Infinix Note 12 Pro Review

The Infinix brand has been one of the top-selling smartphone manufacturers in the past year because of their product’s affordability. In this review, we will be taking a closer look at their brand new addition to their line-up, the Infinix Note 12 Pro.

Just a quick backgrounder — the phone has a 6.7-inch AMOLED display, a MediaTek Helio G96 chipset, 8GB of RAM and a triple rear camera setup. We have been using this device for a few weeks now, and here’s our complete verdict.

Infinix Note 12 Pro

Design and Construction

Right from the get go, we are greeted with that squared off edges similar to what we see on latest iPhones to date, making it comfortable to hold for longer periods of time. At the back we have a wave pattern with rigid texture at the back resulting in a better grip and does surprisingly not a fingerprint magnet. Also here at the back we can find the Infinix branding as well as its triple rear camera setup. It is fairly easy to manage and hold with one hand and is not that hefty at 185g.

Up front we have a sizable 6.7 inch display with a selfie camera placed at the center as well as the earpiece which is also one of the stereo speakers.

Infinix Note 12 Pro Right side

For buttons and ports, starting off on the right side, we have volume rockets as well as the sleep/wake button that also acts as the fingerprint scanner.

Infinix Note 12 Pro Left side

Meanwhile, on the left side, we have the Dual-SIM card slot with a dedicated microSD card slot. Nothing can be found at the top.

Infinix Note 12 Pro bottom ports

At the bottom we have the main speaker and main microphone, USB Type C port, and yes, a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Infinix Note 12 Pro

Overall, the buttons are decently placed and is easily reachable even with small hands. They are also tactile and responsive when pressed. We find the design of the Infinix Note 12 Pro a little bit on the outdated side in a positive manner. We liked the pattern with rigid texture at the back as we feel secure using this device without a case as it does not attract fingerprints as compared to other smartphones in the market. And if incase we accidentally drop this device, the back panel won’t shatter as it is made out of a high grade plastic.  We did also liked the squared off edges as it does contribute so much on making this device ergonomically friendly.

Infinix Note 12 Pro Colors

The unit we have is in the Force Black colorway, but if want a little more cleaner look you can go for Snow Fall, or if you want a little bit more unique and a little pop of color, Sapphire Blue is also an option.

Display and Multimedia

The Infinix Note 12 Pro packs a massive 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 2400 x 1080 capable of producing 393ppi which is sharp. The display has a little bit of a thick bezel all around especially the chin part which takes sometime to get used.

Infinix Note 12 Pro Display

Overall the display has good viewing angles, sharp text, and still viewable even under direct sunlight. The only gripe we have is the refresh rate as it only supports 60Hz. Don’t get me wrong, for some reason we though it does support even 90Hz refresh rate as the animations all throughout the system is buttery smooth. Also during our test, we removed the pre-installed screen protector to truly test out its Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection and so far the display protection held up pretty well as we only get a few small scratches on the display which is good.

When it comes to multimedia consumption, the display does perform as it should, we have deep blacks and vivid videos and images. We love the fact that we have a stereo setup though the quality isn’t that good, but hey! It is there and does serve its purpose – just don’t nit pick. In any case, there’s the 3.5mm audio jack in the mix if you want a much more optimal viewing experience.

Cameras

The Note 12 Pro comes equipped with a triple rear camera setup namely, 50MP main f1.6, 2MP depth f2.4 and a QVGA sensor. Up front we have a 16MP wide selfie camera.

Infinix Note 12 Pro Cameras

The images produces were sharp with ample details. HDR is highly observed which is great. Surprisingly it does have great color reproduction especially in bright conditions. Shooting in low light however can be a little bit challenging for these sensors, there is night mode in the mix but don’t expect to have a night and day difference with it turned on and off, but still does produce decent images.

No telephoto lens here so don’t be surprised when photos comes out a little bit pixelated even at just 3x. Portrait on the other hand is a little bit of a hit and miss, but will suffice for social media postings.

One of the things we wished this devices has is ultra-wide camera instead of the depth sensor as it is much more essential for most users – not only you can fit more subjects in the frame, but it can add a little bit more creativity in the mix, but that’s just us, though hopefully in the next iteration we have that.

When it comes to video, the Infinix Note 12 Pro can shoot up to 1440p at 30fps. No OIS nor EIS either so expect shaky videos especially when shooting in handheld. For a more optical shooting experience, you can either use a tripod or a gimbal to remedy that.

OS and Apps

Running on the Infinix Note 12 Pro is Android 12 skinned with XOS 10.6. The overall UI feels clean with pre-organized folders, and a much lesser bloatware which can be uninstalled afterwards like system apps such as Cleaner, Phone Master, and Folax.

Infinix Note 12 Pro UI

You can customized the home-screen according to your liking. You can choose home screen style like large folder, which is turned off by default, or classic. You can also customize things from text color to icon size, as well a themes. Dark mode is also present, although, it doesn’t take advantage of its AMOLED screen as the it does have a grayish tint to it instead of the usual pure black theme.

Performance and Benchmarks

Powering this device is a MediaTek Helio G96 chipset coupled with a Mali-G57 GPU, up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. Using it day-to-day, we noticed that, although, it can handle few basic tasks such as browsing the web and social media apps, it can sometimes feel a little sluggish when using it for editing photos on Lightroom and even when playing graphically intensive game titles such as Call of Duty.

Infinix Note 12 Pro Gaming

On the contrary, we didn’t encounter any issues when are played Mobile Legends Bang-Bang. We highly recommend to set down the graphic setting though at medium to low for a much more optimal gaming experience. It does also feel a little warm to the touch when used for long periods of time, but it wasn’t to the alarming level.

When it comes to benchmarks, here are the results:

• AnTuTu v9 – 334, 899
• AnTuTu v9 Storage – 523.5 MB/s (Seq. Read), 462.5 MB/s (Seq. Write)
• PC Mark – 8,586 (Work 3.0)
• 3D Mark – 1,191 (Wild Life),  327 (Wild Life Extreme)
• GeekBench 5 – 495 (Single-Core), 1,518 (Multi-Core), 1,424 (OpenCL)

Connectivity and Battery Life

The Infinix Note 12 Pro has all the basic connectivity features such as dual-SIM, WiFi 802.11, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, USB Type-C 2.0, and 4G LTE. Sadly there’s no 5G connectivity on this device which can be a dealbreaker for most people as 5G is widely available in the country, but for people who find themselves satisfied with 4G LTE performance, fret not as it still does provide reliable network connectivity.

For battery, it has a 5,000mAh battery which has 33W fast charging support. We run it through PCMark’s Battery test, we got a score of 14 hours ad 29 minutes while we got a total of 22 hours and 19 minutes through our Standard Video Loop which in our book, it does look pretty good and heavily reliable. Charging on the other may take a few as we achieved 0 – 100% in a little over 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Conclusion

Infinix Note 12 Pro

We enjoyed our quality time with the Infinix Note 12 Pro as it does serve its purpose — well mostly. Its a smartphone with no surprises, but will definitely provide you things that you need, from giving you decent performance to the display as well as its cameras. We didn’t encounter any major issues and complaints while using it as a day-to-day go to device making it a great recommendation for people who need a smartphone with no ifs or buts.

For the price of PHP 8,999USD 153INR 13,000EUR 146CNY 1,117 for the 128GB + 8GB RAM variant and PHP 9,999USD 170INR 14,445EUR 162CNY 1,241 for the 256GB + 8GB variant, the Infinix Note 12 Pro is no doubt a bang for you buck smartphone; if you don’t mind it not having 5G connectivity and an ultra-wide angle camera – which for sure, most people don’t really mind.

Infinix Note 12 specs:
6.70-inch FHD+ (2400 x 1080) True Color AMOLED Display
MediaTek Helio G96 chipset
Mali-G57 MC2 GPU
8GB RAM (Up to 13GB extended RAM)
128GB / 256GB
microSD card slot (dedicated)
Triple-rear cameras:
• 50MP main
• 2MP depth
• QVGA
16MP Front Camera
Dual-SIM
4G LTE
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth
GPS, A-GPS
USB-C 2.0
3.5mm headphone jack
Android 12
5,000 mAh battery w/ 33W Flash charge
164.57mm x 76.80mm x 7.89 mm (dimensions)
185 grams (weight)
Force Black, Snowfall, Sapphire Blue