Our favorite budget Android phone is at its lowest price ever
OnePlus 12R
The OnePlus 12R packs everything you can ask from a mid-range Android smartphone: a big and beautiful 120Hz AMOLED display, a powerful Snapdragon chip, all-day battery life, and 80W fast charging. While the camera performance might not be the best around, it is still good enough for casual use.
There are plenty of budget Android phones, but none stand out for their price-to-performance ratio as the OnePlus 12R. This phone is a true flagship killer, packing Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, a 120Hz LTPO OLED panel, and a beefy 5,500mAh battery. What's impressive is the price, as you can get the phone for as low as $500. But that's for the 128GB variant, with the 256GB configuration commanding an extra $100 premium.
OnePlus 12R review: A real flagship killer for $500
A phone that packs all the power you need for the price you want to payBy taking advantage of OnePlus' latest offer, you can potentially save up to $170 on the OnePlus 12R's top-end variant, bringing its price down to an astonishing $430. The company is providing a flat $70 discount along with a guaranteed $100 trade-in discount. At this incredible price, there's simply no competition for the OnePlus mid-ranger.
What's great about OnePlus 12R?
The OnePlus 12R is the company's first 'R' phone to debut in the US. And OnePlus brought its best game to a key market. There's little not to like about the 12R. It features a big, bright 6.78-inch 120Hz OLED display, delivers exceptional performance thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, and can last all day while running your favorite apps and games.
With 80W fast wired charging, you can replenish the phone's massive 5,500mAh cell in just 30 minutes. And you get all this for $500. The entry-level variant ships with 128GB storage, and we recommend opting for the 256GB variant, which is the one that OnePlus is heavily discounting. The top-end configuration also packs 16GB of RAM, making multitasking a breeze.
The OnePlus 12R's camera performance is sub-par, though, and you may not like that it is only IP64-certified. OnePlus' software quality is also nowhere near that of Samsung, with bugs frequently passing through the company's testing.
Unlike Samsung and Pixels, the OnePlus only gets three years of OS updates. Still, these shortcomings can be ignored, especially since you can grab the OnePlus 12R for as low as $430. And if you have the cash to spare, bundle the OnePlus Watch with your purchase to save 30% on it.