Realme 12 Pro+ 5G Review: Scores well on style, hardware and performance

Pros
– Impressive, premium styling
– Solid performance form the SoC
– Stunning display
– Only smartphone in its segment to have a Periscope camera
– Solid battery life and quick charging

Cons
– Significantly fewer bloatware and ads, but still has room for improvement
– Photos taken under scant artificial lighting can be a hit or a miss
– Periscope camera needs to be optimised

Price: Rs 33,999 for the tested 12GB+256GB variant (starts at Rs 29,999)
Rating: 4/5

Despite its visual resemblance to its predecessor, the Realme 12 Pro+ brings substantial upgrades over the the11 Pro+, particularly on the hardware front. The Realme 12 Pro+ follows up with notable improvements, especially in the camera department where it introduces a periscope telephoto lens.

This camera setup is notably unique within its segment, multi focal-length lossless zoom capabilities in the mid-range category.

Priced at an initial Rs 30,000 in India, the Realme 12 Pro+ positions itself as a device that has a premium feel beyond its cost. With a range of features, impressive specifications, and a really attractive design, the Realme 12 Pro+ surely does stands out among its competitors

However, every device has its weaknesses. The question remains: How does the Realme 12 Pro+ 5G perform overall, and is it a prudent choice for those seeking a new smartphone?

Realme 12 Pro+ 5G review: The design
Realme’s latest smartphone maintains the previous design but introduces some cosmetic enhancements for a more appealing look.

The Realme 12 Pro+ features a vegan leather back that not only exudes a premium feel but also provides a secure grip. The phone showcases a sizable round camera module with three camera sensors and an LED flash, set within a golden sunburst dial.

In collaboration with luxury watch designer Ollivier Savéo, renowned for his work with prestigious Swiss watch brands, Realme has incorporated several elements of luxury watches into the smartphone’s design.
The fluted bezels around the camera island for example, is a very common design choice that we see in luxury watches from Rolex, Omega and several other luxury watches.

The available colours are Submarine Blue, Navigator Beige, and Explorer Red. We got Submarine Blue variant to review. The Submarine Blue model impresses with its elegant and premium appearance, boasting a thin and light build at 8.75mm thickness and 196 grams weight.

The golden aluminium frame seamlessly blends the organic leather back with the curved front display.

On the right edge, you’ll find the volume rockers and power button, while the bottom edge houses the SIM tray, speaker grille, and USB Type-C port. The top side features an IR blaster and another speaker.

With an IP65 rating, the Realme 12 Pro+ offers protection against dust, water, and low-pressure liquid sprays, making it suitable for various weather conditions. Despite its lightweight and slim profile, the phone maintains a sturdy build, providing a solid feel when held. Overall, the Realme 12 Pro+ is designed to catch attention and initiate conversations with its aesthetically pleasing features.

Despite being lightweight and slim, the Realme 12 Pro+ has a sturdy build and feels solid when held. Overall, in terms of aesthetics, the device is surely going to turn heads and be a great conversation starter.

Realme 12 Pro+ 5G review: The display
The Realme 12 Pro+ may not showcase drastic changes in its display, but subtle adjustments enhance its visual appeal.

Featuring a slightly curved 6.7-inch FHD+ ProXDR AMOLED panel with a resolution of 1080X2412 pixels, a 20:9 aspect ratio, and a local peak brightness of 950 nits, the device delivers a captivating visual experience. The screen’s refresh rate of up to 120Hz and touch sampling response of 360Hz ensure smooth and responsive interactions, complemented by full P3 colour gamut coverage for vibrant and precise colours.

The device incorporates a 2160Hz PWM dimming mode, elevating colour accuracy at low brightness levels. Boasting HDR10+ certification, the display guarantees clear and vivid visuals even under direct sunlight. With an impressive contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1 and support for 10-bit color depth, the screen presents a crisp and vibrant appearance.

Prioritizing user comfort, the display holds hardware-level low blue light certification, reducing eye strain, and is TUV Rheinland eye-protection certified for flicker-free performance. The in-display fingerprint sensor, known for its exceptional speed and accuracy, is accompanied by stylish animations. The 61-degree curvature of the curved glass design minimizes false touch issues, thanks to Realme’s implementation of the updated X-touch Anti-mistouch Algorithm.

While some people may complain that Realme is using a display panel that was seen last year and the year before that as well, it still holds up as one of the best offerings in the budget segment. It still is, one of the best displays on the market, and certainly the best in its class.

Realme 12 Pro+ 5G review: The camera
The Realme 12 Pro+ 5G boasts a triple-camera setup on its rear, featuring a Sony IMX890 50MP sensor with OIS as the primary camera. This lens has a native focal length of 24mm.

The device also includes an 8MP ultrawide camera with a focal length of 16mm and a 64MP sensor with a periscope lens for a focal length of 71mm, replacing the previous 200MP Samsung ISOCELL sensor. The periscope lens provides 6X in-sensor zoom and 3X optical zoom.

The primary camera of the Realme 12 Pro+ excels in capturing daylight photos with precision and vivid colours, offering a dynamic range comparable to high-end flagship devices. By default, it captures 12.5MP pixel-binned shots for exceptional detail. The phone features a Street mode for portrait-style images at various focal lengths, with an auto-zoom toggle to bring subjects closer without physical movement.

Low-light images without Night mode showcase impressive detail and balanced exposure. Activating Night mode enhances quality with noise reduction and oversharpening. The camera demonstrates commendable shutter and focus speeds in challenging lighting conditions.

Realme has improved the clarity and stability of night shots by using a specially designed prism tilt OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), along with Sub-Wavelength Structure Coating and a Wave-Shaped lens hood. This special combination helps reduce flare and ghosting, ensuring users get outstanding image clarity even in low-light situations.

The ultrawide shooter’s performance falls short in dynamic range and colour accuracy compared to the primary camera. The macro sensor works well in close-up photography but struggles in moderately low light.
The OV64B sensor, with a 1/2-inch64MP Periscope sensor camera shines with 3X optical zoom, delivering solid images at a distance. However, beyond 140mm, when it starts getting into the Digital Zoom, things start falling apart, quickly. Image quality becomes inconsistent, lacking details even with a steady tripod. Realme needs to take a leaf out of Samsung’s playbook with their Periscope camera, and tune the software to process the images in a better way. We also found the OIS in the Periscope camera to struggle at times.

The 32MP front-facing camera captures selfies with decent facial details but may suffer from oversharpening, a recurring issue in Realme devices.

Click here for some camera samples from the Realme 12 Pro+.

Realme 12 Pro+ 5G review: The performance, software experience and UI
The Realme 12 Pro+ 5G is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset, which is based on the 4nm process. You also get the Adreno 710 GPU, which ensures fast and efficient graphics performance. The combination allows for quick loading and opening of apps, with the GPU contributing to decent gaming performance.

The device offers up to 12GB of RAM, facilitating rapid data retrieval, and up to 256GB of onboard storage, providing ample space for apps, photos, videos, audio, documents, and more.

In a gaming test using Asphalt 9, the Realme 12 Pro+ demonstrated seamless performance with HD graphics and high frame rates for over half an hour, showing no lags or drops in frame rates. The 60Hz refresh rate was maintained, and while the device did warm up after 15-20 minutes, overall performance remained satisfactory. Benchmark results further attest to the device’s capabilities.

Regarding software, the Realme 12 Pro+ 5G runs on Realme UI 5.0 based on Android 14. Realme has customized the Android 14 OS to offer additional customisation and personalisation options.RealmeUI continues to be very intuitive, customisable, and overall easy and friendly to use.

Features include Omoji for creating avatars, File Dock for quick access to essentials, and smart image matting for extracting objects from images. The device also introduces heart rate monitoring, although its accuracy may vary. The user interface has a lot of vivid colors, is very user-friendliness, and gives users an enjoyable browsing experience.

Some other noteworthy features include Phonelink for a seamless connection with Windows laptops/PCs and Flash Capsule. Realme is also committing to two years of major software updates and three years of security updates for the Realme 12 Pro+.

You will still find some bloatware, but Realme has indeed toned them down a lot. There are some annoying habits still, like the Hot Apps and Hot Games folders. Luckily, the app recommendations this time, are far better and won’t embarrass you.

You also have the option to turn it off completely. Another plus point would be the ease with which Realme lets you opt out of Glance, even if you keep it enabled while setting the device up.

Coming back to the performance of the device, the Realme 12 Pro+ 5G comes with WiFi 6, BlueTooth 5.2 and a USB Type-C 2.0 port for connectivity.

In terms of device connectivity, the Realme 12 Pro+ 5G is equipped with WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, and a USB Type-C 2.0 port.

Additionally, during our prolonged testing, which involved watching a ton of videos and playing a short gaming session of BGMI we observed only a slight decrease in battery level. This indicates that the device has efficient power management.

Realme 12 Pro+ 5G review: The battery life
The Realme 12 Pro+ is powered by a 5,000mAh battery, maintaining the same capacity as the previous model.

During regular usage with the display brightness set at 70 per cent, we easily achieved over 8 hours of screen-on time and more than 16 hours of overall usage time. Throughout this period, we engaged in various activities, such as watching videos and shows, browsing the web and social media, light gaming, sending numerous emails, and participating in a couple of video calls. Notably, on the PCMark’s battery test, the Realme 12 Pro+ achieved an impressive score of just under 20 hours.

Additionally, the phone comes with a 67W fast charger in the box. This charger charges the device’s battery level to 50 per cent in approximately 20 minutes and fully charges the phone in less than an hour, easily.

Realme 12 Pro+ 5G review: The verdict
The Realme 12 Pro+ stands out as a versatile 5G smartphone, handling everyday tasks smoothly and swiftly. It supports heavy gaming titles, boasts solid battery life under moderate use, and features a vibrant display with impressive colour reproduction. The daylight camera performs well, providing good image quality.

While the Realme 12 Pro+ is a solid all-around choice, those prioritizing gaming performance might explore alternatives from Poco and OnePlus. It’s also worth noting that the Realme 12 Pro+ has a maximum storage capacity of 256GB, which could be a drawback for some users.

Moreover, Motorola and Redmi smartphones offer superior water and dust resistance with an IP68 rating, compared to Realme’s IP65 rating.

However, the Realme 12 Pro+ is a standout in its price range. With an attractive design featuring a leather finish, a sharp display, and reliable performance, it’s complemented by an improved Realme UI. The primary and telephoto cameras deliver impressive results in various scenarios, and the battery life is commendable. If these features are something you look for in a device, the Realme 12 Pro+ would be a worthwhile investment.