Since the achievements of ChatGPT in 2022, AI has been on everyone’s lips and all projects. Oppo is no exception to the rule with its Reno 12 Pro. But does this new “AI phone” really live up to its ambitions? We tested this mid-range at €599 for a week. Here’s our verdict on its practical innovations and supposedly game-changing AI features.
It will not have escaped you that everyone likes to talk about artificial intelligence since the generative prowess of ChatGPT in 2022. Any company, especially if it is linked to new technologies, must place the letters IA (or AI in English) in its projects and products. The Chinese Oppo is no exception to the rule with the imminent release of the Reno 12 Pro, whose official launch RTL info was able to follow in June. Is this first AI phone from Oppo opportunistic, or full of practical new features? After a week of use, here is our verdict.
Oppo Reno 12 Pro, a mid-range at €599 with huge storage space
Before we talk software, let’s talk hardware. The Reno series accounts for a large portion of Oppo’s sales worldwide. I have fond memories of the Reno 4 (thin, sleek, and with a textured back) and the Reno 8 (bold color and design). THE look of the Reno 12 Pro, however, does not make me dream, I find it quite ordinary with its rectangular two-story sensor island, the optics sticking out slightly. Special feature of my ‘Nebula Black’ test version: the back is made of matte “polycarbonate” (plastic) on the top, shiny on the bottom. A little aesthetic audacity that is rather successful, although quite discreet.
The chassis is also made of plastic, which can give a very mid-range effect. It is on the inside that Oppo is generous, especially with the Pro version available in Belgium: 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of internal storage, which is rare for mid-range (the iPhone 15 starts at 128 GB and you have to add €400 to get 512!). The rest of the technical sheet is more logical, with concessions on charging (no wireless, no charger included despite support for 80W in-house SuperVOOC), on waterproofing limited to IP65 (already not bad) and of course, at the level of the chip (a customized MediaTek Dimensity, called 7300-Energy and engraved in 4 nm): it is not the fastest of the year, but it offers practically 2 days of autonomy. Photo side, it’s not bad for the price: even if we are a notch below the tenors, we have 50MP stabilized at the back, and another 50MP for zoom (2X optical, 20x digital). Only the 8MP ultra-wide-angle optics are a little disappointing.
AI, where are you?
Oppo promet “a suite of revolutionary generative AI capabilities” in the Reno 12 series, and some of them are linked to a partnership with Gemini, Google’s generative AI. It is also difficult to know the nature of the deal between Google and Oppo, because the first provides transparent and integrable AI solutions, but the second, potentially, provides valuable text and image data for training the AI model. .
The most spectacular AI features are related to photo editing, as is often the case. However, the Chinese is far from being the first with his AI Eraser (which he developed himself): Google has offered its magic eraser in its Photos application since 2021, which allows you to delete elements or people present in a photo. Oppo’s version allows you to immediately remove all “unwanted” people from a photo and replace them with images generated based on the present decor, with relative success (the generation can be surprising and not natural enough):
Other AI features of the Reno 12 are not not all usable in our region, alas (for the moment). When you take a group photo, a special icon appears at the top right, allowing you to access the AI Clear Face and AI Best Face options. On the menu: improvement of the image at the level of the faces and, if several photos have been taken one after the other, merging so that everyone has their eyes open (for example). Options which are not revolutionary – Google and Samsung have already been offering them for months – but which can prove useful from time to time. However, they were not available at the time of writing this article. The most exotic AI Studio analyzes a portrait and then completely transforms it in terms of the background and the face (gimmicky but fun). It will be available in August, I was told, but I was able to try it out first. It gave quite surprising results after a few seconds of generation, sometimes adding hair:
Other AI features are explicitly linked to Gemini: this involves the analysis of text or audio, in order to produce written or oral summaries. THE AI Writer, AI Speak, AI Summary et AI Recording Summary (the latter concerns the audio recorder) however only work in English, Chinese and Hindi (language spoken in India, a country where Oppo is very successful). An Oppo spokesperson confirmed to me the availability of all languages “in the near future”. My first try with an article in English and the summary of the web page, which you request from the side menu, was shaky: the “Google+Oppo” AI only mentioned the site’s cookie policy web, and not the content of the page:
Conclusions
It is therefore difficult, at present, to recommend this Oppo Reno 12 to you (599€ in its Pro version) if you are looking for an AI-powered smartphone. Its AI functionalities are currently limited in terms of languages and/or availability, and they are not revolutionary: Google especially, Samsung a little less, have been offering the same thing for more or less a long time (for example, for €609, it there is the very scalable Pixel 8A in 256 GB version). Also note that in August, Google should present new smartphone models (the Pixel 9), and that the iPhone 16, during next fall, should include all the Apple Intelligence features recently presented by the brand at the apple. In short, if you are really looking for AI on a smartphone, it is probably not the Oppo Reno 12 that you should look for, the Chinese manufacturer having obviously rushed a little into the frantic race for it. artificial intelligence.
Oppo’s Reno 12 Pro nonetheless remains a relevant choice in the mid-range for its photography capabilities (there is a telephoto lens for zoom without loss of quality), its wasp size (7.4 mm thick, 180 g), its very generous storage (512 GB! ) and for the long life of its battery, always guaranteed for 4 years by the manufacturer.
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