A New Benchmark for Budget Phones: OPPO K12 Plus, A Super Durable Battery Monster?

A New Benchmark for Budget Phones: OPPO K12 Plus, A Super Durable Battery Monster?Let's be honest, this year is truly the year of budget phones. While in the past, phone manufacturers were mainly focused on price-to-performance ratios, the current budget phone market is brimming with diverse options

A New Benchmark for Budget Phones: OPPO K12 Plus, A Super Durable Battery Monster?

Let's be honest, this year is truly the year of budget phones. While in the past, phone manufacturers were mainly focused on price-to-performance ratios, the current budget phone market is brimming with diverse options. Gaming enthusiasts? Choose the most popular online models like Redmi Turbo 3, iQOO Z9 series, OnePlus Ace 3V, and Realme GT Neo 6/Neo 6 SE. These budget phones, powered by Snapdragon 8s Gen 3/Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 chips, stick to the traditional track - prioritizing performance. Fancy taking photos? Go for Realme 12 Pro+ or Realme 13 Pro+ - these budget phones with large-sensor telephoto lenses are all about imaging prowess. Beyond these, options like Honor X50, vivo Y300 Pro, moto S50 emphasize aesthetics and battery life, while OPPO A3 Pro highlights its waterproof and durable features.

As the offline flagship for the budget phone segment, the OPPO K series has always been a unique presence in the phone market. Affordable prices and premium experiences are the general perception of this series. Back in 2018, the OPPO K1 brought in-display fingerprint technology to the $230 price range. The OPPO K10 introduced the Dimensity 8000-MAX near-flagship chip, and the OPPO K11 brought top-tier imaging algorithms to the budget category. It's safe to say that OPPO K series has pioneered bringing flagship features to the mid-range market. As durability, endurance, and long battery life become new benchmarks, such trends naturally influence product planning for the OPPO K Series.

On October 12th, OPPO held the OPPO K12 Plus launch event in Shenzhen. The phone boasts a "super durable" diamond framework and has received a five-star certification for its overall drop and shock resistance from Swiss SGS. Moreover, the phone can still achieve super fast charging in an environment of -20, known as "charging capabilities even in extremely cold temperatures." To answer everyone's questions about this product, I have had this phone for a few days now and put it through the paces. Let's dive into the details and give you a comprehensive answer.

Is the Performance Good Enough?

• The first question is, how's the performance of the OPPO K12 Plus? Starting with the processor, this phone is equipped with the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chip, which is the main selling point for Snapdragon 7 series mid-range chips this year. The familiar TSMC 4nm manufacturing process, the CPU utilizes the classic "1+3+4" design, consisting of 12.63GHz A715 core, 32.40GHz A715 cores, and 41.80GHz A510 cores. The GPU is the Adreno 720, with overall specs being decent.

Regular readers know this. Without the Cortex-X4 super core, this CPU naturally cannot match the true kingpins like the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3. However, compared to the recently released Snapdragon 7s Gen 3, the two are essentially neck-and-neck. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 has a slightly higher clock speed, while the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 has a slightly newer architecture.

Let's move on to benchmarks. With high-performance mode enabled, the OPPO K12 Plus achieved a score of 890,000 in the AnTuTu V10 benchmark, about 100,000 points higher than the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3, reaching the theoretical testing level of the Dimensity 8200. In Geekbench 6, it scored 1127 in single-core and 2939 in multi-core, falling short of the few budget phones designed for performance. However, among budget phones that prioritize durability, water resistance, and long battery life, its performance is indeed quite impressive.

After the fun of benchmarks, let's delve into real-world testing. Considering the phone's positioning, I won't be testing it on demanding games like "Genshin Impact" or "Honkai: Star Rail." Let's take "Honor of Kings" as an example.

OPPO K12 Plus supports HD + 120Hz resolution at its highest setting. In a room temperature of 26, the actual average frame rate is 119.79 fps. The stability is decent, with minor stutters during intense team fights. Overall, the experience is smooth and fluid. It goes without saying, running "Honor of Kings" at 120fps + HD resolution is definitely stable.

Is It Truly "Durable"?

"Durability" on a phone has two dimensions. One is durability in terms of quality, and the other is long-lasting battery life, which is one of the core selling points of the OPPO K12 Plus.

The OPPO K12 Plus continues with the super durable diamond framework design, which means all six sides and four corners of the phone have drop protection. The four corners are slightly raised to withstand impact during falls. The internal structure also uses a stronger and more shock-resistant magnesium-aluminum skeleton, with a material strength improvement of 8% compared to the previous generation. We even attempted a drop test.

From a height of over a meter, the OPPO K12 Plus was dropped onto a concrete floor. Despite the phone landing on its frame, it's practically impossible to tell that anything happened except some dust. Even with a high-altitude drop, this phone effectively avoids damage to internal components caused by accidental drops.

As for water resistance... it's rated IP54. A reminder to everyone, although the OPPO K12 Plus is robust and durable, it still has the possibility of unexpected damage in extreme scenarios. Under normal use, it's still not advisable for anyone to intentionally drop the phone or scratch the screen etc.

Besides its drop resistance, another key selling point of the OPPO K12 Plus is its long battery life. That's right, OPPO has opted for a massive 6400mAh battery. However, unlike many similarly positioned products with their near-flagship weights, the OPPO K12 Plus manages to keep the weight down to 194g.

No compromises on feel, but the battery life is significantly enhanced. During a day of intensive testing, I ran AnTuTu, Geekbench, and 3DMark benchmarks with nearly a full charge. Then, I took photos for half an hour, played "Honor of Kings" and "Teamfight Tactics" for half an hour each, and browsed bilibili for about an hour. Under these conditions, the OPPO K12 Plus still had a 47% battery remaining when I finished taking photos the next day. The whole experience involved no charging in between, the overall battery life performance is impressive. For everyday use, it definitely won't need charging all day.

Charging-wise, the 6400mAh battery is paired with 80W fast charging. It takes 20 minutes to reach 50% and 55 minutes to fully charge. If you haven't gotten used to charging in 20-30 minutes, it's still pretty good.

The Appearance is a Bit "Plain"

If I had to describe the design of the OPPO K12 Plus with a single word, it would be "plain."

On the front, there's a 6.7-inch OLED display with a 1080P resolution. The default global brightness is 500 nits, and the peak brightness reaches 900 nits. The peak local brightness is 1100 nits. This screen also supports 1Pulse-type DC dimming + 2160Hz high-frequency PWM strategy, resulting in a full-score eye-care effect.

The back design of the OPPO K12 Plus is quite restrained. The two cameras and a flash are placed in the top left corner, effectively avoiding the camera module being touched by fingers when held horizontally. Paired with this vibrant white back panel, the overall look is actually quite simple.

Inside this simple camera module, there's a 50MP IMX882 main camera + 8MP IMX355 wide-angle lens combination. In terms of image quality, the OPPO K12 Plus performs adequately. Although the hardware specs are relatively average, thanks to OPPO's flagship-level imaging algorithms, it can quickly capture images in most daytime scenarios. It's sufficient for casual photo-taking to document daily life.

Summary

Pros:

1. Outstanding drop resistance performance.

2. Particularly impressive battery life.

Cons:

1. Performance is slightly underwhelming.

2. Charging speed has slightly dropped.

Price-wise, its starting price is $250 (8+256GB). There are also $280 (12+256GB) and $350 (12+512GB) versions available.

Overall, the advantages of the OPPO K12 Plus are quite apparent. Decent performance configuration, longer battery life, and a very durable body. However, it also falls