The OnePlus 12 is still a powerhouse in 2025 – and it’s on sale for a limited time

 price tag. Be aware that this deal only applies to the $900 model, which has 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

While last year’s focus for smartphone makers was unquestionably on AI — it was the mobile trend of the year — the OnePlus 12

The OnePlus 12 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which brings improved day-to-day performance and better efficiency of on-device AI applications. I’ve had no problem putting the phone through its paces, whether it’s editing videos on Premiere Rush, playing demanding games like Fortnite and Genshin Impact, or multitasking with a PiP (Picture-in-Picture) video playing. While the marketed peak brightness of 4,500 nits puts even the Galaxy S24’s 2,600 value to shame, I only found it to be slightly brighter when outdoors.  

One area that I do wish OnePlus flexed its machine-learning muscles more is with the cameras — specifically, the telephoto lens. While the Sony LYT-808-backed, 50MP main camera does a fantastic (and reliable) job of reproducing lighting and colors in a very natural tone, the telephoto lens falls short for me in two ways: distance and edge detection. 

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Because the telephoto lens is capped to 3x optical zoom, shooting subjects that are further away tends to produce pictures that appear more washed out and lacking in detail. You can view some of my camera samples here.

For images captured with Hasselblad Portrait Mode, the phone can struggle to apply a bokeh effect behind people with fuzzy and springy hairstyles. In both cases, a visual engine that can help amplify or better detect subjects would be immensely helpful.