The world is obsessed with the colour purple and the video game Genshin Impact. Together, they make up OnePlus 12R Genshin Impact Edition. First things first, the phone remains the same, that is, OnePlus 12R but everything else — packaging to the icons in the UI — has the theme of the popular video game.

OnePlus may have had a number of reasons for coming up with the special edition, besides riding on the popularity wave of the video game. It’s a complicated title that’s power hungry and requires a well-tuned device to run it. OnePlus 12R is that device which can run this top-of-the-line game without breaking into a sweat.

Released in late 2020, the anime-style open-world title is one of the biggest smash hits for the Chinese video game industry. In fact, in its first year on the market, it generated $2 billion, a record for mobile games, according to Sensor Tower. What makes the game extra special is how it deploys one of Japan’s most popular video game genre, that is, fantasy role-playing games.

OnePlus has managed to capture the essence of the game in the packaging. There are stickers and a badge but the smartphone manufacturer has gone far beyond that. The SIM ejector has been specially designed, so has been the phone case in the box. At night you want the phone to have a special place in the bedroom, so a special stand is there. Even the power brick has the purple theme besides the cable. Yes, OnePlus, which is known for its red charging cable, has gone all purple.

The back cover has elements of Genshin Impact

The game relies on Japanese motifs and there are a large number of characters to explore a kingdom, delving into dungeon and battling monsters to unfold an epic narrative of a traveller. You probably know the gameplay if you have read this far.
As for the colour purple, it brings together two very opposite colours — blue and red. A highly valued shade. In 16th century England, Queen Elizabeth I didn’t allow anyone but the royal family to wear purple. Purple never fails to catch the eye and it gives a sense of power and royalty.

Powerful performer

What about the phone? The icons have been given a special treatment to reflect the impact of Genshin Impact. The 6.78-inch AMOLED ProXDR display with LTPO4.0 is excellent to work with. There’s Dolby Vision HDR10+ and support for 10-bit colour gamut. Overall, I can’t complain about the display whether I’m gaming, watching video content or just browsing social media.

The UI has a number of Genshin Impact-themed tweaks

Besides the marketing angle, what may sway your decision is the software. Not that it is any different here than on most OnePlus phones. I like most of Oxygen OS 14… when it comes to customisation, fingerprint screen animations, battery percentage layout and always-on display images. There are some features that you may enjoy, like Split View, Flexible Window, smart sidebar, hyperboost gaming engine with CPU temperature, et al. There is also something called the Trinity Engine that offers advanced RAM performance acceleration technology to intelligently allocate memory resources and manage background apps.

I have no complains when it comes to battery life. I am getting a day out of it and there is a massive charging brick in the box to juice up to 100 per cent in slightly over 30 minutes. Using Wi-Fi and heavy use, I am getting nine hours of screen-on time but with gaming it comes down to seven hours. It all depends on the individual.

There are some stickers and pins in the box

And the camera performance is quite good. The triple camera setup offers 50MP main camera (Sony IMX 890), 8MP ultra-wide and 2MP macro. In broad daylight, you will get decent shots but as soon as you start comparing between devices, there will be pros and cons. As for the 8MP ultra-wide, it’s effective in most scenarios.

The always-on display makes good use of customisation, like the video-game themed clock and live wallpaper.

Buy it if…

Obviously you need to be a fan of Genshin Impact to buy this one. But it’s the “other” reason that matters the most to OnePlus — speed. OnePlus 12R is a speedy performer and the phone highlights that in every step. It’s one of the better gaming phones of the year, rocking a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor. It’s power play all the way.

Even the SIM ejector (extreme right) has been designed keeping the game in mind

At a glance

Device: OnePlus 12R x Genshin Impact

Price: Rs 49,999

High notes

Plenty of customisation

Limited edition packaging for fans of the game

The shade of purple is perfect

Genshin Impact takes advantage of the phone’s top specs