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Introduction
Now much do the best the top-of-the-line flagships cost, like think about the S24 ultra the Z Fold 5 the iPhone 15 Pro.
Now if you find those too expensive then you tend to go down to the Plus or the base variant right.
But those are also at about 80,000 rupees or $11,000 and if that’s also expensive for you then, you could go for similar Flagship experience with the OnePlus 12 which is for about 65,000 rupees or $800.
But there’s a phone that actually competes with all of these smartphones especially in terms of performance and at a lower price.
It’s the iQOO 12 and it launched end of last year. In fact, all of these Flagship phones that come with the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, well iQOO 12 was the first one to get it in India.
I’ve been using this phone in parallel for a couple of weeks now and I think this phone I think it deserves a bit more.
Now look I understand that performance is not everything, not everybody is a gamer someone wants a phone that looks good in their hands.
Someone wants to be able to take good photos, videos and some need a really bright colorful display.
So, does this check all those boxes? let’s see.
iQOO 12 Design
first of all, I’d like to tell you that this is one of the slimmest high-performance phones I’ve held despite having the usual 5,000 MH battery and I’ve preferred flat designs over curved displays personally.
This one has that along with a flat display and flat edges.
But because they’ve curved the edges it actually feels very comfortable when you’re supporting it in your palm since it’s not pointy.
Now one thing that I find really cool with iQOO is that they try exciting experiments with their design.
For example, they came out with the BMW M Motorsports stripe design and it came in different materials too.
But I’ve got the desert red color over here and I really like the finish of this it’s got this texture and I don’t think it’s going to attract any fingerprint or dust over time.
Also, because it feels more durable, I’m actually more confident using it without the case.
And with Summers coming in I realized that this material is actually a good idea.
Because you know your palms can get sweaty and you don’t want all that stuff coming on your back panel easily right.
So, for that it’s quite good. Also, it’s kind of light. I’ve used the OnePlus 12 which is on the heavier side for sure.
So, if you’re the kinds who prefers lighter phones, I think this would be a really good option.
Besides the display is protected to some extent and if you do get the glass version of this phone the back panel will have the same protection.
Also, this is IP64 water and dust resistant. So, you know splashes of water or walking in the rain, all of that will be well tolerated.
iQOO 12 Flagship Performance
But enough about the design. let’s talk about what really matters, performance.
If you must know iQOO 12 was the first phone in India to get Snapdragon 8 gen 3 which presumably is the best performing and the latest smartphone up until now.
I’m not even going to talk about this much but the performance has been nothing short of fast.
Also, fast performance shouldn’t be a surprise because it’s got the fastest internal storage, Snapdragon 8 gen 3 and a dedicated chip to run graphics.
Everything that the best of flagships has and it’s still got more and guys if you like to game there’s definitely nothing out there like this at this price.
It can actually push Graphics of certain games Beyond limits and it even allows you to play popular games at 144Hz and it does all of that because of super Computing chip on this which is the Q1 chip.
Even games like Call of Duty and BGMI can be played at 90 FPS and these are frame rates that except for ROG phones, no other phone can deliver.
But then you know ROG phones are very expensive and this one brings all of that at a much better value.
Despite having two chips running at Peak power the device will not feel hot to you.
It’s got a vapor chamber that spreads out to more than 6,000 mm Square. So, there’s a lot of efficient heat dissipation that’s happening to actually keep it cool.
iQOO 12 Battery Performance
speaking of performance, let’s talk about battery performance.
So, I usually disconnect this at about 9:30 a.m. and I do very run-of-the-mill stuff you know bit of WhatsApp slack, Instagram, I play music connected to my Bluetooth speaker, I watch Netflix, bit of YouTube and with all of that I’m left with about 10% at about 10 p.m.
That’s when I start getting battery anxiety, but then you get 120 W charger in the box that tops up to 100% within 30 minutes and those are the kinds of charging speeds that you don’t get in flagships.
iQOO 12 AMOLED Display
Now guys before I move on to the camera I want to quickly talk about the display.
See, I’ve used it Outdoors plenty, I’ve use it to read emails, send WhatsApp, watch reels, YouTube videos and not once have I ever felt that the screen wasn’t bright enough.
Fun fact, when this phone was launched it was actually the brightest Android display ever with 3,000 nits of peak brightness.
It’s a nice and big 6.78 in AMOLED LTPO display. it’s very colorful, it’s efficient, it’s really sharp, crisp and it’s supremely smooth at 144Hz.
In fact, no other smartphone in this price segment with this performance level gives you 144Hz.
Also, I’ve realized that the bezels on this display are really Slim for a flagship.
The other thing I’ve noticed is that even when the display is slightly wet with raindrops or even if your hands are wet, you can still make calls, play games and use your camera to click photos.
The Dual Stereo speakers on this are actually really good and I was very pleasantly surprised. I wasn’t expecting at all so I was just listening to music and I thought these are actually pretty good.
It tries to be loud, but not in a cheap way. You can hear the richness in the sound pretty well.
Yeah, I think it was really nice.
iQOO 12 Camera
But you know to be called a flagship you also need a camera setup that can take pictures which are also Flagship level and I was a little sceptical.
Because camera and picture output they can be tricky. Because there’s Hardware, there’s software, there’s algo and all the AI that happens in the background to make it work.
So, how did iQOO 12 really do. See, specs wise you get a 50MP primary camera a 50MP Ultra-wide and a 64MP Periscope lens with 3x Zoom along with a 16MP front- facing camera.
But you know guys the important thing here is that the primary camera has one of the largest sensors that you’ll find in this price segment and that really comes across when you take photos in low light situations.
That’s actually one area where even the top-of-the-line flagships tend to struggle.
For example, in the low light photos, the sky has little to no noise and the bright areas aren’t flaring. in fact, it’s retaining the detail and it’s not getting overexposed.
Like in some shots, all the bright areas retain the information and such subtle highlights.
In a particular shot, detailing on the floor is seriously very impressive in this low lighting situation.
But the cameras, they do a good job even in the daytime, like good dynamic range do not necessarily Mak the sky blue.
The greens also feel quite natural. I mean just the overall colors look very good.
Now. in case of portraits, I think it could have been better in low light. the photos tend to get a little soft.
But again, in low light it is always tricky. Although in bright situations I think it was just fine.
Even the zoom performance has been really good. When you go from 1X to 2x to 3x to 10x, the detailing is really good.
In addition to details and Clarity you’ll also notice the consistency and color signs which I think is really good.
Finally, on to the Selfies, I actually found these to be again very natural the skin tones, the light on my face, the details, I find it very subtle.
There’s like a bit of smoothening by default which I don’t mind. It looks nice though. of course you can turn it off in settings. Overall, I think the selfie quality is really good.
Also, I took a 4K video sample using the iQOO 12 and the stabilization on this is really good. I mean I’m walking moving the camera around but the footage is really stable.
The colors are also natural, the video is capturing good dynamic range, the sky isn’t too off either, very natural.
What amazed me was actually the low light video performance. I mean there is no Focus hunting, no shake and the footage is really smooth. no noise either.
Colors are looking good. The lit areas aren’t getting overexposed or flaring, the highlights are being well balanced and the detailing is amazing.
If you really ask me, I don’t think there is any other smartphone in this price segment that’s giving you as good overall pictures as the iQOO 12.
Especially in low light so that large sensor on the primary camera is really doing its thing.
iQOO 12 Software
Lastly, let’s talk about the software okay and another fun fact this was the first Android smartphone after pixel phones of course to ship with Android 14 right out of the box.
It’s going to give you four years of security updates with three years of Android upgrades and this is running Funtouch OS 14.
So, it’s a pretty clean install considering its Funtouch. I didn’t see too many pre-installed apps and some of those were apps like LinkedIn. Google Pay or Facebook which are apps that I anyway use.
Of course, I could just uninstall the ones I didn’t need. So, I could have a cleaner install.
But hey no hot apps, no hot games and that’s what you expect from a flagship right.
There are other small things on the phone that make you go like oh wow. for example, there’s this kinetic wallpaper which has a flower and based on how many steps you walk it’s going to bloom more.
Then there’s always on display, there are like four AOD styles that can function at 1 Herz on your screen. So, you can always keep it on and not worry about battery drain.
Just like in some other high-end smartphones you can customize your lock screen with different clock Styles and fonts.
There’s systemwide theming which can either be based on the wallpaper you apply or you could choose any color effect that you like the most.
But overall, the UI felt smooth, the animations felt nice and Funtouch actually seems to have come a long way.
In fact, if you’ve used an Oppo phone or a OnePlus phone, the UI is going to feel very familiar, so the learning curve is quite negligent that way.
iQOO 12 Pricing & Availability
Now, let’s talk about pricing and availability.
So, guys the iQOO 12 in India, it comes in two variants and three colors starting at 52,999 rupees for 12GB/256GB variant and it’s 57,999 rupees for the 16GB/512GB variant which also comes with twice the storage.
But you know with some bank cards in India, you could get a 2,000 rupees instant cash back and that actually brings the price very close to 50,000 rupees at just 50,999 rupees.
Conclusion
Overall, guys I think the iQOO 12 is a really good value for money Flagship experience.
I mean despite being focused more towards performance and gaming, it still balances everything out with good design, good camera output and it’s still durable as well.
Plus, it’s got a lot of good software features. That’s why I think it’s a really underrated flagship phone.
But that’s it guys about the iQOO 12. If you still have any questions, doubts or concerns, let me know in the comment section and as always, I’ll help you out.
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FAQ
Which phone is better for gaming, iQOO 12 or OnePlus 12?
iQOO 12 is better for gaming than OnePlus 12. Because iQOO 12 is made particularly for gamers.
What is the AnTuTu score of iQOO 12?
The overall AnTuTu score of iQOO 12 is 2,073,660.
Does iQOO 12 take good pictures?
iQOO 12 has OmniVision OV50H camera sensor which is a big sensor. Because of that the phone can take really good pictures.
Does iQOO 12 comes with a charger in the box?
Yes, iQOO 12 comes with a 120W fast charger in the box.
