Verdict
The Oppo Reno 12 FS 5 G is a generally competent smartphone pick for your £ 300 , with a decent display , solid build timber , and becoming battery life . It fails to stand out in any one department , however , and both performance and camera character are n’t quite up to sniff .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
With phones like the Oppo Reno 12 Pro 5 K and the Oppo Find X8 Pro , the world ’s quaternary or fifth adult smartphone Lord ( it ’s in a fleck of a scrap with Vivo ) is make a renew push into Western market . The Oppo Reno 12 FS 5 G construe it taking on the £ 300 - ish price wall bracket with trademark competence .
In distinctive Oppo style , it ’s used a limited budget to cover more or less all al-Qa’ida . There ’s a decent OLED display , self-colored enough public presentation , excellent battery life , and a main camera that wo n’t have you down in good lighting . Oppo ’s software program , while still far from the best , is also fluent and true .
Of naturally , Oppo is n’t the only one doing this sort of thing . Just this yr we ’ve seen the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite 5 grand , the Poco X6 5 G , and the Motorola Moto G85 5 GiB all selling for standardized money .
All of these phones leave out the clod in certain respects , however , so there ’s an chance to stand up out from the crowd if Oppo can nail its brief .
Design
The Oppo Reno 12 FS 5 G might technically belong to the same family as theOppo Reno 12 Pro 5 G , but its basic design linguistic communication borrows more from the flagshipOppo Find X8 professional .
It ’s got the same large circular camera mental faculty , with its four ‘ Lens ’ arranged in a positive signboard formation . The most distinctive feature is a subtle annulus light that runs around those camera components , though Oppo seems ill-defined on how we should refer to it .
On the Oppo website , it ’s referred to as the Halo Light . look for that in the preferences menu , however , and that ’s nowhere to be visualise . Here the system is referred to as the Breathing Christ Within .
Whatever its name , you’re able to configure this behind - mounted closed chain brightness level to throb in special scenarios , and to output in various colours , or even mixtures of colours . These can be ascribe to separate functions , so one colour pattern for notification , another for biz , and another to play during music playback .
It ’s a slap-up differentiating factor , and could prove particularly compelling if you ’re a ‘ screen door - down , phone on mum ’ character of someone .
The rearward panel and side physique of the telephone set are all made of plastic , with a pleasing sleek finish to the former and a slimly cheap burnished destination to the latter . Both are prone to exhibiting greasy paw prints , though the rear instrument panel wears them better .
There ’s just the one gloss selection , unfortunately , but it ’s an appealingly cryptic ghost of honey oil . Oppo seems to be calling it ‘ Black Green ’ , which is a lilliputian odd , as if there was some sort of miscommunication between the press and product teams .
Around front , Oppo has cut cost by shun the Reno 12 Pro ’s 2.5D showing . There ’s the barest speck of a rounded mouth here , but it ’s essentially a flavorless screen . The surrounding bezels are moderately on the chunkier side , peculiarly the chin .
Oppo has establish its earpiece an IP64 rating . This means that it ’s a little more dust - tolerant than , and similarly slush - tolerant to , the IP54 - ratedOnePlus Nord CE 4 Liteand thePoco X6 .
With a width of 7.76 mm and a weight of 187 g , it ’s broadly militant with the rivals we ’ve mentioned above . Only theMoto G85 5Greally endure out for being both scraggy and quite a bit lighter than the rest .
The main matter to note in the Oppo Reno 12 FS 5 G ’s favour is that it feels reassuringly solid in the deal , with minimum flexing and creaking despite its all - credit card build . Oppo sport about using a “ gamey force alloy framework ” in the sound ’s construction , and I believe it .
Screen
The Oppo Reno 12 FS 5 GiB ’s display is pretty much par for the course at this price – and that ’s a expert matter . Large , bright , Full HD 120Hz AMOLED panels have become table stake in the £ 300 class .
Let ’s run through the spec anyway . Oppo ’s render you a 6.67 - inch AMOLED with a 2400 x 1080 resolution , and a maximal refresh pace of 120Hz ( though it can drop down to 60Hz ) . You also get a nice responsive maximal touch sensation sampling pace of 240Hz .
The Poco X6 video display is a little sharper , but the Oppo can hit a high peak brightness of 2100 nits . That ’s a localised measurement , which is good news for HDR content , but it ’ll also reach 1200 nit in bright sun , with a estimable distinctive brightness of 600 nit .
give the very specs and shared company ownership , I ’d depend good money that the Oppo Reno 12 FS 5 gigabyte percentage the same display as the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite . Which would also mean that it apply the same showing tech as the OnePlus 11 , one of our favourite flagship phone of 2023 .
While we ’re babble out about the synergism with Oppo ’s pigboat - sword , the Reno 12 FS 5 G ’s screen even shoot a line its translation of the OnePlus ’s Aqua Touch feature , here called Splash Touch . This ensures that the projection screen remains reactive even when it or your hands are wet .
Performance
So far I ’ve pull a brace of equivalence with the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite , but Oppo has take off from its stablemate when it comes to the Reno 12 FS 5 gee ’s performance .
rather of an ancient Snapdragon 695 chip , Oppo has gone with the MediaTek Dimensity 6300 . This is a much more modern chip , having been issue this year ( 2024 ) , but its execution really is n’t all that telling .
Indeed , in our usual cortege of benchmark tests , the Reno 12 FS score about the same as the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite in the CPU - focused Geekbench 6 tests , and measurably worse in the GPU - focus GFX Bench quiz . It also fall behind the Moto G85 5 G with its Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 and the Poco X6 with its Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 .
Where Oppo has vigorously bolstered things is with a wodge of extra Aries . You get 12 GB as measure , which helps to smooth out those app - swap tasks . It also makes the Reno 12 FS 5 G better suited to carrying out AI tasks , which are splendidly memory - hungry .
Suffice to say , though , this is n’t the phone to get if you want to indulge in a blot of 3D gaming . It ’ll bring up up and make for the the likes of of Genshin Impact and cabinet racer Wreckfest , but even on small graphical preferences they do n’t bleed very swimmingly .
You do n’t buy any £ 300 phone for its gaming chop shot , of path ( though the Poco brand form of positions itself along those channel ) . Rather , you tend to buy one hoping for a broadly speaking suave all - stave experience , and on that front , the Oppo Reno 12 FS 5 G holds its own .
It ’s not speedy by any agency , but it unlocks quickly , flits between apps and menu without too much of a protest , and generally justifies the inclusion of a 120Hz show when navigating around .
One spec deserves praise here ; Oppo has given its low-cost phone 512 GB of storage as standard , which is a fantastic provision .
Camera
The Reno 12 FS 5 G ’s camera set - up seems to be direct by a 50MP 1/2.88″ OmniVision OV50D sensor , which we ’ve quite commonly seen used in the extremist - wide and telephotograph tv camera of more able phones .
Used here as the master camera , it can produce adequate shots in ideal lighting conditions . However , I did note that it tended to shin with dynamical grasp , spoil out highlights on an remarkably cheery English autumn ’s 24-hour interval .
I quite like Oppo ’s tone , which does n’t go too vivacious or punchy . This can be dialled in further using one of its many dissimilar shot profiles .
Night barb look outright dread , however , with a truckload of metric grain and a distinct lack of detail . They ’re so bad , in fact , that I almost wonder whether the dedicated Night modality is functioning decent right now .
It seems that small sensing element , blend with a lack of OIS ( a major deletion ) means that it simply ca n’t scoop out up sufficient igniter in low - light conditions . I shot these same night barb concurrently with the Moto G75 , which be £ 40 less than the Reno 12 FS 5 deoxyguanosine monophosphate , and the comparability is not blandish for Oppo ’s phone .
Oppo has n’t managed to reiterate the Reno 12 Pro 5 G ’s expectant trick of let in a telephoto camera in a sub-£500 phone , but then the Reno 12 FS 5 one thousand is that much further south of £ 500 .
seemingly zoomed - in shots are just about usable , if already a little cushy , using the 2x hybrid zoom . Any further ( 5x or 10x ) and you ’re talking vaseline - on - lens system levels of daub .
We do n’t expect a consecrate telephotograph camera at this price , but that ’s no excuse for throwing in a pro forma 2MP macro television camera in its stead . Such a planning does no - one any good , other than as a box seat - ticktack exercise for the producer . triplex camera : baulk .
The Reno 12 FS 5 G ’s ultra - wide camera pairs a lowly 8MP example paired with a 5P lense . It turn out 112 - academic degree wide shots with a notable drib in detail compared to the main sensing element , while its handling of dynamic range also suffer further . It ’s far from the worst ultra - wide I ’ve seen though , so if you ’re captive on capturing those landscape painting shots – sharpness be damned – it ’ll do a job .
One of the Oppo Reno 12 Pro 5 G ’s good tv camera planning is a strong 50MP selfie photographic camera with autofocus , and it ’s a shame that this has n’t been carried across to the Reno 12 farad 5G. What you get alternatively is a still moderately sane 32MP fixate - focus front camera .
It can capture fair to middling selfies that might lack a little in dynamical range and robust color , but do a adequate chore with subject detail . I appreciated the fact that it take slightly wider stab by nonremittal , with the choice to crop in slimly for more conventional 1x shots .
Software
Oppo ’s ColorOS has always been one of those middle - of - the - pack Android UIs . It ’s still right smart too busy for my liking , with Google ’s tastefully hone menu and ikon bin in favour of something more brash . There ’s a split notification pane filled with toggles and sliders .
However , ColorOS is rarely less than crisp and smooth , even on cheaper phones . That ’s still the case on the Reno FS 5 gibibyte , where general seafaring through its menus remains smooth despite the relatively humble computer hardware .
It also add you with plenty of customisation options , so you may decide between gesture and practical release navigation , and between an app tray or a straight - up dwelling house screen .
The company also offers a handful of AI tools , most prominently the AI Studio app . This odd small app lets you yield stylise AI pictures ( Disco style , British expressive style , Festive Glow - Up , to name just three ) using a headshot of you or anyone you know , paid for by an in - app up-to-dateness called Stars ( but which are shaped like gems ) . It ’s all a moment weird .
Oppo also render its own musical theme Store , which lets you tailor-make the feel of your dwelling screenland through in - app payments .
There ’s a comely amount of third - company bloatware here , with the like of TikTok , Amazon , Booking.com , Facebook , LinkedIn , and AliExpress preinstalled . You also get a superfluous WWW browser app , a third - company app storage , and a bunch of poor - timbre biz .
Oppo is n’t shouting about any package update promises here , which likely means you wo n’t see any more than one or two major Android upgrades . Oppo does reveal that it ’ll supply security update until July 2027 , which is far from spectacular .
Battery Life
Oppo has supply its sound with a 5,000mAh electric battery , which is pretty received for most larger Android earpiece these days .
It produces the trade good when it follow to toughness . On a day of somewhat intensive usage , with more than 5 60 minutes of screen - on time , I was left with 39 % in the tank . On a lighter day with 3 hours and 3 proceedings of screen - on time , I was get out with just over 50 % . There ’s real two - daylight potential here , if you ’re not a particularly heavy sound user .
If you do wish to have lots of media on the go , then an 60 minutes of Disney+ streaming at 50 % concealment brightness sap 4 % of a bearing . That ’s pretty strong .
Oppo claims that the Reno 12 FS 5 yard supports 45W charging , but like an increasing number of producer , it no longer supplies say fast battery charger in the loge . This is potentially more problematic for maker like Oppo that use their own patented fast charging standard , here hollo SuperVooc .
However , with the 65W Samsung charger I had to hand , I was still able to get it from empty to 57 % in 30 mo , and to full in 70 minutes . That ’s slower than the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite with its 80W consign support , though again that requires you to supply the requisite SuperVooc courser .
It ’s also slower than the Poco X6 with its 67W charging support , and that phone include the necessary charger in the box . The Moto G85 5 G is the half-pint of the littler with its 30W charging , and again it does n’t come with a courser .
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Should you buy it?
The most unparalleled affair about the Reno 12 FS 5 G is probably its respiration light , which grants colour - rally facial expression - down notification signal .
The Oppo Reno 12 FS 5 M takes truly abominable night shot , with a standard way below its price ticket .
Final Thoughts
With a vibrant OLED display , square build lineament , and a battery that might just see you through two day , the Oppo Reno 12 FS 5 gm ticks a lot of boxes for its £ 300 asking price . Its carrying out is n’t in particular telling , however , and its photographic camera is barely adequate , with a truly frightful Night manner .
While it does n’t suffer too disadvantageously in any one section ( Night shoot away ) , nor does the Oppo Reno 12 FS 5 G stand out in any particular fashion . There are several other telephone set costing about the same money with like attributes , and many of them offer at least one middle - catching element .
Indeed , this might be an issue with this particular sub-£300 category as much as the earpiece itself . Spending just a fraction more money add in phones like theMoto Edge 50 Fusion , which offers much more to get aroused about .
If you ca n’t afford a centime over £ 300 , and you ca n’t discover any offering on slightly more expensive and way more accomplished phones , the Oppo Reno 12 FS 5 gigabyte is n’t a bad wager . But those feel like some reasonably great ifs .
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How we test
We try every wandering telephone we review thoroughly . We use industry - standard tests to compare features properly and we practice the phone as our main gimmick over the review period . We ’ll always narrate you what we find and we never , ever , accept money to reexamine a merchandise .
Find out more about how we test in ourethics policy .
FAQs
No , you ’ll need to supply your own charger .
It should last at least a day , and more potential two years if your usage is relatively light .