At Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked occasion final week, the highlight was on #GalaxyAI, the Google-powered synthetic intelligence inside Samsung’s new Galaxy S24 smartphones. The {hardware} took a backseat. OnePlus’ newest telephone, however, does not have many of those AI methods; it does not have prime billing within the smartphone world in any case.

As a substitute, OnePlus labored with chipmaker Qualcomm to shine the {hardware} and software program within the OnePlus 12, crafting a strong, totally featured Android telephone that is enticing and well-rounded—nothing extra, nothing much less. In a world the place the time period “AI” is thrown round to hype the whole lot, it is refreshing to check a telephone that simply works.

No Limits

OK, I’ve to handle the design first as a result of this factor is a looker. The OnePlus 12 is available in Silky Black and Flowy Emerald, and why on earth would you decide black when you may get this showstopper of a inexperienced? It has a beautiful marble-like design that oozes luxurious and is a dialog starter (the large digicam bump helps too). The emerald choice is simply accessible with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage, therefore the upper $900 value (OK, that is an excellent cause to purchase black). The black’s base model is $800 and comes with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. That is nonetheless more room than you will discover on most telephones at this value.

On to the meaty stuff. OnePlus says its shut collaboration with Qualcomm enabled a number of enhancements on the OnePlus 12 over its friends utilizing the identical Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset. It calls this “CPU-Vitalization,” which purportedly affords decrease energy consumption and thereby much less battery drain when performing the identical sorts of duties, plus clean efficiency even after years of utilization.

You may hear comparable phrases within the advertising and marketing of the OnePlus 12, from the “Trinity Engine” and RAM- and ROM-Vitalization to Hyper Contact … yawn. All you want to know is that this can be a very snappy smartphone. Launching apps and transferring between them is buttery clean. After 45 minutes of Genshin Influence at its highest graphical settings, the handset was comparatively heat however did not have overtly sizzling spots. And in that point it solely misplaced round 10 p.c of battery life.

In comparison with the brand new Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely, I seen the OnePlus 12 delivered barely smoother gameplay in the identical recreation and was marginally cooler to the contact, and it additionally did a greater job of spreading the warmth throughout the machine; the S24 had extra sizzling spots. Outdoors of this graphically demanding recreation, the OnePlus 12 and Galaxy S24 Extremely have been practically an identical in efficiency. Telephones are actually quick and responsive these days, so most day-to-day duties aren’t going to really feel too totally different when evaluating gadgets sharing a processor, CPU-Vitalization or not.

I can not converse for the way this telephone will carry out years from now—you will need to take OnePlus’ phrase—however I can let you know that OnePlus is committing to 4 Android OS upgrades and 5 years of safety updates, which is fairly darn good for those who plan to carry on to your machine for a very long time. It is nonetheless not so good as the seven years of software program help Google and Samsung are actually providing, although.