iQOO has recently launched its iQOO 12 series in China, which includes the standard and the Pro models. Both iQoo 12 and iQoo 12 Pro come equipped with the same camera setup, the same chip, a similarly sized battery, and a display that can go as high as 3000 nits in terms of brightness. Let’s take a closer look at what these devices have to offer.
iQOO 12: Price, Specs
The iQOO 12 starts at CNY 3,999 (approx Rs 45,700) for the base 12GB + 256GB option, whereas the 16GB + 512GB and 16GB + 1TB variants are priced at CNY 4,299 (approx Rs 49,200) and CNY 4,699 (approx Rs 53,800), respectively. iQOO 12 is also launching in India on December 12, 2023.
The iQOO 12 has a flat 6.78-inch AMOLED Display with 144Hz Refresh Rate support, 3000 nits peak brightness and a 1.5K resolution. There is a hole-punch cutout at the top centre for the front camera. The device also has an HDR10+ certification and 2160Hz PWM Dimming.
Under the hood, it is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC. It features up to 16GB LPDDR5x RAM and 1 TB UFS 4.0 storage. The iQOO 12 5G gets a 50MP f/1.68 OIS-assisted main camera, a 50MP f/2.0 ultra-wide camera and a 64MP f/2.57 periscope telephoto camera sensor with 100x digital zoom. It further gets a 16MP front camera.
The iQOO 12 packs a 5000mAh battery and supports 120W Fast charging out of the box. It runs on the latest Android 14-based OriginOS skin out of the box. The global variants will boot Funtouch OS 14 out of the box. The device is also IP64-rated.
iQOO 12 Pro: Price, Specs
The Pro model in the iQOO 12 series has 16GB RAM as standard in all models, with storage variants including 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. These are priced at CNY 4,999 (approx Rs 57,200), CNY 5,499 (approx Rs 63,000), and CNY 5,999 (approx Rs 68,600), respectively.
The iQOO 12 Pro has a curved 6.78-inch E7 AMOLED Display with 144Hz refresh rate support, P3 colour gamut, 3000 nits peak brightness and a 2K resolution. There is a hole-punch cutout at the top centre for the front camera.
Under the hood, it is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC. It features 16GB of LPDDR5x RAM and up to 1 TB UFS 4.0 storage. The iQOO 12 Pro 5G gets a 50MP f/1.68 OIS-assisted main camera, a 50MP f/2.0 ultra-wide camera and a 64MP f/2.57 periscope telephoto camera sensor with 100x digital zoom. It sports a 16MP front camera.
The iQOO 12 Pro packs a 5100mAh battery and supports 120W fast wired charging and 50W wireless charging. It runs on the latest Android 14-based OriginOS 4 skin out of the box. The global variants will boot Funtouch OS 14 out of the box. It is IP68 rated as well.
iQOO 12 Pro vs Xiaomi 14 Pro
The iQOO 12 Pro in the series has a tough competitor to beat, and that’s the Xiaomi 14 Pro, which debuted a couple of weeks back. It is also the only other smartphone as of now that packs the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset. Both of them are the current top-end flagships and have the most powerful hardware the companies have to offer. However, which one’s the better of the two?
The Xiaomi 14 Pro sports a 6.7-inch display with a WQHD+ resolution, achieving a Pixel density of 522ppi. It utilises C8 light-emitting material co-developed by Xiaomi and CSOT, reaching a peak brightness of 3000 nits and supporting Dolby Vision HDR format. Furthermore, this display employs LTPO technology, enabling a variable Refresh Rate from 1-120 Hz, alongside DC dimming and 1920Hz PWM dimming.
The panel on the iQOO 12 Pro is made by Samsung and can reach the same brightness level as that of Xiaomi’s 14 Pro. Apart from brightness, both the panels seem flagship grade and aren’t compromising on any aspect. If I had to nitpick, I would say the iQOO 12 Pro doesn’t have uniform bezels around the display, and they are a bit thicker than what we see on Xiaomi’s handset.
The Xiaomi 14 Pro and iQOO 12 Pro do not give up when it comes to raw power, as both of them pack the same Processor and the same RAM and storage capacities. However, iQOO offers 16GB RAM as standard across all models, while Xiaomi 14 Pro has 12GB RAM in the base model.
The cameras will have to be tested on both to declare a winner, but the advantage Xiaomi’s phone has here is the variable aperture, which the iQOO 12 Pro lacks. On the other hand, both of them support 120W fast charging and 50W wireless fast charging, but the iQOO 12 Pro packs a bigger battery cell. Both of them are IP68 rated as well. But, the iQOO 12 Pro has a USB 2.0 port, whereas the Xiaomi 14 Pro has a USB 3.2 port, so the data transfer speeds will be incredibly faster on the latter.
As you can observe, there’s a lot that these smartphones have to offer, and they give a tough fight to each other. They also have the same starting price in China, which further makes it a more difficult choice. If we were to consider the on-paper specs solely, we would give it to iQOO 12 Pro because of the higher RAM in the base model and the bigger battery. But the experience is what matters the most, which should be ideal on both devices.