The OnePlus 12’s screen is brighter than the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s or any other phone’s

OnePlus 11 in green on wicker basket top with screen on
The OnePlus 11 (Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)

Currently, the Google Pixel 8 Pro has one of the brightest smartphone screens on the planet, with its peak brightness of 2,400 nits beating even the iPhone 15 Pro Max (2,000 nits) and the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (1,750 nits). But the display on the upcoming OnePlus 12 is set to dwarf those numbers.

A OnePlus exec has revealed on Weibo (via WCCFTech) that the OnePlus 12 has a peak screen brightness of 4,500 nits, which is almost comically higher than those of the phones above.

What’s the point of a screen that bright? Well, it will make the display clearer in bright, direct sunlight, but for the most part a brightness that high probably won’t be of much use.

A OnePlus 12 teaser highlighting the screen brightness

(Image credit: OnePlus)

It also probably won’t be properly achieved, since these peak brightness claims from companies only require a tiny area of the screen to reach that brightness, and only briefly. Still, if any part of the OnePlus 12’s display can reach 4,500 nits it’s still likely to mean that the whole display will be able to get brighter than rival phone screens.

Indeed, leaker Digital Chat Station, posting on Weibo (via GSMArena), appears to suggest that the maximum brightness the screen as a whole can reach is 1,722 nits. We say 'appears' because we’re going by a translated version of a Chinese post. That’s still very bright in any case, and a more realistic number.

They additionally claim that the OnePlus 12 has a 6.82-inch 1440 x 3168 display with 510 pixels per inch and a 120Hz refresh rate, and they’ve even included some leaked hands-on images of the phone, one of which shows screen settings, complete with that aforementioned resolution. You can also see from both these and official images that there’s a punch-hole camera and a curved-edge screen.

As for the other OnePlus 12 specs, OnePlus itself has already revealed the OnePlus 12’s camera configuration, and we should learn almost everything else on December 5, as that’s when the phone is launching in China.

A global launch will probably happen in 2024, with leaker Max Jambor claiming it will be on January 23. That’s when we should learn global pricing, and shortly after that you’ll likely be able to buy the OnePlus 12 – assuming you don’t want to wait for one of 2024’s other best phones, like the Samsung Galaxy S24, which is also expected early in the year.

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James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.