The previous guard meets a competitor

• OnePlus 12

  No AI, no downside

  In a world the place the preferred manufacturers have normalized costs properly above $1,000, the OnePlus 12’s $800 sticker worth may depart you pondering it makes compromises. It doesn’t. The gadget boasts the identical unimaginable efficiency, show high quality, battery life, and digicam talents we might count on from the best possible in the marketplace.

  Execs

  • Glorious, brilliant show
  • Trade-leading battery and charging
  • Nice Hasselblad-backed cameras

  Cons

  • Minor fingerprint reader annoyance
  • OxygenOS has a studying curve
  • Not obtainable on provider offers

• 

  Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely

  Software program-focused flagship

  $1150 $1300 Save $150

  Samsung did not make large modifications to the S24 Extremely over the past era however refined a few of its finest options to face out much more. Its lastly flat show managed to get even higher, the nice battery turned improbable, and the cameras a bit extra succesful. However for those who’re not into novel AI instruments, the associated fee is difficult to swallow.

  Execs

  • Extra crisp, colourful display than ever
  • High-notch efficiency and effectivity
  • The promise of evolving AI options

  Cons

  • Unchanged, considerably bland design
  • Cameras nonetheless have hassle with movement
  • Eye-wateringly excessive worth

The Samsung S24 Extremely, just like the S23 Extremely earlier than it, is among the strongest, user-friendly, handsome telephones in the marketplace. However, in some ways, it is a bit an excessive amount of just like the S23 Extremely. It does sport some welcome enhancements, like flat display and edge designs, larger brightness, and someway even higher battery life, nevertheless it’s removed from a revolutionary replace.

In distinction, the OnePlus 12 constructed on the nice design of final 12 months’s OnePlus 11, however pumped up the depth of its {hardware}, show, and cameras, leapfrogging virtually each different telephone in the marketplace. One of many few producers to not fall prey to the more and more overarching shadow of AI, OnePlus centered its efforts on making a no-nonsense, industry-leading flagship, and in most methods, it succeeded.

Value, specs, and availability

Samsung and OnePlus’s top-of-the-line smartphones each launched in early 2024. Each prime flagships added $100 to final 12 months’s sticker worth, however the results of that enhance is much totally different. The OnePlus 12’s MSRP now begins at $800 (comparatively frequent for flagships), with an additional $100 doubling the storage and rising the RAM. And when shopping for from the OnePlus web site, you possibly can commerce in actually any telephone in any situation to get a $100 recycling low cost.

Samsung, however, fees a whopping $1,300 at minimal, and a further $120 and $360 for the second and third storage tiers. For a non-folding telephone, that is not frequent. It does have a tendency to supply extra beneficiant trade-in bonuses although.

Neither firm has devoted shops within the US, however each are available on-line and at main brick-and-mortar shops like Greatest Purchase. Samsung does, nevertheless, work with the 4 largest US carriers, to allow them to work inside your present contract or signal you up for a brand new one to get a reduction or month-to-month cost plan. OnePlus has no such tie-ins, though it affords a trade-in program by the web site, and locations like Greatest Purchase additionally supply their very own.

• 	OnePlus 12	Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely
  SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy
  Show kind	LTPO AMOLED, 1-120Hz	LTPO AMOLED, 1-120Hz
  Show dimensions	6.82″, 19.8:9	6.8″, 19.3:9
  Show decision	3168 x 1440	3088 × 1440
  RAM	12GB or 16GB	12GB
  Storage	256GB or 512GB	256GB, 512GB, or 1TB
  Battery	5,400mAh	5,000mAh
  Cost velocity	80W wired (100W worldwide), 50W wi-fi	45W wired, 15W wi-fi
  Cost choices	USB-C SuperVOOC wired, AirVOOC wi-fi, reverse charging	Wired, wi-fi, reverse charging
  Ports	USB-C	USB-C
  Working System	Android 14 with OxygenOS 14	Android 14 with One UI 6.1
  Entrance digicam	32MP, f/2.4	12MP, f/2.2
  Rear digicam	50MP, f/1.6, OIS primary; 48MP, f/2.2 ultrawide; 64MP, f/2.6, OIS, 3x telephoto	200MP, f/1.7 primary; 12MP, f/2.2 ultrawide; 10MP 3x telephoto; 50MP, f/3.4 5x telephoto
  Mobile connectivity	Sub-6 5G, LTE	mmWave & sub-6 5G, LTE
  Wi-Fi connectivity	Wi-Fi 7	Wi-Fi 7
  Connectivity	IR blaster, NFC	UWB, NFC
  Bluetooth	Bluetooth 5.4	Bluetooth 5.3
  Dimensions	164.3 x 75.8 x 9.2mm	162.6 × 79.0 × 8.6mm
  Weight	220g	233g
  IP Score	IP65	IP68
  Colours	Flowy Emerald, Silky Black	Titanium Black, Titanium Grey, Titanium Violet, Titanium Yellow
  Stylus	No	S Pen included
  Value	From $800	From $1,300

Design

A featureless monolith and an awesome, massive circle

It looks as if Samsung’s spent the previous few years refining away all of its telephones’ noteworthy visible options till they’re only one pristine, barely shiny block. With none main visible cues left to take away this 12 months, it went even blockier and fully flattened the perimeters and display.

That is not a criticism. The sharper edges make it really feel higher in hand, and the mirror-flat entrance works higher with contact and stylus enter. However the one actually fascinating factor concerning the S24 Extremely’s appears to be like is the variety of colours it is available in. The mushy, titanium-hued inexperienced, blue, orange, violet, yellow, black, and silver virtually look extra like jewellery than an digital gadget.

OnePlus affords far fewer colours — black, and a pleasant inexperienced marbling known as Flowy Emerald — nevertheless it sports activities a hanging look that stands out amongst flagships. On the higher left aspect of the 12’s again sits an unmistakable bump that homes the Hasselblad digicam lenses, an iconic design ingredient first seen on the OnePlus 11. Whereas the OnePlus 12 does additionally look virtually precisely like its predecessor, it nonetheless appears to be like fairly eye-catching.

Samsung does superceede OnePlus barely from a bodily design standpoint. The S24 Extremely’s Gorilla Glass Armor strikes a stability of sturdiness and scratch resistance we have not but seen, marginally outperforming the Victus 2 discovered on the OnePlus 12. Samsung additionally shot for an IP68 ranking, whereas OnePlus solely eked out IP65 safety.

Show

How brilliant is simply too brilliant?

We have reached a degree in high-end smartphone shows the place numbers like share of coloration gamut protection and coloration variance delta-E do not imply a lot in real-world use. Each smartphones produce colours, deal with movement, and resist ghosting and artifacts so properly that it is troublesome to base comparisons on onerous numbers.

For instance, the OnePlus boasts a borderline-unbelievable 4,500-nit peak brightness, however you will not ever truly see that type of shine in common use. OnePlus seemingly measured the utmost potential output of a single pixel whereas the remainder of the panel was at a low energy degree, a scenario you will not encounter in actual life. With that stated, the OnePlus does get brighter, however you may want to show off computerized brightness to get probably the most out of it. With the OS managing brightness by itself, the Galaxy tends to be simpler to see, however not by an enormous quantity.

Qualitatively, although, there are some clear variations between the screens. Most notably, the OnePlus 12’s rounded corners look, properly, like quite a lot of telephone show designs we’re used to seeing. The S24 Extremely’s unusual 90-degree corners stand out and enhance the efficient display house. Samsung’s entry undoubtedly appears to be like cleaner, despite the fact that the OnePlus appears to be like improbable.

The aforementioned Gorilla Glass Armor is one other massive distinction that defies measurement. Not simply formulated for sturdiness, it is also engineered to withstand glare in any respect angles with out noticeably affecting picture high quality. It is one of many S24 Extremely’s largest benefits, and no different telephones use it but.

However the OnePlus nonetheless has some methods up its sleeve. Its panel helps not simply HDR and Professional XDR (basically a souped-up model of HDR for viewing pictures), but additionally Dolby Imaginative and prescient, in contrast to the Samsung. Aqua Contact is one other novel OnePlus function; it makes the touchscreen extra constantly responsive when there’s extra moisture in your fingers or the display. That one’s onerous to quantify, however we observed a distinction in side-by-side testing with the OnePlus 11.

Software program

The most important distinction

Samsung’s OneUI Android pores and skin will get a ton of reward for its intuitive design and excessive diploma of customizability. It will not be universally cherished — nothing is — however consultants and informal customers alike broadly regard it as the perfect Android implementation right now. It affords a number of the best multitasking instruments, together with Samsung Dex, which may basically flip your telephone right into a tiny desktop PC.

For probably the most in-depth use circumstances, the inclusion of Samsung’s vaunted S Pen and its in-body storage cannot be ignored. When you’re planning on taking notes or in any other case utilizing a stylus to control your smartphone, the S24 Extremely’s the one selection. The OnePlus 12 would not even assist the corporate’s personal pen.

However arguably the largest gulf in software program design comes within the type of machine studying instruments, which all people’s simply determined to name AI options. Samsung leaned into Galaxy AI onerous through the Unpacked occasion when it introduced the S24 household, pitching it as the brand new fashions’ most essential improve, and principally the tech of the longer term.

Constructed on Google’s Gemini Professional and Imagen 2 AI fashions, Galaxy AI provides novel options that the vanilla Google Assistant cannot fairly deal with. This contains neat stuff like eradicating shadows, reflections, and even total objects from pictures. It could possibly transcribe audio recordings, and make fast summaries of huge notice units. It even permits dwell translation of calls, messages, and in-person conversations, excellent for worldwide professionals and vacationers.

The OnePlus 12 affords no such AI options. As a substitute, it employs the OxygenOS pores and skin, which deviates from inventory Android greater than just a bit. Not at all cumbersome or complicated, it has a little bit of a studying curve if you have not used a OnePlus telephone in the previous few years. Regardless of a number of minor quirks, although, it really works nice when you get to understand it, and may see continued refinement.

Android replace lifespans

Considerably famously, Samsung adopted Google’s lead this 12 months and now guarantees seven years of full Android updates and safety patches for its high-end gadgets. Battery degradation however, there’s little doubt the S24 Extremely will nonetheless carry out properly a number of years down the highway.

OnePlus, sadly, hasn’t adopted go well with. Whereas it undoubtedly has the {hardware} to last more, it should solely see 4 Android updates after which one additional 12 months of safety patches. For that matter, OnePlus itself truly derided the idea of a seven-year replace lifespan, evaluating it to a moldy sandwich — so do not maintain any hope that it will change its thoughts in a number of years and supply extra software program.

Efficiency

Onerous to inform aside

The 2 telephones embrace extraordinarily comparable internals. They use the identical bodily Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, which boasts a marginal efficiency enhance and notable effectivity improve to the Gen 2. They do use totally different variants, although. The Samsung’s Cortex-X4 core will get a minor, 100MHz overclock on the expense of 100MHz for every of the opposite seven cores. That is presumably to accommodate the AI options that take a bit extra processing energy than your common smartphone activity.

In day-to-day utilization, although, you may discover no distinction. Each telephones are blazing quick and in a position to deal with probably the most resource-intensive duties an app can throw at them. When you wish to get lots completed directly in your telephone, although, the upper-tier OnePlus and its 16GB of RAM might entice you. OnePlus additionally added a brand new SoC administration engine known as CPU-Vitalization, which claims to stability energy and efficiency to ship extra uncooked velocity whenever you want it, and higher effectivity when you do not.

OnePlus additionally employs superior thermal administration known as the Twin Cryo-velocity Cooling System, which includes a sizable vapor chamber that minimizes the prospect of throttling. Altogether, the 12’s improbable {hardware} and its novel implementation can, theoretically, push it a notch above the Samsung by way of efficiency. The typical person won’t discover, but when absolute breakneck velocity is a precedence, the OnePlus 12 has you lined to a greater extent than the S24 Extremely.

However from a extra useful standpoint, we do have a few gripes with the OnePlus. The small one is that the fingerprint reader would not carry out in addition to it might; it periodically took a number of tries and lagged unlocking the telephone. The shortage of 5G mmWave connectivity is a barely bigger challenge, and means it will not have entry to the best possible over-the-air knowledge speeds and latency. That will not be a deal-breaker, nevertheless it is a crucial level for some customers.

Battery life

Would you like nice, or unimaginable?

Each reap the benefits of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3’s potential to sip energy, delivering spectacular, all-day battery life, even with heavy use. The truth is, most customers might most likely stretch them each to over two days of use with out requiring a recharge — though we would not advocate that, as a result of discharging your battery beneath about 40% begins to encourage degradation. Nonetheless, there’s one clear winner.

Based mostly on a pure video playback take a look at, the Samsung truly lasts a few hours longer (about 28.5 hours to the OnePlus’s 26), seemingly as a result of OnePlus’s larger brightness. However taking common use under consideration — 4G and 5G radios, Wi-Fi connections, app switching, inputs and haptics, and geo-location pinging — the OnePlus 12 edges out the S24 Extremely constantly.

Neither’s getting massively blown out, after all, and each final lengthy sufficient to say a number of the finest battery life in the marketplace. However that is not the entire story.

A story of two charging speeds

We are inclined to rag on the Galaxy Extremely’s 45W max charging price. Not as a result of it is unusably sluggish, however as a result of that is the perfect, costliest Samsung has to supply, and we predict it may possibly do higher. Positive, it could not want blazing-fast refueling speeds, partly as a result of it would not want topping off through the day. But when we shell out $1,300 or extra for a telephone, we predict it ought to have a number of the finest high-end options.

On the very least, it ought to enhance upon its two-year-prior predecessor, or possibly even embrace the requisite specialty charger within the field. Samsung’s newest top-dollar telephone does neither. What’s worse, the cable included within the S24 Extremely’s field would not even assist the amperage required to accommodate the complete 45W peak. That is borderline shameful.

Questionable producer selections apart, half-hour on a typical 25W charger can take the S24 Extremely from empty to simply over 50%. A 45W PPS charger strikes that determine to virtually 70%. From zero to 100%, 25W and 45W charging take about 1:05 and 1:15, respectively. The small distinction comes from the truth that Samsung’s charging algorithm slows considerably because it passes roughly 80%, to protect battery longevity. The 45W PPS expertise, due to this fact, is extra helpful for fast top-ups when the battery is low.

OnePlus does just about the whole lot in a different way. It contains the required SuperVOOC charger and cable wanted to succeed in the telephone’s peak charging price, which is restricted to 80W (as an alternative of the worldwide 100W) merely on account of US electrical infrastructure. OnePlus additionally would not fiddle with slowing down the cost price routinely, so you may see the battery refill at a comparatively fixed price. A fast, 15-minute spot on the charger takes it from empty to just about 50%, with a full tank at simply over the 30-minute mark.

That is not simply spectacular, it is the perfect in the marketplace, and slays the S24 Extremely. Nonetheless, for those who plan to maintain your OnePlus 12 for a big size of time, do not forget that quicker charging and the warmth related to it are inclined to degrade batteries quicker. When you’re charging in a single day, it is OK to make use of an everyday charger, and that’ll guarantee your battery nonetheless works properly two or three years into the longer term.

Cameras

The place reputations collide

Samsung goes out of its approach to embrace virtually excessively good optical {hardware} in its flagship. Arguably nobody wants a 200MP picture from a smartphone, though its pixel binning does do an awesome job, particularly in low mild. And whereas not everybody loves Samsung cameras’ predilection for slight oversaturation, the pictures do look nice, and you may stop the saturation challenge with a fast settings change.

General, we managed to get some glorious photographs with the Galaxy, particularly the 200MP main lens. The night time mode works significantly properly in capturing colours in darkish settings, indoors and out. The broader telephoto lens additionally works higher in lots of circumstances, and the downgrade from 10× to five× is barely barely noticeable at excessive zoom ranges.

However that is not our gripe with Samsung’s pictures expertise. That is the third 12 months operating we have encountered clear movement dealing with points, largely within the type of blurry pictures in fairly well-lit settings. This won’t be the tip of the world, nevertheless it’s unattainable to miss in such a expensive gadget.

Now, for one thing fully totally different. OnePlus partnered with Swedish pictures heavyweight Hasselblad to develop one of the fascinating digicam setups obtainable. Its 50MP wide-angle main lens sits alongside a 64MP 3× telephoto setup, complemented by a 48MP ultrawide sensor. This dizzying array of high-resolution lenses offers a formidable degree of versatility, with the 32MP wide-angle selfie digicam solely including to the combination.

Our hands-on testing left us with nothing however good issues to say. The bevy of taking pictures modes, each guide and auto, give handheld photographers tons of choices for reaching the proper shot. And whereas OnePlus would not use any particular AI photo-editing instruments, its picture processing is up there with the perfect telephones for pictures proper now. If taking footage is essential to your smartphone expertise, the OnePlus 12 stands out from the remaining.

Which one’s best for you?

The Galaxy S24 Extremely is a wonderful telephone and can, undoubtedly, promote extra items than the OnePlus 12. However, aside from the anti-glare Gorilla Glass Armor, well-liked OneUI Android pores and skin, and novel AI instruments, the OnePlus does virtually the whole lot higher. It is ridiculously quick, appears to be like particularly good within the Flowy Emerald colorway, lasts longer per cost, fees method quicker, and takes higher footage on a extra constant foundation than the Samsung.

And the actual kicker? MSRP for the bottom mannequin is a whopping $500 decrease, and simply $100 extra nets you 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. You may even commerce in any previous telephone you’ve available for a $100 recycling low cost. If there have been ever a time to ditch Samsung, it is now.

Nonetheless, lots of people place excessive significance on issues the S24 Extremely does fairly properly. It appears to be like a bit extra polished, if not as flashy, and the software program expertise (particularly the multitasking options and Samsung Dex implementation) provides tons of utility for customers who spend quite a lot of time engaged on their telephones.

Plus, regardless of its competitor doing quite a lot of issues higher, the Galaxy nonetheless does the whole lot extremely properly — besides a considerably inconsistent digicam expertise. If cash’s no object and also you need entry to the most recent AI instruments, the Galaxy S24 Extremely is a good selection.