Reno12 Series review: ‘Finally, the new phone Australia needs’

A new phone has just been released in Australia that deals with some of the most common — and annoying — problems we face every day.

For years now, every new phone release has been so unsatisfying, with people expected to fork out cash for tiny, incremental upgrades to cameras, chips and batteries.

But OPPO’s new Reno12 series, launched last Thursday in Australia, is different.

OPPO has burst headlong into the artificial intelligence (AI) race in the mid-range phone market, meaning the changes are vast and comprehensive.

I’ve been testing the Reno12 Pro over the past week and this is what I learned.

The back of the OPPO Reno12 Pro features a shimmering optical illusion which gives it an aesthetically pleasing look. Picture: Supplied

Striking melted steel shimmer

The first thing I noticed was the visually striking back of the phone.

There's an optical illusion that makes the flat surface look like melted steel with a shimmer. The 3D visual effect, called Fluid Ripple Texture, takes advantage of the parallax effect, meaning it changes depending on where you view it from.

The Reno12 Pro is available in silver, gold and black.

The designers put the AI camera system — comprised of a 50MP, 8MP and 2MP — in a raised house, however the phone remains balanced in your hands.

The aesthetic is extremely attractive.

The AI revolution

Tech companies have been captured by the allure of AI since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022.

So it’s no surprise that OPPO has unveiled a raft of new capabilities in the Reno12 series.

But what’s groundbreaking is that they’re available on a mid-range phone.

There’s a lot on offer including image eraser and photo enhancements as well as AI emojis and audio and text summaries.

OPPO's AI Eraser 2.0 in action.

AI Eraser 2.0

The AI Eraser is a tool designed to rid the world of photobombers, as well as inanimate objects that disrupt an otherwise excellent photo.

It’s extremely simple to use and avoids the need for difficult Photoshop sessions.

You simply circle the person or object in the photo and the AI, which was trained on billions of public domain images, will make it disappear.

The newer AI Eraser 2.0 has a larger area of removal and has a new feature that identifies who should be in the photo, sending those pesky photobombers to the abyss. The image recognition is also much more accurate at 98 per cent.

AI Clear Face

A lot of the phone’s AI features are aimed at dealing with little annoyances.

AI Clear Face was developed to handle a bugbear that happens when people take group selfies — when someone’s face is out of focus.

To fix this, you edit the photo in your album and enable AI Clear Face, which can adjust and enhance facial features, including the hair and eyebrows, of up to 10 people.

All the editing is actually done on the Reno12 Pro device (not the cloud), so edits can be completed in just 1.8 seconds.

AI Clear Face can clean up selfies by fixing up the faces of people not in focus. Picture: Supplied

AI Best Face

AI Best Face is also aimed at fixing botched photos.

In this case, the AI can fix up serial “blinkers”.

These are the people that always seem to have their eyes closed at the exact moment a photo is taken.

It’s a great way to rescue an otherwise good photo, especially if that moment in time can’t be recreated.

Eyes wide open. Picture: Supplied

AI Studio

This is a feature I’m really excited about.

Essentially, AI Studio allows you to transform a photo of yourself into stylised digital avatar, for example turning you into a superhero.

This is great for profile photos.

You’ll also be able to invite friends to join in a group AI photo, regardless of which brand they have.

AI Studio is a great way to make a creative profile photo. Picture: Supplied Picture: Supplied

AI Toolbox

This feature is backed by Google Gemini and takes advantage of the OPPO sidebar, a pullout function on the home screen that gives you quick access to your favourite apps.

AI Toolbox essentially recognises what you’re doing and recommends the most relevant AI app.

The two most important to mention are AI Writer - which helps you write captions for social media posts, and AI Speak and AI Summary, which can summarise a news article, helping you to save time.

I tried AI Writer to help me caption a Facebook post featuring a photo of my daughter with a jam and cream scone.

After a few attempts, it came up with: “My daughter’s got the afternoon tea situation on lockdown! She’s mastered the art of the perfect scone, complete with jam and cream. Now, if only she could make me a cuppa!”

It was better than anything I could compose that day as I was suffering from a case of social media writer’s block.

AI Recording Summary

The other noteworthy AI function is AI Recording Summary.

This can make a summary of a voice recording, for example a business meeting or interview, and export it to the Notes app.

It’s based on Google Gemini and supports Chinese, English, and Hindi, with more languages to be added in the future.

I’m sure a few journos will be looking to use this one.

Note: some of the AI features weren’t available when I ran the phone through its paces, but OPPO expects the full rollout to begin in coming weeks.

The camera system is perfect for people who like to point and shoot. Picture: Suppled

More annoying things fixed

Another issue that many can relate to is how a phone can go haywire due to a raindrop or water splash on the screen.

However, the Reno12 Pro has Splash Touch, a brand new feature.

It allows you to use your phone as usual even when wet, so if you’re feeling adventurous, you can answer a call after jumping out of the shower with wet hands.

Other new things

Experts warn that using a phone too much before bed can disrupt your sleep.

OPPO’s trying to tackle that problem with Bedtime Mode, which automatically adjusts the screen’s colour temperature during the day to keep your natural melatonin levels in balance.

The phone’s also extremely resilient and its internal materials are cushioned to avoid damage when the phone is inevitably dropped.

The Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 offers good protection against every day wear and tear.

Camera

The camera system is designed to handle any situation you might encounter, with zooms ranging from 0.6x to 1x, 2x and 5x.

The main 50MB camera has a Sony LYT-600 sensor with All Pixel Omni-Directional Phase Detect Autofocus. This means all imaging pixels are usable, vastly improving auto focus.

This is music to the ears of people like me who use the phone as a point and click.

It also features optical image stabilisation, which can make the difference between a good photo and one that’s unusable.

When in selfie mode you can use AI to retouch selfies as well as achieve more realistic and natural lighting.

The Reno12 Pro charges quickly and the batter has a long life. Picture: Supplied

Battery and chip

I’ve been a huge fan of the OPPO battery and fast-charging since I first used the OPPO Find X3 in 2001.

The Reno12 Pro has a 5000mAh battery and it can be charged from 1 per cent to 47 per cent in 18 minutes using the 80W SUPERVOOC Flash Charge. It can go from 1 per cent to 100 per cent in 49 minutes.

I use my phone a lot during the day and it’s so incredibly useful to be able to give your phone a quick top-up.

It runs on the custom-designed MediaTek Dimensity 7300-Energy For Reno, a 4nm chip featuring an octa-core. Four cores are for high performance and the other four for efficiency, which OPPO says reduces power consumption.

The Reno12 Pro’s engine is the ColorOS’s Trinity Engine, which also uses AI to improve efficiency as you operate your phone.

Funnest thing

I saved the funnest feature for last — at least it was in my household, as I played “walkie talkie” with my five-year-old daughter.

The BeaconLink turns your phone into a two-way radio, thanks to an improved Bluetooth uplink capability.

You can connect two phones up to a distance of 200 metres and have a conversation off the grid.

I imagine this will be extremely useful when at a crowded music festival deep in the desert where reception is limited.

Also useful in those situations is AI Clear Voice, which can help filter out background noise.

Pricing

The Reno12 Pro retails for $999 and the Reno12 $799.

To say OPPO is sweetening the deal is an understatement.

As part of its Australian launch it’s giving people a special gift (this deal only runs from June 27 to July 25, 2024).

People who buy the OPPO Reno12 Pro will get an OPPO Watch X, valued at $699.

If you buy the Reno12, you’ll receive an OPPO Pad Neo, valued at $449.

Retailers include OPPO Australia’s Online Store, JB Hi-Fi, Officeworks and Harvey Norman

OPPO Watch X

The OPPO Watch X is launching from June 20 from the OPPO Australia’s Online Store.

Setting it up is easy, my phone actually detected I was wearing the watch and prompted me to download the OHealth app. Pairing was a breeze.

I really like the watch face design, which has an analogue look, complete with heart rate BPM.

The buttons are also well placed making the controls easy to access.

I also found the display to well-lit, making it visible in all lighting situations.

Like most smart watches, it functions as an extension of your phone and it links up to all the Google apps such as Google Assistant as well as other third party apps.

The battery is also a winner, lasting for four days on a charge. You can extend that with Power Saver Mode to 12 days.

I like the stylised watch face. Picture: Supplied

This is achieved due to the Dual-Engine Architecture, with two chipsets running on the watch.

The device runs on either the Qualcomm the Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 or the MCU (microcontroller unit), depending on what task it is doing.

Like the OPPO phones, the Watch X powers up quickly, going to full charge in about an hour.

There’s a big focus on wellness, especially your heart and sleeping health.

It supports more than 100 workout modes. Running Partner is one particularly designed for joggers and it can chart how much time you’re in contact with the ground, your balance and how will your body is vertically positioned.

Somewhat randomly, there’s a special Badminton mode for people who love that sport.

One of the best features is its ability to automatically detect when you’ve started a workout — and what activity you’re doing, for example cycling, running or swimming.

The watch also monitors your health with an eight-channel heart rate sensor and alerts for when something isn’t quite right.

You can also set up alerts and reminders when your stress level is peaking.

It also operates while you’re sleeping, giving you a report of how the night went, including alerts for sleep apnoea.

My take

The Reno12 Series is bringing AI to the masses and is an extremely competitive player in the mid-tier phone market.

These AI features are not just gimmicks, they actually deal with many common problems that plague people every day.

Finally, Australia is getting the new phone that it needs.

If you’re looking for a reasonably-priced phone that ticks all the boxes, the Reno12 Pro and Reno12 are definitely worth checking out, especially if you also need a smartwatch or tablet.

Originally published as Reno12 Series review: ‘Finally, the new phone Australia needs’