The iQoo 12: A Powerful Flagship With a Focus on Performance and Imaging
The iQoo 12, the latest flagship from the Chinese smartphone maker, has arrived in India, setting the stage for a fierce battle in the premium smartphone market. The iQoo 12 is the first phone in India to sport Qualcomm’s powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, paired with the company’s own Q1 coprocessor, promising an incredible performance boost. This makes it a direct competitor to upcoming flagships like the OnePlus 12 and Xiaomi 14, both expected to launch in India shortly. But what sets the iQoo 12 apart from the competition? This review takes a closer look at the phone’s design, display, camera system, performance, and its potential for success in the Indian market.
A Luxurious and Sleek Design
The iQoo 12 comes in two stylish colourways: Alpha, featuring a black AG Glass rear panel, and Legend, which boasts a white porcelain enamel glass material. Unlike its predecessor, the iQoo 11 5G, this flagship lacks the distinctive BMW Motorsport-inspired racing stripes on the rear panel.
The phone exudes a premium feel with its flat metallic edges, smooth to the touch and complemented by a gently curved rear panel that fits comfortably in the hand. The 6.78-inch LTPO AMOLED display takes centre stage, boasting incredibly slim bezels on all sides and a peak brightness of 1,400 nits (3,000 nits in high brightness mode). This ensures that the display is easily visible even under direct sunlight.
While the large display makes the phone a bit challenging to use one-handed, the built-in feature that scales down display output to the lower corner offers a partial solution. However, using the phone with both hands will be the norm for most users.
A Triple Camera System Designed for Excellence
The iQoo 12’s triple rear camera setup, housed in a squircle-shaped camera island, takes inspiration from a submarine porthole, according to the company. The camera module protrudes slightly, with small ridges on the metal edge, but the phone remains stable when placed on a flat surface despite the off-centre camera island.
The camera system boasts significant upgrades over the iQoo 11 5G, featuring a 1/1.3-inch OmniVision OV50H sensor for capturing impressive images and videos. It also includes a 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera with a 120-degree field-of-view and a 64-megapixel periscope telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom and a remarkable 100x hybrid zoom.
Powerful Performance and Long-Lasting Battery Life
Under the hood, the iQoo 12 packs a punch with the 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, paired with up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 256GB of inbuilt storage. This combination ensures effortless multitasking and blazing fast app performance.
To power this powerhouse, the phone houses a sizeable 5,000mAh battery and ships with a charger included in the box. iQoo emphasizes the battery efficiency of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which we will put to the test in a full review.
A Competitive Price Point and a Focus on Value
The iQoo 12 comes with a transparent TPU cover offering good protection with raised edges for the screen and cameras. The box also contains a large charging brick and a USB Type-C to Type-C cable, enabling 120W fast charging. However, to activate 120W charging, a setting needs to be toggled, and the phone does get slightly warm during a full charge.
Early impressions of the iQoo 12 are positive, with the phone offering an intuitive user experience despite its high-end specifications. The phone will face fierce competition in the coming weeks from other leading smartphone manufacturers, but its relatively lower price point is likely to position it as a strong contender, delivering excellent value for its specs. We eagerly await the full review to thoroughly evaluate the iQoo 12’s performance and battery efficiency.
