iQOO 11 series was launched in December last year with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. The USP of the phones was the price-to-performance ratio since the iQOO 11 was launched at ¥3799 (~$545), making it one of the most affordable Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 phones at the launch. Today, the iQOO 12 series was launched in China, and this time, iQOO went with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset for both phones.
There is not much difference between the iQOO 12 & 12 Pro, but what’s interesting is the pricing. Both phones have more RAM and storage in the base variants than last year, and compared to the prices of the same storage options of the iQOO 11 series, the price is lower this year. In other words, you are getting an even better value for money than last year’s models.
iQOO 12
Design-wise, the main design change this year is on the rear. iQOO 12 has a circular camera module, compared to a rectangular one on the iQOO 11. The phone also gets a periscope camera, something the iQOO 11 did not have. The sides are flat, and so is the display on the front. The phone has stereo speakers, an under-display optical fingerprint scanner, and a large vibration motor.
The display is a 6.78-inch 1.5K (2800 × 1260 pixels) AMOLED with up to 144Hz refresh rate and 10-bit color depth. The peak brightness is 3000 nits, and the panel supports 2160Hz PWM dimming.
Under the hood, there is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, paired with LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage. The phone also has the iQOO’s Q1 chip for better gaming experience.
The battery is 5,000mAh, and there is 120W fast charging.
Speaking of cameras, iQOO 12 has three on the back. The primary camera has a 50MP 1/1.3-inch OV50H sensor with OIS, the ultrawide camera has a 50MP sensor with 119-degree FOV, and the periscope telephoto camera has a 64MP sensor with f/2.57 aperture lens, 3x Optical Zoom and OIS. iQOO claims the primary sensor brings in 80.3% more light than the 50MP sensor on the iQOO 11S.
The selfie camera has a 16MP sensor with an f/2.45 lens.
The phone runs on Android 14 with OriginOS 4 on top.
iQOO 12 comes in three colors, and here is the pricing for China –
- 12GB + 256GB – ¥3999 (~$549)
- 16GB + 512GB – ¥4299 (~$590)
- 16GB + 1TB – ¥4699 (~$645)
iQOO 12 PRO
iQOO 12 Pro looks the same as the vanilla model from the rear, but on the front, the phone has a curved display. This also means the sides are not flat but curved.
And not just the curvature, but the panel underneath is also different than the iQOO 12. The Pro has a 6.78-inch Quad-HD+ Samsung E7 AMOLED display with up to 144Hz refresh rate and an ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor. The peak brightness is 3000 nits, and the panel supports 1440Hz PWM dimming.
The battery is slightly larger at 5,100mAh, and the phone supports 120W wired + 50W wireless charging.
Another notable upgrade over the vanilla model is IP68 certification, the first for an iQOO phone.
And well, that’s pretty much all that the Pro model brings over the vanilla model.
There is no change in the cameras, so the phone has the same 50MP + 50MP + 64MP setup as the vanilla model. The performance remains unchanged as well.
iQOO 12 Pro comes in the same three colors as the 12. Here is the pricing –
- 16GB + 256GB – ¥4999 (~$686)
- 16GB + 512GB – ¥5499 (~$755)
- 16GB + 1TB – ¥5999 (~$823)