Home > Smartphone comparison > OnePlus 16 vs OnePlus 12 – which one to choose?

OnePlus 16 vs OnePlus 12

95 out of 100
OnePlus 16
VS
79 out of 100
OnePlus 12
OnePlus 16
OnePlus 12

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.78-inch OnePlus 16 (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6) that was released on October 12, 2026, against the OnePlus 12, which is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and came out 2 years and 10 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Memory
  1. Differences
  2. Review
  3. Specs
  4. Benchmarks
  5. Battery life
  6. Camera
  7. Comments

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the OnePlus 16
  • Comes with 3600 mAh larger battery capacity: 9000 vs 5400 mAh
  • 93% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (4627K versus 2401K)
  • Higher display refresh rate – 185 Hz
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v6.0)
  • Waterproof body (IP69 classification)
  • The phone is 2 years and 10 months newer
  • More recent OS version: Android 17 versus 16
  • Slow-motion recording at 480FPS
Reasons to consider the OnePlus 12
  • 13% higher pixel density (510 vs 450 PPI)
  • Supports Dolby Atmos sound technology

Review

Evaluation of OnePlus 16 and OnePlus 12 crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
πŸ“± Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

Should I update?
No 85% Yes
Yes, this is a clear and meaningful upgrade.
Updating from OnePlus 12 to OnePlus 16 is a clear step forward, and the improvements should be easy to notice.
Main improvements: gaming, battery life, and performance.

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests
Phone:
OnePlus 16
vs
OnePlus 12

Display

Type AMOLED AMOLED
Size 6.78 inches 6.82 inches
Resolution 1272 x 2772 pixels 1440 x 3168 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 19.8:9
PPI 450 ppi 510 ppi
Refresh rate 185 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (1-185 Hz) Yes (1-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 2000 nits 1600 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR - 4500 nits
HDR support Yes, Dolby Vision Yes, HDR10+
Touch sampling rate - 240 Hz
Screen protection Crystal Shield Glass Gorilla Glass Victus 2
Screen-to-body ratio 91.2% 91.3%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming		 - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
Display tests
RGB color space - 99.5%
PWM - Not detected
Response time - 11 ms
Contrast - ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
OnePlus 16
n/a
OnePlus 12
1144 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3]

Design and build

Height 161.42 mm (6.36 inches) 163.3 mm (6.43 inches)
Width 76.67 mm (3.02 inches) 75.8 mm (2.98 inches)
Thickness 8.45 mm (0.33 inches) 9.15 mm (0.36 inches)
Weight 217 g (7.65 oz) 220 g (7.76 oz)
Waterproof IP69 IP65
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber Vapor chamber
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black, Silver, Gold White, Black, Green
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Screen-to-body ratio
OnePlus 16
91.2%
OnePlus 12
91.3%

Performance

Chipset specifications of OnePlus 16 and OnePlus 12
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
Max clock 5010 MHz 3300 MHz
CPU cores 8 (2 + 3 + 3) 8 (1 + 3 + 2 + 2)
Architecture - 3 cores at 3.74 GHz:
- 3 cores at 4.03 GHz:
- 2 cores at 5.01 GHz: 		- 2 cores at 2.27 GHz: Cortex-A520
- 2 cores at 2.96 GHz: Cortex-A720
- 3 cores at 3.15 GHz: Cortex-A720
- 1 core at 3.3 GHz: Cortex-X4
L3 cache - 12 MB
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 2 nanometers 4 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Hexagon
GPU
Graphics Adreno 850 Adreno 750
GPU shading units 1536 1536
GPU clock 1450 MHz 903-1000 MHz
FLOPS ~4454.4 GFLOPS ~2774 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of OnePlus 16 and OnePlus 12
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
OnePlus 16 +87%
4091
OnePlus 12
2182
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
OnePlus 16 +84%
11891
OnePlus 12
6465
Compute Score (GPU)
OnePlus 16 +127%
34344
OnePlus 12
15111
Compute Score (GPU) 34344 15111
Single-core score 4091 2182
Multi-core score 11891 6465
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
OnePlus 16 +93%
4627389
OnePlus 12
2401788
CPU 1245672 700922
GPU 1716431 914074
Memory 650217 313211
UX 981543 573571
Total score 4627389 2401788
Samples Less than 3 [26 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability - 67%
Graphics test - 12 FPS
Graphics score - 1676
3DMark Solar Bay
Stability - 57%
Graphics test - 32 FPS
Section 1 - 36 FPS
Section 2 - 32 FPS
Section 3 - 27 FPS
Graphics score - 8360
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability - 83%
Graphics test - 27 FPS
Graphics score - 4646
Sources: 3DMark [5]
PCMark 3.0
Web score - 12226
Video editing - 6195
Photo editing - 23810
Data manipulation - 13418
Writing score - 17373
AnTuTu 11 Ranking List (16th and 177th place)
Submit your benchmark results

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
OnePlus 16
No benchmark results yet
Add
OnePlus 12
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-10-15 -> Lukisek.CZAnTuTu 122793277
πŸ“˜ 2026-10-06 -> WhystechAnTuTu 122414186
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-26 (Eon)Geekbench 7 CPU1896 / 6424
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-20 -> nsy567808AnTuTu 112317311
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-19 -> nsy567808AnTuTu 112317311
Add View all (50)

Memory

RAM
RAM size 12 GB 12 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5X
Memory clock - 4266 MHz
Channels 4 4
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 256 GB
Storage type UFS 4.1 UFS 4.0
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 17 Android 14 (Can be upgraded to Android 16)
ROM OxygenOS 17 OxygenOS 16
OS size - 30 GB
OS updates - 4 years
Security updates - 6 years

Battery

Capacity 9000 mAh 5400 mAh
Max charge power 100 W 100 W
Battery type Silicon-Carbon (Si/C) Li-Po
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (50 W) Yes (50 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes, (wireless)
Bypass charging Yes -
Fast charging Yes Yes (70% in 15 min)
Full charging time - 0:24 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing - 13:10 hr
Watching video - 18:49 hr
Gaming - 06:05 hr
Standby - 114 hr
General battery life
OnePlus 16
n/a
OnePlus 12
28:16 hr
Add your battery life

Main camera

Matrix 200 megapixels 50 megapixels
Image resolution - 8192 x 6144
Zoom Optical, 3x Optical, 3x
Flash Dual LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 30FPS Up to 24FPS
4K video recording Up to 120FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 120FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 480 FPS (720p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 116Β° 114Β°
Lenses 1) Standard: 200 MP
2) Telephoto: 50 MP
3) Ultrawide: 50 MP
1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Telephoto: 64 MP
3) Ultrawide: 48 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support		 - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
Standard lens
Image resolution 200 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/1.6 f/1.6
Focal length 23 mm 23 mm
Sensor - Sony LYT-T808
Sensor size 1/1.4" (β‰ˆ 0.71 inch) 1/1.43" (β‰ˆ 0.7 inch)
Pixel size - 1.12 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 50 MP 64 MP
Aperture f/2.6 f/2.6
Focal length 73 mm 70 mm
Sensor - Omnivision OV64B
Sensor size 1/1.95" (β‰ˆ 0.51 inch) 1/2" (β‰ˆ 0.5 inch)
Pixel size - 0.7 micron
Stabilization Optical Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 50 MP 48 MP
Aperture f/2.0 f/2.2
Focal length 16 mm 14 mm
Sensor - Sony IMX581
Sensor size 1/2.88" (β‰ˆ 0.35 inch) 1/2" (β‰ˆ 0.5 inch)
Pixel size 0.612 micron 0.8 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital

Selfie camera

Megapixels 50 megapixels 32 megapixels
Image resolution - 6560 x 4928
Aperture f/2.0 f/2.4
Focal length 18 mm 21 mm
Sensor CMOS Sony IMX615
Sensor size - 1/2.74" (β‰ˆ 0.36 inch)
Pixel size - 0.8 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus No
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 30 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display		 - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 6.0 5.4
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 3.2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG		 - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes Yes
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port Yes Yes
Network
Number of SIM* 2 2
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* - 20
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos No Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness
OnePlus 16
n/a
OnePlus 12
82.6 dB

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced October 2026 December 2023
Release date October 2026 February 2024
Launch price (MSRP) $900 $799
Successor - - OnePlus 16
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint		 - Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Not included Yes, 100 W
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the OnePlus 16 is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
5 (55.6%)
4 (44.4%)
Total votes: 9

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