Verdict
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro 5 G looks to prepare some of the big complaint with its predecessor while still offering a high - tone display experience , a stylish intention and the hope of long battery life from a 5000mAh cell , though the usual software system hangups stay .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
How finely the Proto-Indo European can be sliced is a question that has come to delineate the smartphone market .
Faced with slump ball-shaped sales and oecumenical doldrums , find previously hidden demographics to sell phones to is now the urgent job of smartphone maker everywhere .
Xiaomi ’s solution , for the minute it seems , is to devise categories to prove the water and see if masses will come . The Redmi Note 12 Pro 5 gee is part of an attempt to reach the kind of consumer who does n’t desire to pass too much , who does n’t want to sacrifice caliber , and who is a ‘ Pro ’ of unfixed definition . I do n’t recognize what this theoretical Pro does , but they need 5 G and a high-pitched megapixel counting to achieve it .
issue with name aside , the Redmi Note 12 Pro has two things going for it , a sane monetary value tag and an attractive list of specifications . For an expenditure of £ 339/$423 you get a 120Hz OLED concealment , a 50MP master photographic camera , a 5000mAh barrage fire and 67W fast charging – none of which are class - leading , but which aggregate to become an attractive offer .
But , as ever , the competition is violent and grim . Samsung , Realme , Oppo , Sony , Apple and others all contend in the post-£/$300 segment , does Xiaomi do enough with the Redmi Note 12 Pro to bring in it a place in your pocket ?
study on for my full review .
Design and screen
In the past few years , the middling mid - range smartphone has hit a passel of features that were once the preserves of more bounty devices , such asOLEDscreens , high refresh rates and fast charging . One matter which has n’t yet trickle down is any gloss of a typical design .
Typically , original conception inmid - reach smartphonesis detectable mainly by its absence seizure , and the Redmi Note 12 Pro does nothing to give away this course . It has a glass rear that pluck up spot with abandon and a flat front that help one - handed serviceableness . The frame is made from plastic , but does n’t do much to protect against drop curtain .
As is the case with every phone that has a glass back , the Redmi Note 12 Pro like to play volaille with sombreness , slide off any and every surface that is n’t dead flat . My review unit did this , falling around 50 cm from a chair to a laminate floor , and find a cracked back in the appendage . If you use your telephone anywhere other than in bed , you will need a case for this .
At 7.9 millimeter it is enjoyably sparse , and count 187 g it is easy enough to use one - handed . color options too are decent , with Purple and Blue uncommitted to complement the traditional Black and White , offering a little more choice than is normally the typeface .
The side - mounted fingerprint scanner is quick and accurate in consumption and a 3.5 mm headphone Jack-tar is offered too .
Coming to the showing , thankfully the moving-picture show , as it were , is confirming . The Redmi has a flat,120HzOLED display , with ‘ 1 billion colours ’ ( a number which can only be taken at aspect value ) andHDR potentiality .
Colours given that this is an organic light-emitting diode are potent and sometimes oversaturated , though this can be remedy in the options . The fast refresh rate make swiping through the interface feel nice and reactive , and the refresh pace can be pinned at 60Hz to increase barrage fire life . At 6.67 inches on the diagonal , it is big enough to make movies palpate a minuscule immersive and allow for a solid reading experience .
At up to 900 nits of smartness , it was mostly able to combat burnished sunshine , with the caveat being that testing remove place in the UK , not noted for challenging cheery status .
This is a show which is a cut above the LCD panels used by a lot of the competition at the sub-£/$250 price point . It is sharp at 1080p , tight , colorful and smart . It makes for a heavy reading and viewing experience , and the brightness is a major bonus , and far from a give .
Cameras
We are starting to see more and more challenging cameras make their direction into budget smartphones . Where 13MP sensing element used to rule , there is now a sea of 48MP selection , and now we are on the transition to 50MP . The Redmi Note 12 Pro is at the vanguard of this trend , sporting a 50MP f/1.9 snapper that has visual figure stabilisation , as well as an 8MP ultrawide sensing element and a why - nark 2MP macro Cam River .
start with the tv camera app , it ’s let down by the crucial opening night speed test . From the lock filmdom , it get about five seconds to start in universal . This is fine by most metrics , peculiarly for static subject . If you are render to becharm a fugitive moment with a darling for instance , however , the slow opening night sentence will intend you miss it .
Other than that , the app is the usual Xiaomi mish - mash of mode , some of which you may apply , many of which you will not . It does n’t get in the way of take photos , and for the most part , is intuitive .
Coming to effigy quality , it ’s a number of a miscellaneous bag . Detail , to begin , is plenty while sharpening is n’t rank . If you zoom in , you wo n’t see raft of sharpening aura , which is a nice surprise . Foliage is mostly well lay out too , which is often an infamous dupe of smartphone processing .
dynamical range is in force in general too . Some shots have a inclination to get blown out , but for the damage class , I was impressed . It is when I get to the dubiousness of color that matter get a fiddling interesting .
For reasons unknown to everyone but a select few at Xiaomi , they consider every shadowiness of green other than ‘ radioactive muck ’ to be an affront to the eye . What this mean is , every prison term you take a shot of grass or plant life with the AI scene assistant activated , you will be presented with a finished shot like something from the Teletubbies .
This can of course be solve by deactivating the panorama helper , but it is jumble yet . On the whole , color replication is strong , but greens continue Xiaomi ’s Achilles list .
thing do n’t meliorate much when it comes to lowly - light shots . With the include Nox mode , images produced have some saturation and lucidness but do n’t distract the best in class .
Moving to the ultrawide camera we see shots that have decent detail and colour for the segment , and the macro cam , as ever , is difficult to use and produce muddy shooter .
Selfies from the front - facing gun are on the other mitt very good . There ’s nice colour , good item and enough dynamic range to check shots from bollix out completely . The less said about Xiaomi ’s ravisher filter however , the better .
telecasting is generally decorous , with salutary detail and a restrained but pleasing colour rendition and maxes out at 4K@30fps . The sound recording recorded is a little jerky however , which harms the experience .
Performance
One country in which the ‘ budget ’ smartphone section has come on in leaps and bounds across the years is in general carrying into action . Even at especially abject price point , most phones barring a few glaring elision remain performant for most tasks that can be discombobulate at them .
Of naturally , with Pro in the name performance is one of the areas where Xiaomi really need to show that it has put , and thankfully it has . prevail aMediaTek Dimensity 1080chipset , a lower limit of 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB ofUFS2.2 storageit has enough might in it to easily meet the needs of most users .
And by that what we will mean is the usual melange of swiping through the interface , access electronic messaging and email , using the television camera and GPS , watching videos and more generalised light utilisation . If you are this variety of user , the phone will be a great companion .
More specialised drug user , i.e.mobile gamers , may bid to expect elsewhere , however . If you do n’t care about a thin designing or a majuscule camera experience , there are phone that sacrifice more in the quest for greater force . The Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro can sure enough power through games such as PUBG , Fortnite and Genshin Impact , but only at lower detail options .
What may be more of a deterrent for the universal population is Xiaomi ’s approach to computer software design . Xiaomi ’s overture to package is ‘ keep adding ’ , whether it ’s raw feature , ways to get to the same thing , mode to split simple interaction and more , Xiaomi gives a host of selection , many that most hoi polloi will never get at .
One such example is the notification shadowiness . Where most phones will provide a unproblematic swipe down to see your missed message , not so for the Redmi Note 12 professional , here it specifically needs to be on the unexpended side . This is in a unmediated copy of Io and sense clearly out of place on Android .
MIUI has always carve up notion , but in its current loop it is more of an annoyance than most software skin . It presents duplicate overhaul , app stores and even has ads , which when you have already spent upwards of £ /$300 on a equipment feels a bit icky .
Battery life
With a 5,000mAh battery and an effective modern chipset , the Redmi Note 12 Pro has everything it postulate to provide honorable to bang-up battery life . There are of course many factors which can impress battery lifetime , so it is significant to take the caveat that experience is entirely subjective and that your experience may disagree .
In sum , across a sixteen - hour daytime , start at 7 am and finishing at 11 premier , through a compounding of messaging , find out video , an hr of GPS and listening to medicine onBluetooth earphones , I run into 20 % by 8 pm and needed a small recharge to make it a bit after . For many multitude , this will then belike be a most - of - the - day smartphone , not make it into a second without a top - up . This is a goodish showing if not quite the best useable .
Luckily , due to the presence of specially dissipated charging , top up before a night out should n’t be an emergence . At 67W it is n’t as fast as the 120W offer by itsbigger sibling the Plus , but is still dissipated enough to make a dispute . I was able to top up to 45 % in fifteen second , reaching 100 % after around fifty minutes . This will make a difference in difficult situations and as such is to be commended .
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FAQs
No , it ’s not waterproof , but the IP53 rating does mean it ’s splash - cogent evidence and dust resistant .
Full Specs
Test Data
