The iQoo 12 was launched in India earlier this week because the nation’s first smartphone geared up with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip. The gamer-focused handset is prone to set clients’ expectations for telephones arriving with Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line chip within the coming months. iQoo’s earlier flagship fashions have usually targeted on efficiency, and whereas final yr’s iQoo 11 5G debuted with improved digicam specs, it additionally had a better price ticket than each its predecessor and the brand new iQoo 12.
The mixture of those high-end options and a comparatively low value may make the iQoo 12 a compelling possibility — at the very least on paper — if you happen to’re in search of a cellphone with flagship-grade efficiency. Read on for our evaluation of the cellphone to search out out if you should purchase this cellphone or anticipate different Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered flagship telephones to reach within the coming months.
iQoo 12 value in India
Pricing for the iQoo 12 begins at Rs. 52,999 for the 12GB RAM + 256GB storage mannequin, and the cellphone can be obtainable in a 16GB + 512GB RAM and storage variant that can set you again by Rs. 57,999. The smartphone ships with a clear TPU case, a USB Type-C to USB Type-C cable, and a 120W SuperVOOC charging brick.
The cellphone is on the market for buy by way of Amazon and is available in Alpha and Legend colourways with AG glass and porcelain enamel glass for the rear panels, respectively.
iQoo 12 Review: Design
We examined out the iQoo 12 ‘Legend’ evaluation unit with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, which is white in color and has flat metallic sides with curved corners. The rear panel is shiny and feels barely slippery, however the TPU cowl that ships with the cellphone helps you grip it extra successfully whereas stopping it from choosing up fingerprints and smudges.
iQoo 12 within the white Legend colourway
The digicam module situated on the left aspect of the rear panel is within the form of a rounded sq. surrounded by a metallic ring with a ridged edge. While it is on one aspect, it doesn’t make the cellphone wobble when positioned on its again. The iQoo 12 weighs 203.9 grams, and it would not really feel notably heavy, even after holding it for some time.
The show has slim bezels on all sides, and a centre-aligned hole-punch cutout on the high of the display screen homes the selfie digicam. The cellphone has the BMW Motorsport emblem on the backside on the rear panel, however it’s very delicate, in contrast to the lengthy racing stripe on the iQoo 11 5G. The handset has an IP64 ranking for mud and splash resistance, which is a primary for this collection. It means the cellphone ought to be high-quality if you happen to’re caught outdoor with some rain.
iQoo 12 Review: Specifications and software program
The iQoo 12 runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor together with the corporate’s in-house Q1 chip that’s used to optimise gaming efficiency. It has a 6.78-inch AMOLED display screen with an under-display fingerprint scanner and is supplied with as much as 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and you’ll stand up to 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage.
The smartphone gives help for 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and NFC connectivity, together with a USB 2.0 Type-C port for information transfers and charging its 5,000mAh battery. The cellphone 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 working system and safety updates, adopted by a further yr of safety updates for the iQoo 12. The cellphone runs on Google’s newest Android 14 working system, with Vivo’s Funtouch OS 14 operating on high. It’s simple to make use of and has options from Android 14, together with lock display screen customisation and Vivo’s enhancements to multitasking, RAM utilization, and movement blur whereas opening and shutting apps.
iQoo 12 notification spam from the V-Appstore over a number of days (faucet to develop picture)
You’ll see a number of preinstalled apps like Netflix, Spotify, Snapchat, Facebook, and PhonePe, however these may be uninstalled with a few faucets. However, the built-in V-Appstore will commonly ship notifications each few hours, prompting you to check out new apps.
The V-Appstore may also ask you to obtain a listing of apps once in a while — these are pre-selected, and the skip button is not the place you’d anticipate it to be. The retailer additionally confirmed a popup to arrange Hot Apps and Hot Games, after which the 2 promotional folders had been seen on the house display screen — each of those may be eliminated manually.
iQoo 12 Review: Performance
The iQoo 12 is presently essentially the most highly effective Android smartphone you should buy in India on the time of scripting this evaluation. The cellphone can deal with among the most demanding video games like Genshin Impact and Fortnite. Genshin Impact runs on the “Highest” graphics setting, whereas Fortnite runs on the Epic setting at 90fps with the high-resolution textures pack. There was no throttling, lag, or stuttering, even after round 50 minutes of gameplay.
Funtouch OS is optimised for the iQoo 12 and runs easily with none glitches whereas scrolling by way of the interface. Switching between apps and several other apps is feasible with out the OS reloading them. I may leap again into Genshin Impact with out reloading the sport on a couple of event — this was after a number of hours of utilizing different apps and capturing some photos with the digicam.
iQoo 12 runs on Funtouch OS 14 out-of-the-box
In our benchmark exams, the cellphone scored 1,983,471 factors on AnTuTu v10. This is larger than most different smartphones obtainable at this time — the OnePlus 11 scored 1,189,556 factors on AnTuTu v10 once we reviewed the handset earlier this yr. However, you do must understand that OnePlus 11 has a QHD+ show whereas the iQoo 12 settles for a full-HD+ panel.
In the Geekbench 6 single-core and multi-core exams, the handset scored 2,225 factors and 6,726 factors, respectively. Once once more, these are a lot larger than different telephones obtainable at this time however are decrease than the iPhone 15 Pro with Apple’s A17 Pro chip that scores 2,903 factors within the single-core check and seven,223 factors within the multi-core check.
The cellphone was capable of show content material at 143fps within the GFXBench T-Rex and Manhattan 3.1 exams — it managed 127fps within the GFXBench Car Chase benchmark. The iQoo 12 additionally “Maxed Out” 3DMark’s Slingshot, Slingshot Extreme (OpenGL), Wild Life, and Wild Life Unlimited benchmarks.
The iQoo 12 sports activities a sizeable 6.78-inch quad-HD (1,260 x 2,800 pixels) LTPO AMOLED show with a 144Hz refresh fee and a 1,200Hz immediate contact sampling fee. The show — with a claimed peak brightness of 1,400 nits (3,000 nits in excessive brightness mode) — is evident, and hues are displayed precisely if you happen to allow the pure show mode.
iQoo 12 has an LTPO AMOLED display screen that may be considered when it’s vibrant exterior
The show will get fairly vibrant in auto brightness mode, particularly if you’re outdoor in vibrant daylight. When it is darkish, the cellphone will get fairly dim with 2,160Hz pulse width modulation (PWM) dimming help. Touch response is superb, and you will not have points whereas taking part in video games like Call of Duty: Mobile or Battlegrounds Mobile India. The cellphone is supplied with stereo audio system that get fairly loud, with minimal distortion.
The iQoo 12 is supplied with a 5,000mAh battery that may be charged at 120W, and we had been capable of cost the cellphone from 0 to 100 in underneath half-hour (28 minutes on common). In our HD video loop check, the cellphone managed 19 hours and 25 minutes on a single cost, which is common for a cellphone on this section. Despite the highly effective processor on the cellphone, it lasts for a bit of greater than a day with a mixture of gaming, shopping the net and social media, and recording pictures and movies.
iQoo 12 Review: Cameras
There are three rear cameras on the iQoo 12 — a 50-megapixel major digicam with a 1/1.3-inch sensor with optical picture stabilisation (OIS), a 64-megapixel (OIS) periscope telephoto digicam with 3x optical zoom and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle digicam with a 120-degree field-of-view. There’s a 16-megapixel selfie digicam on the entrance with an f/2.5 aperture.
The digicam interface on the iQoo 12 with Funtouch OS 14 is simple to make use of, and many of the settings and choices are simply accessible with a number of faucets. Some options are tucked away into the interface, however the app will robotically counsel completely different digicam modes relying on the scene. You may also use a slider to maneuver between digicam modes. Images shot with the first digicam are clear, and hues are largely correct, and the digicam performs greatest in conditions with ample lighting.
iQoo 12 portrait digicam pattern (faucet to enlarge)
The portrait mode on the first digicam tends to default to f/1.4, so that you may wish to set it to f/4.5 or a bit of larger for higher outcomes.
The 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle digicam is the least succesful among the many trio on the iQoo 12. While it’s able to capturing a number of element, it will possibly’t seize colors as precisely as the first digicam. It additionally tends to overexpose the sky through the day. There are not any points with warping across the edges.
I discovered myself stepping backwards and taking pictures with the first digicam as an alternative of counting on the ultra-wide-angle digicam on a couple of event. This digicam doesn’t let in sufficient gentle in low gentle situations, and pictures captured are fairly darkish — one more reason to make use of the extra succesful major digicam as an alternative.
On the opposite hand, the telephoto digicam is sort of spectacular when capturing photos at as much as 10x — even 30, in case you have regular fingers. The digicam app has a horizontal slider that permits you to choose customized zoom values, and you’ll start to see stabilisation points as you zoom previous 30x.
iQoo 12 helps as much as 100x digital zoom (faucet to enlarge)
There’s a helpful preview that reveals you which of them a part of the scene you are zooming in on. Pushing the digicam as much as 100x digital zoom requires using a tripod, and the ultimate shot seems to be a bit of overprocessed and smoothened, however you may clearly determine the topic.
The portrait mode within the digicam app has 1x, 2x, and 3x modes. The first two use the first digicam, whereas the third one makes use of the telephoto digicam. The latter offers glorious portrait photos of individuals and pets, with simply the correct quantity of bokeh — though you can even alter this for portrait photos clicked with the first digicam utilizing the inbuilt gallery app.
In low gentle eventualities, the smartphone makes use of the first digicam for each 1x and 3x pictures (digitally cropped), whereas through the day, it switches to the telephoto for the latter. The digicam prompts you to change to the built-in evening mode, however solely photos captured utilizing the first digicam (1x zoom) are value utilizing. Zooming in additional produces blurry pictures with little or no element — we took these photos with a tripod.
iQoo 12 macro photos are clear and detailed (faucet to enlarge)
The telephoto digicam additionally permits a helpful Super Macro mode that takes extraordinarily detailed photos. Selfies clicked with the iQoo 12 are moderately clear, and pores and skin tones are largely correct, however it’s a must to manually disable the pores and skin smoothening possibility that was enabled by default. You’re most likely higher off counting on the rear digicam and a tripod if you wish to report a video of your self, because it had some points with focus and publicity when shifting from brightly targeted areas to dim areas and vice versa.
The major digicam can report as much as 4K at 60fps with OIS, whereas 8K recording is capped at 30fps, and there isn’t any OIS on this mode. Videos shot in daylight with the iQoo 12 are clean and do not need any tearing or artefacts, and stabilisation works as anticipated when recording at as much as 4K at 60fps. In low-light conditions, it is best to report at 1x with the built-in Night Mode — it helps digital zoom as much as 3x utilizing the identical major sensor.
The digicam app features a movement autofocus function that may be set to auto or guide — the auto mode labored effectively in my expertise. You cannot change between entrance and rear cameras when you begin recording. There’s additionally a helpful microphone selector software tucked away within the settings part that lets you select among the many cellphone’s microphone, an exterior microphone linked utilizing the USB Type-C port, or one linked by way of Bluetooth.
iQoo 12 Review: Verdict
At the time of scripting this evaluation, the iQoo 12 is the one smartphone with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip that you could purchase in India. It presently competes with the OnePlus 11, the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE, and the iPhone 13. All 4 smartphones are geared up with completely different processors and supply various quantities of software program help.
When we reviewed the iQoo 11 5G, we advisable that its predecessor (the iQoo 9 Pro — Review) supplied a greater digicam setup at a lower cost, because the iQoo 11 5G was launched at Rs. 59,999. Earlier this week, the iQoo 11 5G value was lowered to Rs. 51,999, whereas a financial institution low cost brings the worth right down to Rs. 49,999.
However, that is the identical value that you could purchase the brand new iQoo 12 in India, if you happen to avail of eligible financial institution card gives. Even at its MRP of Rs. 52,999, it gives a lot better worth than its predecessor, contemplating it’s going to have an extended software program help window.
iQoo 12 is presently the one Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 cellphone in India
If you are trying to purchase a smartphone with a robust processor in addition to a dependable digicam, then the iQoo 12 is an honest possibility to think about at its present value level. The Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Review) is supplied with an Exynos 2200 chip, so it will not have the ability to match the iQoo 12 in efficiency — however it would not show promotional content material — whereas the iPhone 13 (Review) would not have a telephoto digicam, however gives higher ultra-wide-angle digicam pictures and low gentle pictures.
You may also think about the OnePlus 11, which has a triple rear digicam setup, and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which also needs to be able to dealing with high-end video games and heavy duties. It’s additionally value contemplating that whereas the OnePlus 11 (Review) would not have a periscope telephoto digicam just like the iQoo 11, the low gentle pictures beats iQoo’s flagship cellphone — which is sort of subpar on this regard — by a substantial extent.
Should you purchase the iQoo 12 at this time? It is dependent upon whether or not you merely wish to buy a cellphone with the newest chipset. If that is the case, you might anticipate a number of weeks earlier than new telephones with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 — just like the OnePlus 12 — make their debut in India, however going by the worth of their predecessors, the pricing for these telephones is unlikely to match the iQoo 12 when they’re launched within the nation.
