a sense of deja vu here!
The OnePlus 12R comes with a massive 5500 mAh battery, which is the biggest ever seen on a OnePlus phone (bigger than the 5400 mAh one on the OnePlus 12). It also comes with support for 100W charging and with a charger in the box - OnePlus claims it gets charged from 0-100 in less than half an hour. There's no wireless charging, though - something the OnePlus 12 has. You do get stereo speakers and Android 14 with OxygenOS out of the box.
The OnePlus 12R is a rather interesting proposition at Rs 39,999 for 8 GB/ 128 GB and Rs 45,999 for 16 GB/ 256 GB, making it a great option for those who want a close to OnePlus flagship experience at a much lower price. That said, it is in the range of the very good Google Pixel 7a and the Nothing Phone (2), both of which offer clean Android, with the Pixel 7a also having very good cameras. That display and design rock, but a lot depends on the cameras!
(As always, feel free to shoot your queries to us. We will endeavour to answer them)