iQOO 12 5G and its flagship triple cameras

What cameras I look for in smartphones

A lot of smartphones today boast a capable set of cameras since, after all, we are in the era where we’re all content creators in our own small ways — taking photos of everyday things we see. I have my personal preferences when it comes to the camera capabilities of my phone but a general, much simpler rule would be for it to have these three sensors — a nice main camera, a wide-angle, and a telephoto lens.

This is because I like taking photos in general, but I also love traveling so an ultra-wide sensor is necessary for opportunities to take epic landscape shots. To add to that, I like having a telephoto sensor since it can easily make my shots look varied and more dynamic especially when shooting people and their portraits.

iQOO 12 5G

The reason we’re talking about this is because iQOO’s latest flagship phone — the iQOO 12 5G — carries these three sensors and is backed up by the newest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 CPU.

As of writing this, there are not many phones that carry this chipset so we were excited to see what this new device could offer when it arrived on our doorstep. We took it with us and here’s our take on its cameras used in and out of the city.

Meet the three sensors

As mentioned, the iQOO 12 5G is equipped with a triple camera system. It comprises a 50-megapixel main camera, another 50-megapixel for its ultra-wide-angle sensor, and a 64-megapixel telephoto portrait lens.

The main camera boasts an OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) 2.0 which is an improved version of a physical contraption in the device that counteracts your hand’s movements to ensure camera shakes are avoided

Its ultra-wide camera features a 119-degree field of view coupled with autofocus while promising minimal distortions. On the other hand, the telephoto lens also features OIS on top of PDAF (Phase Detection Auto Focus) which captures subjects in motion better.

AI in camera performance

Before we get to the sample photos, I’d just like to point out the role its new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 CPU plays in capturing the following shots.

Qualcomm’s latest chipset is supposedly a powerhouse of artificial intelligence, fine-tuning in real-time for optimal results.

For its cameras, AI helps its Auto Mode by intelligently switching to the right and appropriate settings for the scene — all done before you hit the shutter button. And with our time with the phone, the cameras were able to properly calibrate their settings on the fly depending on the scenario at hand.

Main camera

The main camera captures impressive dynamic range even without HDR turned on as seen in the sample photo above. Even with the bright morning sun, the grass in the foreground, the trees further down, and even the ocean and sky all retained details with great clarity.

As mentioned previously, with the help of AI, the phone can quickly switch to the correct camera settings to properly capture each shot. This is evident in the above photo as it was able to set its shutter speed high. Thus, capturing water splashes in mid-air.

Telephoto and portrait

The iQOO 12’s telephoto sensor is very useful and is applicable in more than one use. First, you have your zoom lens that can get you closer to your subjects using its optic zoom so you don’t lose any clarity. Talking about this alone, it does capture sharp and detailed images using its 2x and 3x zoom.

Shot in 3x zoom | It shows that having a telephoto lens can instantly give you dramatic and better-composed shots

Switching to its 10x zoom, the camera uses digital zoom to extend to this range. Still, the images captured showed satisfying clarity. The image quality of its 10x zoom is even easily passable to upload online like social media posting.

Shot in 10x zoom

I spoke earlier of how having a telephoto lens gives you varied shots and the above photos are examples of this. Apart from just taking photos of wide FOVs, you get to play more with composition and even use a foreground to frame your subjects better.

RELATED: Telephoto cameras: what are they and why all the hype?

To further show you the effect of having different field of views, check the photos below showing how you can present one subject in multiple shots just by using its zoom capabilities. Images were shot in 0.6x (ultra-wide), 1x, 2x, 3x, 10x, and 100x.

Shot in 0.6x
Shot in 1x
Shot in 2x
Shot in 3x
Shot in 10x
Shot in 100x

As you can see, 100x zoom is rarely useable just like other phones offering this feature, and it’s more of a novelty to show off with others — at least for me. Still, you can see some details and colors were pretty accurate as well.

Another use for its telephoto lens is for portraits. By using its telephoto lens, you can shoot a person and have their background appear more interesting as it appears closer than when shooting wide. To best preserve quality, I usually just choose between 2x and 3x zoom.

To further add appeal to your photo, switch to Portrait Mode and go for 2x zoom. What you’ll get is a blurred background that makes your subject pop out more.

What I’m impressed most about the photos that came out was since the separation of the subject from the background is done digitally, the cutout is sometimes not clean and you can see overlaps in the edges — especially the hair. The iQOO 12 5G was able to do this with clean edges.

The only problem I’ve encountered so far was when shooting on Portrait Mode, the phone’s autofocus takes a bit of time to properly set its focus on the subject. The result is a hit-and-miss of portrait shots so it’s advisable to capture multiple shots to ensure you get a good shot.

Ultra-wide

For its ultra-wide-angle camera, its 119-degree field of view definitely came in handy for outdoor shoots when there’s a majestic view in front of us. distortion or that fish-eye effect is kept to a minimum so that’s a good thing.

Colors are also vibrant and its autofocus works well, especially for instances when you don’t have much time to capture a shot.

Other features

On top of those, there are also other shooting modes embedded within the Camera app like Night Mode, Slow-mo, Time-lapse, Long Exposure, and more. They do what they’re expected of them, but on top of those, there are also different Color Profile modes such as Natural, Vivid, and Textured.

Shot on Macro Mode

There’s also Macro Mode that, for me, performs above average as it produces natural-looking and clear close-up shots. From the photo above, details are easily seen and the shallow depth of field looks natural and what you’d see on dedicated and professional cameras.

Final thoughts

The iQOO 12 5G is a very capable smartphone on paper from its new and improved chipset and capable specs. But on top of those, its camera system also shows that it can keep up with systems that flagship smartphones of today have.

It’s also pretty affordable for its lineup of features. It was recently launched in India for Rs 52,999 (approx. PhP 35K) as its starting price.

The iQOO 12 features a 6.78-inch LTPO AMOLED display with a resolution of 2800×1260 and a 144Hz refresh rate. It comes with a 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB UFS 4.0 storage. Powering it is a 5000mAh battery with 120W fast charge technology.

Stay tuned for our full review.

Search
-

OPPO Find N2 Flip: What it does better than other flip phones

04/22/2023

Samsung has basically cemented its position on the top with its Flip and Fold devices but that was during a time when options were, well, pretty scarce.

But as each day passes, technology improves and I can confidently say that the OPPO Find N2 Flip does bring pretty significant improvements to the flip game.

The crowd-favorite: its large cover display

It’s really quite obvious that this is the main draw of this flip phone and among all the available folding phones on the market right now, the OPPO Find N2 has the largest cover screen at 3.2 inches.

The size makes it really really easy to navigate through the widgets and read notifications and messages. And as expected, it works incredibly well with the cameras, too. I’m also glad that it’s a really well-built screen. It’s a really good first attempt at a large cover screen for a flip phone.

Colors are vibrant, animations are smooth, and it’s pretty bright even when used under the sun.

It’s functional, too, but not as functional as I’d hoped, I’ll get to why in a bit. First, let’s talk about the things it can do.

As mentioned the large display made it easy to read notifications and you’re even given quick reply options. This works for all the messaging apps I used including Facebook Messenger and Instagram but OPPO says that it should work across a number of popular apps.

Another useful little feature the Find N2 Flip’s cover screen offers is quick toggling of commonly used settings. And you can find all of these with a single swipe down — pretty nifty when you want to quickly silence your phone, switch to airplane mode, or even access the flashlight.

Widgets are few but you do get some essentials — calendar events, a timer, wireless earphone controls, and of course, the camera. The cover display also supports animated wallpapers and even offers interactive pets. They don’t do much but they are pretty cute. I would much rather put a cute gif like this that matches this adorable moonlit purple color.

OPPO says, though, that more widgets are coming including a voice recorder and Spotify widget.

My favorite, and probably everyone’s favorite use of this screen is for the camera. With the usual form factor, rear cameras are your best bet for higher-quality photos and that’s what makes the flip factor appealing to selfie-takers — more so with the large cover display.

Apart from taking photos, you can even preview them too. I absolutely love this feature since I can instantly show my friends the photos without even opening my phone.

Now, the OPPO Find N2 Flip’s large cover display makes it easily loveable but it also became sort of frustrating — but in a sort of good way. Hear me out.

I personally came to love the cover display so much that I just ended up wanting more from it.

If it offered just a tad bit more functionality, like being able to type in replies or have social media widgets, I would be over the moon for this device but maybe that’s technology we’ll see on future foldable, I suppose.

One other thing that has me iffy over this cover screen is the extra care you’ll need to exert. I’m not the best at keeping my screen scratch-free so this is a real concern for me.

There is a screen protector pre-installed, luckily, and I would highly suggest that you keep it on as the display offers no protection against scratches.

Modern cameras suited for a modern flip

With the size and form factor of flip phones, I can see why getting flagship-level quality on cameras is a difficult thing to achieve. And it’s often one of the things that have kept me from getting a flip phone myself since I do highly value cameras.

But again, as each day passes, technology improves. And the OPPO Find N2 Flip’s cameras are definitely an improvement.

We have a dual camera setup here with the 50-megapixel main camera taking on the bulk of the work. The 8-megapixel ultra-wide does its job well enough, too, and is good support for the main camera.

In adequate light and for taking photos of people and animals, the OPPO Find N2 Flip is very very capable. That Hasselblad color tuning is a great big plus as the photos produced have well-balanced and faithful colors all around.

As a person who isn’t a fan of overly saturated images, I am very satisfied with the color science on this device.
Facial touch-ups, though a tad bit aggressive, are handled well and you won’t look overly filtered as long as you have the proper levels set.

And for fans of Pro Mode, we have the Hasselblad Professional Mode that offers support for 10-bit RAW captures and full manual control.

Overall, the cameras performed beyond what I expected especially since this is just OPPO’s second attempt at a flip phone.

But it’s not perfect. While it does very well in well-lit environments, it falls short on two things: low light and zoom quality.

Noise and artifacts are more prominent once you fall into less desirable shooting conditions. OPPO’s Marisilicon X can sometimes help in restoring lost details but, again, better lighting is the most ideal for these cameras.

For the selfie camera, it’s not surprising to see a high-megapixel shooter on an OPPO device. With the 32-megapixel shooter, you can also count on clean and detailed selfies though the same lowlight problem does exist.

But in all honestly, I rarely used the front-facing camera in my time with this device. It is a flip, after all, so I would rather use the rear cameras and that large cover display.

 

For one, quality is evidently better when you use the rear cameras and it’s easy enough to control with the cover display. Plus, it’s just fun to use and instantly impresses anyone I want to take a selfie with.

Better battery life

Another major pain point for flip phones is their battery life. With a tiny and alternative form factor from the usual brick phones, it’s unsurprising that companies are still figuring out how to make the battery bigger and last longer.

Well OPPO did its homework as the Find N2 Flip is able to pack a 4300mAh battery – the largest on a flip phone so far.

And not only that, it has 44W SUPERVOOC charging too that fetches you 50% battery in just 25 minutes.

In the real world, the phone was able to last about 6-7 hours. This was in using it for all sorts of things including taking photos and videos, killing time on social media, some email work, and all the usual daily smartphone tasks.

Still not as good as the usual phone but probably the best on a flip. And that fast charging is a welcome convenience since you will most likely have to charge before the day ends.

With these three major improvements, the OPPO Find N2 Flip becomes one of the most enjoyable flip phones to use, and dare I say it’s become my favorite so far. It still doesn’t tick all the boxes I have for my daily smartphone but it’s a great sign that flip phones are getting better and better with every release.

What else can you expect?

Before we wrap things up here, I do still want to glaze over the other noteworthy features of this flip phone.

OPPO really did its best to insert as much as it can to make this phone premium. Its main display is not only practically flagship level but the crease is also the most unnoticeable out of all the flip phones I’ve seen.

You also have a top-tier processor, a good amount of RAM, large storage, dual speakers with Dolby Atmos, and dual 5G sim support.

Another thing that makes it a bit more appealing is its price. For what the OPPO Find N2 Flip is offering, you’re getting a pretty good deal, especially when comparing it to other flip phones on the market today.

Final thoughts

Let’s head back to the question that started this video. What does the OPPO Find N2 Flip do better?

Three things: cover screen, cameras, and battery. Plus you’re getting a bunch of flagship-level specs too. Major downsides are the limited functionality of that cover screen and some heating issues but neither were problematic enough for me to really call out.

The OPPO Find N2 Flip is one heck of a good flip phone and becomes a very viable competitor to the ever-popular Samsung Flip devices. And we’re lucky enough to have it in our country.

REVIEWS