Xiaomi Redmi 12 5G Review: A Budget Performer

Redmi 12 5G Review Summary:

Editor’s rating: 3.6/5

Redmi 12 5G has finally made its official debut in the Indian market. This highly anticipated 5G smartphone from Xiaomi is making its global debut in the Indian market, and it comes with an attractive starting price of just ₹11,999, making it the most affordable 5G smartphone offered by the company. The phone comes packed with several features including a sleek glass back panel, a powerful new Snapdragon SoC, and much more. Are you curious to find out if the Redmi 12 5G lives up to the hype? Read on to find out in this Redmi 12 review.

Redmi 12 5G Unboxing

On unboxing the Redmi 12 5G, you’ll find all the essential accessories conveniently bundled within the package. These include a SIM tray, a handy translucent case to protect your device, and some informative documents to guide you through the setup process. It also includes a 22.5W fast charger and a USB Type-A to Type-C cable, for sharing and connectivity.

Redmi 12 5G Review: Design

The Redmi 12 5G’s design is far from giving off a budget vibe. It exudes elegance with its glass back, complemented by flat edges featuring a metallic paint finish, resulting in a premium in-hand feel. One interesting aspect of the design is the absence of a separate camera module on the back; instead, it flaunts three individual rings, creating a clean and minimalist aesthetic.

Though the phone may feel a tad broad, its curved corners and impressively slim 8.17mm design contribute to a comfortable and ergonomic grip. Furthermore, the handset boasts an IP53 certification, which means it can withstand water splashes and some dust, adding a layer of durability. The front of the phone is dominated by the LCD screen with visible bezels and a slightly broader chin, this is quite common in budget smartphones and doesn’t take away from the overall appeal.

A clever touch in the design is the integration of the side-mounted fingerprint scanner into the power button on the right side, making it easily accessible alongside the volume buttons. The bottom edge houses the USB Type-C port and speaker grille, while the top edge holds the much-loved 3.5mm headphone jack and IR blaster.

Overall, the phone’s in-hand feel is impressive, offering a good weight balance and ergonomic design. However, one minor drawback is that the glass back tends to attract smudges easily. Nevertheless, the Redmi 12 5G’s design certainly doesn’t disappoint, especially considering its budget-friendly positioning.

Redmi 12 5G Review: Display and Audio

The Redmi 12 5G features a sizable 6.71-inch display, boasting a centered punch-hole for the selfie camera and an impressive 91 percent screen-to-body ratio. The display is of the LCD variety, offering FHD+ resolution, 550 nits brightness, and a smooth 90Hz refresh rate.

Our viewing experience on the Redmi 12 5G is quite respectable for its price range. The default color settings deliver punchy and bright visuals, although they may lean towards colder tones. Outdoors, the phone’s legibility holds up well, even under direct sunlight, making the text easily readable.

The Redmi 12 display has average viewing angles so you should keep your expectation realistic here. Xiaomi has done well to optimize its user interface and supported applications for the screen’s 90Hz refresh rate. Additionally, the handset comes with Widevine L1 certification, allowing users to stream content in FHD resolution from popular platforms like Netflix and other OTT services.

As far as audio is concerned, the Redmi 12 5G comes equipped with a single bottom-firing speaker setup, which is not its strongest aspect. The audio output can feel underwhelming at times, so it you enjoy multimedia content on your phone we recommend you to invest in an earphone or True Wireless Stereo earbuds.

Redmi 12 5G Review: Performance and Software

Powering the Redmi 12 5G is the all-new Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 chipset, a significant upgrade over its predecessor, the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 SoC. Manufactured using a 4nm node process, Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 includes two performance cores (clocked at 2.2GHz) and 6 efficiency cores (2.0GHz). The phone comes with up to 8GB of RAM, which can be virtually expanded up to 8GB, and a generous user-expandable storage option of 256GB.

In the Geekbench benchmark test, the Redmi 12 5G scores for single and multicore were 754 and 19,100 points, respectively. However, it appears that the handset’s performance might throttle a bit during the CPU Throttle test, especially when running 20 threads for an extended period. However, these are synthetic tests, in real-world usage, the Redmi 12 performance is good for this asking price. It handles demanding games like BGMI and COD at maximum graphics and frame rate settings without any major hiccups. During intensive tasks like gaming for extended periods, the phone’s temperature does rise slightly, but it doesn’t get excessively warm.

On the software front, the Redmi 12 5G comes with Android 13-based MIUI 14 out of the box, a familiar interface present in many other Xiaomi and Redmi smartphones. MIUI 14 offers a user-friendly experience with separate panels for notifications and a control center, resembling iOS-like features. The phone also provides various customization options and essential features like call and screen recording.

However, it’s worth noting that the device comes with some pre-installed apps, leading to a somewhat bloated experience. The MIUI 14 on this phone also loaded with spammy notifications, which is an area that Xiaomi should address.

That aside, overall phone’s performance and software experience has been smooth for everyday use.

Redmi 12 5G Review: Cameras

The Redmi 12 5G boasts a dual-camera setup on the back, featuring a 50-megapixel primary camera and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. On the front, it sports an 8-megapixel camera housed within the centrally-aligned hole-punch cutout of the display. Xiaomi has added some Leica-inspired filters.

By default phone’s primary camera outputs 12.5MP images and shots in daylight were decent. The camera manages to overall exposure in images but somehow crushes some of the shadows. The colors and Contest look a little punchy and acceptable. Moreover, the phone does offer a dedicated mode to capture images in its full 50MP resolution. While the overall quality remains similar to regular photos, there is a slight improvement in sharpness. However, this mode introduces a subtle graininess to the images and imparts a warm tone to the colors. The portrait mode, unfortunately, doesn’t excel at separating the background from the foreground, leading to noticeable warping on the subjects.

In low-light conditions, the camera performance deteriorates further. It is better to use night mode in low-light conditions. Without the night mode, you may encounter grainy images with light flaring across the frame. On the front, the 8MP snapper is decent in bright sunny conditions, but it shows some inaccuracies in skin tones, and facial details might appear overly smooth.

Overall, the phone delivers a decent camera performance, especially in daylight, but there are some areas that could benefit from further improvement, particularly in low-light conditions and portrait mode.

Redmi 12 5G Review: Battery and Charging

The Redmi 12 Pro’s battery performance has been really good. The phone packs an impressive 5000mAh battery. During heavy usage days, which included extensive camera usage, continuous social media activity, and all-day content consumption, the smartphone managed to provide an average screen-on time of around 5 hours. On lighter days, where activities were limited to emails and WhatsApp, the screen-on time increased to approximately 6 hours.

However, one area where the Redmi 12 falls short is in its charging speeds. Despite being bundled with a 22.5W charger in the box, the Redmi 12 5G only supports an 18W charging solution, which means it can take more than two hours to reach a full charge from 0 to 100 percent.

Review Verdict: Should you buy Redmi 12 5G?

The Redmi 12 5G is a good option for budget-conscious users who seek excellent performance and gaming capabilities. The phone boasts an attractive design and stands out with its commendable battery life, ensuring it lasts throughout the day even with heavy usage. However, in comparison to its competitors, the phone’s camera and charging speeds leave something to be desired. These aspects might not be deal-breakers for some users, but they are worth considering if you prioritize a strong photography experience or quick charging times.