OnePlus has just revealed the OnePlus 12, the company’s latest flagship, in China – but how does it compare to the stellar iPhone 15 Pro?
While the iPhone 15 Pro undoubtedly delivers a strong flagship smartphone experience, the OnePlus 12 looks to one-up team Apple in smartphone hardware, particularly when it comes to elements like display tech and charging speed.
While we’ve thoroughly reviewed the iPhone 15 Pro, we’re yet to spend any time with the OnePlus 12. OnePlus has teased an early 2024 launch for international audiences, however, so hopefully we won’t have long to wait. Until then, here are five key differences between the OnePlus 12 and iPhone 15 Pro.
The OnePlus 12 has a larger, brighter display
The iPhone 15 Pro has an exquisite 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED screen with Apple’s ProMotion tech delivering a 120Hz refresh rate with LTPO tech that lets it drop down to as little as 1Hz in a bid to save battery life. It’s also bright and detailed, with an FHD+ resolution and a brightness of 1000 nits that can be boosted to 1600 nits for HDR content and 2000 nits outdoors.
However, it pales in comparison to the OnePlus 12 display. More specifically, the OnePlus 12 sports a large 6.8-inch (0.1 inches bigger than the OnePlus 11) OLED panel with the same LTPO-enabled 120Hz refresh rate as the iPhone, but with one key difference: brightness.
The OnePlus 12 can manage a stellar 1600 nits in everyday use, but that can be boosted to a retina-burning 4500 nits when watching compatible HDR content or outdoors. That’s miles brighter not only than the iPhone, but most 2023 flagship smartphones.
Whether that translates to a vastly improved viewing experience is yet to be seen, but it looks capable on paper.
The iPhone 15 Pro is (probably) faster
One of the OnePlus 12’s key upgrades is the inclusion of Qualcomm’s new flagship mobile chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. It was only revealed at the end of October 2023, making the OnePlus 12 one of the first phones to use the souped-up processor.
With a 30% boost to CPU speeds and a 25% boost in the GPU department, it’s a processing powerhouse that will likely take on most of the 2023 Android competition and win – but it likely won’t be the same for the iPhone 15 Pro.
That’s because the iPhone 15 Pro sports Apple’s top-end A17 Pro chipset, exclusive to this year’s Pro models. It’s a 3nm chipset that boasts serious gains, even compared to the capable A16 Bionic.
Considering the year-old A16 could beat the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, we’re expecting similar results from the iPhone 15 Pro’s chipset, but we’ll have to confirm once we get our hands on the OnePlus flagship.
The OnePlus 12 has faster charging
Apple has never been one to truly jump on the fast-charging bandwagon. Sure, the charge speeds jump incrementally each year, but that still means the top-end iPhone 15 Pro can only charge at a maximum of 25W, with a full charge taking around an hour and a half in our tests.
That’s also if you’ve got the official 30W charger from Apple, something that doesn’t come in the box. Using less powerful charging bricks will lengthen the time the iPhone takes to charge.
You can wirelessly charge the iPhone via Qi and MagSafe, but at 7.5W and 15W respectively, it’s an even slower charging experience.
The OnePlus 12, on the other hand, sports the same 100W SuperVOOC charging as its predecessor, along with 50W wireless charging capabilities – a new feature to the OnePlus 12 after it was removed a couple of generations ago.
Given that the OnePlus 11 could go from flat to full in 28 minutes, we’re expecting something similar here, but we’ll have to wait and see for sure.
The iPhone 15 Pro is lighter
The OnePlus 12 might be a good-looking phone with a unique patterned rear based on a photo of Dart River taken by the OnePlus team on the smartphone, but that doesn’t mean it’s lightweight. In fact, at 220g, the OnePlus 12 is heavier than its predecessor and the iPhone 15 Pro.
While that might not’ve been the case just 12 months ago, Apple switched up its choice of materials with this year’s Pro selection, ditching the weighty stainless steel chassis for a Titanium alternative. That makes the iPhone 15 Pro pretty lightweight at 187g.
The iPhone 15 Pro also has better water resistance at IP68, even with a jump from IP64 to IP65 with this year’s OnePlus 12.
You can buy the iPhone 15 Pro right now
While the OnePlus 12 has several key features that could well top that of the iPhone 15 Pro, the problem is that you can’t currently buy it outside of China. OnePlus has confirmed that the smartphone will get an international release sometime in early 2024, but the specifics are yet to be confirmed.
The iPhone 15 Pro, on the other hand, is readily available to buy from Apple and third-party retailers following its release in September 2023. It’s a premium phone, starting at £999/$999, but it’s actually slightly cheaper in the UK than last year’s £1,049 iPhone 14 Pro.
