OnePlus has chosen to end the year with a bang by launching its newest flagship phone, the OnePlus 12, in China.
The announcement comes just months after Google launched its own Google Pixel 8 Pro, though you’ll need to wait a bit longer to get your hands on the OnePlus phone in the UK and the US.
Keep reading to discover how these two smartphones compare.
The OnePlus 12 has a brighter screen
One of the best upgrades on the OnePlus 12 is its incredibly bright screen compared to its predecessors. The OnePlus phone also beats the Pixel in this area, though the two displays are otherwise quite similar.
The OnePlus 12 has a 6.82-inch 2K Super Fluid AMOLED screen with a 120Hz variable refresh rate. The phone is also capable of hitting 4500 nits of peak brightness.
The Google Pixel 8 Pro, meanwhile, has a 6.7-inch Super Actua OLED display with a 1344 x 2992 resolution and the same 120Hz variable refresh rate. However, the Google Pixel 8 Pro caps out at 2400 nits of peak brightness.
OnePlus 12
The Google Pixel 8 Pro is powered by the Google Tensor G3
When it comes to performance, both the Google Pixel 8 Pro and the OnePlus 12 are powered by flagship chipsets – the OnePlus 12 by the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and the Pixel 8 Pro by Google’s new Tensor G3.
Both of these chipsets should offer powerful performance, but Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips generally have the edge when it comes to speed, whereas Google’s Tensor line focuses on AI advancements which we found allowed for some unique software tricks.
The OnePlus 12 supports faster charging
The OnePlus 12 offers faster charging than the Pixel 8 Pro – at least on paper.
The OnePlus 12 packs a 5400 mAh battery with support for 100W SuperVOOC wired charging and 50W AirVOOC wireless charging. The Pixel 8 Pro, meanwhile, features a 5050 mAh battery with support for 30W fast charging and up to 23W wireless charging.
We have yet to test the battery on the OnePlus 12, but we found that the Pixel 8 Pro offered an all-day battery life and was able to charge from 0 to 100% in 87 minutes.
Google Pixel 8 Pro
The Google Pixel 8 Pro’s camera features 5x optical zoom
One of the features that makes the Pixel 8 Pro stand out is its camera array and software.
The Pixel 8 Pro includes a triple camera array made up of a 50-megapixel main camera, a 48-megapixel ultra-wide sensor and a 48-megapixel 5x telephoto sensor. The phone is also packed with nifty camera software and editing features, like Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur, Real Tone and Night Sight.
The OnePlus 12 also carries a triple camera, in this case consisting of a 50-megapixel main camera, 48-megapixel ultra-wide sensor and a 64-megapixel 3x periscope telephoto camera.
The Google Pixel 8 Pro is available in the UK right now
If you’re planning to pick up a new phone as a Christmas gift to yourself, you might want to think twice about the OnePlus 12.
The phone is currently only available in China, meaning you’ll have to be content with waiting until early 2024 to get your hands on it. The Google Pixel 8 Pro, on the other hand, is available right now.
