OPPO Reno12 Pro 5G Review

There’s a saying that goes something along the lines of “Don’t change what isn’t broken”. Most tech companies tend to stick to that saying, especially when it comes to launching new models. It’s also why smartphones tend to look similar even though they are a generation apart. I mean, just look at Apple and Samsung.

But not all companies follow that trend. Some want to change things each year, just like what OPPO did with the new Reno12 series. If you compare the Reno11 series launched earlier this year and the new Reno12 series, you wouldn’t think these two phones are from the same model line.

Today, we’ll be checking out the OPPO Reno12 Pro in particular. It is the top-spec model of the Reno12 lineup, and there are a lot of changes both inside and out. But given how new the Reno11 Pro is, would switching to the newer Reno12 Pro be a good move? Well, I suggest you read on.

Design and Construction

As mentioned earlier, OPPO made a significant change to the design of the new Reno12 Pro. It looks nothing like its predecessor – the Reno11 Pro. One of the most significant changes would be the camera island. Rather than a long rounded camera island, the one of the Reno12 Pro is now rectangular.

Some of us here at YugaTech think the new design looks a lot cleaner. But because of the redesign, it now resembles another smartphone we tried in the past – the vivo V29 series. I mean, it’s not just me right?

OPPO also decided to hop on the trend of fluted camera bezels, similar to what other manufacturers have been doing. It looks great with the circular camera housing since it does resemble luxury watches. However, it doesn’t seem to work too well on the Reno12 Pro with its rectangular camera island.

As for the back panel, our review unit features this unique pearl-like texture that reflects light beautifully with matching wave-like patterns (exclusive to the Nebula Silver color). I personally prefer the more minimalist design of the Reno11 Pro, but there is no question that this new design has its distinct appeal.

What I didn’t like was the rubber case that came with the Reno12 Pro. It’s still a clear jelly case like before, but it now comes with creases that make it easier to hold. The downside is that when used on the Reno12 Pro, it makes the phone look cheap. Maybe if it wasn’t a clear jelly case, it would have looked better.

Going back to the phone, you still get the volume rocker on the right side along with the power button. At the bottom, you’ll find the USB-C port and the dual-sim card slot. The left side is clean, and at the top there’s a secondary microphone and an IR blaster.

Despite the radical redesign, the Reno12 Pro still feels nice to hold and is relatively slim measuring just 7.6mm thick. It’s quite light too weighing only 183g and comes with IP65 dust and water resistance. As for the styling, I’ve said my piece so I’ll leave that decision to you.

Display, Biometrics and Multimedia

Power up the OPPO Reno12 Pro, and you are greeted by a 6.7-inch AMOLED screen with 2412×1080 resolution.. This being an AMOLED screen, you get some really nice colors. The colors are vivid and can be very saturated if you adjust them in the display settings. The blacks are quite deep too, making it great for watching videos or checking out the photos you are able to take.

It’s quite bright too, making it easy to use under the sun. The Reno12 Pro’s display has a maximum brightness of 1200 nits. While some phones have brighter screens, I found it more than enough to use on a sunny summer afternoon. The important part is that I could still see everything on the screen. It is also well protected with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2.

In addition, you also get Bright HDR Video mode to increase screen brightness when playing HDR videos. It does eat up battery life, but the trade off is better looking videos. There’s also adaptive tone that automatically adjusts the screen color temperature based on the ambient lighting, meaning you get accurate colors all the time.

While the OPPO Reno12 Pro isn’t exactly a gaming phone, gamers will enjoy playing on it since it does have a 120Hz refresh rate. We’ll talk more about gaming later on, but the 120Hz also gives you smooth animation when scrolling through the menu, social media, or even when watching videos.

On the topic of videos, I was surprised to find that OPPO finally fitted the Reno12 Pro with stereo loudspeakers. The top speaker isn’t as loud, but at least you get stereo speakers now. It’s not the best loudspeaker but for watching videos with friends, the sound quality is rather decent.

Cameras

If you were impressed by the cameras of the OPPO Reno11 Pro last year, then you definitely won’t be disappointed by the cameras on the Reno12 Pro. You get a triple rear camera system that is highlighted by a 50MP main shooter with EIS and OIS paired with a 50MP telephoto and an 8MP ultrawide. With that, you can expect to take great photos no matter what subject matter you are shooting.

Our boss Abe was able to use the phone early in Thailand, and he was able to capture some amazing photos of the country. Here in Manila, I took the phone around to take photos of the local scenery, and as I expected, the images are sharp with good clarity all around. The camera does a great job of producing the colors too. They’re not too saturated to the point it doesn’t look natural, but it still looks very vivid.

One thing I did notice is that the images taken by the ultrawide lens aren’t as sharp, specifically around the edges though. The colors aren’t as accurate either when compared to the main camera. As for the telephoto, the quality does start dropping after 3x zoom. If you aren’t too OC with photos it should still be fine though.

At night, image quality remains great but only when using the main camera and telephoto. You can still make out the subject, and there is minimal grain or overexposure of the highlights. However, the quality on the ultrawide seems to be down, and you end up having grainy photos. It’s not as sharp and the colors aren’t as nice.

There are other shooting modes that you can play with too such as portrait, which simulates great bokeh, and night mode. But from my experience, you can leave it in regular photo mode, and the image will come out nice already. The phone’s algorithm already does a great job of fixing everything.

For those that love taking selfies, you get a 50MP front camera that takes amazing selfie photos. It’s not overly edited like some selfie cameras, and gives you a natural look. With friends, the ones in the back can still be seen clearly too. At night or in low-light, the quality does drop a bit but with flash you can have a nice photo effect.

In terms of video, the Reno12 Pro can record up to 4K@30FPS using both the front and rear camera. With the rear camera, you do have the benefit of stabilization to help. This allows you to take some really cinematic videos whether it’s for a vlog or to post on social media.

There is Ultra Steady but it is limited to just 1080P@60FPS. Also, do note that wide angle does not work with 4K. If you want to shoot wide, you will also have to drop the quality down to 1080P. I’m assuming this is due to limitations of the ultra-wide camera.

Speaking of vlog, content creators will definitely enjoy using the camera on the Reno12 Pro. There are various shooting modes too such as slow-mo and even dual-view video. Just like the images, the video quality is great during the day or in well-lit environments. However, the performance isn’t as nice at night. There is noticeably more grain and the drop in quality is quite noticeable.

To give you a better idea, check out the gallery we have below.

OS, Apps, and UI

Like all new OPPO smartphones, the Reno12 Pro runs on Android 14 skinned with ColorOS 14.1. If you’ve ever used an OPPO smartphone, you’ll definitely feel right at home. You will also feel right at home with all of the pre-installed bloatware once you boot up the phone. There are a lot, and honestly, I ended up deleting almost all of them.

As usual, you get floating windows, smart sidebar, and split screen if you want to be productive with the phone. It works seamlessly with the chipset, and you won’t experience any lags. There are also several themes and personalization options to help customize your experience. In fact, the theme that came out of the box already does

Overall, it’s quite nice to use once you get all of the bloatware out of the way. I did have to turn off the notifications for some of the apps that constantly pop up every now and then, even when watching videos.

Performance and Benchmarks

Under the hood of the OPPO Reno12 Pro is a MediaTek Dimensity 7300-Energy chipset. Our review unit comes with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage. If you find that 512GB is too much, there is also a variant with only 256GB of storage. I personally recommend getting the 512GB model if you plan on using this phone to capture content and play games.

For everyday use, the chipset is more than enough. Whether you are answering emails, watching videos on YouTube or Netflix, or just scrolling through social media, you won’t experience any lags or slowing down. Even if you leave multiple apps running in the background or use the multitasking features, the phone runs very smoothly.

While the Dimensity 7300 isn’t exactly the most powerful chipset, it can easily run light games without any issues. Mobile Legends, CoD: Mobile, League, it can handle it. It doesn’t surprise me that it can handle graphic intensive titles like Genshin Impact as well. I did have to tweak the graphic settings a bit in order to have smooth gameplay, but it still runs on 60FPS and the majority of the graphics are set to medium-high.

The Reno12 Pro didn’t have a hard time playing Genshin even for extended periods of time. However after almost 40 minutes of gameplay, the phone did heat up quite a bit. The heat did concern me so I ended up turning the phone off. Before that though, I didn’t notice the heat affecting gameplay too much.

As usual, you can check out the benchmark scores below.

Antutu Benchmarks v10: 705,414
GeekBench 6.3 CPU: 735 (Single core), 2,005 (Multi-core)
GeekBench 6.3 GPU: 2,381 (OpenCL)
3DMark Wildlife: 3,137 (18.79 fps)

Battery and Connectivity

Powering the OPPO Reno12 Pro is a 5,000mAh battery pack. It lasts a relatively long time despite having been used to run benchmarks, play games, and take some of the sample photos and videos. In fact, I forgot to recharge overnight with around 40-percent left, it still did not run out of juice the day after.

For reference, we did run PC Mark’s Work 3.0 Battery test, and we got a result of 18 hours and 35 minutes, which is a strong result. This test was done in airplane mode with the screen at 50 percent brightness and zero volume.

So there is no need to worry about battery life with the OPPO Reno12 Pro. When you do need to recharge, you do get 80W SuperVOOC fast charging. According to OPPO, it can recharge the phone from 1 to 100 percent battery in just 46 minutes when using the provided power brick and cable.

In terms of connectivity, you get the usual suite which includes 5G, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, IR, and even NFC.

Conclusion

So overall, the OPPO Reno12 Pro is a great phone with all of the upgrades it has over its predecessor. You get a beautiful display, a very capable camera, a relatively powerful chipset, and finally stereo speakers. While the design change is very debatable, at the end of the day style is subjective. Some of you might like it while others may not.

But there’s one topic we haven’t covered yet – the price. The OPPO Reno12 Pro retails for PHP 34,999 for this specific 12+512GB variant. With that, it has gotten a lot more expensive compared to its predecessor. But given the upgrades, I do find it worth it. Perfect if you skipped the Reno11 Pro launched earlier this year.

However, if you did buy the Reno11 Pro, I don’t see the need to upgrade just yet. It is still a very capable phone even in the latter half of 2024. Not to mention you will be forking out a lot of cash again.

But what do you think of the OPPO Reno12 Pro? Did OPPO launch it too soon considering how new the Reno11 series is? More importantly, will you be considering this phone? Whatever the case, share your thoughts in the comments below.

OPPO Reno12 Pro 5G specs:
6.7-inch Flexible AMOLED FHD + @ 1080 x 2412 pixels, 394ppi
120Hz, HDR10+, 1200 nits
Gorilla Glass Victus 2
Mediatek Dimensity 7300 Energy
4x Cortex-A78 @ 2.5GHz + 4x Cortex-A55 @ 2.0GHz
Arm Mali-G615 MC2
12GB LPDDR4X RAM
256GB, 512GB UFS 3.1 internal storage
microSDXC expansion slot
50MP, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), multi-directional PDAF, OIS
50MP, f/2.0, 47mm (telephoto), PDAF, 2x optical zoom
8 MP, f/2.2, 16mm, 112˚ (ultrawide)
LED flash
4K @ 30fps, 1080p @ 480fps, 720p @ 960fps, gyro-EIS, OIS, HDR
50MP front camera, f/2.0, 21mm (wide), PDAF
4K @ 30fps, 1080p @ 30fps, gyro-EIS
Dual SIM, 5G
WiFi 6
Bluetooth 5.4
GPS
NFC
IR blaster
USB Type-C 2.0
IP65
Optical fingerprint sensor
Facial Recognition
5,000mAh battery, SUPERVOOC 2.0 80W wired, reverse wired charging, PD2.0
ColorOS 14.1 (Android 14)
180 grams (weight)
161.5 x 74.8 x 7.4 mm (dimensions)
Space Brown, Sunset Gold, Nebula Silver