Redmi Note 12 Pro+ Review- The SuperNote!

Redmi’s Note series is a highly anticipated device every year and the company has kept its promise of delivering the best Note in the segment. Every year there has been an update to the older model, be it cameras, displays, or even the faster-charging protocols. The Redmi Note series is also one of the highest-selling devices every year globally. This year, Redmi has announced that there will be a lesser number of Note series and they will be focusing on delivering the best experience. Redmi Note 12 Series has been launched in India with three new devices- Redmi Note 12, Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G, and Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G. We have been using the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G for more than a week now and here is our detailed Redmi Note 12 Pro+ Review.

Related Reading: Amazfit Pop 2 Review- A Budget Smartwatch for Rs 3,299!

Redmi Note 12 Pro+ Review:

Design and Build:

If you look at the Redmi Note 12 Pro+, you can clearly see that Xiaomi has refined the design from last year’s Note 11 Pro+. Similar to the last year’s note, this year also you can see it is made of glass and plastic frame. The front and back panel is made of glass and feels premium. The back glass is curved and gives a good in-hand feel and the glass provided is toughened glass. The front glass is Gorilla Glass 5 protected so you don’t have to worry about any minor scratches happening.

In terms of design elements, you have the power button and volume rocker keys on the right side. The power button duals up as a fingerprint scanner as well. The top panel houses the 3.5mm jack, a rarity these days on phones along with the speakers unit and the IR blaster which you find on all Xiaomi phones. The bottom section has a USB type C, a SIM tray, and a second speaker. The SIM tray has two slots and no SD card support included. The back panel houses the triple camera setup. The camera unit is housed in a metal chassis which feels premium. There is also Redmi 5G branding at the bottom. At around 207gms, the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ is not the lightest phone around but feels quite good in hands due to the curved design and weight distribution.

Display:

The display on Note 12 Pro+ 5G is a 6.67″ AMOLED unit with 394 PPI and supports 1 billion colors (10bit). It has a refresh rate of 120hz and a touch sampling rate of up to 240Hz.  The display also supports the DCI P3 color gamut and has a peak brightness of 900 nits. The display also comes with HDR10+ and Dolby Vision support. If you watch a lot of content on Netflix, then you also get Widevine L1 out of the box.

The display quality of the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ is very good with great colors. You can also customize the color balance using the settings. The display is a treat to use if you watch a lot of videos and movies, the blacks are deep and the contrast is also good. The touch response is also very good. Overall at this price segment, this is the best you can get.

Software:

Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G runs on MIUI 13 and you get Android 12 out of the box. The MIUI 13 is the same software we have seen on recently launched devices from Xiaomi. It comes loaded with lots of features including customization and additional tools. The software brings with it high levels of customization and tweaks to the table.

The phone comes with the ability to toggle between the app drawer and the all-apps menu.  You also get features like themes, second space, lite mode, and floating windows. The UI is slick and responsive and we did not see any issues here.

We would have liked Android 13 out of the box for a phone launched in 2023. But Xiaomi is promising 2 Years of software updates and 4 years of security updates for the Note 12 Pro+. So the device will be getting Android 13 and Android 14.

Performance:

Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G is powered by Dimensity 1080 chip, which is made from a 6nm process. It is coupled with either 8GB of RAM or 12GB, which is LPDDR4X. You also get a virtual expandable feature. The Dimensity 1080 offers great performance and more importantly sustained performance. It has ARM Mali-G68 MC4 GPU.

In day-to-day performance, there were hardly any issues and it responded well to all the tasks it was put to. The gaming experience of the device is also pretty good although the processor might not be able to push to higher FPS for a few games. For gamers, the device comes with Vapor Chamber cooling technology and has a 3000mm² vapor chamber which should help in dissipating the heat. We did not notice any major heating issues and even with performance testing, the temperatures were around the 40-degree mark. The AnTuTu score of the device touched the 500k mark and is one of the most powerful processors in this segment.

The device comes with up to 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage. In terms of 5G support, it has 105G bands supported (SA: n1/3/5/8/28a/38/40/41/77/78, NSA: n38/40/41/77/78), which covers all the bands available in India. The device also supports Wi-Fi 6. The call quality of the device is good and we did not have any signal strength issues. We also tested Jio 5G network on this device and we attained speeds of over 700Mbps at our location.

The speaker performance is also very good with dual speakers and Dolby Atmos support but we felt the max volume could have been slightly more.

Camera:

One of the most important aspects of the new Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G is the 200MP camera. The phone comes with a 200MP triple camera setup. Apart from the primary camera which is a Samsung HPX sensor with f/1.65 aperture, you also get an 8MP ultrawide angle camera and a 2MP macro sensor. The front panel has a 16MP selfie camera with an F/2.45 aperture. The primary camera also gets OIS, a 7P lens, 10-bit RAW, and film filters while editing. Now let’s move on to the camera samples taken with the device.

First, let’s have a look at the daylight captures. The 200MP sensor does a good job of bringing details and sharpness levels. The colors are impressive and the images are bright and come with a good amount of detail. The sharpness levels are very good and this is evident when you pixel peep. The dynamic range is good and it resolves shadows very well. In terms of daylight, there is hardly anything to complain about here. The phone can also shoot images in full 200MP or 50MP Ultra HD mode and you can toggle the mode in settings. Here the images are close to 50MB and bring in a lot of details which is evident when you zoom into the pictures.

The 8MP ultra wide-angle camera does a good job of maintaining colors similar to the primary camera and it succeeds in that as well. The colors are pretty much natural and the sharpness levels are acceptable, although not as good as primary, which is more or less evident. You can see the sharpness taking a hit toward the edges.

Now moving to the close-up shots, the phone comes with pretty good imaging capabilities and the colors are natural here too. The sharpness levels are impressive and once again do a good job. The phone has a 2MP macro and the performance is kinda average and quite similar to the other 2MP macros in this segment. While the colors are decent, the sharpness isn’t that impressive.

Moving to portraits, the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ gets you good portrait shots and one of the good things about Redmi devices is that they don’t add unnecessary beauty mode hence the skin tones are natural and bring in good details. The edge detection is also very good, overall portraits have come great.

In indoor lights and with adequate artificial lights, the phone does a good job and you can see it has good sharpness levels too. There is an attempt to reduce noise and it works well too. When the light drops further, it is better to switch to night mode. This is where the night mode helps in bringing down the noise levels. The night mode does a good job with sharpness levels and also details, thanks to the OIS included in the camera. Unlike previous night modes where the exposure is high, the 200MP camera captures night mode more realistically and it actually looks like night.

Finally the selfie camera, the 16MP shooter does a good job with selfies. The skin tones are quite natural and you can turn off the beauty mode. The sharpness levels and the dynamic range are also good.

Moving to video recording, the phone can record 4K at 30fps which was not available in last year’s variant. And the quality is very good. The sharpness levels are impressive and the details are good. But there is no EIS included hence it can be a bit shaky at times. The video has good colors and sharpness too.

The phone also supports 1080p at 60fps, here once again while the video quality looks good, there is no EIS offered and hence it is not recommended for moving shots. The 1080p at 30fps supports stabilization and offers good clarity as well. The stabilization is good and so are the colors.

The Redmi Note 12 Pro+ offers great quality in terms of camera. With good daylight shots, decent ultra-wide, good portraits, and excellent low light, there is hardly anything to complain about at this price segment.

Battery Life & Charging:

Redmi Note 12 Pro+ comes with a 4980mAh battery and it supports 120W HyperCharge. Xiaomi claims that the battery can be charged up fully in 19 minutes and in our testing we got it completed in around 21 minutes which is a good speed for this segment. The battery performance is good, we were able to squeeze in more than a day of usage with our set of apps and daily usage which included cameras, calls, browsing, social networking apps, and a bit of gaming. To add to the experience, you can top up the battery in just over 20 minutes.

Xiaomi is also using a Surge P1 Chipset and 34 safety measures for the 120W charging technology.

Verdict:

With a great display, a good set of cameras, excellent charging speed, and a good overall package, the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G ticks all the right boxes for a good mid-range device. We would have loved to see Android 13 out of the box and an improvement in the macro camera. But as a whole, the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G is a good package and Redmi has yet another winner.