Realme 12 Pro+ Review: A Mid-Ranger with a Premium Telephoto Camera
Realme has consistently delivered impressive smartphones in the mid-range segment for years. The Realme 12 Pro+ made a significant impression at launch, offering a compelling blend of design, performance, and camera capabilities, all at an attractive price point. While the mid-range smartphone landscape has evolved considerably, with devices boasting features like 200-megapixel cameras, IP68 ratings, and blazing-fast charging, the Realme 12 Pro+ aims to stand out with a premium design, a powerful telephoto camera, and a refined software experience. But does it have what it takes to compete with the tough competition in this saturated segment? I’ve been using the Realme 12 Pro+ for several weeks, and here’s my in-depth review.
Realme 12 Pro+ Review: Price in India
The Realme 12 Pro+ is available in three stylish finishes: Submarine Blue, Explorer Red, and Navigator Beige. You can choose from three variants:
- 8GB RAM + 128GB storage: Rs. 29,999
- 8GB RAM + 256GB storage: Rs. 31,999
- 12GB RAM + 256GB storage: Rs. 33,999
For this review, I tested the top-of-the-line 12GB + 256GB variant in Submarine Blue. Considering the minor price differences between variants, I would recommend stretching your budget a bit and opting for the top-end model for the best overall experience.
Realme 12 Pro+ Review: Design
While the Realme 12 Pro+ doesn’t introduce a revolutionary new design language like its predecessor, the Realme 11 Pro+, it has undergone subtle design refinements that give it a more refined and less "tacky" feel in my opinion.
The watch-inspired design, a trend among BBK umbrella brands, adds a sleek golden fluted bezel around the circular rear camera module, giving it a touch of luxury. This, combined with the vegan-leather laden split rear panel, creates a distinctly premium aesthetic, reminiscent of expensive timepieces or handbags. However, the phone is unexpectedly heavy at 196 grams, likely due to the metal adornments and the chunky camera module.
Though the tacky stitches from the Realme 11 Pro+ are gone, I’m not entirely sold on the golden insert with a diamond pattern that runs across the back, intended to evoke the look of a metal watch strap. Regardless of personal preference, the overall design is undeniably striking, and the vegan-leather back provides a solid grip. My review unit, despite being subjected to various surfaces, remained in pristine condition, a welcome departure from the wear and tear seen on some other phones with similar materials.
Adding to the premium look and feel is the 6.7-inch curved-edge display with a thin bezel. The phone also boasts an official IP65 rating for dust and water resistance, offering protection against splashes but falling short of the Redmi Note 13 Pro+’s full IP68 rating for submersion in water.
The soft, champagne gold finish of the camera ring extends to the plastic frame. Despite not being made of metal, it’s well-finished, with no visible sharp edges or cutouts. Realme has cleverly kept the flattened top and bottom edges of the frame matte, while the polished sides provide a comfortable grip.
Realme 12 Pro+ Review: Specifications and Software
The Realme 12 Pro+ is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 SoC, fabricated using the 4nm process and boasting a maximum clockspeed of 2.4GHz. This processor delivers power efficiency comparable to SoCs found in premium smartphones, but it’s not as fast as top-tier premium devices. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, a Type-C port, and a SIM card tray with space for two nano SIM cards. The phone supports a range of 5G bands (n1/3/5/8/28B/40/41/77/78) and offers dual 5G-standby. powering it all is a 5,000mAh battery with 67W fast charging capabilities.
The Realme 12 Pro+ comes with the latest Android 14 out of the box, overlaid with Realme UI 5.0. This software version incorporates several new features, taking inspiration from Oppo’s ColorOS and OnePlus’ OxygenOS. Notably, the Flash Capsule feature (similar to Fluid Cloud on OnePlus devices and Aqua Dynamics on Oppo phones), offers a dynamic island-like notification experience. This feature is particularly useful for timers, which minimize into a capsule on the left of the status bar when you switch apps, allowing you to easily access and manage them.
While the intuitive interactions of Flash Capsule are commendable, they’re limited to specific native apps and just two third-party apps: Zomato and Swiggy. The Smart Suggestions feature further enhances the user experience by providing real-time delivery updates from these apps directly on the always-on display (AOD) on the lockscreen, eliminating the need to constantly check your phone.
Other noteworthy software additions include File Dock (accessing recently used files via a pop-out console), Smart Touch (for picking up text from screenshots), and Smart Image Matting (picking up cutouts of people or objects from images), offering convenient and practical functionalities.
However, the software experience isn’t without its downsides. The Realme 12 Pro+ comes preloaded with a plethora of bloatware and third-party apps, many of which cannot be uninstalled. Additionally, there’s a significant number of doppelganger apps, which can be confusing for both new and experienced smartphone users. These include two app stores, two web browsers, two file browsers, two SMS apps, two photo gallery apps, and two apps for managing games. While many can be uninstalled, the presence of these duplicate apps contributes to a cluttered and unnecessarily complex user interface.
Realme 12 Pro+ Review: Performance
Despite the software bloatware, the Realme 12 Pro+ delivers a smooth and efficient performance. My review unit, equipped with 12GB of RAM, exhibited no lag or stuttering during my testing. Multitasking and recalling previously used apps from memory were seamless, with minimal app restarts.
The display is notably bright, with a global brightness of 800 nits, easily handling outdoor use under direct sunlight. It produces vibrant colors in the default Vivid color mode, but switching to the Natural color mode provides more balanced and true-to-life hues. The full-HD+ display resolution appears sharp enough for displaying images and text.
Although branded as "ProXDR," there’s no Dolby Vision or HDR10+ support for streaming apps. However, streaming content appears sharp due to the phone’s Widevine L1 certification, enabling full-HD playback on Netflix. The 120Hz refresh rate dynamically adapts based on the displayed content, switching between 30, 60, 90, and 120Hz, resulting in modest battery savings.
The gaming experience is generally good. The phone effortlessly handles casual games, but it struggles slightly with demanding titles. Despite having 12GB of RAM, games like Call of Duty: Mobile didn’t offer settings above High graphics and Max Frame rate (limited to 60fps). I also found the 240Hz touch sampling rate to be a bit laggy in this FPS game. However, the large VC cooling system effectively keeps temperatures in check during heavy gaming sessions and extended camera use.
Benchmark results are respectable, with the Realme 12 Pro+ scoring 6,43,951 in AnTuTu, 929 in Geekbench’s single-core test, and 2,792 in the multi-core test. These scores are on par with the competition, but slightly behind the Redmi Note 13 Pro+, which achieved 7,21,512 in AnTuTu and 1,122 and 2,598 points in Geekbench’s single and multi-core tests, respectively. Graphics performance also falls short of the Redmi Note 13 Pro+, which explains the limited graphics and framerate options in certain games.
Battery life on the Realme 12 Pro+ is excellent. The phone easily lasts a day and a half on a single charge with an hour of gaming, half an hour of camera usage, and regular use of social media and office apps. In our standard video loop battery test, the phone achieved an impressive 26 hours and 46 minutes, exceeding expectations for a mid-range device.
Fast charging also isn’t a concern. The phone’s 67W charger rapidly charges the battery to 72 percent in 30 minutes and completes a full charge in exactly an hour.
Realme 12 Pro+ Review: Cameras
The Realme 12 Pro+ features a triple rear camera system comprising:
- A Sony IMX890 50-megapixel primary camera with OIS
- An Omni Vision OV64B 64-megapixel periscope telephoto camera
- An 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera
Selfies are handled by a 32-megapixel camera without autofocus.
The primary camera captures photos with natural color tones and good dynamic range, ensuring detail in both bright and shadowed areas. Images produced by this camera are generally sharp, capturing a significant amount of detail that allows for extensive cropping without compromising resolution. The OIS system efficiently maintains excellent detail and sharpness in low-light shooting conditions. The camera’s ability to capture fine details from a distance highlights its impressive hardware and software optimization.
While the 2X magnification (cropped output from the primary camera) produces slightly washed-out images, the 3X optical telephoto camera excels, offering clear focusing capabilities even on nearby objects. This makes the 2X zoom largely unnecessary.
The telephoto camera is the true star of the show. It utilizes the same 64-megapixel periscopic telephoto camera found in premium devices like the OnePlus 12 and OnePlus Open, but without the top-end ISP associated with high-end processors.
Despite this, the camera delivers exceptional detail, particularly in textures, rendering people and objects sharp. The excellent dynamic range ensures detail in both bright and dark regions of the scene. Impressively, Realme has meticulously tuned the telephoto camera to provide consistent color and white balance matching that of the primary camera, a rare level of consistency in this price segment. This magic extends to low-light situations, where the camera produces detailed images even when zooming into landscapes or taking close-ups. I also captured sharp portraits at the native 3X focal length. Shooting at 6X zoom also yields decent image quality, but quality drops significantly beyond this, likely due to the limitations of the mid-range processor.
The ultra-wide camera, while functional, doesn’t match the level of detail and dynamic range of its primary and telephoto counterparts. Images exhibit average detail in textures, and while the dynamic range produces decent detail in shadows, the colors appear washed out compared to the other two cameras. Low-light performance on the ultra-wide camera is poor, resulting in soft and mostly unusable images.
The phone lacks a dedicated macro camera or mode, but the 3X telephoto camera’s lossless in-sensor zoom (up to 6X) allows for close-ups with excellent sharpness and detail, effectively making up for the omission. Even close-ups in low light are impressive, with high detail and sharpness.
Daylight selfies are sharp with good edge detection in Portrait mode, but low-light performance falls short. Thankfully, the Night mode improves image quality significantly in low-light situations.
4K 30fps video recordings exhibit slight shakiness but offer good detail and low noise, even under street-lit, low-light conditions. 1080p 30fps and 60fps video recordings are not as sharp or detailed as 4K footage but boast a rock-steady framerate and effective stabilization across various lighting conditions.
Realme 12 Pro+ Review: Verdict
The Realme 12 Pro+, with its redesigned aesthetics, updated core hardware, and remarkable telephoto camera, stands as a worthy upgrade even for those who own last year’s model. However, in a head-to-head comparison with devices like the Redmi Note 13 Pro+, it falls slightly short in terms of specifications on paper.
The Redmi Note 13 Pro+ boasts a captivating array of features, including a superior IP68 rating, blazing-fast 120W wired charging, and a massive 200-megapixel camera sensor. These impressive features come at a higher price point, starting at Rs. 31,999 (for the 8GB RAM + 256GB storage variant). However, it lacks some key aspects that the Realme 12 Pro+ excels in.
The Realme 12 Pro+’s class-leading telephoto camera delivers exceptional performance in this price segment and even surpasses some premium devices like the Pixel 7a. The consistent shot-to-shot performance between the primary and telephoto cameras is a rare find in the mid-range.
Beyond these stellar camera capabilities, the phone offers several other notable strengths: a solid IP65 rating for dust and water resistance, a premium curved-edge AMOLED display, engaging software features for a mid-range device, excellent battery life, and fast charging capabilities. The attractive and competitive pricing further solidifies its position in the market. At Rs. 29,999 for the 8GB RAM + 128GB storage variant, the Realme 12 Pro+ is a compelling option for mid-range smartphone buyers prioritizing camera capabilities in 2024.
If only Realme addressed the issue of bloatware and preinstalled apps, the phone could achieve a perfectly balanced and highly recommendable position in the mid-range segment.
