An inspiring design and camera but with a lot of compromises!!
The Realme number series has shown huge success in the market as it brings some of the best specifications in the mid-range and the premium mid-range segment. This year we have the Realme 12 series of which the Realme 12 Pro + is a solid smartphone which carries the newer design philosophy with the Vegan leather design as seen on the Realme 11 Pro Plus.
Talking about the Realme 11 Pro +(Review), it was a well-put-together premium mid-range smartphone that packed some very good specifications for the price but was criticized in a few areas also. The biggest highlight of the Realme 12 Pro + is the newer design and the massive periscopic camera which is the first for a Realme in this segment. Other than that it also packs in some good specifications.
In the premium mid-range segment, there has been very tough competition amongst smartphones from different manufacturers where you get features like an IP68 rating, 200MP cameras, a solid hardware setup, 120W faster-charging speeds and much more. So will the Realme 12 Pro + settle itself well in this competitive premium mid-range segment? Is it worth buying?
Let's find out in the full review.
Realme 12 Pro + Design:
In terms of design, the Realme 12 Pro + brings an innovative design just like its predecessor i.e. the Realme 11 Pro Plus. At the back, there is a huge circular camera module inspired by a watch that houses the triple cameras along with a dual LED flashlight. The camera module does shine when the smartphone is viewed from different angles.
There is a nice golden which surrounds the camera module and it looks premium. The back continues the vegan leather design but it feels softer now and resists fingerprints thus providing a solid grip while holding it in the hands. Just below the camera module, there is a zipper-like strip in the middle which starts below the camera module and ends at the bottom giving the smartphone a unique look.
The smartphone is slightly curved around the sides making it easy to hold in hands. The Realme 12 Pro + comes with an IP65 rating which means it is almost dust and water-resistant. The Realme 12 Pro + is available in three colour variants - Submarine Blue, Navigator Beige, and Explorer Red. The smartphone weighs around 196 grams which makes it slightly heavier.
Around the sides, there is a polycarbonate frame with a gold finish making it look premium. It houses a power button with a set of volume buttons on the right side whereas the left side remains completely clean. At the bottom, there is a USB Type-C port, a loudspeaker grille which along with the secondary speakers doubles up as a stereo speaker, a dual SIM card slot, and a primary microphone.
The top houses the secondary set of speakers and a secondary noise-cancelling microphone only. On the front, there is a curved display, which is curved around the sides, and the bezels are very thin, making it look premium. The punch hole is located on the top at the centre, which houses the selfie camera.
Realme 12 Pro + Display:
The Realme 12 Pro + sports a larger 6.7-inch curved AMOLED display which remains unchanged from its predecessor and sports a Full HD+ (1080x2400 pixels) resolution with a screen-to-body ratio of 20:9. The display has support for a 120Hz refresh rate. It is a 10-bit display with punchier colours and has good viewing angles.
Talking about the 120Hz refresh rate, there are three different settings to choose Standard, High, and Auto-Select. Switching the display to the High and the Standard Mode almost yields similar output as most of the applications refresh at 120Hz and there are very few applications that refresh at 60Hz. The Auto Mode is restrictive for some applications like Gallery, Netflix, and YouTube that refresh at 60Hz only.
Switching to the Standard Mode refreshes the display at 60Hz always constantly for all applications which definitely is best suited for better battery life. Combined with the 120Hz refresh rate, there is a 240Hz touch sampling rate for faster touch responses. Like its predecessor, there is also the 2160Hz PWM dimming which reduces the strain on the eyes while viewing content in darker scenarios.
In terms of display brightness, the display can reach a peak brightness of 950nits which is decent but is way behind the competition where many other smartphones are offering more than 1000nits of peak brightness. In the Auto Brightness mode, the display reaches around 800nits of brightness under direct sunlight but in most scenarios, we had to turn the brightness to the highest settings to view content.
The display has three different settings to choose from - Vivid, Natural, and Pro where the Pro mode consists of two modes Cinematic and Brilliant. The Vivid mode provides punchier colours in the display thus covering the DCI-P3 gamut whereas the Natural mode provides realistic colours that look balanced and do not have much contrast. Just like the Vivid mode, Cinematic also works the same.
The Natural mode and the Brilliant cover the sRGB colour space. There is also a temperature slider under Pro mode to switch from a warmer tone to a cooler tone or vice versa. The display of the Realme 12 Pro + supports HDR on YouTube and there is Widevine L1 present but for some reason, there is no support for HDR on Netflix as of now.
Since it is an AMOLED display, you get an optical in-display fingerprint scanner that works accurately and is faster. In terms of display protection, Realme 12 Pro + is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5.
Realme 12 Pro + Performance:
The Realme 12 Pro + is powered by the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2, a new chipset in the market. It has an octa-core setup that includes 4x2.4 GHz Cortex-A78 cores with another 4x1.95GHz Cortex-A55 cores and this chipset is based on an efficient 4nm process. This chipset is coupled with an Adreno 710 GPU which handles almost all the tasks easily.
All light to casual activities like scrolling through webpages, streaming social media, rendering videos, taking images and videos, etc. the smartphone felt smoother. Even while playing lighter games, the smartphone handles everything easily. When it comes to heavy gaming like Call Of Duty Mobile, BGMI, etc. the smartphone handles these games decently but considerable frame drops are noticed.
In BGMI, the smartphone ran smoothly at HDR graphics with Extreme frame rates but there were some jitters during the gameplay and frame drops were noticed. Switching the gameplay to Smooth graphics with Extreme frame rates resulted in better gameplay. The back of the Realme 12 Pro + did not feel much warmer as the heat was well under control due to the presence of a larger vapour cooling system underneath.
In the CPU throttling test, the smartphone could achieve a sustained performance of around 80-85 per cent which is very good as there was minimal throttling detected. However, the Realme 12 Pro + pales compared to its competition in terms of benchmarks which are very low. In terms of network connectivity, you get support for good carrier aggregation and have almost 9 bands of the 5G.
The Realme 12 Pro + is available in three different variants - 8GB RAM with 128GB storage, 8GB RAM with 256GB storage, and another 12GB RAM with 256GB storage all of which have LPDDR5 RAM with all variants supporting the UFS 3.1 storage speeds. Overall, the performance is good and gaming is slightly better compared to the Realme 11 Pro Plus.
Realme 12 Pro + Software:
The Realme 12 Pro + runs on the latest RealmeUI 5.0 out of the box which is based on Android 14. Compared to the RealmeUI 4.0, there is not much of a difference as there are a lot of customizations present which means you can change different fonts, icons, accent colours, and the shape of quick toggles in the notification shade.
Then there are different styles for the Always-On display and the fingerprint scanner animation. For multi-tasking there are some handy features like Split View where you can open two applications simultaneously in the display and use them, Smart Sidebar lets you use your favourite applications by swiping from the sides which pulls a bar that stores the applications.
Now the Sidebar gets a new feature where you can save any file type to the File Dock and access it anywhere. Just like Appl's Dynamic Island, there is a feature called Aqua Dynamics that works with a few applications where a small bubble shows up on the status bar and all notifications light up the bubble. Other than that there are almost all features as found on the RealmeUI 4.0.
There is a considerable amount of bloatware present which can be uninstalled easily and you can simply turn the app suggestions off from the settings. Regarding software updates, the Realme 12 Pro + will receive another two years of AndroidOS updates and three years of security updates which is good but the competition is still offering a better software update cycle policy than Realme.
Realme 12 Pro + Cameras:
The Realme 12 Pro + sports a triple camera setup that includes a 50MP f/1.8 primary camera with support for OIS, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, and a massive 64MP f/2.8 periscope telephoto camera with support for OIS which is the main talking point in this review as it is amongst a very few smartphones that offer telephoto camera in this segment. On the front, there is a 32MP f/2.4 camera for selfies.
The images from the main camera come out with sharper details and have good dynamic range. The colours look saturated and do have contrast on the slightly higher side. The white balance is handled very well and the noise is very low in the background. The details in shadows come out well but if you use the 2x digital zoom, the details do look a tad softer but still maintain a good dynamic range.
There is some amount of noise present in the background but still, it is better to use the dedicated telephoto camera for zoomed-in images. At night, the primary camera does a very good job in terms of details that look sharper and have a wider dynamic range. The exposure is well handled and noise is almost low in the background as the OIS works very well.
The colours look punchier and have good contrast without any oversharpening in the background but at times it does introduce some artificial colour in some scenarios but that is negligible. All these results have been captured using the dedicated Night Mode. Without the Night Mode, there is not much of a difference as the details still look sharper, and have good dynamic range but noise is slightly on the higher side.
At 2x zoom from the primary camera, in low light, the details look sharper and have good dynamic range except that they do have a larger amount of noise in the background and colours look washed out. The 8MP ultrawide camera does have a larger 120-degree field of view and captures sharper details with punchier colours. The distortion around the edges is clearly present in all images.
The colours look saturated but not as close as the primary camera. In some scenarios, the colours look washed out and there is some oversharpening that takes place in the background. At night, the ultrawide camera yields good details but they do tend to look a bit softer and noise is on the higher side. The colours look good but in some scenarios, they look washed out. The dynamic range is good though.
The details in the shadows look good but still, there is a lot of improvement needed. Now moving to the 64MP telephoto camera, the images have sharper details and good dynamic range which is wider. The colours look saturated without any kind of oversharpening and the noise is almost non-existent in the background. The contrast is good and the white balance is handled very well.
Beyond 3x optical zoom, the images come out with sharper details and have a great dynamic range with almost less noise in the background. But beyond 6x zoom, the details in the images do look a tad softer and the colours look slightly washed out. There is some noise present in the background but still, the images look good and it is one best telephoto cameras out there.
At night, the images from the telephoto camera come out with sharper details and have a wider dynamic range. The images taken during the night using the telephoto camera come out with sharper details and have a great dynamic range with almost less noise in the background. The exposure is well handled in low-light scenarios and results look equally good without the Night Mode also.
In terms of portraits, both the main and the telephoto cameras do a great job in detail and edge detection. However, the dynamic range is slightly better on the ones shot using the telephoto camera. Also, the noise is almost non-existent compared to the ones taken by the main camera. The colours look saturated without any oversharpening on both.
However, the background blur comes out better on the telephoto camera but the difference is negligible. It does not matter much which camera you use for portraits, but the telephoto camera is still slightly better for portraits. The telephoto camera can also double up as a macro camera and the results have sharper details, good dynamic range, and almost no noise in the background.
In terms of selfies, the 32MP front camera does a good job in terms of details that look sharper, have good dynamic range, and colours that look saturated with skin tones having a natural colour tone. However, the noise is slightly on the higher side. In terms of portrait selfies, you get good details that look sharper and have great dynamic range along with perfect edge detection and background blur.
When it comes to videos, the primary camera and the telephoto cameras can only record 4K videos at 30fps and the video footage from both cameras comes out with sharper details, great dynamic range, and saturated colours with almost no noise present in the background as the OIS works perfectly on both cameras. Even in low light, the videos come out with sharper details and have good dynamic range.
The ultrawide and the selfie cameras are restricted to 1080p videos at 30fps for video recording. The video footage from the ultrawide camera comes out with sharper details but the dynamic range is not wider and there is a considerable amount of noise present in the videos. At night, the videos do have slightly washed-out colours and noise is on the higher side but still, the dynamic range comes out well.
The selfie camera does a good job in terms of videos with sharper details, and good dynamic range, but the skin tones look oversharpened and there is a slight tint noticed which needs some improvement. The noise is less in the background. Overall, the cameras are pleasing due to the presence of that telephoto camera but still ultrawide camera needs some improvement.
Realme 12 Pro + Battery Life:
The Realme 12 Pro + houses a 5000mAh battery which remains unchanged from its predecessor but now this time there is an efficient Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset which is based on a 4nm process, so you expect a better battery life compared to its predecessor. With normal usage that includes casual gaming, streaming social media, browsing webpages, etc. the smartphone lasted for one and a half days with some battery left.
With heavy usage that includes playing games for longer hours, rendering videos, taking images and videos through the camera, running benchmarks, etc. the smartphone lasted easily for one day with some charge left. The standard screen-on time with normal usage came to around 6.5-7 hours and with heavy usage, it came to around 5 hours which is good and slightly better than its predecessor.
In terms of charging, the Realme 12 Pro + supports only 67W fast charging which is a downgrade over the 100W fast charging support on its predecessor. The Realme 12 Pro + takes around 45-50 minutes to charge from 0 to 100 per cent completely which is slightly more than its predecessor which used to take around 30-35 minutes for a full charge from 0 to 100 per cent.
Realme 12 Pro + Audio Quality:
The Realme 12 Pro + sports a dual stereo speaker setup that sounds adequately loud and has a good level of bass and treble. The audio does not feel muffled or distorted even at the highest volume settings but the sound output is slightly higher on the bottom speaker compared to the speaker on the top. There is support for Dolby Atmos for enhanced sound output while watching videos or listening to songs.
Verdict:
The Realme 12 Pro + is a great mid-range smartphone that has almost all the required specifications in a mid-range segment. The build and design are the most striking factors as it brings a unique design with a vegan leather finish that has an IP65 rating, then the telephoto camera is one of the biggest highlights here as it takes excellent images and videos, and the slightly powerful chipset provides better performance in daily scenarios.
However, there are a lot of areas where Realme has made many compromises. When it comes to the display, it is not the brightest as the competition offers much better brightness levels in this segment. Though you get good performance still in terms of gaming, this chipset is not capable of playing all games with the highest graphics and there are frame drops noticed also.
The software experience is very good with all features coming in handy but there is a considerable amount of bloatware present which can be uninstalled and in terms of software updates, competitors are offering a much better software update policy over this smartphone in this price segment. The ultrawide camera performance falls short in terms of low-light photography and video capabilities.
Though you get a good battery life, the charging speeds are a downgrade compared to its predecessor. Compared to the Realme 11 Pro Plus, you are getting a slightly better design, a better chipset, battery life, and a much better camera setup while sacrificing the charging speeds. So if these upgrades are worth it, then you can upgrade to the Realme 12 Pro + from the Realme 11 Pro Plus.
But overall, the Realme 12 Pro + is a good mid-range smartphone with an exciting design, a great camera setup with a 64MP telephoto camera, and other specifications are also good. But there are a lot of compromises present so if you can live with those compromises, then it is a good option to consider in the market.
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