The rumored Oppo A12e, which WhatMobile reported last week, recently went live because of a slip-up. Oppo prematurely published the listing, detailing the phone’s design and specifications, but has since taken it down. You can still find the cached copy saved on Google. And as it turns out, the Oppo A12e is simply a rehashed Oppo A3s and could bear a similar Oppo price tag.
The A3s was launched in mid-2018, so the design and specifications are at least two generations old. On the front panel, you find a wedge-notch – the kind that iPhone X featured, and is now obsolete. The bezels are surprisingly slim, as is the chin. The panel itself stretches 6.2 inches across that delivers an HD+ resolution and a 19:9 aspect ratio.
The build has a lightweight and minimalistic profile. The back is clean except for a horizontal twin-camera and Oppo’s branding. But the A3s being a mid-range 2018 model, you don’t get support for a fingerprint scanner – in-display or otherwise. The rear shell is polished polycarbonate, and it’ll come in White and Red colors.
The primary 13MP camera is combined with a 2MP depth-sensing lens, and the front camera inside the wide notch has an 8MP sensor behind it.
The Snapdragon 450 platform underneath the hood has an outdated 14nm wafer and eight cores. It’s combined with 3GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage – expandable with a microSD card. The internals are powered by a 4,230 mAh battery (that lacks support for fast charging). Given the out-of-date hardware, it’s difficult to imagine how Oppo A12e will measure up against comparable 2020 models.
The underwhelming hardware aside, the phone will be shipped with the same OS and custom skin the original A3s debuted with; which means a ColorOS 5.1 UI based on Android Oreo (8.0).
Oppo hasn’t shared the launch details yet, but since the phone went live on Oppo Vietnam’s website, it’s safe to assume that it’s where the phone’s headed once it actually goes official. Its yet to see how Oppo prices the upcoming phone.