REDMI NOTE 12 PRO PLUS REVIEW – JOINING THE FLAGSHIP MARKET!

One might typically associate a 200-megapixel camera with a flagship feature found on devices such as Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Ultra. However, advancements in technology have made it available on mid-range smartphones like the Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus.

Design, Display, And Storage:

In addition to this impressive camera feature, the phone also boasts 120-watt fast charging, a new chipset, and a larger battery than its predecessor. As the most premium model in the Redmi Note 12 series, the Pro Plus has a glass back and a slightly curved panel with a polished finish.

The phone’s frame is made of plastic, like the other models in the series, and has a matte finish. The Pro Plus also features dust and splash-proofing rated at IP53. Its 6.67-inch AMOLED display has a 1080p resolution, a 120-hertz refresh rate, and Gorilla Glass 5 protection.

The display produces sharp, contrasty visuals with the option of Adobe Vision and 10-bit color, and HDR10+ support. The color accuracy can be adjusted based on the user’s preferences.

The display is impressively bright, with a maximum of 520 nits when using the manual slider, and can boost up to around 1,000 nits in auto mode when in bright conditions. Additionally, the refreshing rate of 120 hertz makes for smooth swiping and scrolling, automatically dialing down to 60 hertz when not in use to save energy.

Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus

The Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus comes equipped with a standard headphone jack, as well as a pair of Dolby Atmos stereo speakers. The speakers produce good sound quality with strong vocals and a notable bass.

The phone features a side-mounted fingerprint reader for quick and easy unlocking, and it also offers 256GB of onboard storage that unfortunately cannot be expanded via MicroSD, which is a feature typically found on mid-range smartphones.

Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus System and Features:

Running on Xiaomi’s latest MIUI 14 interface on top of Android 12, the Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus boasts a suite of new features. Although these features have not yet been released, the phone still operates smoothly thanks to some under-the-hood optimizations.

Users can access quick shortcuts from the home screen via the sidebar, which changes depending on the scenario. For example, in games, the sidebar provides gaming-related features, while in video apps, it becomes a video toolbox with features such as screen recording, screenshot-taking, and content casting.

Another unique feature is the phone’s remote control app, which works with appliances due to the phone’s IR blaster.

Chipsets And Battery:

The phone is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 1080 chipset, which is an upgrade over the Dimensity 920 found in last year’s Redmi Note 11 Pro Plus. The most significant change in this chipset is its camera capabilities, with the Dimensity 1080’s ISP able to handle image data from sensors up to 200 megapixels, like the camera on the phone itself.

While there isn’t much difference in CPU or graphics performance compared to the previous model, the Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus still boasts impressive benchmark scores, ranking among the best in its class, only surpassed by phones running on the new Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset.

Furthermore, the phone boasts excellent thermal stability thanks to the Vaper Camber cooling system and did not overheat in our test, despite the upgraded 5,000 milliamp-hour battery, which is larger than the 4,500 milliamp-hour battery found in the previous model.

However, despite the impressive camera specs, the battery life of the Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus did not improve. In fact, it scored less than 100 hours in endurance rating, which is unusual for a Redmi phone. The standby performance of the phone brought down its overall battery score.

The phone supports 120-watt hypercharge, and with the bundled adapter, it can charge from zero to 100 percent in just 30 minutes by default. With boost mode enabled, it can fully charge in just 23 minutes.

Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus Camera:

Moving on to the camera, the main attraction is the 200-megapixel Samsung hpx sensor, which is paired with an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera and a 2-megapixel macro camera. By default, the main camera bins pixels to create 12-megapixel images, which are thoroughly impressive, especially for a mid-range phone.

The photos have plenty of detail, including well-developed fine details like foliage. They are free of noise, and the colors are true to life. However, the image sharpening is a bit too high, and the contrast is a bit too strong, resulting in inky shadows with not much detail.

The 2x zoom from the main camera is not much better than a simple crop and upscale from the 12-megapixel photos. While the result is decent, the sharpness and detail leave more to be desired.

There is a high-res mode that you can enable, which produces 50-megapixel photos that have a bit more detail and definition than the 12-megapixel ones. They have a more natural rendition in terms of sharpness and contrast. However, there is also a 200-megapixel option, but these are just upscaled from the 50-megapixel ones, and there is no benefit in using them as the file size is huge.

Portrait mode shots are decent, with proficient subject separation, but the photo quality is somewhat average.

Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus

Despite its impressive specs, the Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus fails to deliver great battery life, with an endurance rating of only 88 hours.

Standby performance is particularly disappointing, pulling down the overall score. On the bright side, the phone supports 120W hypercharge with a bundled adapter, and the boost mode can fully charge the phone in just 23 minutes.

The phone’s 200-megapixel Samsung HPX sensor main camera paired with the 8-megapixel ultrawide and 2-megapixel macro cameras produces 12-megapixel images with plenty of detail, well-developed fine details, and true-to-life colors.

However, image sharpening is a bit too high, and the contrast is also overly strong, leading to Inky Shadows with poor detail. The 2x zoom from the main camera is not much better than a simple crop and upscale from the 12-megapixel photos, with sharpness and detail leaving more to be desired.

Enabling high-res mode produces 50-megapixel photos with more natural rendition, detail, and definition, while the 200-megapixel option only upscales from the 50-megapixel ones, without much benefit, and with a huge file size. Portrait mode shots are average, with proficient subject separation.

The ultrawide camera’s 8-megapixel photos boast sharpness, fine detail, low noise, plenty of contrast, and an alright dynamic range. The 2-megapixel macro photos are decent, with enough detail and saturated colors.

In low light conditions, night mode processing is applied automatically to the main camera’s photos, which look good, and well-exposed, with enough detail, low noise, and saturated colors, but with overly high contrast resulting in a loss of detail in the shadows.

Enabling dedicated night mode produces photos with slightly lifted shadows but takes longer to capture and save. Disabling night mode produces darker, more realistic exposure with more detail and sharpness. Ultrawide cameras’ low-light photos are dark, and noisy, with average detail and poor dynamic range, but night mode improves dynamic range and exposure at the expense of detail.

The 16-megapixel front-facing camera produces decent selfies with lively colors, but just okay detail and overly strong contrast. Video recording is class-leading, with the main camera supporting 4K video capture at 30fps, delivering exceptional detail, a naturally balanced look, accurate colors, great contrast, and good dynamic range.

The ultrawide camera shoots in 1080P with excellent detail, accurate colors, and good dynamic range. Electronic stabilization is always on for all cameras except for the macro, and it works well on the ultrawide camera shooting in 1080P, but not so much on the main camera at 4K resolution.

Low light 4K videos from the main camera have low noise, saturated colors, and lots of detail, with a just alright dynamic range, making them quite good for a mid-range phone.

Finally, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus is an impressive mid-range phone with premium features like super-fast charging, an excellent display, and a class-leading 200-megapixel main camera. However, the phone does have a couple of drawbacks, such as shorter battery life compared to other Redmi models and the absence of expandable storage through microSD.

Despite these limitations, the Pro Plus offers great value for money, particularly if you’re in the market for a camera phone within this price range. Therefore, it’s definitely worth recommending. Check out the latest price of Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus <<<Here.>>>

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Daven Klarsen is a technology writer and researcher. He's also an avid sports fan, especially when it comes to the LAL. When not working, you can usually find him tweaking his Android devices or watching soccer news.