If you are in the market for a stylish and lightweight smartphone with some features tailored toward social media, the Oppo Reno12 series might be the right choice. However, with only a few differences between the Reno12 Pro and the vanilla Reno12, one would wonder which is the better value for money.
In fact, the Reno12 Pro and the Reno12 are almost identical devices. What the extra few bucks for the Pro will give you a dedicated 2x zoom camera with pretty nice portrait photography capabilities and a better selfie camera too. But other than that, the standard Reno12 is indistinguishable from its more expensive sibling.
Still, we explore the potential hidden differences in the following article as the devil is often in the details.
Table of Contents:
For starters, you can compare the complete specs sheets or directly continue with our editor’s assessment in the following text.
Size comparison
When it comes to size and design, the two handsets are practically twins. The Reno12 Pro and Reno12 weigh the same, have the same dimensions and look and feel the same. The differences are negligible, to say the least.
However, on the front, the Reno12 Pro boasts the highest tier Gorilla Glass available – that’s Victus 2 – whereas the Reno12 settles for Gorilla Glass 7i. Gorilla Glass 7i is relatively new, so we don’t have much experience using it in real life yet. The rest of the build is plastic.
The ingress protection is rated IP65 for both of them.
You might want to check out the two colorways of our review units, but differences are once again very minute.
Display comparison
There’s absolutely no difference in the display quality, size or features between the two phones. The Reno12 is lifted straight from the Reno12 Pro and the brightness tests we did corroborate that.
The Reno12 Pro and the Reno12 can boost up to almost 1,000 nits in auto mode and offer 120Hz refresh rate, 10-bit color depth and support HDR10+ video content.
Battery life
Perhaps it’s no surprise that the Reno12 Pro and Reno12 have the same exact battery life. After all, the duo shares the same display, chipset, software and battery capacity – 5,000 mAh.
In both cases, battery endurance is excellent – 14:54h vs. 14:53h Active Use Scores probably owing to the power-efficient Dimensity 7300-Energy chipset.
Charging speed
Neither of the Reno12 duo has an appropriate charger in the box, but both support up to 80W via a wire using Oppo’s proprietary 80W SuperVOOC charging tech. This ensures speedy charging and a full charge from a flat battery within just 46 minutes.
Notably, a Power Delivery-capable charger can charge the Reno12 and Reno12 Pro almost as fast. We tested it using a 100W brick and got similar results but a slightly slower charge to 100%.
Speaker test
Unsurprisingly, we didn’t find any significant difference in the stereo speakers too. The two devices share the same hybrid speaker setup and, as a result, are equally loud and offer the same sound quality.
Speaking of, we would have appreciated a fuller sound with nicer bass and less distortion at higher volumes.
Performance
You won’t find any difference in the performance department either. The Reno12 Pro and Reno12 share the same Dimensity 7300-Energy SoC. The “Energy” bit is supposedly Oppo and MediaTek’s joint effort to make the chip as power-efficient as possible. And judging by the battery life results, they seem to have achieved that.
Memory configurations don’t differ either. The two smartphones offer either 12GB/256GB or 12GB/512GB memory. In both cases, you will be getting UFS 3.1 storage.
Benchmark performance
Camera comparison
The biggest difference between the Reno12 Pro and the Reno12 is the camera hardware. The former offers a dedicated 50MP 2x zoom camera (f/2.0, 1/2.75″) on top of the 50MP main camera (f/1.8, 1/1.95″), which both devices share. They also share the same 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera. The Reno12 settles for a 2MP macro shooter instead of the 2x optical zoom snapper.
The Reno12 Pro also gets a better selfie camera – 50MP one (f/2.0, 1/2.75″), whereas the Reno12 gets a 32MP front-facing cam (f/2.0, 1/3.1″). Notably, both selfie solutions offer autofocus, so kudos for that.
Image quality
Given the mostly identical camera hardware, chipset and ISP as well as software, it’s no surprise that we couldn’t find any difference in the photo samples during the day or after dusk. Both handsets offer identical performance in both scenarios.
Reno12 Pro: 0.6x • 1x • 2x
Reno12: 0.6x • 1x • 2x
However, the Reno12 Pro has a slight edge over the vanilla with its dedicated 2x zoom camera. The Pro is able to produce better-looking stills as they are more detailed, slightly sharper and noise-free.
Reno12 Pro: 0.6x • 1x • 2x
Reno12: 0.6x • 1x • 2x
On the other hand, the difference isn’t striking, so if you are mostly using your phone for casual social media posting and looking at your pictures on the device’s screen, we believe the Reno12 would do the job just fine.
The same cannot be said about the selfies, as the Reno12 Pro is the clear winner here. It delivers considerably sharper and more detailed selfies. The difference is quite big mainly because the Reno12 insist on producing camera samples which are seemingly upsized to 32MP from a lower resolution (our best guess is 8MP as it’s a Quad Bayer sensor).
Reno12 Pro selfies
Reno12 selfies
Video quality
While there are some nuances when it comes to photos, there are none when it comes to video recording capabilities. Both devices deliver identical-looking footage with all the cameras on the back.
Reno12 Pro: 0.6x • 1x • 2x
Reno12: 0.6x • 1x • 2x
One would expect the Reno12 Pro to have superior 2x zoom videos, but as it turns out, it resorts to cropping from its main camera when recording videos. That’s why you won’t find any difference between the Reno12 Pro’s and Reno12’s 2x zoom clips.
Verdict
The price gap at launch between the Reno12 Pro and the Reno12 is €100, but that gap has narrowed since the release. As it currently stands, the Reno12 is around €50-70 cheaper, so the logical thing to do is probably get the Pro version as it’s the more capable handset for just a little bit more out of your pocket.
However, the feature disparity between the two devices is so small that you get practically the same user experience from the Reno12 at a lower price. It has the same display, battery life, speakers, charging, design, chipset and camera experience, for the most part. You only stand to gain marginally better 2x zoom stills with the Reno12 Pro and markedly better selfies. Other than that, the Reno12 will get you about 95% there at a lower price.
- The dedicated 2x zoom camera.
- The much better selfies.
Get the Oppo Reno12 Pro for:
- The lower price.
- Largely the same camera and user experience.
Get the Oppo Reno12 for:
