Intro
The Redmi Note series, introduced in 2014, has been a preferred choice among Indian consumers, contributing to Xiaomi's dominance of the Indian smartphone market since 2018. Over the eight-year period, the Redmi Note series has seen significant advancements in design, technology, and features.
Recently, Xiaomi introduced the latest members of the series in India - Redmi Note 12, Note 12 Pro and Note 12 Pro Plus - all with 5G capabilities.
Before reading the full review, you can familiarize yourself with the detailed Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro specs or watch the video below the article.
Specifications
- Release date: 2022, October 27
- Colors: Black, Blue, White, Violet
- Dimensions: 162.9 x 76 x 7.9 mm.
- Weight: 187 g.
- Screen: 6.67" inc, 1080 x 2400, OLED
- Camera : Triple, 50MP
- Chipset: MediaTek Dimensity 1080 (6 nm)
- CPU: Octa-core (2x2.6 GHz Cortex-A78 & 6x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55)
- Memory: 128GB 6GB RAM, 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM
- Battery: 5000, Li-Po, non-removable
- Network: GSM / CDMA / HSPA / EVDO / LTE / 5G
- Operating system: Android 12, MIUI 13
- Sensors: Fingerprint (side-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
Redmi Note 12 Pro price
Xiaomi offers the Redmi Note 12 Pro in three variants. The cheapest variant, with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage, is priced at $300. The next configuration has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, retailing for $330. The most expensive model has 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage and is priced at $350.
DESIGN
The Redmi Note 12 Pro boasts an elegant and sophisticated design. It has a square shape with a glass back panel that looks attractive from all angles and comes in three colors: Onyx Black, Frosted Blue and Stardust Purple.
The rear panel features a matte anti-glare coating that reduces the visibility of fingerprints. Although spots may still be visible, they are not as prominent as on glossy surfaces. There's a camera island in the upper left corner of the rear panel, with two sensors slightly protruding, which can make the phone wobble on flat surfaces.
The glass back doesn't have any protective coating, making it prone to cracking when dropped.
The power button, which doubles as a fingerprint sensor, and the volume buttons are located on the right side of the phone. The top edge of the phone has a 3.5mm headphone jack and an IR port, followed by a secondary noise-canceling microphone.
DISPLAY
The Redmi Note 12 Pro has a 6.67-inch AMOLED screen protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The touch sampling rate of the display is up to 240Hz with a refresh rate of 120Hz and can be dynamically adjusted between 30Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz and 120Hz based on the content being watched, thanks to the adaptive refresh rate feature.
As expected from most AMOLED panels, the Note 12 Pro's screen has sharp and vivid colors with good contrast levels. By default, the Redmi Note 12 Pro's color palette is set to 'Vivid', but you can change this to your preference.
Xiaomi has ensured that the Redmi Note series has Widevine L1 certification at the hardware level, which enables HD streaming in popular OTT applications. It also supports HDR 10+ and Dolby Vision, which works on Netflix, a feature not present in the rival Realme 10 Pro+.
SOFTWARE AND PRODUCTIVITY
Redmi Note 12 Pro is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 1080 chipset, with a 6nm manufacturing process, including two high-performance Cortex-A78 cores with a frequency of up to 2.6 GHz and 6 energy-efficient Cortex-A55 cores with a clock frequency of 2.0 GHz. It comes with up to 8 GB of LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 2.2 storage up to 256 GB, as well as RAM expansion technology that provides an additional 5 GB of virtual memory.
It runs on MIUI 13 built on top of Android 12 and has a security patch from November 2022. Xiaomi promises to upgrade it to Android 13 and offers two years of software updates and four years of security updates. The device comes pre-installed with several apps including Amazon Shopping, Facebook, Prime Video, Netflix, LinkedIn, Zili, Spotify and Snapchat.
The Redmi Note 12 Pro performs well in everyday use and handles popular apps with ease. Call of Duty: Mobile, Apex Legends Mobile and Genshin Impact games launch and run smoothly.
CAMERA
The main highlight of the Redmi Note 12 Pro's rear camera is its 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 sensor, which is the same sensor found in last year's Oppo Reno 8, OnePlus 10T and Nothing Phone 1. The camera setup also includes an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera and 2 -megapixel macro camera, with a 16-megapixel front camera for selfies.
The interface of the camera app remains unchanged, so if you have had a Xiaomi phone in the past, you should feel comfortable using it.
The Redmi Note 12 Pro's main rear camera produces well-lit photos with clear details, and photos come out alive with a slightly warm color tone. Some photos can look too sharp, and the dynamic range is good, handling challenging lighting conditions.
The Redmi Note 12 Pro's camera system performs well in low-light conditions, thanks to its special night mode that uses an advanced exposure technique. This allows the camera sensor to collect more light, resulting in detailed and vivid images. In addition, the phone's optical image stabilization and long exposure capabilities help improve the quality of photos taken in low-light conditions.
Moving to the ultra-wide camera, however, there's a noticeable difference in color accuracy and sharpness, as the 8-megapixel sensor doesn't match the performance of the Sony sensor. Daylight shots are decent, but dynamic range is limited.
The 2MP macro camera is a disappointment and could have been omitted.
The 16-megapixel selfie camera also fails to impress, delivering only average results in good lighting conditions and rapidly degrading image quality as natural light diminishes.
BATTERY
The Redmi Note 12 Pro is equipped with a large 5000 mAh battery, like most modern smartphones. This means battery anxiety is not an issue as the phone lasts for several hours of use without draining. With heavy use and connected to a 4G LTE network, you can expect about six hours of screen time.
Xiaomi includes a 67W charger in the box that can charge the phone to around 45% in just 15 minutes and fully charge it in just over an hour.
SHOULD YOU BUY REDMI NOTE 12 PRO?
Xiaomi's Redmi Note 12 Pro boasts premium hardware that includes a high-quality AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, with advanced features such as variable refresh rate and Dolby Vision support that are uncommon in this price range.
The MediaTek Dimensity 1080 SoC delivers powerful performance without overheating, and the primary 50MP camera performs well in most circumstances. The phone also delivers fantastic battery life and charging speeds.
Although its price has increased compared to its predecessor, Xiaomi has also removed ads from the device's software. In conclusion, the Redmi Note 12 Pro is a good option for its $300 price tag, but it might not be the best value purchase you can get compared to its predecessor.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro video review
Disclaimer: The information presented in this article is based on our team's personal experience with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro and third-party sources. While every effort has been made to provide accurate and reliable information, readers should keep in mind that this is a subjective assessment. The writing of this article was not paid for or sponsored by Xiaomi.
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