OPPO Reno 12 Pro Review: The Budget-Friendly Smartphone with an Unusually Comprehensive Camera

Oppo may not be a household name, yet it is widely regarded as the world’s fourth-largest smartphone manufacturer. This Chinese firm understands what it’s doing, as evidenced by phones like the Oppo Reno 12 Pro 5G. The Oppo Reno 12 Pro offers several AI camera smarts to challenge Google’s Pixel phones, a superb zoom camera, rapid charging, a long-lasting battery, and a visually appealing display. It also provides excellent value for money. However, a few annoyances, such as a large amount of bloatware and a design that feels a touch cheap, prevent us from giving it a perfect score.

The only issue it confronts, aside from a possible lack of brand recognition in the West, is a slew of accomplished competitors selling for comparable prices. The Samsung Galaxy A55 5G, Pixel 8a, and Poco F6 Pro each have unique strengths that the Reno 12 Pro 5G must compete with.

OPPO RENO 12 PRO KEY FEATURES

The elegant Oppo Reno12 series has made its European debut, and the Reno12 Pro is up for review. Oppo has prioritized aesthetics, with a target demographic that primarily consists of young people and social media content providers. This is visible in the “two portrait” cameras advertised by Oppo, as well as the sleek design. In comparison to 6.7-inch smartphones, the handset is also quite light and tiny.

The secondary 2x zoom camera and selfie cameras are referred called as “portrait cameras” by Oppo, which makes sense. The 50MP zoom camera features a wide aperture and a good sensor, while the front-facing unit has the same sensor but with a 21mm focal length and autofocus. Both devices are enhanced by AI-powered optimizations designed exclusively for portrait photography.

Furthermore, Oppo collaborated closely with MediaTek to further optimize the Dimensity 7300 SoC, which is why it is termed Dimensity 7300-Energy. This edition of the chipset is expected to contain some under-the-hood tweaks to improve energy efficiency.

Surprisingly, the Reno12 series is one of the few alternatives that includes both a microSD card slot and an IR blaster. The Reno12 Pro also boasts a beautiful display – 6.7″ with a 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ support, and 80W rapid charging will most likely save you from a dead battery after only 15-20 minutes.

OPPO RENO 12 PRO UNBOXING

The Reno12 Pro comes in simple retail packaging with simply a USB-A to USB-C cable for charging and data transfer, even though the device supports SuperVOOC at up to 80W.

However, Oppo stated that the Indian market will receive the required charger in the box.

CAMERA

Oppo labeled one of its earlier Reno phones the ‘Reno 10x Zoom’ before removing telephoto cameras from the series; nevertheless, zooming is back and better than ever on the Reno 12 Pro.

I’m getting ahead of myself; the main camera is a 50MP f/1.8 unit with a few extras like PDAF (for fast focusing) and OIS (to compensate for shaky hands). Pictures captured with the primary camera are vibrant and brilliant. Perhaps they lose a little more detail in darker spots than I would prefer, but the brilliance of the colors more than compensates.

Focusing was a touch more erratic than I’m used to with PDAF, and I found myself switching to the Pro app once or twice to gain greater control over it. Overall, this is a good camera that produces attractive social media-ready photos. Its 50MP companion is the f/2.0 telephoto lens, which offers 2x optical zoom – not quite 5x, but a breath of fresh air given how few mid-range mobiles have zoom cameras at all.

When analyzing my camera samples for this section, I kept having to refer to the metadata to remember which were the zoomed-in snaps – that is to say, they look great, with none of the tell-tale signs of other phone camera zooms such as grain, washed-out colors, a lack of dynamic range, or a different color profile than the comparable 1x image.

While 2x zoom is the optical maximum, you can get up to 5x hybrid or 20x digital zoom, and photographs produced with the latter actually look good. You could easily utilize some of the 20x photos I took on social media; I know because I did.

The third rear camera reduces the resolution significantly. It’s an 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera with a 112-degree field of view; as you might expect, photographs are a little lower-res than on the main camera, so you’re losing some quality, and they’re also a little less vivid. This lens should be used selectively and in context and ignored the majority of the time. We go back up to 50MP for the f/2.0 front camera, so anticipate high-resolution selfies.

Selfies appear bright and vivid, with fairly realistic color reproduction. When you switch to Portrait mode, the bokeh background blur is mostly (though not always) accurate (I occasionally lost some hair). However, the default beautification is overzealous about smoothing over your skin, so I recommend experimenting with it.

Oppo has been emphasizing the Reno 12 Pro’s AI photo features in its marketing, indicating a clear attempt to compete with Google’s services on its Pixel phones. According to the marketing, it has tools for removing undesired background elements from images, saving aspects of a snap as stickers, opening closed eyes in selfies, adding clarity and upscaling to items, and changing a selfie into a different art style or place.

According to marketing, the current mobile software version (July 2024) only has the first two features, as far as I can tell. Perhaps they are hidden deep in menus, but I had to do a lot of searching to find them. The smart features available are very smart, as long as you can forgive them for being a little slow to utilize in some situations. The magic eraser is simple to use, and you may choose to wipe particular things or utilize the ‘mass erasure’ option, which recognizes all individuals in the background. It’s also very accurate.

The replication feature is also very accurate, so when you remove a person from a picture, the phone does an excellent job of determining what should be there and filling in the blanks. It’s fine if a person comes from multiple backgrounds.

Aside from the smart capabilities, you’ll get the same features that most current phones have: Pro, Portrait, Night, Full-Res, Slow-Mo, and Time-Lapse complement what you’re used to. In terms of video, the front and rear cameras can shoot up to 4K at 30fps or 1080p at 60fps; don’t anticipate 8K recording.

DESIGN AND SCREEN

OPPO has rarely failed to impress with its design, and the new Reno12 Pro is no exception. Its slim design makes it easy to grasp and carry, and the side buttons are ergonomic for my grip. The sides have a metal-like finish that looks and feels luxurious. OPPO promises that the sleek design does not sacrifice durability, and I can attest to this to some extent, as the smartphone has survived a few unintentional bumps. The Reno12 Pro also has an IP65 rating, which provides significant protection against dust and water splashes.

However, OPPO continues to offer only two color options for its Reno smartphones. This year, the Reno12 Pro gets a new Sunset Gold model, which I’ll be evaluating. The color may remind you of Rose Gold, which many smartphone brands have adopted over time, but the rear has several finishes for a unique look. The lower part has a glossy surface, while the top has a coarse matte texture to cover fingerprint smudges. The rear cameras are vertically stacked inside the rectangular module, as opposed to the oval module of the Reno11 Pro. The OPPO branding on the rear remains constant.

To be honest, the Sunset Gold choice may not be for everyone, but I enjoy unique patterns. The color will surely catch some users’ attention, but it may also match their preferences. The somewhat black option (known as Space Brown) is more subtle and will appeal to a wider audience. OPPO might have included additional colors, including white, which I believe would look great on the multi-textured rear panel.

Otherwise, its display is unlikely to disappoint you. Despite its big 6.7-inch display, the OPPO Reno12 Pro feels comfortable in your palm thanks to its slim design. OPPO employed a quad-curved panel, thus the display has small curves on all sides. This, paired with support for 120Hz refresh rates, results in a very smooth and comfortable scrolling experience.

Although the viewing experience is satisfactory, if not excellent. The display has full HD+ resolution (2,412 × 1,080 pixels) and HDR playback capability. There’s also Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 front protection, which is essential given the pricing.

I compared its display performance to that of the OnePlus 12R (review) and the Xiaomi 14 Civi (review) using natural color screen mode. The OPPO Reno 12Pro had the lowest brightness, although it was suitable for most consumers. The viewing experience was generally similar across all devices (in a positive way), with the OnePlus 12R providing the most vibrant colors. The Reno12 Pro’s dual speakers provided an incredibly loud output, although the bass levels were quite low. Perhaps the future edition will feature a more immersive audio system.

HOW’S THE PERFORMANCE?

The Oppo Reno 12 Pro 5G’s performance is reflected in its appearance and display. It doesn’t cut down any trees or make any wild claims, but it has been precisely calibrated to deliver a reassuringly solid experience. On paper, the Mediatek Dimensity 7300 chip that drives the phone isn’t particularly impressive. We recently saw it powering the Nothing CMF Phone 1, a gadget that costs less than half as much.

The benchmark results show a decidedly low-to-mid-range component, falling far short of the flagship-nudging Pixel 8a and Poco F6 Pro. Even the Samsung Galaxy A55 5G, which falls well below the mid-range pacesetters, performs poorly in CPU tests and just slightly better in GPU tests. However, you wouldn’t know it just by using the Oppo Reno 12 Pro 5G. I’m not sure if it’s the roomy 12GB of RAM or superb optimization from Oppo – it might be both – but this phone seems speedy and smooth in ordinary use.

In gaming terms, it played admirably on Zenless Zone Zero on medium settings, and it even responded pretty well when nudged up to 60fps. Genshin Impact performed reasonably well on medium-to-high settings. It won’t run high-end games flawlessly on higher graphical settings like competing devices, but if that’s important to you, you’re probably already looking elsewhere.

Oppo’s move to offer 512GB of storage as standard, at least in the UK, deserves special note. It’s a rather generous amount. Would I have chosen 256GB (or even 128GB) and a faster processor? Almost probably yes, if only to see how the phone will perform in two or three years. But in the present, it feels like a rare ‘above and beyond’ inclusion in an otherwise well-balanced product.

Buy it if...

• The structure is thin and lightweight, making it comfortable to grip and operate.
• Good performance from both the main and selfie cameras.
• Excellent battery life.
• Fast charging solution, even while using third-party PD 2.0 chargers.
• MicroSD card slot, infrared blaster.

Don't buy it if…

• At the introduction, the price was high.
• The screen refresh rate control is uneven.
• Poor video stabilization from the primary camera.
• You cannot record videos with the 2x zoom camera.
• The ultrawide camera is not particularly good.
• Most markets do not include a charger in the box.

FULL SPECIFICATION