The best midrange phone money can buy is now $120 off for Prime Day
by Cody Lee · Android PoliceOnePlus 12R
$380 $500 Save $120
The OnePlus 12R is the current top pick in our buyer's guide to the best midrange Android phones thanks to its beautiful display and fantastic performance. It also has an aluminum frame, giving it a premium feel, and excellent battery life—it's an impressive package at just $400.
The midrange category for Android phones is dominated by some great options that try to strike a balance between performance, features, build quality, and price point. The truth is, when you get down into the $400-$700 price range, you typically have to make some concessions, whether it be a lackluster display, mediocre performance, or cheap-feeling build quality. That is, unless you go with the OnePlus 12R. We called the 12R a 'real flagship killer' in our review, as it avoids most of, if not all, these pain points while still managing to fit under the $700 threshold. In fact, right now you can pick up the handset on sale for just $380.
2:43
Related
OnePlus 12R review: A real flagship killer for $500
A phone that packs all the power you need for the price you want to pay
Why you should buy the OnePlus 12R
Starting with the display, the 12R features a beautiful 6.78" AMOLED panel. It has a resolution of 2780 x 1264, a 120Hz refresh rate, and is capable of reaching 1,600 nits of brightness. It's effectively as good as the screen on the standard OnePlus 12, though just a touch smaller, and notably better than what you will often see in this price range. For performance, the handset is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2—the same one that powered virtually every non-Google flagship last year—and between that and the 8GB of RAM, it can handle pretty much anything you throw at it without breaking a sweat.
If you had to point to some concession areas on the 12R, they would be the software and camera. OnePlus' Android skin, OxygenOS, can be a bit spotty, and it only includes three years of OS upgrade support, and the camera produces photos that are fine for social media but not much else. It's a 50MP sensor, capable of capturing 12.6MP photos, so it's not totally deficient, but it obviously can't compete with the likes of the Pixel 8a. Where the 12R does really shine, though, is in battery life and charging speed. The 5,500mAh battery is capable of going up to three days between charge cycles, and when you do finally need to charge your phone, you can go to 100% in as little as 30 minutes.
The OnePlus 12R is the current 'best overall' pick in our buyer's guide to the best midrange Android phones, and we notably scored it an 8.5 out of 10 in our review. The point is, we think very highly of this handset, and if you are at all in the market for a midrange smartphone, you should run, not walk, to snag the 12R at a $120 discount while you can during Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days.
Related
Best midrange Android phones in 2024
Powerful, versatile, and affordable