OnePlus 12 vs Pixel 8 Pro: Tough Call, Clear Winner!

OnePlus is gunning for the Google pixel and it might just be onto a winner with the OnePlus 12 now OnePlus has hopscotched between different concepts and price points for their Flagship phones with a word salad of pro T and R models cluttering the lineup but with the 12 OnePlus has targeted the $800 price point in the US or $849 including tax in the UK that's a number that undercuts the pixel by a couple hundred in the UK and matches its generous sale price in the US at the time we making this video and here's the thing if you look down the spec sheet it sure seems like you're getting a lot more phone for your money with the 12 versus the 8 Pro so is that the case or can the pixels legendary cameras and trademark AI magic make a case for its superiority I'm Alex Doby this is XJ TV let's jump in to kick things off these are both sizable high-end Android phones with plenty of design quirks that make a big difference to the way they look and feel the OnePlus 12 feels noticeably chunkier and heavier than the pixel its display is a tenth of an inch larger on the diagonal 6.8 versus 6.7 in though with a curved OLED panel that's almost to the point of being a vintage feature at the moment seriously there aren't that many bigname phone brands in the west still using curved displays the past 12 months has seen Samsung and Google opt for all flat designs at the higher end flat screens like the pixels are a lot easier to fit with a screen protector if that's your thing but for me it has also been fun going back to a curved ol display for the first time in many months it's comfortable and does help a bit with reachability with a slightly larger screen like this both screens are incredibly easy on the eyes with Peak brightness levels far in excess of what you'll need in most daylight conditions OnePlus boasts a higher Peak brightness rate on paper of 4500 nits versus the pixels 2400 which sounds like a lot the middle of the winter in northern Europe isn't the best place to test Peak brightness levels that you'll normally only see under very bright daylight but what I can say is I've used the pixel in much sunnier climbs and it is still perfectly legible even with only 2400 nits flipping them both over I have to say I much prefer the Aesthetics of the pixel's design language OnePlus is isn't egregiously ugly or anything but I do find it just a bit more cluttered compared to the streamlined profile of the pixel between the reflective speckled pattern The Notches around the circumference and the various printed bits of camera detail there's just a lot going on we're into the second year of this style of camera cluster on the OnePlus device so I commend them for sticking with this same design identity but yeah I have seen nicer looking smartphones and the pixel is one of them I'm using the OnePlus 12 in this black variant with a matte texture and aforementioned sparkly Sandstone is finish I've used this on Plenty of Oppo and OnePlus phones in recent years and it still feels great there's also a frosted green which I think is probably the worst colorway OnePlus has produced in recent years with with some real mid90s kitchen counter energy to it over on the pixel side I'm a fan of Google's bay blue colorway which is the one I'm using and the other Hues on offer aren't too shabby either the flat display has widish borders compared to some super premium phones like the s24 but look roughly the same size as oneplus's even if the use of a flat screen on the pixel does make those horizontal bezels seem to stick out just a bit more than the curve of the OnePlus display it's obviously very subjective then but I think when it comes to looks personally I would go with the pixel the internal Hardware though is where the tables turn with Whiplash intensity pretty much every meaningful spec has OnePlus coming out on top it's got qualcomm's very latest Snapdragon 8 gen 3 which clowns the pixel's tensor G3 in benchmarks and demanding games you get more storage as standard it's upgradable to 512 gigs for considerably less than the Google phone and if you do stump up the extra 150 bucks or more storage you'll also get 16 gigs of RAM there's no equivalent 16 gig pixel similar deal on battery capacity wired and wireless charging speeds oneplus's battery is bigger and refills faster whether you're plugging it into a wall or sucking down delicious EM waves through a wireless fast charger super fast charging isn't a necessity and it's worth pointing out that for me the pixel8 Pro battery life has never been problematic in the same way that some earlier tensor powered pixels have been it's always gotten me through a full day of use even with heavier use of trade shows like CES recently at the same time though Google's handset does fall short of the longevity of many 2023 Android phones with the previous Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and the same size of battery the OnePlus 12 belongs to the new wave of gen 3 phones pushing past that 5,000 Mah plateau in this case with a 5400 Mah cell and even with that larger cell though I can't say I saw an enormous battery gains over the previous generation of Snapdragon devices on the OnePlus side the OnePlus 12 still manages about a day and a half of heavy use for me personally with around 7 hours of screen on time so no huge Improvement in longevity from that bigger battery but the battery life I got out of the OnePlus phone remains comfortably above what the pixel has given me combine that with ludicrously quick charging up to 100 WTS over a wire or 50 WS wirelessly and it is an easy win for [Applause] OnePlus let's talk software for a bit because this is historically been a major strength of Google's pixels and an area where OnePlus has picked up a lot of flack in recent years is so first off I can say oneplus's software in oxygen os4 is as smooth and fast as you're likely to find in any Android phone well just any smartphone period OnePlus says it's worked on CPU RAM and ROM optimization to maintain its performance over time it's hard to speak to that after just a week or so of use but it's great to see an exceptionally quick outof boox experience for oxygen OS this wasn't always guaranteed in the past the look and feel of oneplus's software is fairly plain and there's at least as much iOS influence to be seen as there is Android but it's fast performant and inoffensive with pleasing animations and excellent sharp haptic feedback my favorite oxygen OS features have to do with multitasking I love how with most apps I can simply swipe all the way up within the recent shortcut menu to launch them into small floating windows and there are other features like the smart sidebar that help when hopping between apps or splitting the display between two full screen apps the OnePlus widget shelf continues to be a thing though it's a feature I find less useful in its current Incarnation hidden behind the swipe down gesture on the home screen I prefer to use this gesture like a regular human being to deploy the quick settings and notification area on the pixel side I appreciate the smart AI features that only Google can master of which there are plenty in the pixel 8 Pro Google's Magic photo editor brings AI capabilities to your pictures letting you move around people and objects from within your snaps call screening is a genuinely useful way to stay on top of span calls while still letting important calls reach you and live translate links into major messaging apps like WhatsApp giving you a seamless way to message across languages these are all thoughtful editions that really make the pixel special but just as important as any of that stuff is software support and Google is almost a matched in this area with its promise of seven years of software updates for the pixel 8 Pro along with crucially monthly security patches OnePlus is much better than it used to be with its promised 4 years of updates that's probably a lot longer than many people will even be using a OnePlus 12 but it's still considerably shorter than what Google offers and the company has typically favored a bonly schedule for those security patches which also doesn't keep Pace with the pixel the pixel8 pro is one of my favorite phone cameras ever so I was really interested to jump in and find out how well OnePlus can compete with what would seem to be a really meaty camera upgrade coming from the OnePlus 11 last year once again helped along with hasselblad's image tuning on the OnePlus side that camera is led by a new Sony lyt 808 main sensor the same one used in the OnePlus open last year it's a oneof 1.4 in part with a unique design that's supposed to be able to capture more light there is of course an ultra wide and it's also joined by oneplus's first Periscope telephoto camera a 1/2 in omniv Vision part at 64 megapixels with a three time zoom level Now spoiler alert I still think the pixel wins this camera contest overall but it is an awful lot closer than I thought it might be starting with the main camera OnePlus is able to match the pixel really closely with the only major difference of note being the color science the pixel typically favored warmer hu especially in shots where it's an element of a sunrise or Sunset daylight shots from the OnePlus 12 had a much cooler appearance both main cameras are excellent performers in low light 2 either with or without their respective dedicated night modes the biggest difference I noticed using these cameras in Darker conditions was that OnePlus tended to leave areas of Shadow relatively dark Google on the other hand would use its postprocessing to pull out more detail in those Shadow areas and this is more of a stylistic thing in some instances it does create more dramatic looking images in others though it can just end up looking underexposed oneplus's photos could often look sharper too if you go pixel peeping at 100% zoom level this doesn't necessarily mean more detail is being captured just that OnePlus favors sharpening that little bit more in its processing whereas Google finishes with an image that's just slightly softer again though this this is a very nitpicky observation with the ultrawide camera I think it's a clear win for Google though the pixel's wider field of view allows for more striking Ultra wide shots and I often found oneplus's camera would tend to underexpose photos taken with that Ultra wide whereas Google's were more evenly exposed you could make the argument in some conditions that Google likes to over brighten images a little too much when you're using that Ultra wide as you can see here but to my eye the pixel produces the more pleasing shots with more accurate colors and lacking the blue cast that you see in this OnePlus image telephoto performance is also a really interesting point of comparison considering just how different these two telephoto cameras are both periscopes but three times versus five times and with a higher resolution larger size and brighter aperture on the OnePlus side oneplus's dedicated three times camera means that at three times it definitely captures more detail than the pixel can the Google phone is forced to rely on a super res Zoom hybrid shot from its main sensor and the three times is also great for closer portrait shots obviously five times or around 120 mil equivalent isn't ideal for that use case at five times it's more of an even contest between the two oneplus's highres sensor still has plenty of detail to drill down into to capture great looking five time shots from a camera with a three times physical zoom level but as lighting conditions become more challenging for example in heavily back lit or low likee conditions where more frames need to be captured and stitched together the pixel camera once again pulls ahead with a sharper image and Superior dynamic range oneplus's images are typically softer and darker in situations like these as you'll see here it's a characteristic that I run into over and over again in Darker areas in Zoom charts When comparing these two telephotos moving on to video some of the remarks I made earlier about colors carry over to video captures with Google favoring warmer Hues and output from the ultra wide tending to be wider brighter and more evenly exposed in the pixel as well and in daylight to moderate indoor light both cameras coped well with movement from a moderate walking pace with minimal juddering from both the wide and ultrawide cameras in both devices I also noticed nighttime videography tended to produce Brighter Images on the OnePlus camera though at the cost of stabilization noticed the much more prominent jelly effect in footage from the OnePlus camera here compared to Google oneplus's telephoto camera is also a capable video performer with ample stabilization even at five times though when zoomed in all the way to five times there was a bit more VIs ible grain to moving shots taken from the OnePlus camera for example see the grain that's left behind here where the lanterns move in this shot that's not present in a similar five times capture from the pixel 8 Pro so on both counts I think it's a narrow win for Google in terms of photo and video though again you really need to go nitpicking to find those areas where Google's many years of experience with things like multiframe processing allows it to pull off a better looking shot it's also worth talking about HDR photo captures because that's a new feature in both the pixel8 pro and OnePlus 12 unlike a traditional photo these hdr photos capture a wider range of brightnesses which when viewed back on a compatible HDR display gives you a more lifelike picture that recreates the greater range of brightnesses that your eye can perceive oneplus's version of this is called Pro xdr on the Google side they call it Ultra HDR the other difference is that Google being Google The Google photos app already supports Ultra HDR shots from the pixel whether you're viewing it on a pixel or on the web or on another compatible HDR display display like an iPhone or iPad no such luck for OnePlus Pro xdr photos right now you'll need to view those in the OnePlus Gallery app on a OnePlus device to get the full effect HDR photo formats are still pretty new so hopefully compatibility will be improved soon but in these early days of ultra hdr photos it is worth noting so we have to pick a winner and this is a really tough one for me personally because as a phone user I can put up with a lot of disappointment elsewhere in a device if you give me a great camera so You' think the pi pix would be the Natural Choice for me but although the pixel does have a better camera system you have to weigh up whether that small photographic Advantage makes up for all the other areas where OnePlus excels the sheer performance advantage of the Snapdragon hn3 with oneplus's cooling system and software tuning the extra RAM and storage the better battery life and quicker charging and the verdict I have to somewhat grudgingly come to is that for most people the OnePlus 12 is probably going to be the better device out of this pairing OnePlus has plenty under the hood to keep power users happy the software support is long enough that for most people it's not going to be an issue and the camera though not quite pixel good is really great and undeniably OnePlus is best yet so that's our verdict but hit the comments let us know what you think which device would you pick out of this matchup stick around for more comparisons coming very soon in the meantime thanks for watching and I'll see you next time

Channel: XDA

Views: 169,890

Keywords: XDA Developers (Website), Android (Operating System), Android (Software), Android Rooting (Software Genre), Technology, Smartphones

Id: Lmf26fKY_TU

Length: 14min 27sec (867 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 25 2024