OPPO Reno 12 5G Review: AI Powerhouse or Overhyped?

The OPPO Reno 12 5G price is 30,349 rupees in India. It comes in three storage variants: 8GB RAM 256GB storage, 12GB RAM 256GB storage, and 12GB RAM 512GB storage.

OPPO Reno 12 5G is available in three colours, which are Sunset Peach, Astro Silver and Matte Brown. You can buy it from Amazon and Flipkart. Moreover, Axis Bank cardholders can get a 10 per cent discount.

The packs the following items inside the OPPO Reno 12 5G box:

• Phone
• 80W Charger
• Type C cable
• SIM ejector tool
• Protective cover
• Documentation

Before we talk in detail about the OPPO Reno 12 5G, let’s see what the on-paper specs look like:

• Display: 6.7 inches AMOLED screen
• Chipset: Mediatek Dimensity 7300 Energy (4 nm)
• RAM & ROM: 12GB + 256GB
• Software: ColorOS 14.1
• Rear camera: 50MP + 8MP + 2MP
• Selfie camera: 32MP
• Battery: 5000mAh
• Weight: 177 grams
• Dimensions: 161.4 x 74.1 x 7.6 mm

Also Read: Vivo X90 Pro Long-Term Review: A Complete Flagship Package

The OPPO Reno 12 5 G’s design is quite sleek. You will feel very comfortable holding this phone. Its weight is also not very heavy, at only 177 grams. But its design is stunning. The camera module is excellent because it does not protrude too much.

Recently, I reviewed the phone in the same price range, the Realme 13 Pro Plus, whose module protruded a lot from the back, which looked very strange.

The back of the phone is made of Glastic, while the side frame is made of metal. OPPO has introduced a new display: the quad curve display. The display is curved, but here, you will see a little more curve. If you check the rest of the bezels, then the bezels below will look a little bigger, but the side bezels will look uniform.

The right side of the OPPO Reno 12 5G has a volume and power button, which I feel is very soft to tap.

On the top of the phone, there is a small speaker, IR blaster, and microphone for calls, while there is a long strip speaker and Type C slot at the bottom of the phone.

Also, you will see a SIM slot on the bottom side. But it does not have a 3.5mm jack for headphones.

Recently, I used several phones for review, such as the Apple iPhone 13, Vivo X90 Pro, Vivo V40, Realme 13 Pro Plus, etc. But in terms of sound, I haven’t found any phone with such sound quality. 

It also has an ultrasound mode that can increase the volume to 300%, but it will not change the sound quality. Lastly, it has an IP67 rating for water and splash resistance.

Also Read: Realme 13 Pro Plus Review: Is It Time To Replace Your DSLR?

OPPO Reno 12 5G has a 50-megapixel main camera, 8-megapixel wide-angle camera, and 2-megapixel micro camera. I clicked photos in many different scenarios, such as indoor and outdoor. The photos were quite sharp.

The camera worked very well in outdoor clicks. It kept the colour of trees and flowers the same to a great extent. But when I clicked some indoor images, I did not find them very exciting. You will see a lot of grains in the images.

Also, I clicked some photos at night with a flashlight, so the result of 1x was outstanding, but the output of 0.6x needed to be better.

The OPPO Reno 12 5G camera comes with AI features which enhance the output within a few seconds after the photos are clicked. I clicked some pictures on macro mode because here, you have a separate dedicated sensor with 2 megapixels. Although it is not that big, the photos are still impressive.

If you click a selfie photo with the front camera, you will mostly see smoothness on the face. But if the conditions are good in night mode and you click pictures with the front camera, I notice one thing: It makes the selfie camera a little smoother, and you will miss the detailing. Although it has a 32-megapixel camera, some details are missing.

OPPO Reno 12 5G also has a 10x zoom feature, so you will get better details than normal. If you click photos outdoors in direct sunlight, you get near-natural photos where the colours and even the details come out very well compared to indoors. If you are clicking photos from the rear, then if you see the exposure, it maintains the sky in my photos, the clouds, etc., to a great extent.

In the video segment, you can record videos in 4K at 30fps, 1080p at 30/60/120/480fps and 720p at 960fps with the rear camera. Moreover, its front camera supports 4K at 30fps and 1080p at 30fps video recording.

Also Read: Xiaomi Redmi Pad SE Review: The Budget Tablet For The Masses!

The OPPO Reno 12 5G has a 5000 mAh battery, and its battery performance is outstanding. I played a lot of games and watched movies on this phone so that I could better understand the battery performance.

The battery performance of this phone fluctuates with different usages. When I watched YouTube videos and downloaded movies on this phone, I got about 9 to 10 hours of battery life. When I played BGMI and COC in long sessions, it gave me 7 to 8 hours of battery life.

If I talk about its fast charging, then it has an 80W fast charger, which fully charges the battery in about 45 to 60 minutes. Yes, but immediately after charging, the mobile becomes a little hot. So, in my OPPO Reno 12 5G review, I also have no problem with the battery segment.

Also Read: Samsung Galaxy F55 5G Review After 2 Months: A Mid-Range Entry Into The Samsung Ecosystem!

OPPO Reno 12 5G display has many features. It has a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with 128 Hz and supports HDR. Also, the peak brightness is 1200 nits, whereas here, you get 600 nits in HBM. I used this phone outdoors, and the brightness seemed to be very good, meaning you will not have any problems or trouble.

OPPO Reno 12 5G HDR performance is excellent. I played many HDR-quality videos on YouTube and could not see glitches or lag during play.

Its 120Hz refresh rate makes the display response too good. Casual tasks such as scrolling feel really smooth and fluid. However, you can easily change the refresh rate from the settings if you want to reduce it.

So, the overall display quality is up to the mark. Its curved display also gives an elegant experience and offers the best watching experience.

OPPO gives Corning Gorilla Glass 7i with OPPO Reno 12 5G to protect the display from accidental falls. It has a display resolution of 1080 x 2412 pixels and 394PPI density.

OPPO Reno 12 5G definitely performs excellently within this price range. Here, you have a Mediatek Dimensity 7300 Energy (4 nm) processor. I have the 8GB RAM 256GB variant, while this phone has two more storage variants, including 256GB 12GB RAM and 512GB 12GB RAM. It comes with UFS 3.1 type storage, but it could have had UFS 4.0 type storage.

I have done a lot of testing on the OPPO Reno 12 5G. Its Geekbench scores are 751 in single-core and 1991 in multi-core. The maximum in the CPU throttling test is 71 per cent. Moreover, its Antutu score is 602795. In the 3D Mark Wildlife Extreme Stress Test for stability, its overall score is 3161.

One of the best things is that when I took the CPU throttling test, the phone did not warm up even a bit, whereas many phones, such as Realme 13 Pro Plus, iPhone 13, Vivo X90 Pro, etc., got warm during this test.

In my OPPO Reno 12 5G review, I would say this is not a gaming phone, but you can play games continuously for several hours in normal settings. I played BGMI, COC, Call of Duty, etc. in it. The phone did not warm up, but BGMI is only available in HD. You cannot play games on HDR or Ultra HDR.

Also Read: Realme P1 5G Review: Pocket Friendly Performer

OPPO Reno 12 5G has an Android 14 operating system based on ColorOS, with three years of significant updates and four years of security updates.

If I talk about its UI, then it has a site window feature, and a smart touch is also available. However, you will see a lot of preinstalled apps, such as hot apps, hot games, Netflix, Facebook, Snapchat, etc., which you can delete or keep according to your choice.

You also get many AI features of different types, such as the camera. But OPPO Reno 12 5G also has an AI eraser; if something, an object or any person comes in your background, then you can easily remove it. There is an option for AI speaking as well as an option for AI recording. If you are in a meeting, etc., and you record it, you can convert it into text. This phone has the option of an AI writer, and one feature that will look amazing is an AI avatar, meaning you can change any of your photos into an avatar.

OPPO has a great feature of beacon links in OPPO Reno 12 5G. Suppose you are on a train, and you want to talk on call to your colleague who is sitting behind you, but if there is no network, then it is impossible to talk on the phone. But here comes an option for a beacon link; you just have to open it on Bluetooth. Both phones should have a beacon link, and you can talk to your colleague, although both phones should have this feature. OPPO says that this feature will work in the 100-meter range.

An exciting AI feature of OPPO Reno 12 5G is that if you clicked a photo but your eyes got closed, which often happens. So you can open your or that person’s eyes. The AI ​​feature detects closed eyes and then opens them according to Indian people.