Realme 12 Pro+ review

The Realme 11 series was a breath of fresh air in the mid-range segment last year. A vegan leather back, premium looks and performance to back it up, all at an affordable price? Sounds almost too good to be true, and yet, it wasn’t.

Now, Realme is back with a successor that takes the same formula, and throws in more powerful specifications. This is the new Realme 12 Pro+, the latest device that we have been testing out. At Rs 29,999, the ask is a little steep this year, but does the phone deliver? Read on to find out.

Realme 12 Pro+ Design

The Realme 12 Pro+ is a great-looking device. Even beyond its vegan leather back, which looks better in this Submarine Blue variant, the phone feels premium to the touch. In fact, if you’d hand this phone to someone, it would be difficult for them to guess the price of the phone.

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There is also some attention to detail here, like the surface inside the camera module, which shows you varying patterns depending on the angle of light striking it. While design is subjective, we don’t see a lot of people being put off by the looks of this smartphone. This is because it manages to hit a balance between being eye-catching, sleek, and polished.

Realme 12 Pro+ Display

The Realme 12 Pro+ has a decent display for the price. This is an AMOLED display panel, complete with 120Hz refresh rate and an in-display fingerprint scanner, which doesn’t leave much to be desired. Realme usually throws in some neat, vibrant panels in its phones, and the Realme 12 Pro+ is no different.

The colour reproduction is good with 100 per cent DCI-P3 coverage, and so are the viewing angles. While it’s not the brightest panel when outdoors, it isn’t bad either, considering the price point.

With 240Hz touch sampling rate, the screen is also fairly quick when it comes to games, which isn’t exactly surprising given how far screens have come today. As a result, everything from casual titles like Subway Surfers to heavier games like Asphalt 9: Legends feels quick and smooth.

Realme 12 Pro+ Cameras

The Realme phone’s camera setup comes with a great main sensor – a 50MP Sony sensor with OIS (optical image sensor). The camera can take great photos in well-lit environments, and manages to be a capable photography tool at night too.

The device also comes with a 64MP portrait camera sensor, which at least for now, has been a hit-or-miss affair. This is because every other portrait picture we took would easily get the exposure blown out if the lighting wasn’t meticulously angled. This really takes away the leverage that a high-resolution 3x telephoto sensor offers for portrait shots. Hopefully, this is something a software update can fix.

The phone also comes with an 8MP ultrawide camera and a 16MP front camera, which work decently. The selfie camera is not very good with details, but if a softer facial texture that hides irregularities and wrinkles to an extent is what you’re looking for, you may find the results quite pleasing, especially under good lighting.

Realme 12 Pro+ Performance

The performance is the make-or-break department for a lot of phones, and for one that focuses on design, this can be worrisome point. However, using the phone for over a week, was without any issues. The Realme 12 Pro+ flies through daily tasks, and can easily handle a few apps at the same time.

The performance is not just about the hardware, which is helmed by a Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chip here. It is the software too, and for the entire time we used the Realme 12 Pro+, the phone felt like it had been optimised well. Gone are the occasional stutters I had come to accept as a part of Realme UI with some devices a few years ago.

Gaming on the Realme 12 Pro+ was also a good experience. While casual titles were not a problem for the phone, you will have to tone down the graphic settings on heavier titles like Call of Duty Mobile for a smooth experience.

Realme 12 Pro+ Battery life

The Realme 12 Pro+ comes with a 5,000mAh battery, which we can gladly tell you, is quickly becoming the norm in this segment. It is easily an all-day phone, irrespective of how you use it, and with low-power modes and conservative usage, you can also make this a two-day phone at times.

But the capacity is only half the story, what made us forget about the battery life of this phone during our time with it includes the 67W fast charging support, which can top the phone up in minutes.

Unboxed Take: Who should get the Realme 12 Pro+?

The Realme 12 Pro+ is a good mid-range device, and a great value-for-money phone. Its best aspect is that it doesn’t compromise on other areas for the brownie points it earns on the design front. If you’re looking for a new phone under Rs 30,000, there are few areas (like the portrait camera performance) where the Realme 12 Pro+ would let you down.

You can alternatively opt for the Redmi Note 13 Pro+, which offer some difference in specifications, including even faster charging support, but we’d still stick to the Realme 12 Pro+ for the design alone.