Introduction:
Not only is the iq2 the first Snapdragon H gen 3 powered smartphone to launch in the global market, but it is IU’s best ever flagship in terms of camera performance.
They have made some major improvements to their camera system this year thanks to a much larger main camera, a high-rise ultrawide sensor, and have now finally added in a flagship level periscope telephoto camera. It has a lot more going for it than just camera and performance, though, and I can’t wait to get into it. In addition to the phone itself, there’s a jelly case in the box as well as a 6 amp charging cable and a 120 W charging brick. This is Technic, and this is my full review of IU’s most improved flagship ever, the iqoo12.
The device literally just got announced in the global market, so I’ll be sure to leave the price list in the comment section down below. It will start hitting shelves in Asian markets throughout December, but there’s still no word on full global availability.
IQOO 12 Design:
The first big change this year starts with its new design, and my goodness does it look good. Its biggest takeaway is that new camera module, which IU like to call the port hole design.
This is inspired by discovery and adventure for those who dare to peek through a unique window to the world. This premium camera island is wrapped with a metal frame which flows into a black fluorite AG glass back plate and has a subtle cold glow. The black version is known as the Alpha Edition, though there is also a white color variant which is called Legend. The Legend Edition is made from porcelain enamel glass and sticks to the iconic BMW stripes, thanks to their M Motor Sports partnership, and is a lot more subtle this year, which I really do prefer. Both colors make use of aircraft-grade aluminum frames, come in at just 8.1 mm thick, and weigh just 23.7 g. To top it off, the iq2 includes an IP64 dust and water splash certification. There’s no word on the protection of the back glass or even the front glass for that matter.
Display & Battery proformance:
The display itself is a 6.78 in AMOLED panel, which has a resolution that sits somewhere between QHD and Full HD, and supports HDR10, HDR10 Plus, and Widevine L1 content.
Its screen brightness has now almost doubled and sits at an insane 3,000 nits of peak brightness. The cherry on top is that it uses LTPO technology to adjust its frame rate from as low as 1 Hz to as high as 144 Hz. When it comes to software, the iq2 makes use of Funtouch OS 14 skinned over Android 14. This is, of course, IU’s global software skin, so all Google goodies are included here, such as full Google services, Google Discover on the left of the home screen, Google Assistant with a swipe-up gesture, as well as the Google Play Store pre-installed. Funtouch OS is simplistic and easy to use. It looks clean, and their latest OS 14 skin has finally removed almost all of its bloatware, which is a huge plus. Not to mention, IU is now promising 3 years of major OS updates and four years of security patches. That’s not the best around, but it’s certainly a big step up for the company.
To keep things running is a large 5,000 mAh graphite battery, which allows for a larger capacity within a smaller form factor. Of course, we still have IU’s extremely fast 120 W wired charging, but unfortunately, there is still no wireless charging. The star of the show is arguably the inclusion of Qualcomm’s latest top-end chipset, the 4-nanometer Snapdragon H Gen 3. This 8-core processor makes use of one main core clocked at 3.3 GHz, five performance cores at 3.15 GHz, and two efficiency cores at 2.27 GHz. This new design leads to 30% higher CPU performance and is 20% more efficient when compared to the 8 Gen 2. The new Adreno 750 integrated GPU has also been boosted and is now 25% faster, 25% more efficient, and offers 40% better ray tracing. But IU doesn’t stop there. Other than fast LPDDR5X RAM and next-generation UFS 4.0 storage, their new flagship also comes with a new Super Computing Q1 display chipset to further enhance performance, whether you’re playing games or running benchmarks.
Speaking of benchmarks, the iq2 destroyed literally every single benchmark I threw at it and barely broke a sweat thanks to its massive 6K vapor chamber 4-zone cooling system. When opening up a game, you’re treated to Ultra Game Mode, which you can access from a side panel. It includes features such as Monster Performance Mode, super resolution display enhancement, 4D vibration, and even frame interpolation, which allows you to boost games all the way up to 144 FPS even if they don’t support it. Real Racing 3 natively supports high FPS, so it’s no surprise to see the iq2 perform at a very stable 120 FPS. The display is capable of pushing at 144 FPS, so I really hope this gets unlocked with future updates. It also managed a rock-solid 120 FPS while playing Call of Duty Mobile when set to Ultra Frame Rate mode, which is really good to see since this game usually caps out at 90 frames per second on Androids.
In case you were wondering, I am currently using the performance platform WeTest PerfDog in order to measure FPS. PerfDog offers loads of different analysis tools, and they are currently running a special promotion for the new year, so if you’re keen to give it a try, be sure to check out this video’s description for more info. Genshin Impact is a much more graphically demanding game compared to the ones we just tested, so I was very happy to see it average 60 FPS, especially since I cranked all the graphical settings to the max. The iq2 also makes use of Bluetooth 5.4, NFC, dual SIM 5G, and Wi-Fi 7, so connectivity is no issue, as well as a USB Type-C port, an IR blaster, a large X-axis linear motor for haptics, and uses symmetrical dual stereo speakers with Super Audio effect support. So let’s go ahead and give them a listen. No one escapes my sights.
So, I guess it’s safe to say that the iq2 is an absolute monster in terms of playing games and running demanding benchmarks.
Camera Performance:
Now it’s time to shift our focus to camera performance. So let’s start things off with that selfie camera. It has a small punch-hole notch at the top center of its display, which houses a 27 mm 16 MP sensor with an aperture of f/2.45. Selfies during the day come out looking a lot better than I was expecting, with incredible detail and fantastic edge detection when in portrait mode.
“What’s up guys, this is Technic recording a 1080p 30fps selfie video on the brand new, recently globally released IQ 12.” Unfortunately, there is no 4K video option or even a 60fps video option when using the selfie cam, so that’s most likely the biggest deal breaker for the iq2. It may be a deal breaker in terms of resolution and FPS, but selfie video actually looks really good in terms of detail and depth, though it isn’t very stable. Selfie video looks decent at night too, with minimal noise grain, and brightens up quite nicely. But selfie photos at night come out way better than video. There may not be a night mode option for selfies, but it doesn’t really seem to need it, and there’s always the flash, which helps produce even more detail at night. The lack of 4K selfie video may be a letdown for some, but I was actually quite pleased with the results, whether taking photos or videos.
Now it’s time to dive into those back cameras, which have seen quite substantial upgrades. It has a triple camera setup on its back, which consists of ultrawide, main, and telephoto sensors. The telephoto camera has now finally been upgraded to a periscope lens. It’s a 1/2 inch sized 64 MP sensor with an aperture of f/2.57, a focal length of 70 mm, which can reach three times optical zoom, and makes use of PDAF and OIS. The ultrawide camera is a 1/2.76 inch sized 50 MP sensor with autofocus, has an aperture of f/2.0, and a focal length of 15 mm for a 119° field of view. The main camera has seen quite a large upgrade too. It’s a 1/1.3 inch sized 50 MP OmniVision 50H sensor, which I like to call the “astrography camera.” It has a wide f/1.68 aperture, a 23 mm focal length, and also makes use of PDAF and optical image stabilization.
This year, IU have added in three different color profiles when taking photos on any of the three rear cameras. There’s Natural, which is more true to life, Textured, which adds more shadow details, and Vivid, which is a nice balance between the other two modes. Since Vivid is the default mode and is what most people would use, that’s what we’ll be sticking to for the remainder of these photos. Snapshot mode uses the main camera and offers zero shutter lag photos. Macro mode can be used with all three cameras for different focal lengths and different focusing distances. Of course, we can shoot high-resolution images or bin down images using all three main sensors, and all of them come out on a flagship level.
The periscope produces a fantastic three times optically zoomed shot and retains detail whether you zoom in further at five times or even 10 times, which IU like to call HD Zoom. Things are still packed with detail at 30 times digital zoom, and though detail takes a knock at 50 times and 100 times zoom levels, I was seriously impressed with 50 times. Portraits can be taken with the main at 1X or 2X, and both look great, but 3X optical zoom using the periscope had me absolutely speechless. Bokeh video is an option when using the main or telephoto camera, though they are both capped at 1080p resolution. The IQ 12 can also shoot 8K video, which is awesome to see, but 4K still seems to be the sweet spot whether using the main or periscope cameras. Slow motion video can only be used with the main camera and only offers 240 FPS, but things look crystal clear thanks to full HD resolution.
The IQ 12 can shoot continuous 4K video, which allows you to seamlessly switch between the ultrawide to the main to the periscope all the way up to 10 times zoom in one single video. There is an ultra stabilization video mode, which keeps things very stable even while running, but it’s capped at 1080p and is limited to just the main camera. It’s not really needed since standard stabilization still keeps things more than stable. You can shoot 4K 60fps video regardless of the sensor being used, and all of them come out insanely good. I actually can’t believe how far IU has come in terms of video quality. The ultrawide and periscope produce okay video at night and drop down to 24 fps to keep things brighter, but the main camera no doubt comes out the best in terms of night video, and that’s thanks to its superb night video mode option, which seriously brightens things up but in turn suffers from quite a bit of light noise.
Night photos come out quite a bit better than night videos, and I was most impressed with the periscope photo thanks to its very good light noise handling, but this starts to dip once you zoom in by five times or even 10 times. I was still pleased with 30 times, 50 times, and 100 times digital zooms at night, but again, I was very impressed with the 50 times zoom level. There is also a super moon mode, which only starts to look good at around 10 times zoom, but looks the best at 30 times, even though you can still zoom all the way up to 100 times. There’s an astro mode too, which can only be used with the main camera, hence the name “astrography camera.” It takes things to another level by allowing you to use augmented reality to add an image of what star constellation you’re currently looking at.
Taking photos of me using night mode has things come out filled with detail on all three sensors, but portrait mode shots at night had me blown away thanks to incredible detail, fantastic background blur, and impeccable light noise handling.
Final Thoughts:
The Iqoo 12 is a huge step in the right direction for the company in terms of camera performance. I honestly cannot believe how well the IU2 takes photos and videos in all different lighting conditions.
I can now finally recommend an IU flagship to those looking for a phenomenal camera smartphone. But cameras aren’t the only thing going for IU’s latest flagship entry. It packs in an extremely bright 144 Hz AMOLED display, a large graphite battery which supports fast 120 W wired charging, manages to squeeze in a massive vapor chamber, a custom display chipset, the latest CPU offering from Qualcomm, that being the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and it looks absolutely stunning.
Well that’s for today… See you in the next topic…