Phone Review: The OPPO Reno 12F 5G Phone With Advanced AI Capabilities

The new OPPO Reno 12F 5G is a great entry into their mid-range smartphones. It’s designed to give smartphone users an enhanced experience. It has advanced features like AI capabilities to increase productivity and boost creativity. Whether you’re a casual user or a tech-savvy person, the OPPO Reno 12F has great features for its consumers. From its signal booster features to its long-lasting battery, OPPO has ensured the Reno 12F 5G remains a world-class smartphone.

Unboxing

The OPPO Reno 12F 5G has minimalist packaging to reduce waste and remain sustainable. It contains the following:

• The OPPO Reno12F 5G device.
• A 54W fast charger.
• A USB Type-C to Type-A cable.
• The SIM ejection pin.
• A user manual.
• A protective body case.

Design

The OPPO Reno 12F has a brand new Cosmos ring design inspired by classic wristwatches. The cameras are designed to look like a watch face giving it a luxurious feel. It’s also lightweight and slim at around 190g and 7.69mm thick. It’s comfortable to hold in the hand and light to carry when you need to be on your phone for most of the day.

This phone is pretty to look at. We got the phone whose rear case is Amber Orange, inspired by the 2024 colour of the year—peach fuzz. If you like bright colours, this is the option for you.  It’s also available in Olive Green with a luxurious dark finish if you prefer darker colours. In addition, it has ambient lighting around its Cosmos Ring known as the halo light. It activates when you charge the phone or play music.

The phone also has a new All-Round Armour Structure. The screen is made with Corning® Gorilla® Glass 7i to protect against drops (so you don’t have to worry about accidents) and dust. The glass screen remains dust, fingerprint, and water-resistant even when you use it outdoors a lot. This ensures the device is well-protected against falls, pressure, and water. The openings like speakers, SIM card trays, and USB-C ports are reinforced to make them waterproof.

The OPPO Reno12F 5G has an IP64 rating for water and dust resistance. It also won a 5-star approval rating from the SGS Performance Multi-Scene Protection Testing. It is surrounded by OPPO’s High-Strength Alloy Framework. Internal components are protected from shock from a drop by Sponge Bionic Cushioning. When the phone falls from your grip, the internal components don’t break.

Display

When I use the phone, it doesn’t lag when I scroll, select buttons, or switch between tabs. This is because the AMOLED screen has a fast refresh rate of 120Hz. The screen is also very bright to ensure you don’t miss any details when you take pictures in night settings or are watching a low-contrast video.

The OPPO Reno12F 5G is also equipped with an AI Brightness feature that automatically adjusts the brightness depending on your environment. For instance, if you’re watching a video in the dark, it will lower the brightness and when you’re out in the sun, it’s as bright as possible to make sure you don’t miss anything.

The screen also comes with Splash Touch which makes sure that you don’t tap what you don’t intend to even with wet fingers.

Even after using the phone all day, I didn’t feel very tired when going to bed. The phone has Smart Eye protection ensures that it reduces blue light emissions to reduce the effects of glare on your eyes. In addition, a new screen temperature curve adjusts the phone’s display depending on the sunrise and sunset times.

Sound 

When using the phone to listen to music over Bluetooth, it can let you take calls while letting music continue playing. This is because the phone uses Holo Audio technology which keeps different audio sources in their own space. You can also take calls in the middle of listening to GPS instructions.

The Ultra Volume Mode also lets you increase the volume by up to 300% which is great for videos with low volume. Dual Stereo Speakers. The OPPO Reno 12F has dual stereo speakers which allows you to have an immersive audio experience, which is great for people like me who love to use our phones to watch movies or watch YouTube videos. This is also great for gamers and people who listen to podcasts. This was a feature I loved.

AI features

1. AI Recording Summary

When attending an event like a seminar, this tool is amazing. It lets you record the whole thing then this feature extracts key points from the recording and makes summaries. They are exported to the Notes app where specific templates are highlighted to boost your productivity. For example, if your recording had to-do lists, dates, and locations, these are pointed out for you. This feature can currently convert speech to text in Chinese, Hindi, and English.

As a content creator who attends a lot of meetings, I found this to be a great tool to use to summarize recordings of events and also my own audio notes.

2. AI Toolbox

This is built by Google’s Gemini and Microsoft Azure. The toolbox recommends different AI functions based on what you’re doing with the phone.

• AI Writer: This helps you come up with social media posts or replies. It’s similar to the way Gmail offers replies when you open an email. However, it’s more intuitive like ChatGPT.
• AI Summary: This works great if you’re having a busy day. If you want a cursory look at the news or an email, Summary gives you a brief of what you’re looking at.
• AI Speak: This feature is great if you can’t sit down to read something. It reads content aloud and lets you customise the voice, and playback speed, allows you to pause, and acts like an audiobook.

To use all AI features, you need to make sure the phone is updated to its latest system version. I had to update this because the review phone needed a software update.  To confirm this, go to Settings. Under Settings, select About device. You’ll see the name of the operating system, ColorOS. Click on the button showing the OS and it will open a window letting you know if there are updates available. When you’re connected to WiFi and your battery level is above 20%, you can then install the updates. The phone will reboot to ensure the updates are fully installed and you can then use all the AI features.

Camera

The OPPO Reno 12F enhances photography with the Ultra-Clear Camera System. This comes with a 50MP main camera, a 2MP macro camera for close-range photos, a 112° 8MP ultra-wide lens camera, and a 32MP selfie camera. The rear camera also has an open-loop focus motor. The rear camera can also shoot videos with 1080p resolution with a frame rate of 60fps. Photo, Video, Night, Pro, Pano, Portrait, Time-lapse, Slo-mo, Text scanner, Extra HD, Sticker, and Google Lens.

The phone’s camera is enjoyable when taking portraits regardless of where you are. It’s an improvement from previous Reno Series cameras. The OPPO Reno12F 5G contains a Sony LYT600 primary lens for its 50MP main camera and a 2MP macro camera that captures images in high definition even in low light. It also makes them look naturally lit and very clear. Daylight photos have a balanced colour profile and reduced noise.

In Portrait mode, the camera automatically adds a bokeh effect to make your portraits look professionally done. Details are also clearer.  The 112° 2MP ultra-wide-angle camera is great for taking panoramic shots and wide-angle views when you spot a beautiful landscape.

The 32MP selfie camera has many zoom lengths like 0.8x or 1.0x to ensure you capture your face at the most flattering. The stabilisation feature also removes shaking errors from captured photos or videos. You can experiment with this and see what works or you.

The camera has the following modes:

• Night Mode: This works great when you’re taking photos at night or in low-light areas like a club.

• Ultra-Wide Mode: When you’re taking a group picture or a landscape shot, this mode helps capture everything without needing to move backwards to get everything in the frame.
• Portrait Mode: This helps capture stark pictures with an automatic bokeh effect and gives subjects more clarity.
• AI Scene Recognition: This automatically changes settings based on the background of your image.

• Pro Mode: This is great for people who want to play with the settings for more professional photography.

The camera also has AI features such as AI Portrait Retouching to add more vivid effects to your shot. The Natural Tone feature also allows you to adapt the lighting settings to match the skin tones of the people in the shot. It recognizes features in images, including different skin tones and ambient lighting. This ensures that you will have more true-to-life skin tone in individual selfies and group photos.

Another AI camera feature is the AI Eraser 2.0. This lets you remove unwanted people or objects from your photo. It comes with three settings. The Lasso Effect lets you draw around the person or object you want to remove. The AI Eraser recognise the subject, erases it then fills the area with the background. This makes sure there’s no weird residue and leaves the photo looking natural. Sometimes this tool works well on the first attempt but sometimes you have to try it a couple of times to get it right.

The OPPO Reno 12F AI Eraser in action 

The second one is known as the Paint Over option. This lets you draw over objects on the screen with a brush. Once you’ve deleted the object, your photo looks as good as new.

The final setting is the People Remover setting. This lets you remove crowds to let you capture a moment alone. It works best when your portrait is taken in bright lighting but can also work for darker photos. It helps remove crowds from the background and only leaves the location behind.

AI Studio is another photo feature in the OPPO Reno12F 5G. It allows you to change a candid photo into an avatar you can use as a fun profile picture. Using generative AI, it allows you to change your photo into an animated character like a cowboy or space traveller.

Using the OPPO Reno 12F AI Studio to create fun photos for profiles. 

This is a great feature which sadly did not work well for us even using different pictures.

When it works it works well like the pictures below of Flaqo who you can recognise. This is one of the features where I think the AI might have a bias towards white people.

AI Smart Image Matting 2.0 allows you to cut out objects from a group photo like an errant hair. It also lets you cut out up to three subjects in a photo to use as a sticker.  Do you have a loved one who was not in a family photo? No problem. This makes it easier to add missing loved ones to group shots. You can use this feature to add your loved ones or friends to a group photo in which they were missing.  Remember to update your phone to its latest OS version to access these features.

The OPPO Reno 12F captures natural 4K video on the front or rear cameras, giving deeper detail, greater sharpness to your shots, and more realistic colour output. You are able to capture steady and high-detail videos because of the stabilising and zoom modes. One of my favourite features is the slow-motion feature and the time-lapse feature. The timelapse feature on the camera allows you to record long videos at a faster pace and make it seem like they’re happening in a moment. This also enables creatives to compress long videos into a watchable time.

Battery

The OPPO Reno12F 5G runs on a 5000mAh battery that can last almost two days on regular use when fully charged. In standby mode, it can last up to three weeks (21 days). When I let the phone die, it recharged to 100% in a little over an hour. This phone has 45W SUPERVOOCTM Flash charge so it can charge 14% battery in just 5 minutes. If you are in a hurry and your phone has no charge, you don’t have to worry, the battery will go from 1-24% in 10 minutes and in 71 minutes (slightly over an hour) your phone will be fully charged at 100%.

This is good news for phone users, as this battery can maintain optimal performance for over four years of normal use because of its targeted optimizations.

Processor 

The phone also runs on a MediaTek Dimensity 6300 processor. This means it remains efficient even in high-load situations. When taking video calls and having to read documents on other windows, the phone didn’t hang. It’s very easy to multitask. It has 12GB of RAM with 512GB of internal memory. It also has RAM expansion technology that converts 12GB of unused internal memory into RAM. The OPPO Reno12F 5G also comes with 12GB+256GB and 8GB+256GB models.

OPPO’s exclusive hardware platform, the Trinity Engine, boosts the phone’s operational smoothness. When you don’t use apps, the phone compresses them. It also removes duplicate files and can keep your phone decluttered. The phone runs on an Android 12 and ColorOS 12 operating system.

ColorOS 12 has a dashboard that controls app permissions and data usage. Instead of scrolling through the app drawer, the phone has a Smart Sidebar that holds your most used apps. It has a Quick Return Bubble that lets you switch between apps. And finally, it has FlexDrop which lets you use other apps as mini windows for multitasking.

Connectivity

The OPPO Reno12F 5G keeps you connected even in areas with little to no network or when it’s too busy to have a fast connection. When you travel to a distant location or are in a building with dead zones, you can remain in touch with your friends. It has a 360-degree surround antenna. There’s no lag even when you tilt your phone when playing a game or on a video call.

AI LinkBoost boosts connectivity by making the phone switch between networks without causing any delays in what you’re doing. If you’re in a crowded network, it reduces buffering making it easier to send or watch videos. One of the challenges of being in a crowd at social events is how many people are using the network while you are trying to share your pictures and videos. You can get frustrated because the network gets congested and your videos are not uploading. Thanks to AI LinkBoost, you can be able to share your videos because it can increase video sharing by 12% and reduce buffering time by 17%. No Wi-Fi? No problem. AI LinkBoost supports switches from Wi-Fi dead zones to data networks every fast. This will be completed in 43% less time than previously possible. At one point when my WiFi was down, it switched to mobile data so fast I didn’t notice any significant lag.

You also don’t have to worry about getting lost when relying on online maps because this phone has higher Google Maps accuracy.

BeaconLink boosts the power of your phone’s Bluetooth to ensure you remain connected to others even in a network dead zone. You can still send data with your OPPO Reno12F 5G on Bluetooth for a distance of up to 200m. The Bluetooth one-to-one call feature makes it easier to handle communication in a dead zone so you don’t have to worry in case of an emergency.

NFC (Near Field Communication) technology lets you access your digital wallets by tapping the upper part of the front, back, or top of the phone to an NFC reader.

The AI features make this phone an excellent buy. As somebody who loves taking photos and videos and also uses the phone as my main device for media, I found this phone to be an excellent phone to buy.

The OPPO Reno12F 5G price

The OPPO Reno12F 5G is available for pre-order from August 23, 2024, to September 1, 2024. The Reno12F 5G is retailing at Ksh. 49,999. 

It’s available to purchase on the OPPO Kenya site, LOOP, and physical stores countrywide. Customers who pre-order any Reno12 Series phones using their LOOP card or the LOOP app will get Ksh. 6,000 cashback and a special gift.

OPPO Reno12F 5G Specs

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