OPPO announced the A12 on April 20, 2020, as an addition to its A series of mid-range smartphones. Apart from the OPPO A12, there is also the upcoming OPPO A92, A9 (2020), A31, A5 (2020), etc.

Basically, when it comes to OPPO phones, there are a few lineups including the A-series, the F series, the Reno series, the Ace series, the R series, and the Find X series. OPPO created the A series for customers of the mid-range segment while the Find X series is one of the highest-end lineups.

Starting from Rs 9,990, the OPPO A12 is much cheaper than several devices in the same lineup, such as the upcoming OPPO A92 (expected Rs 21,290), the OPPO A9 (2020) (Rs 19,990), A31 (starting Rs 12,490).

Display

This smartphone sports an IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with a size of 6.22 inches. This screen size is very common among smartphones these days as they are getting bigger and bigger for a better viewing and gaming experience.

It comes with the top-notch design, featuring a waterdrop-shaped notch at the top of the screen. Many smartphones on the market have this design as it allows for the front-facing camera while increasing space for users. Normally, the space on either side of the notch houses tiny icons for battery, connectivity indicators, or display the icons of the app with unread/unchecked notifications.

IPS, or in-plane switching, is a display technology used for LCD (liquid-crystal display) panels. It’s made to solve the major limitations of TN matrix including low-quality color reproduction and strong viewing angle dependence. IPS technology involves arranging and switching the molecules’ orientation of the liquid crystal layer between the glass substrates.

Besides the big size, the OPPO A12 also features an HD+ resolution of 720x1520 pixels, a pixel density of 270 ppi, and the maximum brightness of 450 nits. With these specifications, this phone offers a decent viewing experience with smooth and sharp images. But if you look a bit closer, you will still be able to see the pixels. It displays great brightness and contrast, making videos looks nice on the screen.

With this performance, it’s safe to say that the display of the OPPO A12 will be good with games. With an average refresh rate of 30 frames per second, this phone is nowhere nearly as good as higher-end devices, but it does let you play even intensive titles like PUBG Mobile. When you play PUBG Mobile, you can even opt for the 60Hz frame rate.

Chip

The OPPO A12 is powered by the MediaTek Helio P35 processor, a 12nm 8-core chip with quad 2.35GHz Cortex-A53 cores and quad 1.8GHz Cortex-A53 cores.

On Antutu, this chip gets 86352 points, in which 13541 points for GPU power. Though the Helio P35 is designed for entry-level devices, its gaming performance turns out much better than expected. It can handle intensive gaming titles like PUBG, but you should opt for standard settings to ensure the smooth experience in the game.

All in all, if you’re looking for a phone for gaming with an affordable price tag, the OPPO A12 can make a good choice.

Storage

When it comes to RAM and ROM, there are two options for you to choose from with this phone. The first variant is 3GB RAM with 32GB of onboard memory and the second variant is 4GB RAM with 64GB of onboard memory.

While both these variants allow for multitasking on the device, you should choose the larger RAM capacity if you value your gaming experience. A capacity of 4GB is fairly enough to run games, but 3GB would be too low.

In the gaming test, it appears that the OPPO A12 can completely offer decent gameplay for you, the graphics look quite nice and smooth. When you navigate to see the surrounding view, the device still gives a smooth change of view field. This is much better than what you may expect on an entry-level phone for under Rs 10,000.

Also, we didn’t get any reports on overheating issues with this phone, which is really good news. That means you won’t have to worry it will get extremely hot during gaming sessions, but if it does heat up when you play for long hours, remember that even the highest-end smartphones like the iPhone and the Galaxy S20 Ultra do.

Battery

The OPPO A12 packs a 4,230mAh Li-Po battery for power supply. This capacity should get you through an entire day on intensive use, and you can even get through the second day if you are a moderate user.

Testing shows that the OPPO A12 can last for 17 hours on one charge for streaming online videos. Impressive, right? However, the drawback is that it doesn’t support wireless charging or fast charging. Therefore, you will have to wait a few hours for it to be fully charged before getting back to your game, or you can let the phone charge overnight.

The good news is there is likely no overheating issues on this phone’s battery, you can enjoy a few hours of PUBG Mobile with ease.

Camera

One of the downsides of this phone in comparison with competitors in the same price range is its camera module. While rivals often have three or even four lenses on the back, this phone has only two. Specifically, there is a 13MP primary camera and a 2MP depth lens with an aperture of f/2.2 and f/2.4, respectively. There is also an LED flash, as well as support for HDR and panorama modes. You can record videos at 1080 pixels and 30 fps.

On the front, there is a single 5MP selfie lens with an f/2.0 aperture that allows for HDR mode.

As you can see, there isn’t a wide-angle lens, meaning you cannot take wide-angle shots, just standard photos like handsets from previous generations. However, as photography has long been a competitive advantage of OPPO smartphones, the OPPO A12 still gives you great daylight shots with a decent amount of detail, though the overall color looks a bit pale.