Not too long ago was I playing around with the OPPO Reno11 Pro under the Goan sun. It’s barely been 6 months since and we already have the OPPO Reno12 Pro, where the focus is firmly on better photography as well as meaningful AI features. Let’s dive in.
Design & Display
The OPPO Reno12 Pro has two striking colour options - a lovely molten Sunset Gold, and Space Brown, which in all honesty looks more black than brown, even under the sun. It has an interesting matte texture but a sparkly design on the rear panel, with a metallic ribbon running across at the bottom, where the logo rests. The smartphone is sleek enough at 7.4 mm and weighs around 180 grams. There’s a 6.7-inch AMOLED display on this mid-range flagship, which also offers refresh rates of up to 120 Hz. I cue a Yiruma playlist to calm my nerves on a hectic day, and the piano sounds wonderful through the speaker, although the max volume of 300 per cent, seems a tad bit unnecessary. Revisiting the best bits of Top Gun: Maverick, I notice the colours really do pop onscreen, accompanied by sharp visuals.
Camera
One of the USPs of this mid-range smartphone is the new camera setup. The primary setup includes a 50 MP Sony LYT-600 sensor with optical image stabilisation, a 50 MP telephoto lens, and an 8 MP ultra-wide lens. The inclusion of a good telephoto lens in this price range is rare and I’m so glad to have experienced this on the OPPO Reno12 Pro. In daylight, the colours are vivid, maybe just a tad bit oversaturated to bring images to life, while not overpowering the whole frame. Many of the stills I shot from a whirlwind autorickshaw ride also turned out relatively stable. As were the videos shot on the phone. On an overcast Sunday evening, we hit the beach with our hyperactive dog, and while I didn’t get crystal clear photos, the smartphone compensates really well in low-light conditions. The photos were a bit grainy - unsurpringly, as it was post-sundown - but I got some nice, moody if slightly blurry wide-angle shots of the sea with my dog in the foreground, with almost no light source nearby. The portraits I took both at 1x and 2x zoom turned out lovely, with super accurate edge detection, accurate skin tones, and texture too! Looks like the Natural Tone that OPPO has been working on is really doing its job!
The front 50 MP auto-focus camera too doesn’t disappoint. I loved logging into meetings with this smartphone while on the move. I could take self-portraits across 0.8x, 1x and 2x zoom options.
AI features
One of the highlights of the OPPO Reno12 Pro is the number of proprietary as well as Google-based AI features integrated into the smartphone. Most were super useful, and something most users would be happy to have in a mid-range smartphone!
For photo editing, there’s OPPO’s own AI Eraser 2.0 which removes background elements that you don’t want in a frame.
For group shots with three people or more, there are two exclusive tools - AI Clear Face and AI Best Face. While the former works on sharper facial details, the latter catches if someone in the group shot shut their eye and fixes it autimatically.
OPPO’s proprietary AI Studio is a fun party trick where I can either shoot or upload an existing photo and have it generate an AI version of me across characters. This was good fun to play around with, and it’s always nice to see a version of myself with much better skin and hair lounging by the beach with a cocktail in hand, There’s added support from Google Gemini, the new AI Toolbox, which sits conveniently in the sidebar. There’s Screen Translate which I quickly tap on, in case I’m looking at a language I don’t understand on the current screen. In Messages, Gemini pops up to help me write text, and in emails too! There’s AI Recording Summary which delivers apt summaries of meetings or even voice notes you’ve recorded, if they’re long enough.
One thing to note is that many of these AI features kick in only when the compatible app is open. For example, AI Writer is available in the sidebar only when I open GMail but not when I’m on my home screen. And some are available as standalone apps or pretty obvious visible in-app features.
Tech Specs
The OPPO Reno12 Pro runs on MediaTek Dimensity 7300-Energy built to optimise power. The smartphone runs on ColorOS 14 which lets me do nifty things like take a three-finger triggered screenshot and quickly drag and drop it into a folder in the File Dock tucked away. The smartphone is IP65 rated which means it’s perfectly safe from dust and reasonably safe from the occasional splash or getting caught in a downpour.
The company has promised three years of OS upgrades and four years of security fixes for the smartphone.
Battery
The OPPO Reno12 Pro houses a 5,000mAh battery in its rather slim profile. With moderate usage that involved checking emails, listening to music, and using the camera often, I had to plug it in for a full charge maybe once in two days. The brand says with the OPPO’s 80W SUPERVOOC charger, it should take around 45 minutes to fully charge from zero, which is quicker than most premium flagships can charge as of now.
Verdict
What I like about the OPPO Reno12 Pro is that it delivers what it promises. The highlights as I mentioned at the beginning are the camera and the brand new AI features. Both the primary camera and the front camera setup deliver some truly impressive results, be it with portraits or shots of buildings and landscapes. The AI features are aplenty although they could have been slightly easier to find across the user interface. However, the fact that there are a host of features on board which are to do with day-to-day functions, and all of them work really well, is definitely a huge achievement in this price range.
Price - ₹36,999 (12 GB + 256 GB)
₹40,999 (12 GB + 512 GB)
Pros - Useful effective AI features, great camera setup, long battery life, quick charging
Cons - Bloatware pre-installed, UI can be more user-friendly