At the time of this video, this the iQoo 12 is one of the fastest and most powerful phones in the world & if it's number one right now, it's definitely top 3. And I will run some benchmarks with some thermals for you in this video, so stick around.

For those of you who are not that familiar with iQoo, they're a big deal, and they are Vivo's sister company. If you're a motorsports fan, you may have seen the iQoo branding on BMW's M Motorsports vehicles.

That's because iQoo phones are fast, and so are the cars! Anyway, let's run through some of the core specs, and then we'll get this out of the box and get a closer look at the design.

Core specs

This is one of the first phones to be rocking the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the fastest Android chip on the planet. And to add to this firepower, iQoo has thrown in its own turbo booster. They call it the Q1, a supercomputing chip explicitly designed to improve gaming performance. Stick around, and I'll show you what that can do.

Storage options are 256GB base model and 512GB maximum. Both are UFS 4.0 and can copy 8GB in just 20 seconds. The RAM is the fastest available LPDDR5X. The base model has 12 GB, and the maxed-out version has 16 GB. This is crazy when you consider that many modern laptops often ship with less than half the amount.

There are two colour options available. Alpha, which is a dark, frosted kind of finish, and the Legend edition. Which is what I have here, with the maxed-out ROM & RAM.

Unboxing 

Ok, let's unleash this beast & for the sake of keeping things fast. Here is a picture of everything that’s In the box, we have the 

Design

The frame of this phone is made from an aluminium alloy. The edges are flat, similar to the iPhone. The power button and volume rocker are on the right side. IR blaster up top. With a dual sim tray at the base, and this phone can support two 5G sims.

The iQoo 12 does have an official IP64 rating, which means the iQoo 12 is sealed up nicely and can survive a bit of rain. The back of the phone has a really interesting finish. It has rounded edges, so the phone sits comfortably in the hand.

The material is a white porcelain enamel glass. And when you look closely at it, you'll notice its texture under the glass. Which differentiates it from regular glass back panels. It feels nice. And love the BMW motorsports inspired badge.

The camera module is also unique. It's been modelled on a port hole that you might look out of on a spacecraft or on an aircraft. And the firepower of the camera hardware and software is next level. Well, come back to that shortly.

You might have noticed this already, but this phone is thin. But surprisingly, it has a 5000mAh battery. In fact, it's just 8.1mm thin, and it can be thin partly because iQoo is using a new battery tech, and it's an industry first. It's a pro-performance graphite battery. It can be thinner than the more commonly used batteries whilst delivering the same power. And with the 120-watt charger iQoo provides, it charges incredibly fast.

When it comes to audio the iQoo 12 has symmetrically placed stereo speakers for proper stereo separation & each driver has larger speaker chambers than before for deeper bass. The haptic motor is also larger, so haptic feedback will provide more kick than before.

The Display

Let's talk about arguably the most essential aspect of a phone: The screen. It has an under the display optical fingerprint sensor. The screen itself is a 6.78" 144Hz flat LTPO Amoled with HDR10+ certification. The resolution is 2800 x 1260 with a PPI of 452 and get this. It can deliver 3000 nights of peak brightness. 

Now, if all that doesn't mean much to you. This screen is incredibly detailed, sharp, with amazing dynamic range and it can get brighter than the 2023 iPhone & Galaxy flagships.

Another win for the iQoo here is that it supports 2160Hz of PWM dimming,  which will help reduce eye strain when glued to your phone for long periods. And there are usual eye comfort features available if needed. And I'm sure you noticed that the iQoo 12's display has a centrally placed punch-hole selfie camera. And this brings me nicely into the cameras.

Camera

The selfie camera uses a 16MP sensor F.2.45, 27mm equivalent. One really nice feature that this one has once you've snapped a photo is the ability to adjust the scale and quality if you need a smaller file. This is available on all camera modes. Also, beautification tools... there are magic eraser tools also.

The iQoo 12 has a triple-camera layout on the back. The port-hole camera module has a really nice design that kind of resembles a lens filter that you might screw onto a camera lens. One piece of glass covers all three cameras & because it's pretty large. It stops it from rocking on when laid on a flat surface. 

The primary camera is 50MP F1.68, which is equivalent to 23mm. This is actually titled by Iqoo as an astrophotography camera. And that's because it uses a large 1/1.3" sensor & offers over an 80% light intake than the previous gen. 

This, combined with upgrades in image processing of the Snapdragon and OIS & EIS, means you'll be able to take incredible astrophotography pictures without a tripod. And the onboard software can recognise constellations in the night sky for you...unless you live in England where it's always cloudy & raining.

Then there's the periscope telephoto camera, which uses a 64MP half-inch sensor. That can zoom between 3X, 10X & 100X. This uses the NICE algorithm, which is used on high-end telescopes to refine details using AI. The same periscope camera is also used for super macro and portrait modes. So it's a three-in-one camera.

Then there's the ultra-wide camera, which is also a 50MP sensor. This one has an F2.0 aperture. 15mm focal length. 

It's impressive that iQoo has not left any weak links in the camera setup. Here are a few photos of the iPhone and the Samsung. Let me know which one performs the best here.

And let me know if you want to see a camera comparison with these phones.

Software 

The iQoo is running on the most powerful snapdragon to date, the 8 Gen 3. I made an entire video about that chip, so if you want to learn more I'll link it at the end.

The out-of-the-box software is Android 14 with iQoo's Fun Touch OS skin. There are some pre-installed apps and some suggestions that you'll encounter on the first launch. But thanks to the 'manage storage feature' they're easy to uninstall if not needed. 

There are a few stand-out features on FunTouch OS. For example, the dynamic effects page gives you lots of animation effects to play with. I like how the power button is a power button by default but can be mapped to Google Assistant if preferred. 

Something else I like is the various options for the battery indicator & then there's the Sidebar for quick access to apps you want to avoid being pinned to your home screen permanently. The Sidebar also opens the door to floating windows & split screening.

Now, if the iQoo 12 isn't fast enough already, there are more features, like the ability to use RAM expansion using some of the UFS4 storage to double the RAM, which is insane. There is a hidden Monster mode that will max out the CPU & GPU.

And if you want to make the speakers sound better, you can do that too in the Sound Quality & effects menu. You can enable audio super-resolution & super audio using AI to improve lower-quality audio.

Then there's the Ultra game mode.

Gaming

This phone's speed and power are best utilised when gaming. Using the Ultra game mode, you can enable Monster mode. Which turns everything up to 11.  And this is where the Q1 supercomputing chip kicks in. Using the tools, you can enable Game frame interpolation. Which upscales whatever game you're playing to 144Hz with the frame rate booster setting. 

you can also enable game display enhancement. Which uses the Q1 chip to upscale the image quality. And there are Control settings to play with that can also improve responsiveness & sensitivity. And you can map motion controls to various on-screen touch inputs, which could be a game changer.

I've never seen Genshin Impact look this good before, and PubG runs amazingly well with all the graphics and audio settings maxed out.

And iQoo has fitted the iQoo 12 with a 6K VC four-zone cooling system. That's designed to keep the device cool and direct any heat away from where your hands rest when gaming. So, let's take a look at where the heat is going.

Ok, this reading was taken after roughly 45mins of back to back gaming on Genshin, cod & PubG. And you can see on the thermal imager. Max temperature is just 37 degrees and central temperature is around 36. And you’ll notice the top and bottom edges stay cooler.

Benchmark 

So first I ran the 3D Mark wildlife benchmark test and the phone was too fast. It actually maxed out FPS and overall scores. And barely broke a sweat with max temperatures reaching just 29 degrees. Anything under 39 degrees is good & this is excellent. And in fact the iQoo 12 is number 1 in their charts even above the Pro model at the time of this video. Which was surprising to see.

Next up I tested geekbench 6 CPU & GPU tests. Here’s how it stacks up against the S23 ultra for context. Yes, I know the S24 Ultra would be a more fair comparison but it’s not out yet. Make sure you’re subscribed for when that comes out if you want to see how it will compare.

And last but not least I ran the new Antutu benchmark and it achieved a score of 2 million 73 thousand 603. Which when you look at Antutus current leader board would make the iQoo 12 number 1.