DEC 14, 2023
NimishAndAkriti
We keep hearing that phones are getting more expensive, so it becomes a heck of a surprise when a brand suddenly releases a flagship at a price that is lower than that of its predecessor. Lower? Make that MUCH lower. And with MUCH better specs too, Well, iQoo has gone and done just that with the iQoo 12. This is the first phone to be released in India with the top of the line Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, And it comes at a pleasantly surprising price!
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A Vivo sub-brand, iQoo is a little like OnePlus in terms of its strategy - great specs, good design and a price that is relatively low. The iQoo 12 has a very very premium, flagship class design with Fluorite AG glass on the back which shines and shimmers when light falls on it, and a squoval camera unit with a slightly grooved metal border, which looks rather stylish. You get an aluminium frame with straight sides and a front dominated by a tall display.
It is a magnificent display too - a 6,.78 inch AMOLED one with FHD+ resolution with 144 Hz refresh rate and a brightness of a staggering 3000 nits! The other specs are impressive too - the first phone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor (the best on Android right now) and RAM and storage configurations of 12 GB/ 256 GB and 16 GB/ 512 GB. It is LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage too - this thing is made for speed and gaming!
There is some serious camera muscle onboard as well. That squoval camera unit on the back houses a 50 MP main camera with OIS, a 50 MP ultrawide, and a 64 MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom. We are particularly interested in the telephoto as iQoo says it can actually zoom upto 10x without any loss of quality. You also get stereo speakers on board and the phone runs on Android 14, albeit with a slightly crowded FunTouch OS on top!
The phone runs on a large 5000 mAh battery and comes with support for 120W FlashCharge, and a 120W charger in the box as well. It is supposed to charge that battery in under half an hour! Some might want a quadHD display and some others might mutter about the absence of wireless charging, but we think no matter which way you look at it, the iQoo 12 is one spec-packed heavyweight with a premium design. And now to THAT price!
iQoo had launched the iQoo 11 at Rs 59,999 for 8 GB/ 256 GB last year. As prices have been rising, we expected the iQoo 12 to be priced around that much...or more as the base variant is 12 GB/ 256 GB and has better specs. We DID NOT EXPECT it to start at Rs 52,999 for 12 GB/ 256 and come with a 16 GB/ 512 GB variant at Rs 57,999.
For context, the OnePlus 11 still retails at Rs 56,999 and the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE at Rs 59,999, with inferior specs!
That price ensures that the iQoo 12 is likely to be one of our favourite flagships not just right now, but also for some time to come. That processor is going to be used by most flagships in the coming months and not many will be able to match that price. Its brnad might sound a little odd (iQoo stands for "I quest on and on"), but we really think this is THE phone for anyone with a budget of about Rs 50,000!
(Ping us with your queries - we WILL answer)