The OnePlus 12 is a great gaming phone in disguise

The OnePlus 12 is a gaming cellphone. It doesn’t seem like one and is being marketed extra as an all-around flagship, however the spec sheet clearly reveals a gaming beast in disguise. And, as somebody who by no means actually acquired into the aggressive gaming styling of different telephones or any of the graphically intense cellular video games, I discover that undercover gaming prowess to be my favourite a part of the OnePlus 12.

The OnePlus 12’s gaming cellphone potential turns into clear fairly rapidly when you dig into its specs. Its large 6.82-inch show is immersive, only a hair greater than the earlier OnePlus 11’s panel, and affords a variable refresh charge that drops from 120Hz to 1Hz when wanted. On prime of the sleek refresh charge, the OnePlus 12’s 2K show affords blinding ranges of peak brightness. It tops out at 4,500 nits in some conditions, a full 1,700 nits brighter than the OnePlus Open, and simply beats the very best telephones from Apple, Samsung, and Google.

The remainder of the OnePlus 12’s internals maintain it proper alongside the very best Android and iOS. It has Qualcomm’s newest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor beneath the hood, in addition to loads of RAM and storage. You possibly can seize the gadget with both 12 or 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and as much as 512GB of mounted UFS 4.0 storage, which is greater than sufficient for large titles and loads of Hasselblad-tuned photographs to compete with the very best digicam telephones round. OnePlus additionally needs to say the battery life and charging crown with a 5,400mAh cell, 80W wired charging within the US, and 50W wi-fi charging again on the desk after a chronic hiatus.

Nevertheless, the actual power of the OnePlus 12 lies in what you gained’t discover on rival flagships. OnePlus’ proprietary Trinity Engine and Twin Cryo-velocity Cooling System work to stability efficiency and energy consumption to stretch the OnePlus 12 just a bit bit additional. Because the identify suggests, the Twin Cryo-velocity Cooling System makes use of not one however two vapor champers sandwiched across the SoC to maintain the OnePlus 12 operating easily. The smaller chamber builds up the fast vapor, which then passes to the bigger chamber to unfold the cooling load extra evenly.

Players particularly want the Trinity Engine for what OnePlus calls HyperBoost, HyperRendering, and HyperTouch. HyperRendering sounds fairly simple, however the course of depends on a devoted Pixelworks X7 visible processor to easy transitions and add a little bit extra pop to in-game visuals. It’s additionally key to making sure that the OnePlus 12 achieves a full 120Hz refresh charge in any recreation you leap into. HyperTouch, then again, primarily works to counteract the OnePlus 12’s waterfall show. It makes use of delicate algorithms to distinguish between softer presses on the sides of that show, with the faucets on the center of the show that you must get by your recreation.

In fact, every thing above is what you see on the spec sheet and what you count on when it comes to fancy advertising and marketing language. In actuality, I wasn’t certain methods to method the OnePlus 12 when it arrived for assessment. It doesn’t look radically completely different from its predecessor and doesn’t have a mountain of AI options to translate calls or edit photographs with.

Then, I began operating benchmarks and downloading apps. I put the OnePlus 12 by our customary slate of 3DMark stress checks earlier than leaping into any gaming myself, and it breezed by them with hardly a second thought. It put up scores on par with Samsung’s top-end Galaxy S24 Extremely, which is $500 dearer, and the ASUS ROG Cellphone 8 Professional, a devoted gaming cellphone that additionally prices $400 greater than the OnePlus 12 — to not point out costing greater than the OnePlus 12R. OnePlus’ twin vapor chambers additionally confirmed their power within the extended stress check, conserving the cellphone comparatively cool — I used to be in a position to decide the cellphone up once more proper after the check with out feeling like I used to be sinking into lava like Arnold Schwarzenegger in T2.

Now, benchmarks imply little or no within the grand scheme of issues (take a look at the Pixel 8 Professional’s middling outcomes), however the OnePlus 12 retains up its sturdy efficiency when you hop into video games in the actual world. It was my journey companion for a fast journey to a Ford occasion in Detroit, the place I put it by its offline paces in puzzlers like Railbound and on-line racers like Asphalt 9: Legends. The OnePlus 12 held up properly throughout extended classes of Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus, too, a recreation that’s notoriously turned different assessment gadgets into handheld ovens. It’s to not say that the OnePlus 12 by no means acquired heat — it bumped up a number of levels across the digicam bump over time — nevertheless it stayed comparatively cool, and I by no means felt like the warmth was slowing down the gadget.

Finally, it’s a reasonably stable efficiency for a cellphone that I initially thought lacked a little bit of route. As an alternative, OnePlus made a $799 flagship with blistering quick charging, loads of RAM and storage, and a 4th technology Hasselblad-tuned digicam that simply so occurs to be wonderful at gaming, too.