iQOO 12 5G Review with Pros and Cons (OnePlus Baby)

iQOO wants to be the new OnePlus and it looks like they have come too close to that goal. The New iQOO 12 5G has everything that OnePlus used to offer at a very competitive price range.

The phone has whooping 120Hz wired charging, powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, longer battery life, 3000 nits brightness, solid display quality, and loudest speakers. The selling point here is the price, it’s priced at Rs 52,999 which is perfect for what iQOO is offering.

So let’s see who should buy the iQOO 12 5G and who shouldn’t.

iQOO 12 5G Review

There is no doubt about it, the IQOO 12 5G is worth buying because of its price tag, the Rs 52,999 is perfect for what iQOO is offering from powerful Soc to solid cameras. The only downside would be the Fun Touch OS but still, it’s not the worst for the price it comes.

The cameras have been improved a lot, it’s not as good as what Samsung offers but still, it has everything that users want from iQOO phones.

The battery will last for the day while the massive 120W wired charging will help a lot.

The display is solid, and its flat LTPO AMOLED panel has a 144Hz screen refresh rate.

Overall, yes, you can consider the iQOO 12 5G, if you’re planning to buy a new Android smartphone under Rs 60,000 in India.

Related: Best Smartphones Under Rs 50,000

Keep in mind, the OnePlus 12 will be a rebrand of IQOO 12 but it will be priced above 55k. So if you want OxygenOS and are willing to wait and pay more money for the same device then do wait otherwise, IQOO 12 is also a good option.

Display and Build

The iQOO 12 5G comes with a 6.78-inches 1.5K LTPO AMOLED display with a resolution of 2800 × 1260 pixels and a 144Hz screen refresh rate. It also has HDR10+ support along with 3000 hits of peak brightness.

So the good news is, you won’t face any sort of problem while using the phone in the sunlight.

Also, as the phone has an LTPO display, it can go from 1Hz to 144Hz which will provide a better battery life compared to a normal AMOLED panel.

The in-display fingerprint is as good as any other optical sensor, it’s not ultrasonic which means, you can’t use the fingerprint sensor if your hands are wet.

The HDR support is there on almost all the OTT apps while it also has Wide Vine L1 support for FHD+ viewing experience.

The build quality is solid too, it has glass on the rear, and the frames are made from metal. 

In short, there will be no problem in the build but keep in mind glass is glass, it will break, so make sure you use properly tempered glass and a back cover.

So yes, whether it’s build or even display quality, it’s the best you can get at the price of Rs 52999. 

Performance and Software

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is the powerful SoC you will get on Android smartphones. On top of that, iQOO has added the largest vapor chamber which will cool down the phone whenever it tries to get hot.

iQOO 12 5G AnTuTu Score is 2080706 and the CPU throttled to 75% of its max performance. This is not that bad, so if you want to buy iQOO 12 for gaming then just do it, the performance won’t be an issue at all.

(Benchmark score changes every time you take a test)

Now, let’s put performance aside and talk about software.

It runs on Fun Touch OS 4.0 based on Android 14, iQOO has also promised 3 years of OS updates and 4 years of security updates.

The good part is, that the base variant comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB storage which is a good move from iQOO.

Related: 5 Best Smartphones Under Rs 30000

The software is more improved compared to the Fun Touch OS 3, iQOO has removed almost all the ads from the OS but still, the phone comes with few pre-installed apps.

Yes, you can uninstall all the third-party apps but still, you have to go through all the apps one by one.

Now, we all know that Fun Touch OS is filled with features. So if you’re a person who loves to customize the OS then this is the best one for you but if you’re a Stock Android Person then this might not be the best option for you.

If you ask me, I’m not a big fan of either colorOS, FunTouch OS, or even XOS. I personally like the Stock OS, this is me, and your test might be different.

So choose right now because the OS is what you will see all day and all night when you buy this phone.

In short, the performance is solid at the same time, the software is better compared to the Fun Touch OS 3.0

Cameras

The iQOO 12 5G features a 50MP primary sensor, a 50 MP ultra-wide lens, and a 64MP 3X telephoto lens whereas it has 16MP front cameras.

The rear cameras can shoot videos at 8K@30fps, 4K@24/30/60fps, and 1080p@30/60fps while the front can only shoot at 10803@30fps.

The primary sensor does have OIS which works fine, it’s as good as other phones in this price range. The only thing to keep in mind is that it doesn’t work best when recording 4K videos, it works best with 1080p.

The quality of the videos is good, no complaints there. Whether it’s dynamic range or even color balance, it’s as good as other phones from iQOO.

Now, of course, if you’re expecting videos to be like Samsung or even iPhones then lower your expectations. iQOO is known for performance and that’s what you will get with this phone too.

Related: 5 Best Smartphones Under Rs 20,000

The cameras are good but they’re not the best which will work for most of the users who want to buy power-centric phones.

The ultra-wide lens is not perfect, under low light, it suffers a little bit but when it comes to good lighting conditions, it performs the best.

So if you can, avoid using ultra-wide under low light conditions.

The 3X telephoto lens is perfect for those who wanted 100X at a reasonable price tag, it’s not as good as Galaxy S23 Ultra but it’s not bad either. 

Again, iQOO issues the software to optimize the 100X images which provides better clarity and colors. Do note, that 100X zoom is for fun, it’s not something you should buy a phone for.

3X or even 10X zoom is perfect for all kinds of usage. When you go above 10x you will start losing the image quality.

The 16MP front camera is what you’re expecting, it provides the same color science as Vivo. So expect saturated and whiter color tones which is what iQOO or should I say, Vivo is known for.

The downside is that the 16MP front camera only supports 1080p@30fps video recording which is not good at all. The Chipset supports more than what IQOO is offering.

Overall, the IQOO 12 5G has good cameras but it can’t be called the best camera for the price of Rs 52999. It’s a power-centric phone that is supposed to offer decent cameras.

Audio

The stereo speakers are solid too, they are clear and loud too. So there is nothing to worry about speakers at all. Again, there is no 3.5mm audio jack but if you want you can use Type-C wired earphones or Bluetooth ones.

Battery

The 5000mAh battery lasts for the day without any problems but if you’re a very heavy user who plays games all day then you will have to charge the iQOO 12 5G twice a day.

This won’t be a huge problem as the phone comes with whooping 120Hz wired fast charging. Also, the charger is supplied in the box, so no need to buy separately like Samsung and Apple Phones.

a 120W charger will take only 27 minutes to charge from 0% to 100%. By the way, the phone doesn’t have Wireless charging support but it does have NFC which can be used for everything including tap to Pay.

iQOO 12 5G Pros and Cons

PROS	CONS
Beautiful 144Hz LTPO Display	The Front Camera is a bit Average
Solid Build Quality	Low Light Photography Needs Improvements
Powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC	Fun Touch OS is Not the BEST
Largest Vapor Chamber	Only 1080p Video Recording on Front Camera
Superfast 120W Charging
Stable Battery Life
Clean and Loud Speakers
11 5G Bands
3 Years of OS updates
The best Phone for Gaming

Verdict 

So if you’re a fan of a bit saturated and whiter image then do consider.

Still, if you have any sort of questions then feel free to drop them in the comment box below.

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iQOO 12 5G Full Specifications

Price	12GB RAM + 256GB Storage: Rs 52,999 16GB RAM + 512GB Storage: Rs 57,999
Display	6.78-inches FHD+ LTPO AMOLED Display Wide-Vine L1 Support HDR10+ Support 3000 nits pick the brightness 1260 x 2800 pixels Resolution HDR10+ Support 10-bit Panel 144Hz Screen Refresh Rate
Dimensions	163.2 x 75.9 x 8.1 mm or 8.4 mm Weight: 198.5 g or 203.7 g
Build	Glass front glass back Metal frame
OS	Fun Touch OS 4.0 – Android 14 3 Years of OS Updates. 4 Years of Security Updates.
Chipset	Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (4 nm) CPU: Octa-core (1×3.3 GHz Cortex-X4 & 5×3.2 GHz Cortex-A720 & 2×2.3 GHz Cortex-A520) 4×2.15 GHz Cortex-A510) GPU: Adreno 750
Benchmark Score	AnTuTu: 1574344 (v9), 2107464 (v10) GeekBench: 5857 (v5), 6953 (v6) GFXBench: 102fps (ES 3.1 onscreen)
SD-Card Slot	No
Rear Cameras	50MP Primary Sensor (OIS) 50MP Ultra-Wide (OIS) 64MP 3X Telephoto Video 8K@30fps, 4K@24/30/60fps, 1080p@30/600fps
Front Camera	16MP Selfie Shooter. Video 1080p@30fps.
3.5mm Jack	No
Speakers	Stereo Speakers.
Bluetooth Version	5.4 Version.
5G Bands	11 5G Bands. n1, n3, n5, n7, n8, n28A, n28B, n38, n40, n41, n77, n78
FM Radio	No.
Wifi	Wifi 7
NFC	Yes.
Sensors	Fingerprint (under display, optical), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, color spectrum
Fingerprint Sensor	Yes, In-Display fingerprint sensor
Battery	5,000mAh (non-removable). 120W Wired Charging Support 100% in 27 Minutes (Wired)
Weight	198.5 g or 203.7 g
Colors	Black, Red, White (BMW M branding)

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