Realme 12 Pro and Realme 12 Pro Plus 55 make their global debut today in India. The successor to the Realme 11 Pro Series, the latest smartphones come with a different design, top-of-the-line camera specs, and a price point starting at Rs. 25,999. The Realme 12 Pro and Realme 12 Pro Plus have the same design language and share most of the specs apart from differences in SoC and camera hardware. The top-end Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G features a Snapdragon 7th Gen chipset, a large 5000mAh battery, an OLED display, Realme UI 6.0, and much more. Specs on paper are impressive but how does it fare in real-world situations? Let’s find out in this Realme 12 Pro Plus review.
Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G Review Snapshot
Editor’s rating: 3.9/5
Design
Display
Software
Performance
Camera
Battery
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Pros
- Stylish design
- Impressive rear camera setup
- Fast & Efficient SoC
- Good battery life
- Gorgeous display
Cons
- No Headphone Jack
- Bloatware
- Underwhelming peak brightness
Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G Price & Availability
Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G comes in 3 storage configurations-
- 8GB RAM+128GB storage- Rs. 29,999
- 8GB RAM+256GB storage- Rs. 31,999
- 12GB RAM+256GB storage- Rs. 33,999
It comes in Submarine Blue, Explorer Red, and Navigator Beige shades and will go on sale via Flipkart and Realme website starting February 6 at 12 PM IST.
Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G Review: Design and Build
Realme has tried to make the design of the Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G one of its selling points along with the camera setup. The brand has partnered with luxury watch designer Olivier Saveo to infuse elements of luxury watches into the design of the smartphone. Realme 12 Pro Plus comes with a vegan leather back with a huge round camera module surrounded by a golden sunburst dial. The module houses 3 camera sensors and an LED flash. There is Realme branding at the bottom engraved in silver. The smartphone comes in Submarine Blue, Navigator Beige, and Explorer Red shades, out of which we received the blue model for review purposes.
The Submarine blue model looks elegant and premium when held in hand and has a thin and light build with a thickness of 8.75mm and a weight of 196 grams. The golden aluminum frame blends the organic leather at the back and the curved display at the front. The right edge houses the volume rockers as well as the power button while the bottom edge includes a SIM tray, Speaker grille, and USB Type-C port. The top side has an IR blaster and speaker.
The Realme 12 Pro Plus is IP65 rated for protection against dust, water, and low-pressure liquid sprays which makes the device even safer to handle in all weather conditions. The smartphone can be easily operated with one hand for long durations. When held in hand, it does look gorgeous from afar and will be liked by those who like to flaunt their style.
Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G Review: Display
The Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G features a 6.7-inch OLED display with a Full HD+ resolution. With a pixel count of 2412×1080, the display offers bright and rich visuals with dynamic blacks and whites. With 1.07 billion colors and a P3 color gamut, the display offers decent colors. There are 4 screen color modes to choose from, Natural, Cinematic, and Brilliant. While Natural shows softer colors, cinematic, and brilliant are suitable for those who want brighter colors. Vivid captures the contrast well. I used the device in Vivid mode most of the time.
Viewing angles are ok and a touch sampling rate of 240Hz ensures a quick response while using a plethora of apps. 120Hz dynamic refresh rate gives a seamless scrolling experience while browsing, reading, and performing other tasks. Although the refresh rate is 120Hz, it keeps changing depending on the app that opens on the screen. While gaming and watching videos, the refresh rate was 60Hz while during scrolling through Play Store, it was 90Hz.
Maximum peak brightness of 950 nits gives ample brightness indoors but in outdoor conditions, the display is not visible under harsh sunlight. Brightness is one area where Realme could have put in some more effort. 2160Hz PWM dimming ensures no flickering in low light and thus lesser effects on the vision of the user. The display is TUV Rheinland certified as well for eye protection.
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Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G Review: Performance
The Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset. Combined with the Adreno 710 GPU, the performance is fast and efficient. The apps load and open quickly and GPU ensures that the gaming performance is decent as well. Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G comes with up to 12GB RAM and up to 256GB storage. 12GB RAM offers good reading and writing speeds so the chipset can retrieve data really quickly when needed. The presence of 256GB onboard storage means space to store whatever you want- apps, photos, videos, audio, documents, etc.
To test gaming, I ran Asphalt 9 on the device. I started playing the title with HD graphics and high frame rates and it ran seamlessly for over half an hour without any lags or drops in frame rates. The game ran at a 60Hz refresh rate and the device did start warming up after 15-20 minutes but otherwise, there were no issues at all. Asphalt 9 is a heavy-duty title and the same running well indicates that Realme 12 Pro Plus can handle gaming. When benchmarked, the results are as follows-
Let’s talk about software now. Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G ran Realme UI 6.0 based on Android 14 out of the box. Realme has modified the Android 14 OS to offer even more customizations and personalization options. It comes with Omoji that allows you to create an avatar for yourself that can be placed on the Always on display.
File Dock has come to Realme UI which means a smart sidebar that allows you to access everything you need quickly. Smart image matting allows you to access any object from any image and save it to use it any way you like. Personalization options include edge lighting on either side of the device while charging, various fingerprint animations to choose from, and more. Realme 12 Pro Plus also allows heart rate monitoring now. You will find the feature in the Realme Lab settings of the Settings app and all one has to do is press their finger on the given point to measure heart rate. I tried it 3 times within 2 minutes and each time the reading was different. So, the accuracy of the monitor can’t be relied upon. Otherwise, the UI is colorful, user-friendly, and fun to browse.
The only issue is loads of bloatware that comes pre-installed. Apps like Netflix, PhonePe, Spotify, Linked IN, Snapchat, etc. are already installed and have to be removed if not needed.
Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G Review: Cameras
The second USP of the Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G is its camera setup. The rear panel features a triple lens setup including a 50MP primary camera with OIS, a 64MP periscope telephoto lens, and an 8MP ultrawide camera for more area coverage. At the front is a 32MP selfie snapper.
Talking about the 50MP primary camera first. The lens takes picture-perfect shots in natural daylight. The images captured are lifelike and detailed. When you zoom in, every tiny detail is visible without any effort. The colors look natural and are captured well but do look oversaturated at times. For example, hues of blue look very different from each other. Sunlight is also well captured and shadows are detailed as well. The night shots are also captured well with shadows offering a striking contrast, but the details are much less than daylight shots.
The 8MP ultrawide shots cover much area in a single picture. With a focal length of 16mm and an aperture of f/2.2, the pictures are loaded with details and are sharp, and vibrant in good lighting conditions. In low-light areas, the sensor struggles like many mid-rangers
The 64MP periscope telephoto lens comes with up to 120x digital zoom which Realme means to say that no matter how small an object is, the camera will capture a clear view of it with all the important details. However, it feels more of a gimmick and less of an actual feature. The zoom quality remains decent till 6x but beyond that, it starts losing character. 3x zoom is the best to get a good balance of details and clarity in shots. Portrait shots capture the essence of the subject quite decently with each image reflecting their personality.
The moving objects are captured with utmost clarity due to the presence of Optical Image Stabilization for the main camera. For example, this shot of the Indian tricolor flying in the wind has been captured well.
32MP selfie camera is a Sony IMX615 sensor that has a FOV of 90 degrees. The snapper clicks crisp and detailed selfies with the subject being the sole focus and the background being made secondary. The skin tone looks natural and for those who aren’t satisfied with their face in the selfies, there are tons of AI Beauty features like skin tone, skin texture, cheeks, eye size, spot healing, eye brightness, dark circles, teeth, and more. However, if you are fond of natural and real pictures, the 32MP sensor won’t disappoint. The slight niggle that I encountered here was that there were delays in the processing of selfies sometimes. Focus on the subject also dwindled a few times.
Videos can be recorded in pro mode, slow motion, time-lapse, and more modes. 4K videos can be recorded in 30fps while 1080p and 720p videos can be recorded in 30fps and 60fps. Slow-motion videos made in lowlight conditions capture the subject(s) clearly but look grainy when zoomed in.
Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G Review: Battery Life and Charging
The Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G packs a massive 5000mAh battery under the hood. The battery easily lasts over a day if you are a light to moderate user with your usage including calling, texting, browsing social media, messaging, listening to music, watching videos, light gaming, and more. However, if you are an avid gamer or content creator/editor then the battery will have to be charged once before the day gets over.
Inside the box is a 67W adapter to charge the device in very little time. When plugged in, 67W charging capability ensures that the smartphone is charged from 0 to 100% in about 50 minutes. Even if you don’t have much time, your device will charge to 50% in less than half an hour. The charging speed is decent but the brand could have bumped it up to shake things up from last year’s Realme 11 Pro Series. There are options like Smart Charging which slows down the aging of your battery and ‘Stop Charging at 80%’ to ensure a longer life of a battery as charging will stop when it reaches 80%. Power saving mode increases battery life by several hours and if you want to check which app is consuming how much battery, the usage is displayed in Battery Settings Menu.
Review Verdict: Should you buy Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G?
Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G is Realme’s simple and functional approach to mid-range segment. The smartphone has a stylish design, a top-notch camera setup, a fast processor, and an OLED display. However, the brand has not offered any noticeable upgrades in departments like battery size, and fast charging so it feels like a very familiar device only in a new colored packaging.
Bloatware has decreased and notifications have also reduced but there is still room for improvement here. There is no headphone jack or effective audio system, which are niggles that might be ok to some but huge drawbacks for others. The camera, which is a USP looks like it has been worked upon and its output is likable as well.
All in all, Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G can be your choice if you need a camera and design-centric smartphone that gives fast and efficient performance.
Reasons to buy
- Stylish design
- Impressive rear camera setup
- Fast & Efficient SoC
- Good battery life
- Gorgeous display
Reasons to not buy
- No Headphone Jack
- Bloatware
- Underwhelming peak brightness
