Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus 5G Review

Recently, Xiaomi released a new series of Redmi mid-ranger smartphones — namely the Redmi Note 12, Note 12 Pro and Note 12 Pro+.

In this review, we will focus on the Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus 5G after we’ve spent some quality time with it over the past few weeks. Just a backgrounder, the Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus 5G has a whopping 200MP camera, and a 5,000mAh battery capacity all packaged at an affordable price point.

So, the question arises — can the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ be your next smartphone? Let’s all find out in this review!

Display and Construction

From the get-go, the device looks polished from the outside– we are digging this slightly minimalist approach to design by Redmi, especially on this Arctic White colorway that we have. Speaking of colors, you can also get this in Iceberg Blue, Obsidian Black and Trend Edition.

Checking out the back panel, here you will find the triple rear camera sensor alongside the dual-LED flash. The camera module has a slight protrusion making it wobble when laying flat on a surface. The wobble can be reduced when you slap a case on this device.

Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus 5G Back Panel

Moving on, the frame of the device is made out of polycarbonate material which is concealed by what could be an aluminum anodized paint. The back panel, on the other hand, is made of regular glass material.

Up front, we have a 6.67-inch OLED display that is protected by a Corning Gorilla Glass 5 material. Up top, we have a cutout for the selfie camera and the earpiece.

For buttons and ports, down at the bottom we have the SIM card with no microSD card expandable storage, primary microphone, speaker grilles and USB Type-C port.

Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus 5G Ports

We do have the volume rocker as well as the sleep/wake button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner. Nothing can be found on the left.

Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus 5G fingerprint scanner

While we do have the secondary speaker ambient light sensor, secondary microphone and a headphone jack.

Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus 5G topside

The design on the Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus 5G looks somewhat premium. The Redmi note 12 Pro Plus  5G is 7.9mm thick which might be a little bulky to some, but it does feel pretty rigid and sturdy in the hands which we think is a nice trade-off. And I also forgot, this device is IP53 dust and splash resistant.

Display and Multimedia

Moving on to the display: we have a 6.67-inch FHD+ Flow AMOLED display with a resolution of 2400 x 1080 capable of producing 395ppi. The display also supports 120Hz refresh rate.

Overall, no complaints on the display quality here. It’s what you would expect on an AMOLED panel – punchy colors, deep blacks, and produces sharp texts and images. It is also very legible when using in broad daylight as it can go from 500 nits on typical and can do as high as 900 nits. The display also does support HDR10+ as well as Dolby Vision making your multimedia experience as immersive as can be.

We do also want to commend Redmi as the bezels on the Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus 5G looks proportion on all sides. Yeah, the chick is a tiny bit thicker than the bezel at the top, but hey, we do appreciate the effort on making the display of the Note 12 Pro 5G clean.

Moving on to the speaker quality. The Note 12 Pro does have a dual speaker setup that sounds decent. No bass here though, but is enough for casually listening to music while you’re at the shower or cleaning your house. But for watching movies, we do recommend you to take advantage of the headphone jack that this device has, or just pair it up with your favorite TWS.

Camera

Checking out the cameras on the Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus 5G — it comes equipped with a 200MP f/1.7 wide, 8MP 120-degree ultra-wide camera with f/2.2 and 2MP macro with f/2.4. Upfront, we have a 16MP selfie shooter.

Photos come out decent. Colors can be a little too washed out depending on the lighting conditions– of course the less light source you have, the more pixelated image you get. HDR is observed on photos taken outdoors, colors are accurate and is enough for socials.

Checking out that 200MP sensor, it’s cool to have that capability on a mid-ranger but the quality isn’t like a night-and-day difference between normal mode – don’t want to burst you bubble, but there’s only a tiny bit noticeable additional detail we you use this mode.

Night mode on the other hand works as intended. It brightens up the space even in pitch black scenarios – thought, again, don’t expect to have the best resolution here.

Portrait mode, on the other hand, can be a hit or a miss. There are times where in the Note 12 Pro+ failed to recognize the depth of the subject we are taking photo off and even if it did detect the subject, it didn’t produce the right depth and is having a hard time on determining the edge of the subject.

Macro images are okay, nothing to spectacle about it. Color reproduction are good, details are present.

Selfies on the other hand looks great. The beautification software on this device is topnotch in a way as it conceals the imperfections on someone else’s face not by blurring it or plainly smoothing it out, but using AI and works like a patch tool– if you are familiar with that on photoshop –pretty cool!

If there’s one thing we didn’t like on the Note 12 Pro+’s camera, that would probably be the macro camera. Yeah it is cool to have that, but I’d rather have an actual telephoto camera rather than just cropping it in through the main camera. But thats just us.

Performance and Benchmarks

For performance, the Note 12 Pro+ is rocking a Mediatek Dimensity 1080 with a Mali-G68 MC4 GPU. Our review units comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. I am surprised when I used the Note 12 Pro+ as my daily driver for a week. It runs buttery smooth – from browsing the web and my social media to doing quick IG stories.

Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus 5G Gaming

It can also handle basic to graphically intensive games such as asphalt 9, Call of Duty, and Genshin Impact. We recommend to out the graphic settings to medium as it is much more ideal for this device. You can opt to go to maximum graphic settings, but you will experience frame drops and it can feel a little warm to the touch. Nothing to worry about as it is completely normal considering that this is a mid-ranger device.

We did run the Note 12 Pro Plus 5G in our usual benchmarking apps, and here are the results that we got:

Overall, the Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus 5G can handle almost everything we throw at it — from doing basic task to multitasking and playing graphic-intensive games.

OS, Apps, and UI

Running on the redmi Note 12 Pro Plus is Android 12 skinned with MIUI 14.0.6. The overall look is pretty clean. If you happen to use a Xiaomi device before, you’ll feel at home with the redmi Note 12 Pro Plus.

There are a few other bloatware and some pre-installed apps and games, but you can easily have those apps and games uninstalled. Aside from the usual Google Suite apps, we do also have MIUI’s own set of tools like security, themes, Mi Video and Xiaomi Community just to name a few.

Connectivity and Battery Life

For battery, juicing up the Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus is a 5,000mAh capacity with support for 120W wired fast charging. On a regular use which includes browsing the web through Wi-Fi and periodic use of mobile data, occasional gaming and social media, we have 32% remaining battery at the end of the day.

We ran it through PCMark’s Battery Test and we yielded a score of 12 Hours 38 Minutes, while we got 15 Hours 23 Minutes on our proprietary Video Loop test.

In our book, these results are decent, although we are kind of actually expecting a little longer screen time than these results considering its battery capacity.

All things considered, we cannot say that the battery life on the Note 12 Pro+ is rock solid, it is decent in away that if you are a power user, you will find yourself charging this device a little often which we think is okay considering that it does support 120W wired fast charging. Meaning, it can fill up your device from 0-100% in just 19 minutes. Pretty fast, eh?!

Conclusion

Now, to conclude this review of the Note 12 Pro+ — this device is a decent mid-ranger. It has above average performance and cameras, an OKAY battery life, and a nice display. We cannot really think of something to nit pick on this device aside from the fact that we would want to have a telephoto lens instead of the macro sensor that we have.

Now for the price, the Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus is priced at PHP 21,999USD 375INR 31,780EUR 357CNY 2,730. And with that, we can give this device a recommendation score of 7 out of 10. How about you? What do you think about the redmi Note 12 Pro Plus 5G? Do let us know in the comments section below!

What we liked about it:

• Great display quality
• Super-fast charging
• Comes with an IR blaster
• Above average battery life

What we did not like:

• Underwhelming camera
• Average performance

Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro+ specs:
6.67-inch FHD+ (2400 x 1080) OLED display, 395ppi
120Hz refresh rate
MediaTek Dimensity 1080 SoC
ARM Mali-G68 MC4 GPU
8GB, 12GB RAM
256GB UFS 2.2
Triple-rear cameras:
• 200MP F1.7 Samsung ISOCELL HPX main
• 8MP F1.9 ultra-wide
• 2MP F2.4 macro
16MP front camera
Dual-SIM
5G, 4G LTE
WiFi 6
Bluetooth 5.2
NFC
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS
IR Blaster
USB-C
3.5mm audio jack
Stereo speakers
Fingerprint scanner (in-display)
MIUI 13 (Android 12)
IP53 dust and water resistance
5,000mAh battery w/ 120W fast charging
162.9 x 76 x 9 mm (dimensions)
208.4 grams (weight)