- Long battery
- Solid primary camera
- 512GB of storage
- Underpowered processor
- Missing premium trimmings
- Shorter software support than competitors
When taking notes for this review, the recurring phrase was "not bad!!". There’s nothing explicitly bad about the OPPO Reno 12 Pro, but also nothing truly exciting - at least not at the asking price. If it were a little cheaper or a little more powerful, the Reno 12 Pro would be a much more appealing pick, but as it stands, "not bad" sums it up.
The big issue with the Reno 12 Pro is that it's pretty underpowered for the price. It uses the same chipset found in the $399 CMF Phone 1 and $429 Nothing Phone 2a. It's not a bad chipset, but it's hardly what you'd expect from a device with Pro in the title. Even OPPO's far cheaper Reno 11 F benchmarks better.
The day-to-day performance on the Reno 12 Pro is mostly fine, with just a few hitches every now and again. Opening and closing the camera was the main time I noticed lag. If you're not gaming on your phone, the chipset shouldn't be a huge issue, but it does make it a less flexible device. If you're a mobile gamer, I'd look elsewhere.
The upshot is Reno 12 Pro's chipset is very efficient, which leads to fantastic battery life. You can easily get over eight hours of screen time per charge, which is enough for two days of moderate usage. This is the best battery life I've seen on an Android device in a while.
"Not bads" make a recurrence when it comes to design decisions. You get some premium trimmings, but not all of them. The Reno 12 Pro has IP65 water resistance, which provides protection from water jets, but submersion. Some water resistance is better than none, but at $999, a higher rating is par for the course these days.
Similarly, the Reno 12 Pro is missing other features that are standard at this price point. There's no eSIM support and no wireless charging. Those don't tend to be the kind of things that make or break a purchase, but they're still nice to have.
The physical design itself is pretty nice, despite being a predominantly plastic build. It doesn't feel cheaper, but it doesn't necessarily feel premium either. The upshot is the Reno 12 Pro is pretty light - it only weighs 180 grams.
One unique feature is a display curved on all four sides. The curves are pretty subtle - pillowy, even - and it doesn't really make a difference in day-to-day usage. It might make getting a screen protector a little harder, however, but there is one pre-installed out of the box. The front display is also made from Gorilla Glass Victus 2, so it should be pretty durable.
OPPO is promising three years of operating system upgrades and four years of security upgrades for the Reno 12 Pro. Once again, not bad, but also not as good as the competition. Samsung's $549 Galaxy A35 is set to get four years of operating system upgrades and five years of security, while the $849 Pixel 8a gets seven and seven.
The sheer amount of onboard storage could flip the value equation for some, however. The Reno 12 Pro has 512GB out of the box, which is pretty generous. You'll typically pay around $200 more to go from a 256GB Samsung flagship to a 512GB, so having 512GB as standard is neat for those who want to fill their phone to the brim.
On the camera front, you get a great primary lens. It shoots faster than I expected, even in low light, making it a pretty reliable camera for actually getting the shot you want. The final results look pretty nice too. You can get some clear distortion if you're shooting in really dark environments, but otherwise, there's not too much to complain about.
The ultra-wide lens is a clear step down in quality, however, and you start to lose detail and pick up camera noise even in well-lit environments. The 2x zoom lens does a decent job, however, even if 2x zoom isn't that exciting these days.
OPPO Reno 12 Pro camera samples
Check out these camera samples taken on the Reno 12 Pro. Click or tap on any photo to see a larger version.
Since it's 2022, the Reno 12 Pro naturally has some AI features. Much like Google, OPPO made its own version of Magic Eraser for editing photos. You can scribble over objects or people in your images to remove them, and as with Google, you have the same issues. While results can look okay at a glance, they rarely hold up to scrutiny.
There's also a pre-loaded AI Studio app preloaded on the phone that turns your selfies into AI-generated portraits. The resulting images have an uncanny look to them, but they're mostly harmless as a bit of fun. What's more interesting is that the app requires "stars" to use. You get 5,000 free stars when you make an OPPO account, but each image costs 10 to generate.
"Checking in" each day via the app gives you 10 extra stars (and right now you can get a bonus for checking in on consecutive days) but there's a limit to how much you can generate. It's an interesting reminder that each time you're using one of these AI features, you're costing the manufacturer. OPPO hasn't announced any plans to charge for AI features yet, but it wouldn't be surprising if this happened down the road. Samsung has very publicly said some Galaxy AI features will start costing users from the end of 2025, for example.
Lastly, the Reno 12 Pro has a little too much bloatware out of the box. It's a $999 phone, having to delete a bunch of apps like Temu and Booking.com isn't cool.
OPPO Reno 12 Pro - Final Thoughts
The Reno 12 Pro is a nice phone that doesn't quite get where it needs to be for $999. It would have been a home run at anywhere between $599 and $699, and still a solid buy at $799.
When you combine the underpowered processor, the lack of features like wireless charging and eSIM, and a shorter software life span than the competition, the Reno 12 Pro doesn't quite match the expectations I've got of a $999 phone.
That being said, unless you're a mobile gamer, I think you could buy the Reno 12 Pro and be mostly happy with how it performs, especially given the solid cameras, 512GB of storage, and excellent battery life. Once again, it's not bad! I just wish it did a little more to justify the $999 price tag.
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