Though it seems like the Android smartphone market is dominated by Samsung and Google, OnePlus is a very strong competitor that you should not ignore. Since the company launched the OnePlus One in 2014, OnePlus has remained a strong brand name for Android phones.
With OnePlus devices, you usually get blazing fast performance, super fast charging over the competition, long lasting and reliable battery life, and — best of all — designs that are unique and stand out from the crowd. With all of these factors combined, it's no wonder that OnePlus is one of the best Android phone makers around.
But which OnePlus phone should you choose? Here are the best OnePlus phones to buy in 2024.
The best OnePlus phone overall
OnePlus 12
- Beautiful curved display
- Flowy Emerald is a truly unique color
- Powerful performance
- Hasselblad camera system delivers great results
- Two-day battery
- Very fast wired and wireless charging
- Back glass is slippery
- Curved screen has some annoyances
- Large size can be unwieldy
Why you should buy this: Dollar for dollar and spec for spec, the OnePlus 12 is the best OnePlus phone you can buy.
Who it’s for: Someone who wants the very best of what OnePlus has to offer in 2024.
Why we picked the OnePlus 12:
The OnePlus 12 has the latest and greatest that OnePlus has to offer, and its price puts it at a much better value than other competing flagship devices.
Though the OnePlus 12 largely has the same overall design as its predecessor, the color options this year are absolutely gorgeous, especially the Flowy Emerald color. It's a color that will easily stand out, and it's just beautiful — especially the silver shimmer throughout the back glass. The camera module is also color-matched to the rest of the body, and it also has that shimmer effect. If green isn't your color, there is also a Silky Black option.
The 6.8-inch LTPO AMOLED curved display looks incredibly good. It has 1440 x 3168-pixel resolution at a density of 510 pixels per inch, so everything looks incredibly sharp and crisp. Colors are also bright and vibrant with deep, rich blacks. The refresh rate caps out at 120Hz for smooth scrolling, and there is support for Dolby Vision and HDR10+. Plus, the peak brightness can reach an insane eye-popping 4,500 nits, so you should never have trouble using the device, even in bright sunlight.
On the inside, the OnePlus 12 packs Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, and depending on the model you get, it has 12GB or 16GB of RAM. Storage capacities range from 256GB all the way to 512GB. What does all of this mean? Blazing fast performance that will never skip a beat. With Android 14 and OxygenOS 14, navigating through the phone is pretty easy and straightforward, and OnePlus' multitasking is unmatched.
Like previous flagships from OnePlus, the OnePlus 12 has Hasselblad-tuned cameras. The triple-lens camera system includes a 50MP main camera, a 64MP periscope telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, and a 48MP ultrawide camera. The selfie camera is an impressive 32MP lens. With Hasselblad, the colors are tweaked to be realistic with more accurate white balance and exposure levels. And with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, capturing images is fast and happens immediately once you press that shutter button.
The most impressive part about the OnePlus 12 is the battery. It has a 5,400mAh battery inside, which means about two days of battery life on a single charge. It also has 80W wired fast charging in the U.S. and even 50W wireless charging. That's faster than all the current competition.
The OnePlus 12 starts at $800 and has a lot of bang for your buck. It's one of the best Android phones overall for 2024, and definitely one of the best OnePlus phones that has come out in recent years.
The best value OnePlus phone
OnePlus 12R
- Sleek, polished design
- Top-notch display
- Fast performance; runs cool
- Excellent battery life
- 80W charging!
- Unbeatable price
- Poor ultrawide and macro cameras
- No wireless charging
Why you should buy this: It offers the makings of an expensive flagship Android phone from 2023, but for half the price.
Who it's for: Anyone who wants a powerful and capable smartphone at a mid-level price.
Why we picked the OnePlus 12R:
The OnePlus 12R closely resembles the OnePlus 11 from 2023. In fact, it has all the makings of a flagship phone from 2023 but for half the cost.
On the surface, the OnePlus 12R looks like the OnePlus 11, but there are a few minor tweaks. It's slightly thicker and heavier than that phone, and the alert slider is on the left instead of the right. The camera circle has a notched design along the edge, and there's a subtle pattern underneath the glass. But otherwise, it has the same curved display and flat aluminum frame at the top and bottom.
You get a gorgeous 6.78-inch AMOLED display with 2780 x 1264-pixel resolution and 450 pixels per inch density. The refresh rate goes from 1Hz to 120Hz, and you get insanely bright 4,500 nits of peak brightness, making this useful in every scenario. The display looks great; the colors are bright and vivid, everything looks sharp and crisp, and the scrolling is smooth. You'd expect all this from a phone that costs at least $1,000, not $500.
The OnePlus 12R has Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, so it's not packed with the latest silicon, but it has the power of flagships from last year, which is still pretty damn good. There are two models for the OnePlus 12R, so you can get either 8GB RAM or 16GB. Either way, they're both pretty fast, and with OnePlus' new cooling system, the phone won't overheat.
Of course, the OnePlus 12R does have to make some compromises, and that's with the camera system. It has a 50MP main camera, with an 8MP ultrawide camera and a 2MP macro camera. The front has a 16MP selfie camera. Unfortunately, there is no Hasselblad processing on this one. You can get pretty good photos in the right lighting conditions, but sometimes, you can get blurry photos or colors that don't look quite right. It's definitely a bit hit or miss here.
OnePlus put in a massive 5,500mAh battery in the OnePlus 12R, and it can get around two days on a single charge. And like the OnePlus 12, you get 80W fast wired charging in the U.S. Unlike the OnePlus 12, though, you do not get wireless charging.
Again, this is a fantastic phone with all the makings of a 2023 flagship for half the price. You're getting a lot of power and performance for just $500. It's just a tremendous value all around.
The best folding OnePlus phone
OnePlus Open
- Great compact and lightweight size
- Powerful cameras
- Beautiful screens
- Anti-glare inner display
- Opens flat easily
- 67W fast charging
- Intuitive multitasking
- Hinge isn't firm enough
- Large camera bump
- Macro and 120x Super Res are not great
Why you should buy this: The OnePlus Open is one of the best foldables on the market, hands down. It even costs less than the competition.
Who it's for: Anyone who wants a phone that can fold out into a mini-tablet for extra productivity.
Why we picked the OnePlus Open:
The OnePlus Open is simply one of the best OnePlus phones you can get, and it's also one of the best folding phones out there.
For one, the OnePlus Open has an elegant and unique design thanks to the signature Hasselblad circular camera module. When closed, the Open is about the same as a regular smartphone, and OnePlus used proprietary cobalt molybdenum alloy and titanium alloy, making it one of the most lightweight foldables out there. It also has no gap when closed, and it is easy to open up completely flat. Just be warned — the hinge isn't as firm as other foldables, so using it in a clamshell mode may be annoying.
The cover display is 6.3 inches, which is a fairly normal size that is pretty manageable to use one-handed. The cover screen is a Super Fluid AMOLED with LTPO 3.0 and a 2484 x 111 resolution at 431 pixels per inch. The refresh rate goes from 10Hz to 120Hz with 1,400 nits HDR brightness or 2,800 nits peak brightness. The inner display is 7.82 inches and features a Flexi-fluid AMOLED panel with LTPO 3.0 technology and a 2440 x 2268 resolution at 426 pixels per inch. Here, the dynamic refresh rate is 1Hz to 120Hz and has the same brightness levels.
But the best part about the OnePlus Open inner display is that it has an anti-reflective coating, making it much more usable outdoors. It minimizes reflections and glare, which can be a problem on other foldables.
OnePlus Open uses the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and has 16GB RAM with 512GB storage. It ships with Android 13 and OxygenOS 13.2. The main feature of OxygenOS 13.2 is Open Canvas, which is a brand new way of multitasking on the OnePlus Open. Basically, you can do multi-window operations or use split-screen mode, and it's not restricted to the physical size of the screen. Instead, you get a virtual canvas and can stretch and resize the active windows as you see fit, with secondary windows sliding in and out of the canvas when you need them to. It's like having unlimited space, rather than being limited to the physical size of your screen. This takes multitasking to an entirely new level.
On top of everything, the OnePlus Open cameras are pretty impressive. You have a 48MP main lens, a 48MP ultrawide camera, and a 64MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, 6x in-sensor zoom, and up to 120x Ultra Res zoom. The cover selfie camera is 32MP, while the inner display is 20MP. You can also use the rear cameras to take selfies.
The 4,805mAh battery of the OnePlus Open should last over a day with moderate to heavy use. It also supports 67W fast charging. Unfortunately, it does not have wireless charging, which is surprising given the price.
Whether you're a folding phone veteran or someone who just wants to try out a foldable, the OnePlus Open is one of the best you can get.
The best cheap OnePlus phone
OnePlus Nord N30 5G
- Nice in-hand feel
- Headphone jack and expandable storage
- 120Hz display looks great
- Good, reliable performance
- 50W charger in the box
- Bland, smudge-prone design
- Very poor camera quality
- Only promised a single OS update
Why you should buy this: It's the best OnePlus phone for under $300.
Who it’s for: Anyone who loves OnePlus' phones but doesn't want to spend a lot of money.
Why we picked the OnePlus Nord N30 5G:
While it has some drawbacks, there's a lot to love about the OnePlus Nord N30 5G, and that makes it a fantastic phone to grab for under $300 if you love OnePlus.
We'll start with the design. While it's on the more boring side where smartphones are concerned, OnePlus has made this rather large phone quite manageable. It's not slippery, the edges offer good grip, and it's well weighted for single-hand use. That's a real achievement when you consider the screen is a rather large 6.72 inches. It also has dual stereo speakers for surprisingly great sound, and it even has a headphone jack and a microSD card slot.
The display isn't just big — it's good too. It has a 120Hz refresh rate, an extremely welcome and surprising addition, and even though it's an LCD panel, it's clear and colorful and looks great. You won't be able to take advantage of all those frames in gaming, but it's no slouch either. The Snapdragon 695 is a solid chip, and while it won't make your phone a gaming monster, it's still able to handle most of the latest games without too many issues or hitches.
The 5,000mAh battery is something of a monster. Expect it to last over a day on a single charge, and when it comes time to charge, the 50W superfast charging will mean you're not having to stay tethered for very long. There's no wireless charging, but that's forgivable on a $300 phone, and especially on one that offers this much.
It's not perfect, though. The camera is easily the worst part of this phone, and it risks seriously dragging the phone down. The camera is so poor that it's actually a reason not to buy this phone. The main 108MP lens sounds good on paper, but it underperforms in real life. Pictures in good lighting are flat and lacking in character, and once lighting becomes more challenging, you'll get a lot of noisy and smudged photos. The two 2MP depth and macro lenses are acceptable, but they don't save this phone's camera from being a real letdown.
This is very much the best cheap OnePlus phone you can buy, even with the weaker camera. If a good camera isn't a big factor for you, then consider those caveats pushed aside. With good performance, a strong battery, and a 120Hz display, the OnePlus Nord N30 5G is a fantastic purchase.
