OPPO launched the K12x 5G, the company’s latest smartphone with military-grade durability, in India last month. This has MIL-STD-810H certification, IP54 ratings and is just 7.68mm thick. Is this a good phone for the price? Let use dive into the review to find out.
| Box Contents |
| Camera |
| Battery Life |
| Conclusion |
Box Contents
- OPPO K12X 6GB + 128GB in Midnight Violet colour
- Anti-Drop Shield Protective case
- 45W SuperVOOC Charger
- USB Type-A to Type-C Charger
- SIM Ejector tool
- User manual and warranty information
Display, Hardware and Design
Starting with the display, the K12x 5G has a 6.67-inch HD+ LCD screen with a pixel resolution of 1604 x 720 pixels, 20:9 aspect ratio and a pixel density of about 263 PPI. The phone has a 120Hz refresh rate. You can’t expect OLED screen in the price range, but the company could have offered a Full HD+ screen.
The display is bright since it has up to 1000 nits peak brightness under sunlight. It offers decent colour output since it has 83% NTSC color gamut. You can select from vivid, and Natural screen colour modes. It has Splash Touch technology for the screen that lets users operate its touchscreen with wet hands or even if the screen is wet.
The phone has a tiny punch-hole that houses an 8-megapixel camera. Above the display, there is an earpiece on the top edge, but it doesn’t double up as a secondary speaker. There is a thick bezel below the screen.
Coming to button placements, the power button and the volume rockers are present on the right. The Hybrid dual SIM slot that accepts a second SIM or microSD card that supports up to 1TB expandable memory is present on the left.
The 3.5mm audio jack, primary microphone, USB Type-C port and the speaker grill are crammed in the bottom. The phone doesn’t have a secondary microphone on the top.
The main highlight of the phone is its MIL-STD-810H certification, and the company said that has been rigorously tested in the harshest of environments and conditions, be it extreme heat, moisture, and for shock resistance. It also has IP54 ratings for dust and water resistance. It feels solid in hand, even though it has a plastic body. The company says that display has twice-reinforced China Southern Glass and Panda Glass.
In addition to the Midnight Violet that we have, that mostly looks like Black, it also comes in Breeze Blue colour that has nice patterns. Even though it packs a huge, 5100mAh battery, it weighs 186 grams.
Camera
- 32MP rear camera with GC32E2 sensor, f/1.8 aperture
- 2MP portrait sensor, GC02M1B sensor, f/2.4 aperture
- 8MP front camera with f/2.05 aperture, GC08A8-WA1XA sensor
The camera UI in the ColorOS 14 is familiar. There is Pro mode, Slo-mo, Time-Lapse, Dual-View video, and text scanner. The rear camera offers 8MP output after pixel binning, and the front camera images are 8MP in size.
Daylight shots came out well, and the dynamic range is better with auto HDR. 2X is good, but as you zoom in you lose details even though you get up to 10X zoom. The portrait mode offers a good edge detection, thanks to the 2MP portrait camera.
The low-light camera performance is just average, and the front camera performance is decent at the best.
Check out the camera samples.
It can record videos in up to 1080p 60 fps, and the front camera can record 1080p 30fps videos. Stabilization is decent.
Software, UI and Apps
It runs Android 14 based Color OS 14.0.1 out of the box. It has Android security patch for July 2024. The phone will get 2 Android updates, and 3 years of security updates, which is good for a phone in n the price range.
Apart from the usual set of OPPO apps and Google apps, it comes with several pre-loaded apps such as FinShell Pay, Netflix, Facebook, Amazon, Snapchat, Spotify, LinkedIn, Myntra and more. Most of the apps can be uninstalled, but come back once the phone is reset.
Out of 6GB LPDDR4X RAM, you get 5.57GB of usable RAM, and about 3GB of RAM is free when default apps are running in the background. It also has DRE or dynamic RAM expansion feature, which uses the built-in storage as RAM. This has up to 6GB of additional RAM expansion. Out of 128GB UFS 2.2 storage, you get about 105.45GB of free storage.
Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
It has a side-mounted sensor that unlocks the phone quickly. You can add up to 5 fingerprints. You can also use the fingerprint for app local and payments in apps. The phone also has face unlock feature.
Music and Multimedia
YouTube Music is the default Music Player. It has OReality audio and has customizable Smart, Movie, Game and Music modes, but doesn’t have Dolby Atmos. It also has FM Radio support. Audio through the mono speakers is decent, and there is a 300% volume boost option that uses the inbuilt algorithm to boost the volume.
This has Widevine L1, so that you can play HD content on Netflix and other streaming apps. It doesn’t have HDR playback on YouTube or any other apps, since the phone is not HDR certified.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
The OPPO K12x has support for n1/n3/n5/n8/n28B/n40/n41/n77/n78 Network Bands in India. It has 4G Wi-Fi and VoLTE, with support for Carrier Aggregation on 4G. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi 5 802.11 ac,(2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.3, GPS / GLONASS / Galileo / QZSS. It has OTG support, but doesn’t have NFC support. Moving on, the call quality is good, and we did not face any call drops and the earpiece volume was loud. It uses Google dialer and messages.
The OPPO K12x’s body SAR is 1.186W/Kg and head SAR is at 1.176/Kg, which is well under the limit of 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g) in India.
Performance and Benchmarks
This is the one of the latest phones to be powered by MediaTek Dimensity 6300 SoC in India. It uses TSMC N6 (6nm-class) process, same as the Dimensity 6100+. It has 2x x Arm Cortex-A76 big cores clocked at 2.4GHz and 6 x Arm Cortex-A55 efficiency cores, clocked at 2GHz, promising up to 10% faster CPU performance than the previous generation.
The Arm Mali-G57 MC2 promises over 50% GPU performance improvements compared to the previous generation. It can handle casual games like Subway surfers, and games like BGMI in low graphics, but can’t handle high-end games like Genshin Impact. There is no dedicated cooling solution, but I didn’t face any heating issues.
In 3D Mark wild life stress test, it scored 97.6% which is just good. The temperature shot up from 33 to 36 degrees, which is not much. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a 5100mAh (typical) battery, which is normal for a phone in the price range. It can easily last for a day with heavy use and for 2 days with typical use.
Since the phone has support for 45W SuperVOOC fast charging, it can charge up to 50% in about 30 minutes, and 100% charge take close to one and half hours. There are smart charging, and option to stop charging at 80%.
Conclusion
At a starting price of Rs. 12,999, the OPPO K12x is a decent smartphone for the price with good build, good battery life with fast charging and a decent performance. The camera is average, and the phone only has an HD+ screen, compared to several phones that offer a FHD+ screen.
Pricing and availability
The OPPO K12x is priced at Rs. 12,999 for the 6GB + 128GB model and the 8GB + 256GB model costs Rs. 15,999. It is available from Flipkart, OPPO India online store and offline stores.
Alternatives
POCO M6 Plus is a good alternative in the price with a FHD+ screen, and a 108MP camera. The iQOO Z9x that also has a FHD+ screen, and a bigger 6000mAh is a good option in the price range.
Pros
- Good build quality with military-grade durability
- Decent performance
- Decent camera performance in daylight
- Long battery life with 45W fast charging
Cons
- HD+ screen
- Bloatware