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00:00Hey guys, Anton the Tech Chap, and this is the new iQOO 12.
00:04And it is one of the first phones to ship with one of these, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
00:09Now you may remember last year I made this video with this guy, the iQOO 11,
00:14because this was also one of the first phones to come out with the 8 Gen 2.
00:17Here we are a year later, I've got a little bit more grey in my beard, I don't know where that came from,
00:21but I want to see just how much faster this new phone with the new chip,
00:25which will be powering pretty much all flagship Android phones,
00:28including the Xiaomi 14 Pro, which is also launched, OnePlus 12, the Galaxy S24 Ultra,
00:33although that may actually have a custom version of the chip.
00:35But I want to see what this is capable of, and also, if it's faster than my iPhone.
00:41Now you may not have heard of iQOO, it's a sub-brand of Vivo,
00:45and it's not particularly well known here in the UK, the US, and Western markets,
00:48but they're very good phones, and this one's had a pretty significant upgrade.
00:52I mean, just look at it for starters, next to last year's iQOO 11.
00:56I think it's a beautiful design, we've got these clean edges, a little bit of that BMW branding going on,
01:01and this fascination meets innovation.
01:04It weighs just 203 grams, which is very light given its size,
01:08the S23 Ultra is 234 grams for comparison, and they share the same 6.78 inch screen size.
01:14We also get a smoother 144Hz refresh rate, although only in games that directly support it,
01:19otherwise, day to day it's still 120Hz, plus a peak brightness of a ludicrous 3000 nits.
01:25Triple camera on the back, now with bigger sensors and higher resolutions versus last year's phone,
01:30including a much improved 3x periscope lens.
01:33All inside this sort of square cooled camera module.
01:37So in terms of the specs, on the inside, we have a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, obviously,
01:42and in this particular top spec model, it also comes with 16GB of RAM and 512GB storage.
01:47And keeping the lights on is a 5000mAh battery, which is the same size as this one from last year,
01:53however, they say it's the first, and industry first, graphite designed battery,
01:57so we'll have to see how that performs in comparison,
02:00and also if the efficiency of the new chip goes some way to increasing the battery life as well.
02:04WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and all the trimmings.
02:07This is a proper 2024 flagship phone, and also with some nice gaming extras.
02:12If I swipe in from the side here to bring up the game menu,
02:14some games, like Call of Duty here, offer dedicated eSports modes,
02:18turning off background notifications and focusing on the game.
02:21You can switch between battery saving, balanced, and a monster performance presets,
02:25and in some games, there's even a super resolution option that can make the game look sharper without affecting your frame rate.
02:30What I definitely recommend, though, is if you are going to do some proper gaming with this,
02:34or indeed any phone, get yourself one of these.
02:37It doesn't have to be this, it's the backbone sort of PlayStation USB-C controller,
02:42but any controller that adds a D-pad and some shoulder buttons,
02:46because unlike the ROG gaming phone, for example, which we're expecting a new version of very soon as well,
02:50this doesn't have any shoulder triggers, but a controller like this makes all the difference to playing games on mobile.
02:56But still, even if you're not necessarily going to buy this exact phone,
03:00it should be a good indicator, given its flagship specs,
03:03of how well this new chip performs, and how it competes with last year, and also the iPhone.
03:08So let's get down to business, and if I bring in last year's IQ11 for comparison,
03:12with the 8th Gen 2, and also with 16 gigs of RAM,
03:15in Geekbench 6, single core, we're looking at just a 12% uptick,
03:19although a more significant 23% boost in multi-core.
03:22Still, nothing too crazy, although if we go over to the OpenCL graphics test,
03:27it's a whopping 60% gain over last year.
03:30And that sort of tallies with the overall 30% gain I'm seeing in Antutu,
03:34which tests both the processor and the graphics,
03:36although Yaiku 12 actually ran hotter, and used more battery during this test.
03:41But then, jumping over to the 20-minute 3DMark Wildlife Extreme Stress Test,
03:45we're looking at a 38% bump for both the peak and the low scores,
03:49with Nyon identical stability scores.
03:52And actually here, in contrast to the Antutu test,
03:55the new phone used just 5% of its battery, versus 9% on the old model,
03:59so perhaps we are seeing some efficiency gains,
04:01although it did hit a 5 degree higher peak temperature,
04:04and that's despite some improved cooling with this new phone,
04:07but how does all that translate to some actual, real games?
04:10Well, I fired up a bit of War Thunder, maxed out all the settings,
04:13and both phones do support ray tracing,
04:15and with RT, we're looking at about 80-100 FPS with the 8th Gen 2 on last year's phone,
04:20versus 100-120 on the 8th Gen 3 in the new Yaiku 12.
04:24Although, if we turn off ray tracing, we get a 10-15 FPS boost on both phones,
04:29with both hitting 120, although the new 8th Gen 3 Yaiku 12 offering consistently higher frame rates.
04:35Is it enough to notice? Well, not really,
04:38and the biggest difference is only if you have ray tracing on,
04:41which doesn't really make much difference in War Thunder,
04:43but I guess it does make it more future-proof.
04:46But then, a quick test of video editing,
04:48and exporting this 1 minute 4K60 video in Premiere Rush,
04:52the new phone is consistently about 10% ahead,
04:55and then finishing 7 seconds faster.
04:59So yes, the new phone is faster,
05:01but it's not something you'd necessarily notice, it's not all that significant,
05:04we're looking at sort of 10-30% across the board, depending on the app.
05:08But then, most of us aren't upgrading from last year's phone,
05:10if you've got a phone from 2, 3, 4 years ago,
05:12then yes, this is definitely going to be worth the upgrade,
05:15and noticeably faster, particularly in gaming.
05:18But is it faster than the iPhone 15 Pro Max, with the A17 Pro chip?
05:22Well, here is what I made earlier, and the answer is... kind of.
05:26It depends.
05:27In Geekbench 6, the iPhone is 28% faster in single-core,
05:31although just 4% faster in multi-core,
05:33but still, in terms of the processor, a win for the iPhone.
05:36However, in Antutu, I'm getting about 146,000 on the iPhone,
05:40versus 209,000 on the iCUE,
05:43although it does seem to be mostly driven by the graphics score.
05:46And then again, firing up 3DMark, which primarily tests the graphics,
05:50we're looking at a similar 42% higher score on the iCUE,
05:54which is kind of crazy, although the iPhone does have a higher stability score.
05:58So a clear win for this guy.
05:59Well, it's not quite as simple as that.
06:01If we go back to Geekbench 6, and run the graphics test,
06:04the iPhone comfortably beats both the OpenCL and the Vulkan scores of the iCUE
06:09when running Apple's Metal API.
06:11Different tests, yes, but it shows how apps and games optimized
06:14and built using Apple's Metal API can utilize the full power of their Apple Silicon.
06:19There's a lot of iOS and Android hardware and software differences going on here.
06:25Although the iCUE does beat the iPhone in War Thunder,
06:28again, maxed out, both with ray tracing,
06:30the iPhone doesn't actually perform that well,
06:32jumping between 70 and 105 FPS.
06:35And oddly enough, turning off ray tracing doesn't have a significant impact
06:38on the iPhone's performance.
06:40But if we then jump over to Honkai Star Rail,
06:43one of the most graphically demanding games out there,
06:45and very similar to Genshin Impact,
06:47both phones run this flawlessly, with the iCUE easily maxing out the 60 FPS cap.
06:52However, the iPhone has an exclusive 120 FPS mode in the graphics settings,
06:57unlocking that performance of the A17 Pro
06:59and giving us a noticeably smoother gaming experience.
07:02Hopefully we see this added to the Android version at some point.
07:05The problem I have, though, is as fast as these new chips are
07:08and we see these nice little upgrades each year,
07:10there's rarely anything significantly different in terms of features or apps
07:14that come out alongside it.
07:16I think what is different this year with the iPhone in particular
07:19is the ability to run some of these console-level games, as we kind of call them.
07:23I mean, they're basically PS4-level assets,
07:25they run at 720p medium settings,
07:27but Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4 soon, Assassin's Creed, just a handful.
07:31But it is good to see the power of these things actually utilised for something,
07:35not just slightly higher frame rates in the same old mobile games
07:38like Real Racing 3 and Asphalt 9 and Call of Duty that we've been playing for years.
07:42But then, of course, there is a future-proofing element to it.
07:44You'll be able to flawlessly run any game for the next few years.
07:47We may start to see some of these console games come to the Play Store on Android as well,
07:50especially if developers are putting the time into porting it over to iPhone.
07:54We'll see.
07:55Yes, it is able to run ray tracing much faster,
07:57so it can play RT-enabled games at a higher frame rate,
08:00but there's barely any out there,
08:02and so far I'm not really that convinced by the difference it makes.
08:06One last thing before I wrap up, though.
08:08I just want to show you a few camera samples taken on both the IQ12 and the iPhone 15 Pro Max
08:13to give you an idea of how they compare.
08:15Because while there are far too many differences and variables for a direct comparison,
08:19especially as IQ doesn't necessarily claim to offer the best camera system,
08:23of course the new chips, the SoCs, also include ISPs, or image signal processors,
08:27which do have a big impact on the processing of your photos and videos,
08:30and also the camera's features.
08:32And I am excited to see how the cameras stack up in all the new flagship Androids,
08:36like OnePlus 12, Xiaomi 14 Pro, the Samsung S24 Ultra.
08:39But just with these handful of side-by-side shots,
08:42which do you prefer? Let me know in the comments.
08:44So is this little guy actually worth getting excited about?
08:47Well, kind of.
08:49I mean, the 8th Gen 3 is comfortably faster than the 8th Gen 2.
08:52As I say, between 10% and 30%, depending on the game,
08:55and primarily for the graphics.
08:57It does still get pretty warm, though.
08:59After about 10 minutes of playing Star Rail, it made my hands a little bit sweaty.
09:02So we're not seeing any sort of night-and-day difference in terms of running cooler or efficiency.
09:06After all my tests, I did only see a 2% to 3% battery gain,
09:11and AnTuTu actually used more battery,
09:13so I'm not really seeing that significant reduction in power use that Snapdragon were claiming.
09:17And that marginally improved battery may be just down to the battery design that IQ made.
09:21In terms of how it stacks up with the iPhone,
09:23well, I'm going to call it a tie.
09:25They're sort of a bit different in terms of processing performance.
09:28In benchmarks, the iPhone wins.
09:30In terms of OpenCL and general graphics performance,
09:33the iCube with the 8th Gen 3 wins.
09:35But then in the apps and games, which of course are optimized for the Metal API,
09:39the iPhone can win.
09:41So it's not a straight comparison.
09:42It's like comparing a MacBook Pro to a Windows laptop.
09:44But importantly, you're not going to be disappointed with either of them.
09:47Yes, this has access to a couple of console games,
09:49but we're yet to really see that materialize.
09:51They both support ray tracing,
09:53and while this has a 120 FPS mode in Honkai,
09:55this performs better in War Thunder,
09:57and there are more gaming features.
09:59And to be fair, I've also barely mentioned AI,
10:01and that is a big push this year with the new chips and the MPU performance,
10:05but we're just not really seeing anything, at least on this phone, that can demonstrate that.
10:09There are rumors that we're going to see something called Samsung AI,
10:11which is sort of codenamed Samsung Gauss,
10:13which could be a pretty impressive on-device AI assistant,
10:16like a souped-up Bixby with the S24 Ultra,
10:18so we'll have to wait and see.
10:20I am also excited to see how this compares with the Dimensity 9300 chip from MediaTek,
10:24which will be coming in the Vivo X100 Pro,
10:26and also the rest of the 8th Gen 3 phones coming soon,
10:29from OnePlus, Xiaomi, Samsung, and everyone else.
10:32But what do you make of the iQOO 12,
10:34and also the performance of what we've seen so far of the 8th Gen 3?
10:37Are you tempted to upgrade?
10:39And actually, if you are going to get a new phone soon,
10:41what do you have your eye on? Let me know in the comments below.
10:43Thank you so much for watching, guys.
10:45If you enjoyed this video, a like and subscribe would be fantastic.
10:47I was going to say fascinating, but that's not the right word.
10:49Fantastic, and I'll see you next time right here on The Tech Chap.