A new leak could have revealed some pretty major details about the OnePlus 12, which is due to arrive sometime early next year. From the sounds of things the upcoming device could address one of the biggest criticisms about the OnePlus 11 and the OnePlus Open — namely the lack of wireless charging.
According to leaker Digital Chat Station on Weibo, the OnePlus 12 could come with 50W wireless charging once more. It’s a feature that OnePlus has been annoyingly inconsistent about including, despite the fact wireless charging is a standard feature in almost every other premium smartphone — and a number of cheaper mid-range phones as well.
Wireless charging didn’t appear on a OnePlus phone until 2020’s OnePlus 8 Pro, which is long after the competition got on board — including Apple. While there have been wireless charging OnePlus phones in the years since, it’s never clear whether the feature will be available or not.
Case in point, the $1,699 OnePlus Open lacks any kind of wireless charging. Not only is poor form for such an expensive phone to skip a pretty basic feature, both the Google Pixel Fold and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 have wireless charging capabilities. Heck even the $699 Motorola Razr (2023) has wireless charging, even if it is limited to a paltry 5W.
OnePlus’s excuses for lack of wireless charging have been similarly inconsistent. Originally the company claimed it wanted wireless charging to be as good as wired charging before it was worth offering. It’s also argued that super-fast wired charging makes wireless charging unnecessary.
And yet people still want it for the convenience of being able to toss your phone down onto a pad or stand, and not be limited by some sort of cable. Myself included, as a recent convert to the concept of wireless charging.
As was the case with the One Plus 10 Pro, Digital Chat Station claims that the OnePlus 12 will offer up to 50W wireless charging speeds. It seems likely that the OnePlus 12 will only be attainable with a proprietary AIRVOOC wireless charger again.
More OnePlus 12 upgrades could be coming
The reintroduction of wireless charging may not be the only changes coming to the OnePlus 12 next year. That includes upgrades to the camera, faster data transfer speeds and possibly even an IR blaster — which is a rare sight on a modern smartphone.
Digital Chat Station claims that the OnePlus 12’s camera will include a 64MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom — reportedly the same lens that we’ve just seen on the OnePlus Open. The rest of the camera specs aren’t specified, but we can assume that they are at least on par with the OnePlus 11 — which had a 50MP main lens, a 48MP ultrawide and a 16MP selfie camera.
OnePlus is also said to be including USB 3.2 support, which offers data transfer speeds between 5Gbps and 10 Gbps over a wired connection. That’s faster than the OnePlus Open, which has USB 3.1 and the OnePlus 11 which is stuck at 480Mbps USB 2.0 speeds. That upgrade also means the OnePlus 12 could connect to external devices like displays and external storage — something that doesn’t isn’t possible when your speeds are limited to 480Mbps.
The IR Blaster will also be a boon for anyone that misses the features, which was phased out of most mainstream phones about 10 years ago. In fact these days you only really see the feature included on rather obscure devices, and the occasional bigger-name Chinese brand like Xiaomi — which makes it rather inaccessible in the U.S.
So if you’ve been lamenting the loss of this feature, either to control your TV or smart home devices, the OnePlus 12 might prove itself very appealing.
Of course these are all rumors for the time being, and there’s still a lot we don’t know about the phone. In the meantime you can keep up to date with all the latest news and rumors in our OnePlus 12 hub. Or, if you fancy yourself the new foldable, check out our OnePlus Open review.
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