2024 Winners and losers: OnePlus

2024 was a strong year for OnePlus – both the main series and the Nord line brought some real winners. However, there were a few embarrassing hiccups and worse, the company’s future strategy could lead it down the wrong path.

Winner: OnePlus 12

With two exceptions, the OnePlus 12 is a great performer on all tasks. It has a beautiful screen, excellent battery life and fast charging, solid performance and a camera that impressed with selfies and video stabilization. The IP65 rating is subpar for a flagship and daylight video quality could use some work.

Those things aside, the OnePlus 12 stood up well to the likes of the Galaxy S24 Ultra, despite being cheaper (although these days the OnePlus flagships are not exactly cheap).

OnePlus 12

The phone already received the OxygenOS 15 update with a number of AI features (AI Retouch, AI Notes) and a host of UI improvements. However, OnePlus updates are something that we want to talk about in a separate section.

Winner (?): OnePlus 12R

The company’s “flagship killer” days are long behind it now, but it still offers premium models built to a more affordable spec, phones like the OnePlus 12R. It scales back the capabilities and price compared to the 12 and still arrives at an alluring formula.

It also has a great display and a class-leading battery life with fast (if wired-only) charging. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 was better than just about any mid-range chip throughout 2024 and OnePlus gave it sufficient cooling for long sessions.

The main camera did a great job, but the 8MP fixed-focus ultra-wide camera was not so great (though it did perform better than expected in the dark). The bigger issue is the lack of a telephoto camera. The quality of daylight videos could have been better too. Check out our OnePlus 12 vs. 12R post for more details on how the R-phone stacks up against its pricier sibling.

OnePlus 12R

You may be wondering why there is a question mark in the heading. Some of you already know, but it may not be the issue you’re thinking of. The 12R was the first R-series phone to be sold in the US and it met an unexpected obstacle – it didn’t work on Verizon. This was cleared up in a few days and was embarrassing, but not that much of an issue in the end.

A bigger mistake was that OnePlus advertised the 256GB 12R as having UFS 4.0 storage, while it actually used the slower UFS 3.1. Eventually, OnePlus offered a full refund to all buyers of the 256GB 12R.

Loser: OS support

Last year, OnePlus announced that the OnePlus 11 will receive 4 OS updates and 5 years of security patches. We were hoping that it would extend that with the launch of the 12 but no such luck. In fact, OnePlus doubled down and explained why only 5 years of support is good enough.

In short, OnePlus COO Kinder Liu argued that even if the software is kept up to date, the hardware will no longer be good enough to use. “When our competitors say their software policy will last seven years, remember that their phone's battery may not,” said Liu.

We wonder whether OnePlus will rethink that position, now that it promises 4 years of battery health (i.e. the battery will keep at least 80% of its capacity after four years of regular use). This is in collaboration with CATL, by the way.

Winner: OnePlus Nord 4

The OnePlus Nord 4 brought back fond memories of when aluminum unibodies were the way to build a premium phone. Don’t get us wrong, we appreciate that today’s wireless charging and a thousand wireless connectivity options work better with a glass back. We just love to see some variety.

OnePlus Nord 4

And the Nord 4 delivered with a cool look (the Mercurial Silver in particular is a stunner), amazing battery life (a 5,500mAh battery helps a lot with that), fast charging and... well, okay, it’s wired-only charging, but it is 100W charging. Anyway, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 proved to be an excellent performer, though we didn’t feel like we got the best out of the 120Hz display. The camera could have been better too.

Still, its unique looks and good pricing made the OnePlus Nord 4 one of the highlights of 2024.

Loser: OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite

And while its sleek sibling is a winner, the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite fell into the losers category. Did OnePlus really use the Snapdragon 695 for three generations of CE Lite? Yes, yes it did. And mind you, that chip was already old when it was featured on the 2022 CE2 Lite.

To be fair to the phone, it did significantly improve on the display from the Nord CE3 Lite, battery life and the IP rating were better too. Even the camera had a small but appreciable improvement (especially the video stabilization). However, missing out on an ultra-wide camera and having chipset-related limitations (like 1080p @ 30fps video capture) were a major disappointment.

OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite

The OnePlus Nord CE4 fixes many of the complaints we have about the Lite – a powerful Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset, faster UFS 3.1 storage, a camera with 4K video capture and an ultra-wide lens and even a bigger 5,500mAh battery. It does lose the 3.5mm headphone jack, but it keeps the microSD slot.

Unfortunately, the Nord CE4 is available only in India, so it doesn’t get a section of its own. And if it did, it would have been in the losers category too – it would have been better if OnePlus made the CE4 the global model and not bothered with the CE4 Lite at all.

Loser: OnePlus Open

This is less about the phone – this 2023 model actually holds up quite well – but about the lack of a follow-up. The Open launched in late 2023 and there is no sequel in sight. Occasionally, we hear rumors about the Open 2, but it’s clear that it will be a 2025 release.

What happened? We don’t know. Insider info suggests that the Oppo foldable that would have been the basis of the Open 2 was shelved (the Open was based on the Oppo Find N3), but that doesn’t quite answer the question. Is it tech issues or more economic – not enough sales or not enough profit? Again, we don’t know.

OnePlus Open

However, the foldable market is heating up and OnePlus might not want to lose that market segment. And what about flip foldables? There’s nothing official yet, but rumor has it that a so-called OnePlus V Flip is expected in Q2 2025.

OnePlus 12

• 256GB 12GB RAM$ 695.00
• 512GB 16GB RAM$ 629.62

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OnePlus 12R

• 128GB 8GB RAM$ 413.32
• 256GB 16GB RAM$ 474.99

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OnePlus Nord 4

• 256GB 12GB RAM£ 359.10
• 512GB 16GB RAM£ 432.90

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OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite

• 256GB 8GB RAM£ 229.00

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