Of all the phones I've reviewed this year, none have surprise me quite like the OnePlus 12R. And thanks to a hefty discount thanks to Amazon Prime Deal Days, you can pick up this handset for a rock-bottom price — impressive since it's not like the OnePlus 12R cost all that much to begin with.
The OnePlus 12R is a midrange version of OnePlus' more expensive flagship. In the U.S., the base model of the OnePlus 12R with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage costs a tidy $499. But Amazon has dropped that price by $120 so that the OnePlus 12R currently goes for $379.
Though it may lack some of the flash of the OnePlus 12 flagship, the OnePlus 12R only makes a few noteworthy tradeoffs for that lower price. You get an older chipset than the one in the OnePlus 12, though the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 inside the 12R still delivers very strong performance. You'll give up a telephoto lens, too, though that's not uncommon on midrange phones.
What is uncommon is just how long the OnePlus 12R lasts on a charge. It holds down second place on our best phone battery life list, bested only by a gaming phone. On our battery test, the OnePlus 12R held out for more than 18 hours — 8 hours better than the average smartphone performs on that same test.
You get other features in the OnePlus 12R you don't normally see in budget phones, like a 120Hz refresh rate on the phone's colorful 6.78-inch display and a smart-looking design. The phone charges quickly, too, not that you'll be doing that much charging given the OnePlus 12R's battery life.
One of the best things to happen in the smartphone business in the past few years is how premium features have trickled down to midrange devices. There's no better example of that than the OnePlus 12R, which delivers more value than ever as a result of that Amazon price cut.
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