OPPO Reno 12 5G review: Mid-range AI marvel – News9 LIVE

The OPPO Reno 12 5G brings premium AI features to the mid-range category. With a sleek design, impressive display, and robust AI capabilities, it offers a fresh user experience. However, its performance and camera quality show some inconsistencies.

OPPO Reno 12 5G Review (Image Credits: Mohammad Faisal/ News9Live)

The AI fever has travelled all the way from premium top-of-the-line smartphones to the mid-range category, courtesy of OPPO Reno 12 5G. The company has baked lots of generative AI features into the smartphone, most of which were previously limited to only flagship smartphones from brands like Samsung, Google, and Apple.

The OPPO Reno 12 5G aims to become “Your Everyday AI Companion” and presents itself as an AI Phone. The device indeed offers a refreshing change of pace from the last two generations of Reno smartphones. We are dividing this review into two parts, where we’ll first talk about the “smartphone” aspect of the device and discuss its design, display, performance, battery, and cameras, followed by the “AI Phone” aspect and discuss the generative AI-powered capabilities of the device.

OPPO Reno 12 5G: The ‘Smartphone’ Overview

Design and Display

The OPPO Reno 12 5G has been upgraded in terms of design. It is considerably lighter (177 grams) and thinner (7.6 mm) than the Reno 11 (review) and Reno 10 (review) and feels almost like the Pro models of these past generations. I received the Sunset Pink colour model, and it is gorgeous. The device has a gradient colour scheme and you can see the cloudy sunset at the bottom at certain angles. The matte finish enhances the appeal and gives it a premium feel.

The Reno 12 5G also comes with an IP65 rating for dust and water resistance. It features an alloy framework for increased durability. The curved display is not that different from the predecessor, but it is brighter and features the Corning Gorilla Glass 7i on top for added protection. The 120 Hz FHD+ AMOLED screen is as impressive as before. It also supports Splash Touch to enable normal working when the screen is wet. While the screen touch works like usual in this scenario, it isn’t perfect and has some room for improvement.

Performance and Gaming

The last two Reno devices (Reno 11 and Reno 10) were powered by the 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 7050 chipset. However, the Reno 12 5G features a more powerful 4nm MediaTek Dimensity 7300-Energy chip, which comes equipped with a better GPU and a better NPU. The chipset is also paired with a faster UFS 3.1 storage, instead of UFS 2.2 storage employed by the Reno 11 and Reno 10. While the performance bump is obvious on the papers, I feel the real-life performance is a bit lacking.

I found the app opening and switching speed a bit slow on the Reno 12 5G. If I recall, the previous generations powered by the Dimensity 7050 were faster. However, since OPPO recalled the predecessors, I cannot do a comparison with the older devices. I suspect the AI-powered features baked into the devices are taking a toll on the performance. The gaming performance, on the other hand, is identical to its predecessors. It lets you play BGMI smoothly on HDR graphics at an Ultra frame rate. So, no complaints there.

Camera prowess

Coming to the camera, the Reno 12 5G has made some bargain here. It sports the same primary and ultrawide sensors as the predecessors — 50 MP Sony LYT600 camera with OIS + 8 MP Sony IMX355 — but replaces the 32 MP Sony IMX709 portrait sensor with a 2 MP OV02B10 macro camera. So while you can click good pictures in ample light and using primary and ultrawide sensors, the portrait brilliance of the Reno 11 is no longer here.

I particularly liked the portraits clicked by the last Reno smartphone, so I am a bit disappointed. This time since the Pro model features the same chipset as the standard model, the portrait camera has been made exclusive to the latter. You can still click portraits with Reno 12 5G, but it isn’t as good as its predecessor and possibly the Reno 12 Pro 5G.

However, I think there is a problem with how the smartphone is handling image processing. In indoor situations, even with ample artificial lighting, the details are lost, and shadows have too much noise. It is also doing something very particular. Getting too close to a subject completely changes the colour profile, making the picture unsaturated. I think the phone is automatically engaging the macro camera in this scenario, which is not very good with colour calibration.

The selfie camera is still a 32 MP shooter, but it has changed from a 22 mm OmniVision OV32C sensor to a 21 mm GC32E2 sensor. It has the same capabilities and performance almost the same, clicking good pictures in daylight with acceptable details and true-to-life skin tone. However, the performance takes a huge dive in artificial lighting and completely gives up in lowlight scenes. What this means is you cannot click a good selfie picture indoors.

Battery and charging

The Reno 12 5G is backed by a 5,000 mAh battery and supports 80W fast charging, upgrading from the 67W fast charging offered by the predecessor. However, I didn’t feel any difference in charging speeds. In any case, the battery easily lasts a day and a half on moderate usage and gets fully charged from zero to 100 in less than 50 minutes, which is more than enough.

OPPO Reno 12 5G: The ‘AI Phone’ Overview

The OPPO Reno 12 5G comes with loads of AI-powered features, just like the Pro model of the series, including:

• AI Eraser 2.0: Removes unwanted people from the background of photos.
• AI Studio: Creates stylised portraits in various settings and environments.
• AI Best Face: Fixes closed-eye issues in group photos.
• AI Recording Summary: Summarises up to five hours of recording using AI co-developed with Google and Microsoft.
• AI Toolbox: Includes features like AI Summary for summarising long articles, AI Writer for writing paragraphs, AI Speak for reading news articles, and more.
• AI LinkBoost: Boosts connection for a lag-free experience.
• BeaconLink: Makes Bluetooth calls to locate people in a crowd when service is low.

I thoroughly enjoyed the AI-powered features as they came in handy during everyday usage and provided shortcuts to things we already do. The AI Eraser 2.0 works just like every other iteration of the feature, letting you select people in the background and remove them to make pictures clear. The AI sometimes does a spectacular job that it is almost impossible to identify if the picture has been altered. Other times, the signs of editing are visible. The AI Eraser feature is available through the Edit function in the default Photos app. It also works on pictures clicked by some other phones or any random picture you download from the internet.

The AI Studio is available as a dedicated app within the OPPO Reno 12 5G. It allows you to upload 1-3 pictures of yourself and generate a personalised AI picture in various styles, settings, and backgrounds. This feature is really fun, but the style options are limited. I hope OPPO will add new styles in the future via app updates. Such kinds of apps already exist, but having an app from a smartphone manufacturer at least seems safe. Each request costs 10 credits and the company gives you 5000 credits the first time you login into the app. It is unclear how the credits would recharge once you exhaust them all.

There are also group picture editing tools, such as AI Clear Face and AI Best Face, which take effect when you click a photo with at least three people. While all of these features are cool, the most useful features, in my opinion, are the AI Toolbox and AI Recording Summary.

The AI Toolbox sits in the ColorOS sidebar, identifies what you are doing on your phone, and recommends AI features accordingly. For instance, if you are writing an email or a post on social media, it lets you call upon the AI Writer, allowing you to generate text based on the provided directions. It lets you call upon AI Speak and AI Summary features when you are reading an article on the web. It should be noted that both these features work irrespective of the web browser you use.

The AI Recording Summary feature writes a summary of the voice recording. The app mostly works fine and does a pretty good job. It supports Chinese, English, and Hindi languages with a maximum of 45,000 characters. OPPO says that it will add support for more languages in the coming days. However, there are some issues as well. Firstly, you only get one chance to summarise your voice recordings when you are trying to save the clip. If you hit save without selecting to generate a summary, you will not get another chance to do so. OPPO should allow you to generate summaries of existing voice recordings saved in your Recorder app.

There is another piece of smart AI feature which saves a ton of time. Currently, if I have to select text from an image, I first take a screenshot and open it in Google Lens to select and copy the text. The OPPO Reno 12 5G streamlines this process by allowing you to “Extract content” as soon as you take a screenshot. You just need to tap on the new option (available alongside Scroll and Share buttons) to copy text or images.

Other features

There is also an AI Clear Voice feature that claims to clear background noise during voice calls and a Holo Audio feature for earphones that uses audio spatialisation to keep audio sources from different apps in a way that they don’t overwhelm each other. The smartphone also sports a Beacon Link feature that allows it to call nearby people using Bluetooth when there is no network. However, I could not test it out because you can only make calls over Bluetooth when the other device also supports the Beacon Link.

The best thing about the baked AI features is that OPPO doesn’t put them into your face. You can choose to ignore all of these features and continue to use your smartphone like usual and wouldn’t even notice the presence of any of these features.

OPPO Reno 12 5G Review: Verdict

The OPPO Reno 12 5G impresses with its integration of generative AI features, providing a unique experience in the mid-range smartphone category. While it excels in design, display, and AI functionalities, its performance and camera capabilities show some inconsistencies compared to its predecessors. Despite these drawbacks, the Reno 12 5G offers solid value for its price, especially for users interested in leveraging AI technology.

Price: Rs 32,999

Rating: 4/5

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