The OnePlus 12R, OnePlus’s new entry-level phone, is now on sale with special discounts and offers, including a brief free trial of Google One, YouTube Premium, and OnePlus Buds Z2.

OnePlus 12R Sale Live in India: The OnePlus 12 and OnePlus 12R, the company’s new flagship phones, were just released on January 23 in India and other markets. The more affordable OnePlus 12R is scheduled to go on sale today, February 6, at 12 pm, although the OnePlus 12 is already available for purchase.

Accessibility and reservations

Since its release, customers have been able to pre-order the OnePlus 12R. The phone is available for purchase on Amazon or the official OnePlus website, and the company is currently shipping units to those who placed pre-orders.

Pricing and variants

There are two variants of the OnePlus 12R available: 8/128 GB for Rs 39,999 and 16/256 GB for Rs 45,999. Iron Grey and Cool Blue are among the available colours.

Discounts and offers

Customers can get an instant Rs 1,000 discount when they use an ICICI credit card or OneCard. In addition, ICICI credit/debit card EMI and OneCard EMI offer a 6-month free EMI option.

Special benefits and plans

With OnePlus’ Easy Upgrades plan, customers are guaranteed a 35 percent return after 24 months. The OnePlus 12R comes with benefits on Jio Plus valued at Rs 2,250 for buyers.

Users can get a special coupon good for a Rs 3,000 discount on the OnePlus Pad by connecting to the Red Cable Club (RCC).

Free trials

Customers who purchase a OnePlus 12R are eligible for a 3-month trial of YouTube Premium and a 6-month free trial of Google One. Customers can also get the OnePlus Buds Z2, which are valued at Rs 4,999, for free as part of a brief offer.

OnePlus 12R review

Not every smartphone is ideal for every user. For some people, sending texts and using Maps only requires a low-cost Android phone. For some people, having the newest processor, largest screen, and most powerful camera means everything. Since its inception as a smartphone manufacturer a decade ago, OnePlus has made an effort to combine the two, sacrificing some power, performance, and affordability to keep prices lower than those of its competitors. Even though the company hasn’t always fulfilled this promise, lineups like the Nord series have made an effort to maintain the ideal.

However, the OnePlus 12R isn’t like that. It goes beyond simply pricing the flagship model from last year down. All the good things from the OnePlus 11 are combined with some of the improvements from this year’s OnePlus 12, making it the first R-series device released in North America. In addition, if the company’s “flagship killer” strategy was always about making concessions, this time it made the right ones.

Availability and network

The company’s own storefront, Amazon, and Best Buy all sell the OnePlus 12R. The 8GB/128GB version starts at $500, and the 16GB/256GB version I’m reviewing will set you back $600. Since you can take advantage of OnePlus’s $100 guaranteed trade-in offer on any phone, regardless of condition, purchasing through its store is probably your best option. This makes the starting price of the phone just $400, which is almost unheard of for a phone with these kinds of specifications.

Similar to the OnePlus 12, this phone ought to function with all three US carriers and the great majority of MVNOs on 4G and 5G networks. Although I wouldn’t anticipate seeing mmWave on Verizon, you can pretty safely insert any SIM card into this device and not worry about losing connection.

Design and display

You’ve seen them all if you’ve seen a recent OnePlus phone that doesn’t unfold. The design language of the company’s non-Nord slabs has essentially been consistent starting with the OnePlus 10 Pro. curved edges, mostly black and green colorways, and a recognizable circular camera bump that resembles a watch (the 10 series had a square camera bump before). I’m particularly reminded of the OnePlus 10 Pro by the OnePlus 12R. Although my model’s black finish isn’t the same as the company’s 2022 flagship, its slick texture is more in line with it than the grained finish of the 10T model that came before it, which was less expensive.

Though the camera bump is much slimmer than on the previous couple of devices, thanks to smaller sensors and generally less expensive camera hardware (more on that later), it feels a little more integrated with the phone than the OnePlus 11 from the previous year. In keeping with the style of its namesake, this phone also moves the volume rocker to the right side of the gadget, above the power button. The left side still has the mute switch; I wonder if a clone of the Action button will ever replace it?

The ease with which this phone can slip out of your hands like a bar of soap is something I don’t want to downplay. Because there was no case in the box, my unit, unfortunately, dropped out of my pocket while I was seated, leaving the left side of the device covered in dents and scratches. Even so, for this price range, the overall design is rather good. It has a lot of similarities to the Moto Edge+ from the previous year, but it costs a lot less.

Effectively, the OnePlus 12R’s screen is just as good as the one on the OnePlus 12 standard. It’s slightly smaller at 6.78 inches, but it can still achieve 1,600 nits of brightness in high brightness mode and has a peak brightness rating of 4,500 nits, which is mostly meaningless. Save for its curves, which I hope OnePlus addresses with its 2025 lineup, I adore everything about this screen. It’s brisk, crisp, and vibrant—ideal for flicking through pictures or watching films (insert your preferred Twitter substitute here). The greatest compliment I can give it is that it feels like the screen from a phone is twice as expensive as this one.

Other hardware and what’s in the box

When two companies decide to launch their 2024 flagship phones simultaneously, for example, one advantage of switching phones so frequently is that it becomes easier to spot even the smallest hardware differences. For example, the OnePlus 12R’s face unlock system is far superior to that of Samsung or Google phones. Not only is it quicker, but it also performs better in dimly lit areas than the other two. Though it does not have Class 3 biometrics to support applications such as banking apps, Google can still win this one at least. Not so much with Samsung.

I’m not sure why, but I don’t recall the mute switch catching on my pocket as much as it did with the OnePlus 12R. I would frequently be taken aback when an alert would go off in the background even though I had previously set my phone to vibrate or silent. Watch this on your phone, especially before you go to the theatre to discover who the real Agent Argylle is. (I can’t wait for this joke to become meaningless after three months.)

Not particularly noteworthy, but certainly not the worst in today’s mobile scene are the speakers and haptics. In the last few years, both have made significant progress in flagship Android phones and if it were still 2021, I believe the OnePlus 12R could have competed with the best of them. I don’t think you’ll be unhappy, though, unless you’re coming from more recent, high-end hardware from Apple, Samsung, or Google.

Although we’re stuck with IP64, I wish OnePlus would at least meet IP67 dust and water resistance on its 12 series of smartphones. Even so, it will probably weather a downpour and retain the better touch sensitivity of its more costly sibling when damp. However, enhanced weather resistance seems like a given. On this less expensive model, it’s at least somewhat more forgiving.

The phone itself, the standard stack of papers, a fast charger with a USB-A to USB-C cable, and a SIM tool are all contained in the box. As I indicated earlier, there isn’t a case this time around, which is unfortunate given the weak assortment of third-party options available on Amazon.

Software and performance

It’s no secret that OxygenOS has diminished significantly, and the Android 14 build is no exception. When you set aside all of the marketing jargon that clogs my reviewer’s guide, like “RAM-Vita,” “Trinity Engine,” and so forth, what’s left is a skin that, to be honest, gets a little boring after a few days of use. Although I’m not a huge fan of OnePlus, once you adjust the settings properly, One UI feels more like true Android than OnePlus. OxygenOS, at least, features a vertical app drawer.

However, the Play Store offers some excellent launcher alternatives if you’re searching for something that feels a little more in line with Material You. The OxygenOS home screen, with options like Cube and Flip that will feel familiar to anyone who frequented XDA forums back in the day, does, however, make me a little nostalgic for the days of goofy home page transitions. I’m becoming softer as I get older, that’s all I can say.

The main feature of OxygenOS 14, similar to the OnePlus 12, is its complete absence of AI-powered gimmicks designed to rival those of Google and Samsung. That will certainly change (in fact, it already has in China), but for the time being, this phone is just a phone. All AI tools will need to be accessed through ChatGPT apps, which is fine in my opinion.

OnePlus’s poor software support is the largest drawback of OxygenOS. For keeping score at home, the 12R will only come with three years of OS upgrades and four years of security patches, which translates to Android 17 and 2028, respectively. In contrast, the latest flagships from Samsung and Google come with seven years of complete OS updates; the Pixel 8a may get this feature later this year. Although it’s not enough to completely write off the phone, that does put the OnePlus 12R behind the times.

Almost every Android flagship that wasn’t produced by Google last year was powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, so the OnePlus 12R’s performance is both excellent and to be expected. Sure, Qualcomm currently offers a more recent chipset, but you won’t notice much of a difference between the two if your main concern is core performance, such as using apps or playing games. With ease, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 can handle anything available in the Play Store at the moment, and it does so without straining.

Camera

The OnePlus 12R boasts a 50MP f/1.8 main sensor, ideally positioned in the middle of the pack. It can capture 12.6MP binned photos that are suitable for social media but not much more. Surprisingly, the Hasselblad color profile—which is absent from the R-series—is what I miss the most about this phone in comparison to other OnePlus models, not the better sensor. The pop that the OnePlus 12 or Open offered is absent even without putting the two phones side by side. This time of year, sunny weather is rare, so even in those situations, everything appears a little washed out or, in some cases, overexposed.

However, I usually don’t have high expectations for camera lineups that include a 2MP macro lens, and my OnePlus 12R shooting experience is no different. These images aren’t quite up to par with the Pixel 7a or, likely, its soon-to-be successor, but they are roughly comparable to the Galaxy A54 from the previous year. Even though Samsung’s oversaturated processing might be sufficient for it to take the lead, it can be quickly and easily fixed on this phone. And I believe that most people will be content enough under ideal circumstances. It was at least far less problematic with motion than phones that cost almost three times as much.

However, lens flares appear to be a serious issue with the primary sensor. While out for a cold morning walk, I noticed them in a few of my shots, but when I was going through samples for this review, they stood out. Unfortunately, the ultrawide lens doesn’t seem to be as sensitive as the 50MP wide lens given that you won’t use it as frequently.

The OnePlus 12R retains its 0.6x dedicated ultrawide sensor in addition to its default zoom options of 2x and 5x, despite lacking any telephoto lens. You can still get a good shot at a 2x crop, but at 5x, things start to look a little hazy and noisy. If you can make out what you’re looking at all, zoom all the way in at 20x and you’ll swear you’re looking at a watercolor painting. Although the 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide lens isn’t quite as ultra as I’d like, it does a decent enough job of replicating the main lens’ color science at just 112 degrees.

In the meantime, images taken in low light seem suitable for this price range. It did a decent enough job of capturing my street drenched in rain, though very dark areas far from any light sources quickly become muddy. At last, the 16MP f/2.4 selfie camera functions just fine. As is typically the case with phones in this price range, I don’t think I have anything positive or negative to say about it.

Battery life

As the OnePlus 11 from the previous year was already a battery powerhouse, what happens when you cram an even bigger battery into a chassis with nearly identical specifications? Even the busiest road warriors should be able to get a day and a half’s worth of use out of this multi-day device on a single charge. As for the rest of us, standby time is equally good, so anticipate two or even three days in between charge cycles. Although the switch to a 5,500mAh battery is nothing new for OnePlus, it is still noteworthy that the device weighs just two grams more than the company’s 2023 flagship.

When your phone does need to be charged, the now-standard OnePlus SuperVOOC charging process will appear. The phone can charge fully in about 30 minutes with its 80W charger (and, of course, 100W everywhere else). On paper, that alone is appealing, but when you dig a little deeper, I think it’s just as amazing. In just three minutes, I was able to increase the battery life of the OnePlus 12R from 19 to 33 percent. For three minutes. 180 moments. Please, Google and Samsung, adapt to the modern world.

Here, wireless charging is sacrificed; it was introduced again with the OnePlus 12 this year. Of course, I would rather have more features than fewer, but if a feature had to be sacrificed to reach $500—not to mention to add a 500mAh extra battery—I could live with that. Your mileage may vary, but Qi pads start to seem a little pointless when you’re not even considering a charger at all.

Competition

The best thing about OnePlus and Google emphasising such disparate features in their respective smartphones is, well, that it makes choosing between the two very easy. If you value software purity, camera quality, or the indispensability of wireless charging and IP67 certification, get the Pixel 7a. While I acknowledge that those are important features—especially the increased water resistance provided by Google—I also believe that the OnePlus 12R offers a more comprehensive package for many users.

The OnePlus 12R is sure to please many customers with its display quality, which includes brightness, contrast, and overall quality in addition to resolution. Other notable features include battery life, charging speeds, and overall performance. If you enjoy watching movies, playing a lot of mobile games on Android, or just having a bigger screen, this is the phone to choose. Again, the Pixel 12R is probably the better option if you don’t want to worry about carrying a charger around all the time. I found the Pixel 7a’s battery life to be ridiculous at times.

All of this could change when the Pixel 8a (hopefully) launches this summer, but given Tensor’s reputation, I wouldn’t blame anyone who wants to stick with a chipset as reliable as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

It begs the question, “Why not just pick up the 2023 flagship instead?” The OnePlus 11 is still available for purchase through Best Buy, Amazon, and the OEM’s storefront. It turns out that the OnePlus 11 hasn’t been on sale much since the holidays—and even then, the price drop was only to $550—according to Amazon price tracking. Except the Hasselblad color calibration, I don’t think there’s much of a reason to get the older phone unless you find a really good deal (I’m talking $400 or less). OnePlus 12R has a brighter display and a larger battery, so I always choose it.

Should I buy OnePlus 12R?

I now suggest this to most budget-conscious Android enthusiasts. I am fully aware that the excellent camera performance and pure Android build provided by a device like the Pixel 7a are unbeatable for a small subset of people. However, it’s evident that OnePlus is aiming to compete with industry titans like Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra with the OnePlus 12R, and for a much lower price, they’re getting pretty close.

Yes, the camera isn’t quite up to par with smartphones that cost twice as much, but I don’t think it has to. I’m not sure what more you could ask for than the OnePlus 12R, especially if you’ve been missing the OnePlus of ten years ago—the company that offered top-notch performance at the lowest possible cost. To make matters worse, I’m not sure how businesses like Google and Samsung will be able to compete in this price range without causing a stir. It’s going to be necessary for everyone else to take note that this is the new benchmark for $500 smartphones.