The Oppo Reno 12 Pro is one of the star phones of the previous year, because it represents Oppo’s return to the mid-range of phones priced below 600 euros. After more than two weeks of testing it, here’s what you need to know to decide whether or not to buy it.
Oppo has made a comeback in a big way. After more than a year of legal problems in some European countries and a period of inactivity, 2024 is the year in which it decided to give it all again.
Although it is not the first mobile to be launched this year, the Oppo Reno 12 Pro is the most important mobile they have launched so far, accompanied by its little brother, the Oppo Reno 12. This mobile defines their new strategy to improve their results, but more importantly, it is the device that will indicate whether people will once again trust Oppo as a brand of high-end mobiles.
I’ve been testing this Oppo Reno 12 Pro for over two weeks, for more than two of them as my main phone, and I’m very clear about what its strengths are, what we can overlook and what it will need to improve for the next generation.
Oppo has launched a very competent phone, but it has arrived at a time, let me throw this out there, that is one of the best years for phones in a long time. Lots of competition and very good competition.
A slight redesign for the Reno range in two flavors
Slightly thinner, lighter and no problem holding it in your hand with fear that it will slip.
Despite the redesign, Oppo isn’t taking many risks. It has a volume button and power button on the right side, an infrared emitter on the top, a USB-C connection and a dual SIM tray on the bottom.
It is slim, light and easy to hold. The screen has a fingerprint reader at the bottom and a front camera as a hole in the top center.
It is available in two colors: Nebula Silver, which has a wave effect depending on the light, and Space Brown, the model I tested, with a rough top and a smooth, shiny bottom back, under the Oppo logo.
In addition, it responds better to touch when there are water droplets on the screen, perfect for those rainy days or if you use it while riding a bike.
The design of the Reno 12 Pro has two aspects that I consider, if not negative, definitely something that should be improved in the next generation.
The first is the material it is made of. It traps dust incredibly well, both on the front and on the back, especially in the camera area. For someone like me, obsessed with not leaving a speck of dust or a fingerprint on the screen, it is a punishment for my OCD.
Someone at Oppo decided it was a good idea to put the hole where you insert the tool to remove the SIM at almost the same size and distance as the hole for the bottom microphone. Sure enough, the first time I inserted the tool I put it in the wrong hole.
In terms of connectivity, it has Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4, which work perfectly in normal environments. In addition, 5G, GPS and NFC for making payments with Google Pay.
A cinema screen: bright, fast and large for watching video with accompanying sound
Oppo does not disappoint with the screen option it has chosen for the Oppo Reno 12 Pro. There are no negative notes I can give because it is difficult nowadays to do something wrong with an AMOLED screen.
As I said, a 6.7-inch AMOLED panel with a slight curvature to the glass which, although not completely flat, is almost so. In addition, it has a 93% screen-to-body ratio, which means it has really small bezels. Plus 120 Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ video support.
A perfect screen combination for watching movies, series and videos in high definition and HDR10, if your preferred platform supports it. I always test these screens with two of my favorite movies, No! and Blade Runner 2049 because there are quite a few dark and colorful scenes. A very good experience on a mobile like this.
It has a fingerprint reader on the screen that for me is too low, but it works perfectly, with a practically instantaneous response time and it lights up as soon as you touch the screen.
Good performance with no surprises, but not exceeding my expectations
Oppo has chosen a Mediatek Dimensity 7300 processor for this Reno 12 Pro, mainly because it is a model that has the expected performance for a mobile phone in this range, but also because it has an NPU powerful enough to use artificial intelligence tools.
In addition, it comes with 12 GB of RAM, which in the end is especially noticeable when changing applications or hosting data so that they do not have to be restarted.
As we have seen for several years now, the Dimensity 6xxx and now the 7xxx perform very well. They are fast, on a day-to-day basis you will not have any performance problems, and when it comes to gaming, you won’t notice anything really unusual either.
But it is quite curious that compared to competing chips – Qualcomm – MediaTek has lagged behind in performance. As an example, here is a comparison using static performance tests.
The experience with this Oppo Reno 12 Pro has been good. Both in terms of the applications that open quickly and without problems when switching between them. Nor when playing games, with good graphics quality in games like Genshin Impact or Call of Duty Mobile.
It also controls temperatures very well because, although it gets a little warm when playing for more than half an hour with the brightness between 40% and 60%, it dissipates without any problem and, so to speak, it doesn’t burn your hand.
Lots of AI gimmicks that don’t integrate well, but at least you have ColorOS
Oppo has presented this mobile phone, not so much as a mobile phone, but as a machine with artificial intelligence. In their presentation they demonstrated the large number of functions that use AI, especially in photography or in tools that can be used on a day-to-day basis.
AI Eraser 2.0 is the function that allows you to remove people and objects from photographs.
AI Clear Face edits the faces in photographs so that they are all well exposed.
create stickers or move them to another application as an image.
AI Studio is a default installed application that allows you to create portraits by generative AI.
AI LinkBoost automatically detects when you need to switch networks to always have coverage.
With IA Studio you can make curious portraits in different styles, but it doesn’t go any further than any other app of the same style that you can find on Google Play, and it’s a function that you’ll try a couple of times and then forget about.
AI Erase 2.0 works especially well when it comes to removing objects and generating what the AI thinks is behind them.
AI Recording Summary allows you to transcribe an audio recording into text notes. It is not available in Spanish.
AI Clear Voice is an improvement to the voice isolation system for calls.
AI Summary summarises long texts. It is not available in Spanish.
AI Writer is a text-generating AI that writes for you. Not available in Spanish.
AI Speak reads texts aloud in several languages.
There are interesting features, but if Oppo had decided to launch all the AI features in Spanish, we would be talking about a mobile phone with tools that could compete with devices like the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Ultra.
At least we still have ColorOS, Oppo’s flavor of Android, which for me is one of the ones I like the most at the moment. Not only is it a fairly clean version of Android, albeit with its own design modifications, it is also quite practical.
I think elements such as being able to have large folders on the main screens, how well designed its widgets and panels are, or the floating sidebar that gives access to shortcuts and tools depending on the application are great.
Triple 50-megapixel camera with excellent results in almost all situations
Oppo has decided to launch a mobile phone with a triple 50-megapixel camera system and the results are very good. Not perfect, but at least not quite decent, but something that will work very well in almost any situation where you want to take a photo or video. Of course, two of those 50-megapixel cameras are at the back, the other is the front one.
Wide angle 50 Mpx f/1.8 and 79°
Ultra wide angle 8 Mpx f/2.2
Telephoto 50 Mpx f/2.0, 5x magnification
Frontal 50 Mpx f/2.0 and 90º
Oppo has done a good job of calibrating the camera, with slightly oversaturated colors, but without going overboard, and in good light conditions, it takes very realistic photos.
Even in low light it gives a more than acceptable result. Its Achilles heel is the ultra-wide angle, which with those 8 megapixels you can forget about using at night or in conditions like very cloudy days.
Good balance between battery and processor for a day of extreme use
Knowing that Oppo has used a Dimensity 7300 processor and that the battery has a capacity of 5,000 mAh, I already knew that it would take a lot for this phone’s battery not to last me, without problems, two days of use.
As I always say, it will depend a lot on how you use it, but in those days when I haven’t stopped using it, with lots of photos, videos, hours of screen on time and with direct sunlight forcing the screen to increase its brightness to the maximum, the battery life has surprised me, reaching the end of the day with a 40% charge left.
For practical purposes, that means you could leave the phone on charge overnight and the next day it would have enough charge to last a few more hours.
It has an 80 W charge, but as it doesn’t come with a compatible charger in the box, you should bear in mind that charging times will depend on which charger you use. According to Oppo, with an 80 W charger you can get 100% battery life in 46 minutes.
The Oppo Reno 12 Pro is one of the best AI cell phones you can buy.
Oppo has improved its Reno range with the arrival of the Reno 12 Pro, especially due to its light and slim design, excellent screen and battery life.
The problem with the Oppo Reno 12 Pro is that it hardly stands out at all against the huge competition it faces right now. The camera, although good in practically every way, is no better than, for example, a Vivo V40 5G and its portrait mode. Its artificial intelligence functions don’t add anything new or, worse, they are half-baked or not available in Spanish.
The Reno 12 Pro is well priced, that’s obvious, less than 550 euros for a good mid-range or upper-mid-range phone, but the Chinese brand must offer something extra or something more than AI tricks that you can use with dozens of other apps in the Play Store, if it wants to stand out from all the other 500-euro phones.
