OnePlus 12 launch date is January 23 — and it’s coming with the OnePlus 12R

oneplus 12 camera in use
(Image credit: OnePlus 12)

The OnePlus 12 made its official debut in China earlier this month, alongside the promise that the phone would be coming to the rest of the world in early 2024. Now OnePlus has confirmed that the OnePlus 12 global launch will take place on January 23.

OnePlus announced this date as part of the phone maker's 10th anniversary celebration, confirming that the event will also see the global launch of the OnePlus 12R. That makes this the first time one of the company’s R series phones will ship outside of China and India. 

The R series is meant to be OnePlus’s “entry level flagship” smartphone. It has a lower price than the main OnePlus flagship, and its specs fall somewhere between the flagship device and the mid-range Nord series. In that sense, the OnePlus 12R sounds a bit like the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE, though presumably it will cost less, as is the OnePlus style.

There’s no international OnePlus 12 pricing information just yet, but the Chinese launch did reveal the phone's hardware specs. We’re looking at a device with a 6.82-inch 2K OLED display that has a 120Hz refresh rate, a 5,400 MAh battery, 100W wired charging, 50W wireless charging, an IP65 water and dust resistance rating, and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset.

The rear camera setup on the OnePlus 12 features three lenses — a 50MP main shooter, a 48MP ultrawide lens and a 64MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom. Up front, there's a 32MP selfie camera. In terms of memory, you have a choice of 12GB, 16GB and 24GB, while the storage on offer is 256GB, 512GB and 1TB.

We don’t know exactly what specs are coming to the OnePlus 12R, though there have been rumors. It’s expected to be powered by a slightly older Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, with a 5,500 mAh battery, 100W wired charging and a 6.78-inch 1.5K display. The OnePlus 12R camera setup is said to have a 50MP main shooter, an 8MP ultrawide angle lens and a 32MP telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom. 

OnePlus claims that both devices will show that phones don’t need to have monikers like “Plus”, “Pro” or “Ultra” to offer the best hardware and software experience. Of course, that conveniently ignores all the times OnePlus did exactly that as recently as 2022’s OnePlus 10 Pro. Presumably that situation won’t be repeated anytime soon.

Both the OnePlus 12 and OnePlus 12R will launch at the OnePlus Smooth Beyond Belief Launch Event — and kind of a mouthful. That event kicks off at 7.30 p.m. IST on January 23, which is 9 a.m. EST, 6 a.m. PST and 2 p.m. GMT.

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Tom Pritchard
UK Phones Editor

Tom is the Tom's Guide's UK Phones Editor, tackling the latest smartphone news and vocally expressing his opinions about upcoming features or changes. It's long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He’s usually found trying to squeeze another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining about how terrible his Smart TV is.