Early next year, OnePlus will release its new flagship phone — the OnePlus 12 — in the global market. But merely a few days after hitting the shelves in China, multiple users have shared images highlighting what looks like manufacturing defects on their OnePlus 12 units.
The issue, which could very well be a quality control flub for a specific batch, manifests as a gap between the camera module and the rest of the frame. In a few cases, buyers are also reporting a visible wedge between the curved rear glass shell and the metal frame. The incidents were first reported by Android Authority.
A gap in the frame usually appears when the battery inside has swollen, but since it’s a new phone, that scenario appears unlikely. Another report on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo mentions excessive glue oozing out of the gap. We previously reported about a similar issue plaguing the owners of Samsung’s foldable phones, especially the Galaxy Z Fold series.
Now, going from the history of similar defects in new devices, smartphone brands have usually offered a quick replacement. It won’t be surprising to see OnePlus doing the same, especially considering the flagship status of the device and the risks of avoiding a pre-launch bad press.
One of the reports also claims that one OnePlus 12 owner found a dead bug in the phone’s rear glass. No, that is not a joke.
Someone's OnePlus 12 has a dead insect inside the rear glass.
What kind of Quality measures OnePlus is taking while manufacturing OnePlus 12? pic.twitter.com/bEMhjJDa0p— Kartikey Singh (@That_Kartikey) December 11, 2023
Interestingly, this won’t be the first time that OnePlus users have reported about gaps on their OnePlus phones. Multiple reports on Reddit, the official OnePlus Community forum, dating as far back as 2018, mention the issue of a wedge appearing on the side or periphery of the camera module.
The most recent example is the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite, but user reports mention that OnePlus honored a replacement request without a fuss. It’s rather surprising, however, that reports of build-related defects affecting the OnePlus 12 have surfaced online so quickly.
It’s also somewhat startling because OnePlus puts a special emphasis on the design of its phones and recently talked extensively about that meticulous attention to detail on the OnePlus Open.
My own experience hasn’t been too different, especially with the gorgeous OnePlus 11 Marble Odyssey Edition and the leather-clad OnePlus Open, which has fared far better at avoiding scuff marks and dents than any Samsung foldable I’ve ever used.
As far as the OnePlus 12 goes, it’s packed to the gills. For a converted asking price of around $600, it offers a bright 120Hz OLED screen, Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 silicon, a triple-camera setup with a periscope zoom lens, and support for 100W charging. The stateside launch of the phone is happening in the first quarter of 2024, as per official teasers.
