U.S. phone shoppers will have more than one OnePlus phone to choose from in early 2024. In addition to the OnePlus 12 that launched in China earlier this month, the OnePlus 12R will also be coming to America.
That's no idle speculation. It comes straight from OnePlus CEO Pete Lau. Prior to Lau's comments, we knew that both OnePlus 12 models were going to appear at a global launch event on January 23, but it was unclear just which countries the OnePlus 12R would ship in.
Lau recently held a “fireside chat” with other executives, where he confirmed the company's launch plans for the OnePlus 12R. “In addition to India, this time we will launch the OnePlus 12R in North America, Europe, and other parts of the world as well,” Lau said during the chat, according to 9to5Google. “Regardless of where people reside, they will have the opportunity to experience the OnePlus R Series. So the OnePlus 12 and OnePlus 12R will soon be available globally.”
The move is an important change in strategy for OnePlus, which had previously kept its R models to China and India. But after OnePlus said recently that it was planning to launch the OnePlus 12R to Europe, there had been some hope that it would follow with confirmation of a U.S. launch.
Think of the OnePlus 12R as a less expensive version of the OnePlus 12, with some scaled-back features to allow for the lower cost. Still, this is hardly a bargain-basement phone — the 12R is tipped to come loaded with a host of outstanding features, including a 6.7-inch OLED display, up to 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. OnePlus is also planning to deliver the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, which powered this past year's Android flagships. (The OnePlus 12, in contrast, will feature the newer Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.) We're also anticipating a 50MP main camera flanked by an 8MP ultrawide and 32MP telephoto lenses.
Based on already announced OnePlus 12 specs, the other OnePlus phone should ship with a 6.8-inch OLED display. Along with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 silicon. It’ll offer up to 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage; instead of an 8MP ultrawise camera, it’ll instead offer a 48MP sensor, while the 64MP telephoto camera wll deliver a 3X optical zoom. Both the OnePlus 12 and OnePlus 12 will share the same 50MP main camera.
