iQoo 12 is in for review as the first phone in India to feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip. The flagship phone sports a 6.78-inch LTPO AMOLED screen and is equipped with three rear cameras, including a 64-megapixel periscope telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom. The handset packs a 5,000mAh battery with 120W wired charging. We answer all your questions about the handset, from performance to cameras and battery life, in our iQoo 12 review.
The iQoo 12 was launched in India earlier this week as the country’s first smartphone equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip. The gamer-focused handset is likely to set customers‘ expectations for phones arriving with Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line chip in the coming months. iQoo’s previous flagship models have typically focused on performance, and while last year’s iQoo 11 5G debuted with improved camera specifications, it also had a higher price tag than both its predecessor and the new iQoo 12.
The combination of these high-end features and a relatively low price could make the iQoo 12 a compelling option — at least on paper — if you’re looking for a phone with flagship-grade performance. Read on for our review of the phone to find out if you should buy this phone or wait for other Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered flagship phones to arrive in the coming months.
Pricing for the iQoo 12 starts at Rs. 52,999 for the 12GB RAM + 256GB storage model, and the phone is also available in a 16GB + 512GB RAM and storage variant that will set you back by Rs. 57,999. The smartphone ships with a transparent TPU case, a USB Type-C to USB Type-C cable, and a 120W SuperVOOC charging brick.
The phone is available for purchase via Amazon and comes in Alpha and Legend colourways with AG glass and porcelain enamel glass for the rear panels, respectively.
We tested out the iQoo 12 ‘Legend‘ review unit with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, which is white in colour and has flat metallic sides with curved corners. The rear panel is glossy and feels slightly slippery, but the TPU cover that ships with the phone helps you grip it more effectively while preventing it from picking up fingerprints and smudges.
The camera module located on the left side of the rear panel is in the shape of a rounded square surrounded by a metallic ring with a ridged edge. While it’s on one side, it does not make the phone wobble when placed on its back. The iQoo 12 weighs 203.9 grams, and it doesn’t feel particularly heavy, even after holding it for a while.
The display has slim bezels on all sides, and a centre-aligned hole-punch cutout at the top of the screen houses the selfie camera. The phone has the BMW Motorsport logo at the bottom on the rear panel, but it’s very subtle, unlike the long racing stripe on the iQoo 11 5G. The handset has an IP64 rating for dust and splash resistance, which is a first for this series. It means the phone should be fine if you’re caught outdoors with some rain.
The iQoo 12 runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor along with the company’s in-house Q1 chip that is used to optimise gaming performance. It has a 6.78-inch AMOLED screen with an under-display fingerprint scanner and is equipped with up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and you can get up to 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage.
The smartphone offers support for 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and NFC connectivity, along with a USB 2.0 Type-C port for data transfers and charging its 5,000mAh battery. The phone ships with a USB Type-C to USB Type-C cable and a 120W SuperVOOC charging brick.
The smartphone maker has promised three years of operating system and security updates, followed by an additional year of security updates for the iQoo 12. The phone runs on Google’s latest Android 14 operating system, with Vivo’s Funtouch OS 14 running on top. It’s straightforward to use and has features from Android 14, including lock screen customisation and Vivo’s improvements to multitasking, RAM usage, and motion blur while opening and closing apps.
You’ll see a few preinstalled apps like Netflix, Spotify, Snapchat, Facebook, and PhonePe, but these can be uninstalled with a couple of taps. However, the built-in V-Appstore will regularly send notifications every few hours, prompting you to try out new apps.
The V-Appstore will also ask you to download a list of apps from time to time — these are pre-selected, and the skip button isn’t where you’d expect it to be. The store also showed a popup to set up Hot Apps and Hot Games, after which the two promotional folders were visible on the home screen — both of these can be removed manually.
The iQoo 12 is currently the most powerful Android smartphone you can buy in India at the time of writing this review.
