Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G review

First things first, the price hike may be from inflation and part unavailability but Redmi Note 12 Pro+ does try to capture your attention with its 200MP camera lens. Yup, you read that right. There’s a two hundred megapixel camera at the back. As far as megapixel count goes, more megapixels don’t mean more detail. We tested the 200MP shot from the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G against the 48MP RAW shot from Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max for reference. The Apple iPhone had more details, better composure, natural sharpness and was less compressed. We have to point out that the Apple iPhone also costs a pant-soiling ₹1,39,900 so it’s not a fair comparison but this is just a measure of how the megapixel count is pretty much pointless if your end result isn’t utilising the full extent of that resolution. The photos on the 200MP mode are significantly crushed and compressed to what we expected.

Moving down the price chain where Redmi wants a slice of the market pie we get the Nothing Phone (1). In terms of overall camera quality, both are matched equally. The Redmi does tend to overexpose the shadows to bring out more details. Once you zoom into the shot, the Redmi image looks artificially oversharpened than the Nothing Phone. The differences are not enough to drive your buying decision based on the camera performance alone.

The colour reproduction is quite solid from the cameras. You will have to switch to Advanced Settings in the Display > Colour Scheme option to get a look at the best colours on the 6.67in Pro AMOLED display. A close-up shot of the cat looks stunning on a colour-calibrated Apple Studio Display which means the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ is capable of taking some really nice shots with a respectable colour balance and accuracy.

Move indoors and you’ll find a lot of noise around the darker areas. The worthiness of that 200MP camera is up for question. It doesn’t add any significant value to ask for around ₹30K. Especially when you can get an equally if not better-performing smartphone like the Nothing Phone (1). You also get the Google Pixel 6a with offers and cashback at around that price. Both these phones offer more value than Redmi, whether it's the camera or the OS.

Low-light shots are very clean. The low-reflection optical coating on the lens helps avoid any unwanted lens flare and through pro mode, you can get some amazing shots of the night sky. The selfie camera is average. Nothing to write home about.

The MIUI 13 OS still remains a mystery. OnePlus, Nothing and Google Pixel, all have successfully booted bloatware and ads from the operating system without pulling the price skywards. This Redmi smartphone is surprisingly well-behaved with the ad prompts but only if you know how to shut access to its many third-party applications. A laborious task. The Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G is also running Android 12 and not Android 13 like the two competitors.

However, it’s a snappy smartphone. Daily tasks are rapid and gaming on this is solid fun. Diablo Immortal runs smoothly on medium settings without heating up much. Those stereo speakers can throw some really loud audio. Tangerine by Glass Animals sounds articulate but it can sound a bit bright at higher volumes. It never sounds jarring though. 

The MediaTek Dimensity 1080 can hold up well for regular tasks and some more but if you want to nitpick then the Nothing Phone (1)’s Snapdragon 778G+ is a wee bit faster in benchmarks.

That 120Hz refresh rate is crispy with the 6.67in FHD+ AMOLED Display. It supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision as well. Any OTT content looks sharp and vivid without losing too many colour details. When it comes to performance and display, there’s nothing to complain about. It’s as good as any other smartphone in this price range. Although it doesn’t look as lust-worthy as the Nothing Phone (1), doesn’t it?

The metal sides and the glass back are all nice to touch. However, the fingerprint scanner embedded in the power button on the side is a bit itsy bitsy and hard to find. It doesn’t help that the finish on the button is similar to the finish on the metal sides. It’s a very quick scanner but we wish it was textured differently so that it’s easier to tell if your finger has landed on it or not.

There’s a lot to love about the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G. It brings the charm of the Note series by retaining the headphone jack and an IR blaster meanwhile also being a fairly capable smartphone. However, the pricing isn’t where it should be. The 200MP is simply a marketing ploy and smartphones in this price range tend to have a cleaner (read: better) OS and striking design. Some even have wireless charging and a faster processor, something I will happily trade for that overkill 120W fast charging, the headphone jack and IR blaster. 

That 4980mAh battery can last you a full day of regular use and if you happen to play a lot of games, the 120W fast charger will juice it up in around 20mins. It’s commendable that the Redmi has some amazing features but these numbers are like putting sugar on honey and demanding an extra buck for the attempt.