Home > Smartphone comparison > Reno 16 vs Reno 12 5G – which one to choose?

Oppo Reno 16 vs Reno 12 5G

81 out of 100
Oppo Reno 16
VS
61 out of 100
Oppo Reno 12 5G
Oppo Reno 16
Oppo Reno 12 5G

Here we compared two mid-range smartphones: the 6.32-inch Oppo Reno 16 (with MediaTek Dimensity 8500 Super) that was released on May 25, 2026, against the Oppo Reno 12 5G, which is powered by MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Energy and came out 1 year and 11 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

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Memory
  1. Differences
  2. Review
  3. Specs
  4. Benchmarks
  5. Battery life
  6. Camera
  7. Comments

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Oppo Reno 16
  • The rear camera has a 3.5x optical zoom
  • 2.2x better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (2078K versus 955K)
  • Comes with 1700 mAh larger battery capacity: 6700 vs 5000 mAh
  • Has 50% more RAM: 12GB versus 8GB
  • Waterproof body (IP69 classification)
  • More recent OS version: Android 16 versus 14
  • The phone is 1 year and 11 months newer
  • 17% higher pixel density (460 vs 394 PPI)
  • 54% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 1611 and 1045 points
Reasons to consider the Oppo Reno 12 5G
  • Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1024GB
  • Has a 0.38 inch larger screen size
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS

Review

Evaluation of Oppo Reno 16 and Reno 12 5G crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation
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Value for money (Beta)

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Currency
12 / 256 GB
VS
8 / 256 GB
89.4
(Very good)
Value Index
35.4
(Mediocre)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests
Phone:
Reno 16
vs
Reno 12 5G

Display

Type AMOLED AMOLED
Size 6.32 inches 6.7 inches
Resolution 1216 x 2640 pixels 1080 x 2412 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 20:9
PPI 460 ppi 394 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes Yes (60-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 1800 nits 1200 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 3600 nits -
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, HDR10+
Touch sampling rate 240 Hz 240 Hz
Screen protection Tempered glass Corning Gorilla Glass 7i
Screen-to-body ratio 89.6% 90.6%
Display features - DCI-P3
- DC Dimming		 - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
Screen space comparison
Reno 12 5G
6.7″ (20:9 ratio) = 16.8 in2
Reno 16
6.32″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 15.2 in2
~10% more screen space

Design and build

Height 151.21 mm (5.95 inches) 161.4 mm (6.35 inches)
Width 72.42 mm (2.85 inches) 74.1 mm (2.92 inches)
Thickness 8.2 mm (0.32 inches) 7.6 mm (0.3 inches)
Weight 188 g (6.63 oz) 177 g (6.24 oz)
Waterproof IP69 IP65
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber Vapor chamber
Rear material - Plastic
Frame material Metal Plastic
Colors White, Black, Purple Silver, Pink, Brown
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Screen-to-body ratio
Reno 16
89.6%
Reno 12 5G +1%
90.6%

Performance

Chipset specifications of Oppo Reno 16 and Oppo Reno 12 5G
SoC
Chipset MediaTek Dimensity 8500 Super MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Energy
Max clock 3400 MHz 2500 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 3 + 4) 8 (4 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 2.2 GHz: Cortex-A725
- 3 cores at 3.2 GHz: Cortex-A725
- 1 core at 3.4 GHz: Cortex-A725		 - 4 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A55
- 4 cores at 2.5 GHz: Cortex-A78
L3 cache 6 MB 4 MB
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 4 nanometers 4 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) MediaTek NPU 880 MediaTek APU 655
GPU
Graphics Mali-G720 MP8 Mali-G615 MC2
GPU shading units 1024 256
GPU clock 1508 MHz 1047 MHz
FLOPS ~3088.4 GFLOPS ~536.1 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Oppo Reno 16 and Oppo Reno 12 5G
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Reno 16 +54%
1611
Reno 12 5G
1045
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Reno 16 +120%
6402
Reno 12 5G
2907
Compute Score (GPU)
Reno 16 +394%
12492
Reno 12 5G
2528
Compute Score (GPU) 12492 2528
Single-core score 1611 1045
Multi-core score 6402 2907
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
Reno 16 +117%
2078850
Reno 12 5G
955824
CPU 646700 344705
GPU 646793 125737
Memory 276204 200593
UX 509153 284789
Total score 2078850 955824
Samples Less than 3 [2 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability - 98%
Graphics test - 3 FPS
Graphics score - 351
Sources: 3DMark [5]
PCMark 3.0
Reno 16
n/a
Reno 12 5G
12049
Web score - 11673
Video editing - 6179
Photo editing - 24455
Data manipulation - 9486
Writing score - 15020
Submit your benchmark results

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Oppo Reno 16
No benchmark results yet
Add
Oppo Reno 12 5G
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-03-28 (Chanzdzung)AnTuTu 11955824
📘 2026-02-07 (hnsrfq)AnTuTu 11927695
Add View all (2)

Memory

RAM
RAM size 12 GB 8 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR4X
Memory clock - 2133 MHz
Channels 4 2
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 256 GB
Storage type UFS 3.1 UFS 3.1
Memory card No MicroSD
Memory card max size - Up to 1024 GB

Software

Operating system Android 16 Android 14
ROM ColorOS 16 ColorOS 14.1
OS updates - 2 years
Security updates - 4 years

Battery

Capacity 6700 mAh 5000 mAh
Max charge power 80 W 80 W
Battery type Silicon-Carbon (Si/C) Li-Po
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging No No
Reverse charging Yes Yes
Bypass charging Yes -
Fast charging Yes Yes (47% in 18 min)
Full charging time - 0:46 hr
Add your battery life

Main camera

Matrix 200 megapixels 50 megapixels
Image resolution 16320 x 12240 8192 x 6144
Zoom Optical, 3.5x Digital
Flash Dual LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording No No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 30FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 240 FPS (720p) 960 FPS (720p)
Angle of widest lens 116° 112°
Lenses 1) Standard: 200 MP
2) Telephoto: 50 MP
3) Ultrawide: 50 MP
1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Ultrawide: 8 MP
3) Macro: 2 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode		 - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
Standard lens
Image resolution 200 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/1.8 f/1.8
Focal length 24 mm 26 mm
Sensor - Sony LYT-600
Sensor size - 1/1.95" (≈ 0.51 inch)
Pixel size - 0.7 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 50 MP -
Aperture f/2.8 -
Focal length 80 mm -
Stabilization Optical -
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 50 MP 8 MP
Aperture f/2.0 f/2.2
Focal length 16 mm 16 mm
Sensor - Sony IMX355
Sensor size - 1/4.0" (≈ 0.25 inch)
Pixel size - 1.14 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital
Macro lens
Image resolution - 2 MP
Aperture - f/2.4
Sensor - Omnivision OV02B10
Sensor size - 1/5" (≈ 0.2 inch)
Pixel size - 1.75 micron
Stabilization - No

Selfie camera

Megapixels 50 megapixels 32 megapixels
Image resolution 8192 x 6144 6528 x 3680
Aperture f/2.0 f/2.0
Focal length 18 mm 21 mm
Sensor size - 1/3.1" (≈ 0.32 inch)
Autofocus No Phase autofocus
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 30 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display		 - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5.4 5.4
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 2 2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG		 - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort No No
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port Yes Yes
Network
Number of SIM* 2 2
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* No No
Hybrid slot No No
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos No -

Other

Category Mid-range Mid-range
Announced May 2026 June 2024
Release date May 2026 June 2024
Launch price (MSRP) $515 $499
Successor - - Oppo Reno 16
Sensors - Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint		 - Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Yes, 80 W Yes, 80 W
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Oppo Reno 16 is definitely a better buy.

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