This is the OPPO Reno12 Pro, the first OPPO phone to come with generative AI. So, let’s dive into that and find out what else is great about this phone.
Unboxing
Now, before we start the unboxing, let me stop by just saying how pretty the box looks. It has a really eye-catching, multicolored, and reflective band that wraps around the right side with a bold and textured 12 on it.
Inside the box, there’s the silicone phone case, an 80W SuperVOOC charging brick, and a USB-A to USB-C cable.
Design & Build
When it comes to the design and build, apparently OPPO took the design inspiration from a fashion sense, attempting to combine two styles into one distinctive design.
The Space Brown variant, which I have, looks more like black with a matte glass on top and a glossy finish at the bottom. It overall feels nice to the hands, especially with the matte finish on top, but yeah, the Nebula Silver that I saw online indeed looks very interesting.
OPPO also included a high-strength alloy framework that enhances corrosion resistance, temperature resistance, and thermal conductivity with aerospace-grade level strength, and still managed to have the phone weigh below 200g, which is about 180g.
It just felt slightly sharp, but it doesn’t dig into your hands uncomfortably, just like how other smartphones do. However, because the sides are glossy and also right at the bottom, it will attract some fingerprints.
Other than that, you’ll find everything to be placed where it’s supposed to be, like the button placements and the speaker. The good news is there is still an IR blaster on top, and it is something that I really appreciate very much since we have a total of 8 AC units here in the studio. Instead of carrying 8 remote controls, I can just use this phone.
What’s interesting is the fact that the phone also has expandable storage that can go up to 1TB, so thank you, OPPO, for including that.
Display
As for the phone screen, it comes with a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a dynamic 120Hz refresh rate, a resolution of 2412 x 1080, and a peak brightness of 1200 nits.
This phone’s screen is not your typical smartphone screen. If you’re wondering why I say that, let me explain.
First of all, the phone uses a brand new Infinite View screen, which OPPO claims to be the most advanced screen technology you can find on any smartphone.
This feature combines a curved screen, expanded views, and a rounded grip with a flat-screen, accurate touch recognition, and durability. Together with the Quad Micro-curve design, it helps to reduce accidental touches on the edges of the screen and overall enhances the visual immersion.
That’s not all; it comes with two other very interesting features: Splash Touch and Bedtime Mode.
Splash Touch allows you to use the display like a normal display without any hiccups, even if there are any water droplets on it, which was really great to know.
Bedtime Mode simply adjusts the color temperature of the phone’s display, decreasing the impact on your natural melatonin level. I truly believe in this since my whole home ceiling lights are tuned to that to have a better sleep quality at night.
As for the screen quality, the colors on the phone are actually really nice. They are punchy, well-saturated, and provide a very good immersion level when watching movies or videos. The brightness is also very acceptable, allowing you to see things clearly even in bright daylight.
One huge underrated feature is that the display can be adjusted to become really dim, dimmer than a lot of phones I’ve used. This is incredibly underrated because it stops your eyes from straining too much, especially when using your phone in the dark before going to sleep. However, I don’t recommend using your phone before sleeping to get the best quality sleep.
But the display is slightly off when it comes to responsiveness. It’s not a huge problem during normal use, but it becomes a bit off when you start to game. I’ll talk more about the gaming performance later.
Camera
Moving on to the phone’s camera, the main 50MP camera has a Sony LYT 600 sensor that includes OIS. The other cameras are a 50MP telephoto with 2x optical zoom and 20x hybrid zoom, and an 8MP ultra-wide camera that can capture up to a 112° field of view.
So, how was the camera’s performance? Very good, actually.
First of all, the High Megapixel mode can go up to 2x, but keep in mind that the colors become a bit more vibrant at 2x mode while maintaining the amazing sharpness in terms of details. The ultra-wide lenses at 16mm were also flawless.
The main lenses’ color consistency was great, besides their amazing quality. Because it has a dedicated telephoto lens, the 47mm photos look very nice too. Even the 113mm focal length produced some amazing shots.
The maximum zoom of 20x was decent but really great in a bright area or during the day.
The Portrait Mode on the phone was fantastic, with two focal modes you can adjust. It produced great results for objects or even a person, but the 2x mode looks really amazing, specifically for a person.
At night, the ultra-wide lenses look good for scenes that don’t have a lot of lampposts, as it doesn’t handle glare so well. However, it performed very well under a low-light environment.
The main lenses during the night were also really great, thanks to the OIS, and the telephoto lenses also did extremely well in lowlight environments.
The portrait mode for objects and persons performed as great as the daytime shots.
The front camera also comes with a huge 50MP sensor.
It produced crisp selfies with amazing skin tones during the day and a fantastic dynamic range for the background blur area. It also had similar amazing results for nighttime selfies, something that a lot of phones within this segment don’t do.
There are three focal lengths for the selfie mode: 0.8x, 1x, and 2x for regular selfies, and just two focal lengths on the portrait selfies with adjustments of the aperture value as usual.
For video, the ultra-wide lenses record up to a maximum resolution of 1080p with great stabilization. [Sample video footages available in my YouTube video]
The 4K video and telephoto lenses did great in terms of quality, but the stabilization was just decent, not as good as the ultra-wide or super steady mode. The super steady mode will bring down the resolution to 1080p, so you can choose your priorities.
The front camera can record up to 4K, take that Poco, and it performed way better during the day, of course. The 1080p video did better on stabilization.
[Check out the vlogging test in my YouTune video]
Gaming
The gaming performance in a nutshell was just okay for the phone. You can run most games pretty well but on a reduced graphics level, considering the phone has a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Energy chip.
This isn’t a gaming phone, so you can’t expect high graphics gaming. This phone would suit you fine if you’re into casual games like Pokémon Go or Fallout Shelter, as they don’t require much to run well.
However, if you’re thinking of playing Genshin Impact, be prepared to play on low graphics, 60fps, with motion blur turned off. Even at low settings, playing continuously for 15 minutes made the phone very warm, and the battery drained quickly.
I noticed certain lags when playing certain games like Pokémon Go. The screen doesn’t detect finer actions on my fingers.
Also, my weapon stopped firing suddenly in COD Mobile. Luckily, this doesn’t happen all the time, but often enough to notice. Hopefully, a software update will fix this.
Overall, it ran smooth without lag or stuttering with no overheating during over 20 minutes of COD Mobile gameplay.
Battery
The phone has a 5000mAh battery, which is decently sized for this thin form factor. It has 80W SuperVOOC support, charging from 0 to 100% in about 49 minutes.
I managed about 4.5 hours of continuous use, including normal browsing, watching YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, and gaming, even though it’s not a gaming phone. Without continuous use, the phone lasted a little over a day before needing to charge, with about 22% battery left.
Software
The phone comes with ColorOS version 14.1, based on Android 14, with big additions from an AI perspective.
One of the biggest AI features is AI Eraser 2.0, which helps you edit photos to remove unwanted things like photobombers.
Another feature is AI Clear Face, which enhances facial details using the phone’s AI processing power.
There’s also AI Best Face, similar to Google Pixel’s Best Take, which corrects accidental blinks with AI. This feature will come in July through a software update.
AI Studio generates AI art from your pictures, turning you into a superhero or cartoon character. The app has its own currency, gems, with new users getting up to 5000 gems. Each picture costs 10 gems, so you can generate a fair amount before needing to top up.
The phone also comes with Google Gemini-supported AI Toolbox, which helps you write creatively using AI. This feature can also read out an article or provide a summary. 
AI Recording Summary, based on Google Gemini Ultra, generates summaries from audio content in the Recordings app, exporting them to the notes app for easy reading.
These are some of the many AI features OPPO has packed into this phone. There’s a ton more, and if we talk about all of them, it will take a very long time. Be sure to explore the phone more if you want to check it out.
As for ColorOS 14.1 itself, I really like the overall design language. It’s clean and pleasant to look at, with an emphasis on gesture controls. Taking a screenshot or accessing the split screen is super simple and convenient.
However, my one complaint is the presence of too much bloatware. I know I can uninstall the apps, but it’s 2024, and bloatware shouldn’t be a thing anymore.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the OPPO Reno12 Pro is a very beautiful phone. It feels good in the hands, has a very good screen, and the AI features are indeed great to use.
Both the Pro and non-Pro variants are available for pre-order. We’ll leave all the details down below where you can even stand a chance to win a free trip to Korea!
