Oppo Reno 12 Pro Manish Malhotra Edition Review: Art Meets AI

The Oppo Reno 12 Pro Manish Malhotra Edition price is Rs.36,999 in India. It is available in a single 12GB RAM and 256GB storage variant.

The phone is available for purchase on Oppo India website in Diwali Gold color.

The Oppo Reno 12 Pro Manish Malhotra Edition packs the following items inside the box:

• Phone
• Case
• Charger
• Cable
• SIM Ejector
• Manual

Before we talk in detail about the device, let’s see what the on-paper specs look like:

• Display: 6.7 inch SUPER AMOLED with 120Hz refresh rate
• Chipset: MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Energy
• RAM & ROM: 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 12GB RAM
• Software: ColorOS 14 based on Android 14
• Rear camera: 50MP+50MP+8MP
• Selfie camera: 50MP
• Battery: 5,000mAh
• Weight: 180 grams
• Dimensions: 161.5 x 74.8 x 7.4 mm

The design is the main highlight of the Oppo Reno 12 Pro Manish Malhotra Edition, and you get a unique flowery pattern etched on the phone’s back. Oppo claims the phone was designed in collaboration with designer Manish Malhotra, and it does have an eye-catching design.

Furthermore, the phone has a matte finish on the back and an Oppo as well as an Manish Malhotra branding at the bottom. I have the Diwali Gold color of the Oppo Reno 12 Pro Manish Malhotra Edition for review, the only color available in this limited edition. The golden flowery pattern does set it apart from the regular edition of the phone.

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To help you showcase the design, the box includes a transparent case that covers all the patterns and has a pretty good grip finish. Despite the large screen, you can easily hold it in one hand thanks to the 7.4mm thickness and 180 grams of weight.

The design shines under bright light and Oppo claims it is a representation of our tradition as you get a golden coloured wallpaper with it. You get a traffic light camera module on the back that houses the triple camera setup.

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Coming to ports and placements, you get the volume and power buttons on the right while the left remains clean.

At the top, you will find the secondary microphone, speaker grille, and IR blaster.

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Similarly, there is the USB-C port and the SIM tray on the button apart from the speaker grille.

The Oppo Reno 12 Pro Manish Malhotra Edition has a triple camera setup on the back, similar to the regular variant. You get a 50-megapixel primary camera, a 50-megapixel telephoto lens, and an 8-megapixel ultrawide angle sensor.

During the day, the phone can take amazing photos with plenty of saturation and detail. Furthermore, the photos are sharp enough and have wide contrast. The 50-megapixel 2x telephoto sensor works as expected, although I would have preferred at least 3x or 5x to make it a bit meaningful.

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During my review of the Oppo Reno 12 Pro Manish Malhotra Edition, I enjoyed taking photos as I went to cover the Xiaomi event at the Indian Mobile Congress. The 8-megapixel ultrawide angle lens came in handy in situations where I had to fit wider objects, such as Qualcomm’s infotainment system for cars.

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When it comes to low light shots, the Oppo Reno 12 Pro doesn’t disappoint and can take exceptional shots even without the night mode. Although the phone tends to boost the contrast unnecessarily, which blows out the highlights, the end result is still usable.

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The 50-megapixel selfie camera can also take good selfies with plenty of sharpness and dynamic range. You can record videos at 4K at 30 FPS from the front as well as the rear cameras. There are also AI features present, which I will discuss in detail in the software section.

The Oppo Reno 12 Pro Manish Malhotra Edition packs a large 5,000mAh battery that can easily last an entire day. My usage included scrolling through social media apps, watching YouTube videos and TV shows, clicking several photos, and playing games.

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The Oppo Reno 12 Pro Manish Malhotra easily lasted me an entire day during the review period. Thanks to the 80W SUPERVOOC charger in the box, you can top up the phone to 100 per cent in just 40 minutes.

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Unfortunately, there is no wireless charging support which is a bummer given the high price of the phone.

The Oppo Reno 12 Pro Manish Malhotra Edition boasts a 6.7-inch Full-HD+ AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. You get a quad-curved panel, meaning the display is curved from all four sides, giving it a flat-like feel.

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There is a center punch hole cutout in the middle and relatively slim bezels on all four sides. Furthermore, the phone has Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 for protection and a pixel density of 394ppi.

The screen has bright and punchy colors with all the bells and whistles that you expect from a phone in this price range. It is perfect for consuming content, and I enjoyed watching The Penguin on JioCinema during my review of the Oppo Reno 12 Pro Manish Malhotra Edition.

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The screen has a peak brightness of 1200 nits and is bright enough for outdoor usage. During my recent visit to the Indian Mobile Congress on a sunny afternoon, I had no trouble using the phone outdoors.

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Thanks to the 120Hz refresh rate, navigating through the user interface remains smooth and fluid. You can choose between Standard (60Hz) and High (120Hz) with the ability to run apps at a specific refresh rate.

For audio, you get stereo speakers with an earpiece doubling up as the earpiece which makes it loud enough for daily usage. In addition, there is an in-display fingerprint sensor for security.

The Oppo Reno 12 Pro Manish Malhotra Edition is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Energy processor paired with 12GB of RAM. This is the same processor used on much cheaper phones like the CMF Phone (1) and the Motorola Edge 50 Neo.

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The phone remained smooth and fluid during day-to-day usage. You also get support for virtual memory up to 12GB.

Coming to more demanding tasks like gaming, it can play BGMI at 60 FPS (Smooth and Extreme) while CODM remains playable at similar 60 FPS (High and Max). Thankfully, I did not face any heating issues during my review of the Oppo Reno 12 Pro Manish Malhotra Edition.

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However, you can expect much better performance in this segment as there are phones with Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 and 8 Gen 2 that can deliver 120 FPS in both titles.

Regarding benchmarks, the phone scores 638692 in the AnTuTu benchmark, which is way less than other phones in this price range. Similarly, it has throttles to 65 per cent in the 15-minute CPU throttling test, which is average at best. The phone scored 552 in single-core and 2025 in the multi-core Geekbench benchmark.

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To sum up, if you are a gamer or want the best possible performance, then the Oppo Reno 12 Pro isn’t for you. There are way more powerful phones in this same price range, like the Poco F6, Vivo T3 Ultra, and the iQOO Neo 9 Pro, with flagship-grade performance.

The Oppo Reno 12 Pro Manish Malhotra Edition ships with ColorOS 14.1 based on Android 14. Oppo promises three years of OS updates and four years of security patches for the device.

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Although despite the Manish Malhotra branding, I noticed during my review that there isn’t anything special in the software to indicate that it is a special edition of the Oppo Reno 12 Pro apart from the wallpaper.

The phone’s main highlight is its AI features, which Oppo is marketing extensively. You get AI Summary, which can summarize an article in mere seconds. Similarly, you get AI Speak for listening to articles, AI Write to create quirky captions for your social media posts, AI gestures for navigating the UI, and AI Record Summary to provide a summary of your recordings.

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Other AI features include AI Magic Eraser 2.0, which works similarly to Google’s Magic Eraser and lets you remove objects from an image. There is also an AI Studio app to generate AI avatars for you and your friends.The phone also received an update that brought several improvements to the photos app.

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Coming to bloatware, there are plenty of preinstalled apps, including Block Blast, Candy Crush, Draw Bridge, Finshell Pay and more. Thankfully, most of these can be easily uninstalled. However, they shouldn’t be there in the first place, given the phone’s subpar hardware and high price tag.