iQOO 12 Review: At its starting price of Rs 52,999, it is actually significantly more affordably than its predecessor and has what it takes to be a premium phone contender right through 2024. It has what it takes to rattle the cages of the likes of Samsung and OnePlus.
Vivo’s sub-brand, iQOO, started out as a gaming phone brand but has, over the past couple of years, emerged as a brand with a knack for delivering extremely good specs at surprisingly affordable prices. And the latest flagship of the brand further consolidates this reputation.
The iQOO 12 is not only the first smartphone in the Indian market to come with the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor but also offers it at a price that is likely to make it a headache not just for existing flagships, but also for just about every high-end flagship to be released in 2024!
Read on to find out why we are giving it such high praise:
Table of ContentsiQOO 12 5G Design: Premium looks with just the right kind of shine
iQOO has always given its flagships very eye-catching designs, and the iQOO 12 is no different. We got the black variant, and it certainly looks very elegant. It does not have the tricolor stripes and BMW logo of its white sibling, but its flat Fluorite AG glass back glitters when light falls on it, giving it a rather starry appearance. In normal light conditions, it reverts to being an understated, sleek black.
The camera unit is squoval in shape (squarish with very rounded corners) with a very subtly engraved (you have to touch it to feel it) metal border all around it, and is said to be inspired by the portholes of spaceships. It definitely gives the phone a very distinct appearance, with the glitter and metal outline of the camera unit adding a touch of class to it. The sides are metal (aluminum alloy) and straight, and the front is a 6.78-inch tall display with tiny bezels.
It is a tall phone at 163.2 mm but is impressively slim at 8.1 mm, and at about 203 grams, it is light for its size. It comes with an IP64 rating, protecting it from dust ingress and water sprays. It’s not quite as good as IP68, which saves the phone from even dunking in water, but definitely a good touch. iQOO has not given any official statement on the kind of glass protection on the front of the display. Although it does come with a very basic screen protector, but we have been assured that it is of premium quality glass.
We think the iQOO 12 is a very good-looking phone, and the black version is particularly classy, with a very smooth feel to it. In fact, we think the black variant looks better than the white, even though it does not have those stripes and the BMW logo. iQOO 12 5G Specs: Premium flagship level
It is a beauty for the eyes, but the iQOO 12 morphs into a beast when it comes to the spec sheet. The star of the show of course, is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, the very latest flagship chip from Qualcomm, which is not available on any other phone in India at the time of writing. Accompanying this powerhouse chip are LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage, making this a phone that is clearly designed for speed. What’s more, the iQOO 12’s base RAM and storage variant is 12 GB/ 256, rather than the 8 GB/ 128 GB often seen at this price point.
The 6.78-inch display is an LTPO AMOLED one with 2800 x 1260 resolution (a little short of quad HD, but still quite impressive) and a refresh rate of 144 Hz, which is among the highest out there. That refresh rate also changes depending on the content being shown on it. iQOO claims that the display has a brightness of a very impressive 3000 nits, and it certainly is one of the brightest we have seen. Some might have expected a curved display at this price, but we like the flat one on the iQOO 12. The triple camera arrangement in that porthole-inspired distinct camera unit is a 50-megapixel main sensor with OIS, a 64-megapixel telephoto sensor with OIS and 3x optical zoom, and a 50-megapixel ultrawide. There is enough snapping power here to take pictures of the moon and stars and even take great macros.
In comparison with all this, the 16-megapixel selfie camera seems a little modest. The phone also has a 5000 mAh battery and supports 120W Flash Charge, with a 120W Flash Charger in the box as well, although there is no support for wireless charging.
