It seems OnePlus won’t have much left to reveal when its next flagship is officially announced next year. After leaking alleged renders of the OnePlus 12, OnLeaks (via SmartPrix) has now dropped the purported specs sheet of the upcoming budget flagship.
The OnePlus 12 is said to draw power from Qualcomm’s yet-to-be-announced Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor. Rumors suggest it will be based on TSMC’s next-gen 3nm process node, which means a significant performance and efficiency boost can be expected compared to the 4nm-based Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip.
Another notable change said to be in the pipeline for the next Qualcomm flagship is to the core architecture. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 had a single high-performance ARM Cortex-X3 core alongside four ARM Cortex-A7xx cores and three Cortex-A5xx series cores. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is reportedly switching to a beefier 1 + 2 + 3 + 2 design.
It will offer a single next-gen ARM Cortex-X4 core for the most demanding tasks. There are two “Titanium” (likely ARM’s new Cortex A720) cores, a cluster of three Cortex-A7xx cores ticking at a slightly lower clock speed, and two “Silver” Cortex-A520 cores for basic tasks.
The OnePlus 12, despite upgrading to a new chipset, will keep the RAM and storage configurations identical, offering 16GB of RAM and 512GB for the top-tier setup. Save for a repositioned front camera, it seems the display will also be identical to its predecessor. As per OnLeaks, the OnePlus 12 will feature a 2K OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate.
Upgrades where it matters
Aside from the iterative silicon swap, OnePlus appears to have saved the upgrade love for the camera hardware and battery tech. The OnePlus 12 is said to offer a 50-megapixel main camera, but the ultrawide sensor has also been upgraded to a 50-megapixel sensor, up from the 48-megapixel snapper on the OnePlus 11.
The biggest improvement is reserved for the zoom camera. Where the OnePlus 11 served up a modest 32-megapixel telephoto camera with a 2x optical zoom range, the OnePlus 12 will reportedly kick things up a notch with a 64-megapixel periscope-style telephoto camera that delivers 3x optical zoom. Once again, Hasselblad seems to have worked with OnePlus to lend some of its imaging tricks to the phone’s camera experience.
The battery capacity is also getting a bump. Compared to the 5,000mAh Li-ion battery fitted inside the OnePlus 11, its successor is reportedly getting a larger 5,400mAh battery. Support for 100-watt wired fast charging and 50W wireless charging are also on the table. Going by the brand’s own launch cadence, the OnePlus 12 will hit the shelves early next year. And if all of these specs are accurate, we’re finding very little to complain about.
