OnePlus 12 camera unveiled: can this beat Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra?

With most of the big launches behind us, the one that remains and the one that we’re pretty excited about is that of the OnePlus 12, OnePlus’ next flagship. The Chinese company made sure to tease the phone well over the past couple of weeks, showing off the design, specifications, and some camera features of the OnePlus 12. Now, the company’s president, Li Jie Louis, shared samples of the OnePlus 12 camera. the OnePlus 12 on the Chinese Weibo network. Alongside these samples, we also have confirmation regarding the main sensor of the phone, it will be Sony’s new Lytia sensor, developed jointly with OnePlus.

OnePlus 12 main camera samples

According to the latest information, the main one under the wide lens camera of OnePlus 12 is a new jointly developed 50 MP Sony LY-808 sensor. The collaboration between OnePlus and Sony, and here’s what Li Jie has to say about this joint effort:

“In mobile photography, the most difficult thing to manage is the texture of “light and shadow”. Through “collaborative design of optical devices and algorithms”, the Sony LYT-808 was jointly developed from the beginning based on the “Super Light and Shadow Image Engine” algorithm. Thanks to Hasselblad’s natural colors, this algorithm has been developed to the extreme.

This sensor uses Sony’s patented dual-layer transistor-pixel design, known from the Exmor T sensor in the Xperia 1 Mark V. It intelligently separates and rearranges the photodiode and transistor so that the pixel actually has more surface area to capture more light .

Now let’s move on to the samples. We all know that official samples are a bit of a strange animal, they are often filmed in a very controlled manner, and we see the two best shots out of who knows how many, hundreds, maybe thousands? That said, images taken with the Lytia sensor and Hasselblad lens look pretty good.

At a 23mm equivalent focal length and f/1.6 aperture, things look very detailed with balanced colors and a good amount of natural bokeh thanks to the wide aperture. The dynamic range also seems very good, according to OnePlus it’s a new Super Light and Shadow engine, and it does its job without making photos look unnatural and oversaturated.

OnePlus 12 ultra-wide camera samples

The OnePlus 12’s ultra-wide camera uses a Sony IMX581 sensor under a lens with an f/2.2 aperture and 14mm focal length. If you compare the images with those above taken with the main sensor, the difference is obvious. Ultra-wides don’t have the same dynamic range and detail as those shot with the main camera.

Ultrawide is clearly not the star of the show in the OnePlus 12 camera, and the sample image count alone speaks for itself. We only have three ultra-wide images to look at, and while they’re pretty decent, there’s nothing extraordinary.

OnePlus 12 Periscope Telephoto Lens Examples

The OnePlus 12’s telephoto lens deserves more attention (and gets it thanks to dozens of samples shared by OnePlus). The sensor for this periscope system is believed to be a 64MP OmniVision OV64B and here is what Li Jie had to say about it:

With the advantages of 6400W high pixels and large soleplate, it can produce clear images and exquisite composition without disturbing the wonderful moments in the distance! Whether it’s the eyelashes, the hair, the snow-capped mountains, the architectural details… you can all see the beauty in the distance.

This periscope system has 6x optical zoom capabilities, allowing for 140mm focal length shots. Images are quite impressive, especially using the phone’s Hasselblad Professional Portrait mode at 70mm. We’ll let the images speak for themselves.

Is the OnePlus 12 the new camera phone to beat?