The iQoo 12 was released earlier this week in India as the country’s first smartphone using a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 CPU. Customers’ expectations for phones equipped with Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line processor are likely to be established by the gamer-focused smartphone. While last year’s iQoo 11 5G launched with enhanced camera specs, it also cost more than both its predecessor and the current iQoo 12.
The combination of these high-end capabilities and a low price might make the iQoo 12 an attractive option if you’re seeking for a phone with flagship-grade performance, at least on paper. Continue reading to find out if you should buy this phone or wait for other Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered flagship phones to emerge in the future months.
iQoo 12 Price in India
The iQoo 12 is priced at Rs. 52,999 for the 12GB RAM + 256GB storage model, and it is also available in a 16GB + 512GB RAM and storage edition for Rs. 57,999. A clear TPU cover, a USB Type-C to USB Type-C connection, and a 120W SuperVOOC charging brick are included with the smartphone.
The phone is available from Amazon in two colorways: Alpha and Legend, with AG glass and porcelain enamel glass for the back panels, respectively.
iQoo 12 Design
We put the iQoo 12 ‘Legend’ review unit, which is white with flat metallic edges and curved corners, through its paces. It contains 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM.. The back panel is shiny and little slippery, but the TPU cover that comes with the phone lets you handle it better while preventing fingerprints and smudges.
The camera module is shaped like a rounded square and is encircled by a metallic ring with a ridged border on the left side of the back panel. It does not cause the phone to wobble when laid on its back when it is on one side. The iQoo 12 weighs 203.9 grams and does not seem particularly weighty in the hand, even after a while.
The display features thin bezels on all sides, and the selfie camera is housed in a center-aligned hole-punch cutout at the top of the screen. The BMW Motorsport emblem appears at the bottom of the back panel, however it is quite inconspicuous, unlike the lengthy racing stripe on the iQoo 11 5G. The device boasts an IP64 dust and splash resistance rating, a first for this series. It implies that if you’re stuck outside in the rain, the phone should be alright.
iQoo 12 Specifications and Software
The iQoo 12 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 CPU, as well as the company’s own Q1 chip, which is utilized to optimize gaming performance. It features a 6.78-inch AMOLED screen with an under-display fingerprint scanner, up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and up to 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage.
The phone has 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and NFC connection, as well as a USB 2.0 Type-C connector for data transfers and charging its 5,000mAh battery. A USB Type-C to USB Type-C connection and a 120W SuperVOOC charging brick are included with the phone.
There are a few preloaded applications such as Netflix, Spotify, Snapchat, Facebook, and PhonePe, but they can be deleted with a few touches. The built-in V-App store, on the other hand, will give you alerts every few hours, encouraging you to check out new apps.
Performance
At the time of writing, the iQoo 12 is the most powerful Android smartphone available in India. Some of the more demanding games, such as Genshin Impact and Fortnite, may be played on the phone. Genshin Impact runs at the “Highest” graphics option, but Fortnite runs at 90fps with the high-resolution textures pack on the Epic setting. Even after around 50 minutes of gameplay, there was no throttling, latency, or stuttering.
Funtouch OS is optimized for the iQoo 12 and performs well while scrolling across the UI. Switching between programs and switching between several apps is available without the OS refreshing them. After a few hours of utilizing other applications and collecting photographs with the camera, I was able to go back into Genshin Impact without having to restart the game on many occasions.
On AnTuTu v10, the phone earned 1,983,471 points in our benchmark tests. This is more than most other smartphones on the market today; when we evaluated the OnePlus 11 earlier this year, it got 1,189,556 points on AnTuTu v10. However, bear in mind that the OnePlus 11 has a QHD+ display, and the iQoo 12 has an HD display.
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The handset received 2,225 and 6,726 points on the Geekbench 6 single-core and multi-core tests, respectively. Again, they are much higher than most phones on the market today, but they are lower than the iPhone 15 Pro with Apple’s A17 Pro CPU, which gets 2,903 points in the single-core test and 7,223 points in the multi-core test.
The phone was able to display material at 143 frames per second in the GFXBench T-Rex and Manhattan 3.1 tests, and 127 frames per second in the GFXBench Car Chase benchmark. 3DMark’s Slingshot, Slingshot Extreme (OpenGL), Wild Life, and Wild Life Unlimited benchmarks were likewise “Maxed Out” by the iQoo 12.
The iQoo 12 has a 6.78-inch quad-HD (1,260 x 2,800 pixel) LTPO AMOLED display with a refresh rate of 144Hz and a sampling rate of 1,200Hz for fast touch. The display is clear, with a reported peak brightness of 1,400 nits (3,000 nits in high brightness mode), and colors are reproduced properly if the natural display option is used.
In auto brightness mode, the display becomes fairly bright, especially when you’re outside in direct sunlight. With 2,160Hz pulse width modulation (PWM) dimming capabilities, the phone goes rather black in the dark. Touch reaction is superb, and you will have no problems playing games such as Call of Duty: Mobile or Battlegrounds Mobile India. The phone has dual speakers that can be fairly loud with minimal distortion.
The iQoo 12 has a 5,000mAh battery that can be charged at 120W, and we were able to charge it from 0 to 100 in under 30 minutes (on average 28 minutes). In our HD video loop test, the phone lasted 19 hours and 25 minutes, which is typical for a phone in this price range. Despite the phone’s fast processing, it lasts a little more than a day when used for gaming, browsing the web and social media, and capturing images and videos.
Cameras
The iQoo 12 has three rear cameras: a 50-megapixel main camera with a 1/1.3-inch sensor and OIS, a 64-megapixel (OIS) periscope telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera with a 120-degree field-of-view. On the front is a 16-megapixel selfie camera with an f/2.5 aperture.
The camera interface on the iQoo 12 with Funtouch OS 14 is simple to use, with most settings and functions available with a few clicks. Some capabilities are stashed away in the UI, but based on the scenario, the app will automatically propose alternative camera modes. A slider can also be used to switch between camera modes. The primary camera produces crisp images with largely true colors, and it operates best in well-lit environments.
The portrait setting on the primary camera usually defaults to f/1.4, so you may want to increase it to f/4.5 or higher for better results.
The iQoo 12’s 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera is the least competent of the three. While it can record a great deal of information, it cannot catch colors as precisely as the main camera. During the day, it also tends to overexpose the sky. There is no evidence of warping around the borders.
On more than one occasion, I found myself taking a step back and using the primary camera instead of the ultra-wide-angle camera. In low-light circumstances, its camera does not allow in enough light, and the photographs it captures are rather dark – thus another reason to utilize the more powerful main camera instead.
The telephoto camera, on the other hand, is pretty remarkable when capturing photographs at up to 10x – even 30 if you have firm hands. The camera app features a horizontal slider that allows you to select custom zoom levels, and when you zoom over 30x, you may notice stabilisation difficulties.
A useful preview informs you which area of the scene is being zoomed in on. Pushing the camera up to 100x digital zoom necessitates the use of a tripod, and the resultant photo appears over processed and smoothed, yet the subject is plainly identifiable.
The portrait mode in the camera app provides 1x, 2x, and 3x magnification options. The first two employ the main camera, while the third employs the telephoto lens. The latter produces superb portrait shots of humans and dogs, with just the appropriate amount of bokeh but you can change this for portrait images taken with the primary camera using the gallery app.
In low-light situations, the smartphone uses the main camera for both 1x and 3x images (digitally reduced), while the telephoto is used during the day. The camera urges you to use the built-in night mode, however only photographs taken with the primary camera (1x zoom) are useful. Further zooming in results in fuzzy photographs with minimal clarity – we took them with a tripod.
If you’re searching for a smartphone with a fast CPU and a dependable camera, the iQoo 12 is a good option to consider at its current pricing. The Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Review) lacks the performance of the iQoo 12 due to its Exynos 2200 chip, but it does not display promotional content, whereas the iPhone 13 lacks a telephoto camera but offers better ultra-wide-angle camera photos and low light photography.