Oppo has tried to maintain its position in the Indian market within the mid-range segment with its Reno series smartphones for a while now, also making them the best set of devices, both hardware and specs-wise, the company has to offer in the region as of now. This year, the brand’s attempt to capture the segment is with its Reno 12 series devices, out of which we’ll be reviewing the Pro model with a starting price tag of Rs 36,999. Is it worth spending that much on, or should you skip it? Let’s have a look.
Design & Display
The Oppo Reno 12 Pro is attempting to redefine a commonplace design reminiscent of what we’ve seen on multiple smartphones before. It has the standard rectangular camera module housing three Sensors and an LED flash unit, and that’s about it.
However, the sunset gold variant we got, is quite unique in its own due to the colour shade Oppo has opted for. Then, the camera array has a shiny and reflective finish while the majority of the back panel is covered with a matte finish, creating a contrasting look between the camera module and the rest of the device. The camera housing also has a boundary made of small ridges which looks elegant.
The bottom half of the device also has the same reflective finish as the camera module, further giving the device a dual-tone look. Separating them is a strip that has the Oppo branding.
The design itself looks attractive, aesthetic, and premium. The shiny frame of the handset can attract fingerprints. Because the device is slimmer, it creates a decent grip while being held in one hand. It’s also not heavy, which further helps in a comfortable and secure handling experience, reducing hand fatigue during extended use.
The buttons are on the right and have a good tactile feel. The bottom has the USB-C port, SIM tray, mic, and speaker grille. The top gets an IR blaster along with another mic.
The speakers are loud and balanced. You can expect to feel and hear some bass. The haptics, however, are not strong enough and give off a budget smartphone vibe.
Then, for additional protection, Oppo is also offering a free first-party case within the box—the best I have seen any brand provide with the device itself. The smartphone case features a series of small, evenly-spaced bumps across its width. This design adds a unique texture and enhances grip, making the phone less likely to slip from your hands. The sides also have a patterned texture in areas where your fingers rest when you hold the phone, improving grip.
Aside from being premium, Oppo claims the handset is also considerably durable. It employs Oppo’s new all-round armour architecture with a high-strength alloy framework. The handset is also SGS-certified for multi-scene protection. In addition, the device is IP65-rated as well, while the screen is protected with the Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2.
The display is one of the handset’s USPs. The Oppo Reno 12 Pro gets a 6.7-inch AMOLED quad curved-edge screen with an FHD+ Resolution of 1080 x 2412 pixels, 1500 nits peak brightness, HDR10+ support, a 240Hz touch sampling rate, 2160Hz PWM dimming, and a dynamic Refresh Rate of up to 120Hz.
This quad-curved screen is actually one of the best I have used. It not only makes the Reno 12 Pro one of the most comfortable smartphones I have held and used but also provides an enjoyable and immersive viewing experience. While the bezels aren’t uniform, they are kept as small as possible.
The display is highly responsive to the touch and gets adequately bright outdoors under direct sunlight. It also supports HDR10 in the Netflix app. The panel reproduces sharp content with vivid and punchy colours, making content consumption quite a pleasant experience on the handset.
Although I primarily used the handset with the 120Hz refresh rate selected, I didn’t experience any unnecessary drops even when it was set to auto. The software also well handles accidental touch protection.
If you watch a lot of videos, shows, or movies on your handset, this device will provide you with a good experience paired with a good set of stereo speakers and an immersive panel.
Performance & Software
The Oppo Reno 12 Pro 5G packs a MediaTek Dimensity 7300-Energy Processor which Oppo claims is custom-built for Reno. It is paired with 12GB of LPDDR4x RAM and up to 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage.
In our experience, the handset’s performance remained decent. While I did face a couple of minor hiccups when loading the device, it performed fine for the most part.
We feel Oppo could and should have opted for a better chipset, considering the device’s price segment and how tough the competition is in this territory. Competition, including the iQOO Neo 9 Pro, which has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, and the Realme GT 6, which has a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, among others, is far better when it comes to handling tasks like gaming.
While the handset doesn’t show signs of slowing down in daily use, a better processor could have definitely appealed to the audience looking for a more demanding experience. For instance, casual games such as Bullet Echo run fine on the handset, but the device begins to struggle with games like Call of Duty.
Comparatively, the Oppo Reno 12 Pro is using a similar, if not better, Chipset than the CMF Phone 1, which gets the Dimensity 7300 SoC and has a starting price of Rs 15,999. In our opinion, the processor choice was disappointing. To further add to it, the device gets LPDDR4x RAM, which is again uncommon in this segment, as the competition has LPDDR5x.
As for the software, Oppo has paid attention and equipped the handset with a good set of AI features in addition to the regular customisation options we see in ColorOS.
These comprise the AI toolbox that houses features like AI Speak and AI Summary. These help in reciting what is written on the web page in a summarized manner, or show you a summary of what’s written there, respectively. There’s also an AI writer feature that can be accessed when you are writing or posting comments on social media. However, you cannot access AI writer anywhere on the device, unlike Samsung’s version that is baked into its Proprietary keyboard and is accessible across the system.
The AI recording summary feature allows you to capture useful summaries from audio content you have recorded. These summaries are exported to the Notes app, where details such as to-do lists, time, and locations are highlighted and formatted for easy reading.
The AI Recording Summary is based on Google’s Gemini Ultra model. Currently, the feature supports speech-to-text conversion in Hindi, English, and more with a maximum of 45,000 characters. As per Oppo, more languages will be supported in the future.
In addition, the handset’s customisation options and other features include the regular ones we have seen from the brand, such as various Always-on display styles, wallpaper-based colour theming, a number of fonts, a smart sidebar, themes, EDGE lighting, fingerprint animation, and much more.
The overall experience was quite likeable, except for a couple of issues, one of which was bloatware. There are a lot of pre-installed apps, such as Meta services, Facebook, Hot apps, Hot games, Tile Match, and about three to four more apps. Fortunately, all of these, including Oppo’s own App market, can be disabled.
Secondly, the app opening animations are inconsistent. If you quickly open and close the app, the animation originates from the app icon, which is how it should always happen. However, these animations usually originate from the middle of the screen, resulting in a regular zoom-in animation that we generally see on budget handsets.
We have already received one update since we took it out of the box which introduced some bug fixes and enhancements to the camera. It also integrated the latest July 2024 security patch within the first week of July.
The device is set to receive 3 years of OS upgrades and 4 years of security patches which is a decent update policy and is in line with the competition. Moreover, we haven’t seen Oppo lag behind in updates so the experience in this particular area should easily match your expectations.
Read More: OPPO F27 Pro+ Launched In India: Should You Consider It?
Battery backup
The Oppo Reno 12 Pro 5G has a 5000mAh battery with 80W fast wired charging support. According to Oppo, the provided 80W charger can charge the device from 1% to 100% in 46 minutes, but in our tests, the results varied. The device took about 35 to 40 minutes to charge from 23% to 100%.
As for the backup, I was quite impressed. I could easily squeeze out about 32 hours of use from the handset, which included some casual gaming, browsing the web, scrolling through social media, and some YouTube streaming.
With the said usage pattern, I could get about 5.5 hours of screen-on time. In another cycle, I could easily reach 8 to 9 hours of screen-on time with increased active use, which is excellent. The standby drain could be improved, as I was losing about 3 to 4% each night when the device was just sitting idle.
Cameras
The Oppo Reno 12 Pro packs a triple rear camera setup, including an OIS-enabled 50-megapixel Sony LYT-600 f/1.8 main camera, an 8-megapixel IMX355 f/2.2 ultra-wide angle camera, and a 50-megapixel Samsung JN5 f/2.0 portrait camera with 2x hybrid optical zoom. It gets a 50-megapixel f/2.0 Samsung JN5 front-facing camera with auto-focus and EIS.
Before discussing the photography experience, let’s talk about some of the AI features Oppo has implemented within the camera. One of the features is AI Portrait retouching for selfies that can enhance up to 296 facial features, such as removing blemishes. The camera app also allows switching between 0.8x, 1x, and 2x and zooms in selfie mode.
Then, AI Eraser 2.0 uses generative AI to remove distractions in a photo and fill that space with other apt objects or with items that match the photo’s content. This feature worked quite well and gave us good results, as seen in the photo above. Next, the AI Clear Face feature enhances the facial features if you edit the photo in the Photos app post-capture.
The AI Best face feature can recognise closed eyes in a photo and then correct it with AIGC technology. Finally, there’s the AI studio feature that turns any of your photos into a digital avatar or a profile picture. You are given some credits to use the service for free and when you exhaust them, you’ll have to pay to use this particular service.
Coming to the photography experience, let’s just say we were quite impressed with the cameras on the Reno 12 Pro, and it stands as one of the strongest points in favour of the handset.
The photos shot with the main sensor have excellent dynamic range. The colours are rich with contrast and pop, which makes the photos look more appealing. Detailing and sharpness in the shots are also on the higher side. The shutter lag is also well contained. These shots do have a slightly warmer tone, but the overall photo is excellent.
The ultra-wide-angle photos from the second sensor have a slight colour shift compared to the shots from the primary sensor, as these have a cooler tone. While the edge distortion is well handled, the detailing takes a slight hit. The edges also have some noise. However, the colours still look decent.
The third telephoto sensor is quite useful in taking shots of far-off subjects. Two-x zoomed photos retain high detailing and showcase vivid colours. At the maximum 20x zoom, the details start to struggle, as these photos have that oil-painting effect. However, the text is still readable in such shots, as seen in the photo above.
The telephoto sensor also helps in shooting outstanding portraits. Not only is the edge detection of subjects amazingly accurate, but the bokeh effect in the background also looks natural and effective. Paired with the same impressive colour science as shots with the main sensor, the portrait photos I clicked with Reno 12 Pro are some of the best I have seen.
For selfies, the HDR is overapplied in some scenarios, but the sharpness and details of the photo are likeable. The skin tones could have been handled better, as they look too warm and aren’t close to the natural ones.
The Reno 12 Pro handles photos under artificial lighting without breaking a sweat. It captures accurate colours and doesn’t miss out on details at all. Even under low-lighting conditions, you can expect excellent results from this camera, as there’s no noise in the shots, while again, the detailing is retained to the maximum.
Finally, night photos looked average to me as pitch black conditions made the camera struggle a little. That’s because the photos looked soft. But, turning on Night mode solves that too, as the photos not only become brighter but are also well-detailed with better exposure and dynamic range handling.
