Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G review: Should you buy this phone instead of the Realme 10 Pro+ 5G?

Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G was launched on Thursday as the company’s latest mid-range smartphone in its Redmi Note 12 series. 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 1080. Like the Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge, the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G also offers 120W fast charging that featured on the Xiaomi handset, while packing a slightly larger battery. But does the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ offer good value for money like its predecessor?

On this week’s episode of the Gadgets 360 Orbital podcast, guest host Siddharth Suvarna sits down with reviewer Pranav Hegde and senior reviewer Sheldon Pinto to find out more about the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G and whether it offers enough features to match the competition.

Unlike previous Redmi Note series phones, the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G comes with a higher price tag, along with several upgrades in the hardware department. More importantly, the phone is equipped with a 200 megapixel Samsung ISOCELL HPX sensor and it is the first phone in this price segment to be equipped with this sensor. It’s also the first phone in the Redmi Note range to feature 120W fast charging.

The phone is powered by a 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 1080 SoC, which is the successor to the Dimensity 920 chipset, and the phone runs on Android 12 out of the box, with MIUI 13 on top. Hegde says it would have been nice if the phone launched with Android 13, which makes sense since it’s been a few months since the latest version of Android was released.

According to Hegde, the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G’s camera performance was mostly impressive, including in low-light environments. Like most phones, the “industry favorite” 2-megapixel macro camera on the handset is a disappointment, he points out. He suggests users instead enable the 200-megapixel resolution mode in the camera app and then crop for better image quality.

Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G first impressions: climbing the ladder

The Redmi Note 12 Pro+’s AMOLED display offers good color reproduction and content looks great, Hegde tells Sheldon, who asks if the display is tuned correctly. When it comes to gaming, the phone lags behind the Realme 10 Pro+ 5G, which has the same chipset. However, there is no difference between the two phones in terms of day-to-day performance.

Playing games or recording a video doesn’t make the phone heat up, according to Hegde. He says after a gaming session, he accidentally kept the phone in his pocket while recording a video, and it only felt slightly warm after about 12 minutes, he adds.

While the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ comes with a 4,980mAh battery, it offers 120W fast charging like last year’s Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge, which came with a smaller battery. Pinto asks about the phone’s battery performance and he responds by stating that the phone is capable of all-day battery life.

Realme 10 Pro+ 5G review: if looks were everything

Is it worth upgrading to the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G? This phone has a 200 megapixel camera and comes with 120W fast charging support. The phone comes with Android 12 out of the box and will get two OS upgrades and four years of security updates. However, the price of the Redmi Note series has now exceeded the Rs. 25,000 mark. We discuss whether to buy the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G in India.

You can listen to all of this in detail and more in our episode by hitting the play button on the embedded Spotify player above.

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