Freshly presented on the market together with its brothers, the 12 series of the Redmi Note is finally a reality after so many rumors that have followed one another in recent weeks: this time there are four models, the Redmi Note 12 4G, Redmi Note 12 5G, Redmi Note 12 Pro + and Redmi Notes 12 Pro 5G, or is the protagonist of our review today.
With the series Redmi, Xiaomi has been able to reach various markets in the world due to the strong quality-price ratio that has always distinguished these products: this year the prices go up, a bit like all the other products launched by other companies, but Xiaomi has not saved in the improvements brought to this new model. I'll tell you.
Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G review
Design and Materials
Compared to the models of previous generations, to be honest, Notes redmi 12 Pro does not sport an exclusive design: Xiaomi's smartphone remains, as usual, very simple and elegant with square shapes and a glass back cover which, honestly, I would have preferred to have a matte finish to the touch, given that the glossy one captures quite a few anti-aesthetic fingerprints during use. In any case, the aggravating circumstance is constituted by the black color which, however beautiful, is undoubtedly the one that most attracts fingerprints.
Again to stay on the back, a bump camera is evident which houses three cameras and a double LED flash; the most attentive will have already noticed the arrangement of cameras, and will have already thought of a certain resemblance to the counterpart Realme. In short, many smartphones that are remarkably similar to each other in the last period, but this does not surprise us that much. On this variant the finishes of the camera bump follow the same choices as the rest of the back cover, therefore almost mirror-polished.
The smartphone grip didn't convince me very much; i found this Notes redmi 12 Pro a bit angular during use, not so much because of its size, which after all is similar to many other smartphones, 163 76 x x 8mm with a weight of about 187 grams, how much for the edges to be poco rounded. Nothing so serious, of course, but noticing it, I still wanted to let you know.
As for the smartphone equipment, on the right side Xiaomi has inserted the volume rocker and the power button with a good, reactive and precise biometric sensor inside. On the lower part, then, there is one of the two speakers, the Type-C connector, the primary microphone and the slot for the two Nano sims; at the top, however, there is the usual 3.5mm jack which Redmi traditionally continues to insert on its smartphones together with the IR port, next to the second speaker and the second microphone for noise cancellation. As for certifications, however, the company has only issued one IP53 certification and no further for its device.
Display
As for the display, the company has chosen a nice panel, to be honest, from 6.67 "inch FullHD + of the Flow AMOLED type (the same ones, to be clear, seen on the smartphones of the series POCO); in any case we are talking about a panel with an adaptive refresh rate up to 120Hz and a high touch sampling rate up to 240Hz. There is no lack of compatibility certifications with HDR10 and HDR10+ standards, as well as DolbyVision.
In short, beyond these technicalities that may not be helpful to some, in practice I can guarantee you that the quality of this display is really good not only on the chromatic front where Xiaomi's AMOLED I consider it a guarantee for time with its bright colors and its very high definition, but also on the backlight front because with its 900 nits peak it can prove to be truly versatile in any scenario, even in the most difficult ones. Obviously, as always, MIUI provides some additional controls for color calibration in case we are interested in customizing its appearance to our liking.
Hardware and Performance
In this new series of Redmi Note 12 the Pro version and the Pro + version find themselves sharing the same hardware under the body; the company, in fact, has differentiated these two models mainly for the photographic sector, while for the rest there are no significant differences to highlight. Precisely, Redmi Notes 12 Pro 5G comes with the new on board Mediatek Dimension 1080, a 6nm SoC with two high-performance Cortex-A78 cores up to 2.6GHz and 6 high-efficiency Cortex-A55 cores clocked up to 2.0Ghz; the rest of the smartphone provides for the presence of 6 or 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM memory with the possibility of expansion with a further virtual 5GB, while the storage in both variants remains fixed at 128GB non-expandable. Here, this is another difference for which you could consider the Pro +, a smartphone of which one is also available 256GB storage variant.
Il Mediatek Dimension 1080, for those unfamiliar with it, is a processor that we could easily compare to Qualcomm's counterpart, lo Snapdragon 778G; in practice, with a hardware platform of this type, the smartphone has no difficulty in any particular field during daily use, where it manages to keep temperatures low even in the most stressful contexts. I must say that I noticed some lag in the interface, and some sporadic freezes there were during my testing days, but I would attribute these problems more than to the hardware usual MIUI which, despite having reached version 14, still fails to give its best.
While using the smartphone in gaming with titles of the caliber of Call of Duty, on the other hand, there are no difficulties of any kind, not even in terms of graphics; in support, as always, there is the Game Turbo Mode which allows you to further improve performance. As for certifications, on the other hand, as for some years now, there is no lack of DRM Widevine L1 for streaming in high definition on the main online platforms.
Software
On the software front like all of the devices Xiaomi/POCO/ Redmi, this too comes with MIUI on board, fortunately in version 14 (.0.6, to be precise) but unfortunately still based on Android 12 with security patches updated to February 2023. For those new to this kind of smartphone, MIUI is undoubtedly among the most feature-rich Android ROMs and goodies that complete the device in a unique way.
It is also true, however, that MIUI also in version 14 remains among the heaviest ROMs in the panorama of Android smartphones; some points in terms of speed and reliability, in fact, this smartphone loses them precisely because of MIUI and its optimization perhaps a little too lacking. In any case, the company promises the update to Android 13 already in the coming months as well as up to 4 years of security patches.
Camera
The photographic sector, although we are not analyzing the Pro + which on this front is the smartphone of the Note 12 series that does best, is very respectable. Xiaomi has chosen to focus everything on a primary sensor that is already quite recognized and established: let's talk about the Sony IMX766 da 50MP f / 1.9, photographic sensor already seen on various models of the previous generation. Here, in this sense the company has preferred to focus on something already tested, rather than innovate without really knowing what it was getting into. The rest of the hardware requires the presence of a 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide lens with 120° FOV, and a lens 2MP f / 2.4 macro; a 16MP f/2.5 selfie camera completes it all.
Basically the photographic results that this Notes redmi 12 Pro is able to produce are respectable, although at first glance I was unable to evaluate its goodness by looking at the photos on the smartphone screen. In fact, with good light conditions, the photos produced are respectable, with a good color range and good sharpness; there is also a good level of detail which, especially in the close-ups, accentuate a rather good and natural bokeh effect at the same time.
Sometimes in some cases the photos could be slightly cold in the color balance, but nothing relevant; the wide-angle camera, as usual, makes the overall photographic sector lose a few points, as the usual 8MP lens always produces shots without infamy and without praise. Only acceptable. Night photos, on the other hand, put Xiaomi's smartphone in a little more difficulty, with a white balance that struggles to be perfect: I think the issue is due to the MIUI software optimization, as with the same lens on other smartphones, night shots have a different color balance. However, with a minimum of post-production, even the shots of the Redmi Note 12 Pro are perfectly usable and good for the price range.
The selfies, on the other hand, follow the same usual logic of Xiaomi: by deactivating the MIUI filters and corrections, you get decent selfies with more than good quality. Equally good is the quality of the videos that can be recorded up to 4K at 30 fps, the stabilization could have been slightly higher.
Autonomy
The battery chosen by Xiaomi for this Redmi Note 12 Pro is a 5000mAh unit, in line with most of the competitors currently in circulation. This battery allows you to have an autonomy of an abundant day without ever getting into "recharge anxiety". In this regard, the company includes a 67W fast charger in the package which is able to recharge the smartphone from 0-100 in poco more than 60 minutes, and about 50% in poco more than 20 minutes.
Price and Considerations
Everyone's prices go up, and Xiaomi's prices go up too: this Redmi Notes 12 Pro 5G officially arrives on the Italian and European market a €399 for the version 6 / 128GB e €449 for the version 8 / 128GB. On the occasion of the launch, the company thought of a promotion expiring on 30 March 2023 which will see the two smartphones respectively at €379 and €399, two figures which in any case do not go unnoticed in this market segment.
By now the price bar is higher than it was a few years ago, and today to bring home a quality "handyman" smartphone it is necessary to spend a little more; anyway at the current price Notes redmi 12 Pro it's slightly off track, at least as far as I'm concerned, despite the fact that it's distinguished by a beautiful design, a great display and a long battery life. This is a smartphone that I advise you to take into consideration for figures of around 300 euros, prices that, despite the very fresh launch on the market, are already available online without difficulty.
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