Realme 12 Pro+ Review: Making Headway

The Realme 11 Pro+, launched in 2023, was a good phone in the sub-Rs 30,000 price range. But it missed the bullseye due to its median camera and software performance.

It’s been roughly seven months since then, and Realme has launched a successor to the Realme 11 Pro+, the Realme 12 Pro+, addressing one of the two concerns—the camera—while also introducing IP65 protection and HDR capabilities.

However, these changes also come with some corner-cutting and a Rs 2,000 price hike, which begs the question: Should you pick the Realme 12 Pro+ over its competitors? Our Realme 12 Pro+ review should help answer that.

Realme 12 Pro+ Design and Build: A Few Welcome Changes

Realme has kept the design of the Realme 12 Pro+ largely unchanged from last year’s offering. It still comes with a circular camera module—albeit a bigger one this time—at the back with a vertical strip running along the center. The back panel has a vegan leather finish on top, and combined with the phone’s curved design, it offers a good in-hand feel, making the device comfortable to hold and use at a stretch.

However, the company has changed some design and build elements on the Realme 12 Pro+. To begin with, the stitching pattern around the vertical strip and the camera module is gone, which gives the back panel a cleaner look, in my opinion.

Then, there are some changes to the camera module. For instance, it now protrudes a little more than before and is encircled by a golden ring reminiscent of the jubilee bracelet on some luxury watches. Similarly, the lenses inside the camera module have been rearranged into a square configuration, and the LED is now elliptical.

Last but not least, the Realme 12 Pro+ has an IP65 dust and water resistance rating. While it isn’t as good as an IP68 rating that some of Realme’s competitors offer, it’s still better than having no protection at all.

Realme 12 Pro+ Display: Better Than What Specs Dictate

The Realme 12 Pro+ features a 6.7-inch curved AMOLED panel with a punch-hole cutout for the front-facing camera, similar to the Realme 11 Pro+. It’s still an FHD+ display with a 2412×1080 pixels screen resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate.

The screen is sharp and offers good colors. You’ll enjoy watching content on this screen. Speaking of content consumption, the phone also gets HDR10 support. But sadly, support for Netflix isn’t present, so you can only use it with YouTube.

Talking about outdoor usability, Realme claims a peak brightness of 950 nits on the Realme 12 Pro+. While it’s definitely lower than its competitors, like the Poco X6 Pro or the Redmi Note 13Pro+, it isn’t bad at all. During my usage, I didn’t experience any major issues using the Realme 12 Pro+ in outdoor conditions, except on a couple of occasions in the afternoon when the sunlight was too harsh.

Lastly, there’s an in-display fingerprint scanner for biometric authentication on the Realme 12 Pro+. Just like on its predecessor, the sensor is fast and reliable. I’d have loved it if it was placed a little higher.

Realme 12 Pro+ Performance: Fares Well, But Isn’t Pro Level

Coming to performance, you get a Snapdragon 7s Gen 2—a slightly less powerful version of the Snapdragon 7 Gen 2 chip—on the Realme 12 Pro+. The Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 is an octa-core processor built on the 4nm process with four 2.4GHz Cortex-A78 performance cores and four 1.95GHz Cortex-A55 efficiency cores.

In my usage, I was happy with the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2’s performance on the Realme 12 Pro+. It managed to handle most everyday tasks, like using social media, browsing the web, clicking pictures or videos, and watching content on YouTube or other platforms without any hiccups. Mind you, the back of the phone did get a little too warm while clicking pictures and recording videos over an extended period.

Multitasking on the Realme 12 Pro+ is also a pleasant experience, thanks to the 12GB of LPDD4X RAM. There’s an 8GB RAM option, too, but we don’t know how good it is in multitasking. Storage is limited to just 128GB and 256GB, and you don’t get support for a microSD card slot either.

All in all, the Realme 12 Pro+ is a solid device for most people that can handle everyday tasks with ease. However, if you’re into extensive gaming and want a phone that can glide through heavy games, like Genshin Impact for instance, you’ll want to explore other options in the same price range, as they can give you a better experience.

Realme 12 Pro+ Battery: Easily Lasts a Day

Realme has packed a 5000mAh battery on the Realme 12 Pro+, the same as last year. While the Realme 11 Pro+ already delivered good battery life, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 on the Realme 12 Pro+—being more efficient—offers more screen-on time. I was getting anywhere between 7 and 9 hours of screen-on-time on the Realme 12 Pro+ on a single charge.

When it comes to charging, Realme has taken a step back and settled with just 67W charging on the Realme 12 Pro+. Compared to the 100W support on the predecessor, this feels like a downgrade. And it reflects in the charging speeds, too, albeit not to a great degree, but still—as charging the Realme 12 Pro+ from 0 to 100% with the bundled 67W charger takes a little over an hour.

The Realme 12 Pro+ comes equipped with Hi-Res dual speakers (tuned by Dolby Atmos). They offer good audio, sound clear, and don’t crackle much at high volume levels. If you watch a lot of content on your phone, you’ll be satisfied with the audio quality.

Realme 12 Pro+ Software: Not Clean, But Better Than Before

Alongside the processor, the software also plays a major role in performance and overall user experience. Realme offers the latest Realme UI 5.0 based on Android 14 on the Realme 12 Pro+ out of the box.

While the UI still packs a bunch of pre-installed apps, many apps, like Moj, ShareChat, Dailyhunt, Josh, and the likes, which were present on the Realme 11 Pro+, are no longer there on the new model. In addition, the Hot Free Games folder is also gone for good; Hot Apps and Hot Games, however, are still present.

As for the rest of the software experience, it’s good. The performance feels snappy and smooth, and you get a bunch of customization options to personalize the UI elements to your preference.

Of course, some issues still remain on the Realme UI 5.0. For instance, app recommendations still pop up out of nowhere, many system apps, like App Market and Game Center, still serve unnecessary notifications (although to a lesser degree than before), and the annoying Phone Manager app screen still appears every time you install an app from the Play Store.

Related Read: Realme 12 Pro review

Realme 12 Pro+ Camera: Telephoto Makes a Huge Difference

The Realme 12 Pro+ sports a triple-camera setup on the rear. This setup includes a 50MP (f/1.8) Sony IMX 890 wide-angle lens with OIS, a 64MP (f/2.6) (periscope) telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom, and an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide lens with 112˚ FoV.

Before jumping into describing the performance of all three cameras, it’s important to mention that Realme has significantly tweaked the processing on the Realme 12 Pro+. As such, the colors tend to appear natural in most situations, unlike before. However, sometimes, this also backfires, as the images come out a little too muted.

The 50MP shooter on the Realme 12 Pro+ shoots good photos both in daylight and dimly lit environments. You can expect your shots to have good details. The colors look pretty natural (and not overly boosted, which was the case with the Realme 11 Pro+), and there’s very little noise, too.

Similarly, the dynamic range is also pretty good in most situations. However, there are times when the shadows appear a little too underexposed in low lighting.

Similarly, in certain situations, like when it’s overcast, the highlights sometimes get a little too overexposed.

Night-time shots also come out well, with ample details and good color reproduction.

Turning on the night mode does help in most situations.

It’s especially useful for taking zoomed-in shots, where it manages to bring out more clarity and reduce noise in pictures.

When it comes to portrait shots, the sensor’s performance has improved significantly from last year. The skin tones are more natural now, you get way more details in the shots, and the edge detection has also improved, allowing for a better bokeh with a much clearer separation between the subject and the background than the Realme 11 Pro+.

However, when the lights are too harsh—be it on the subject or in the background—the subject can appear a little too overexposed at times.

Switching to the telephoto sensor, the 3x zoom is truly impressive, especially considering the phone’s price. It captures great pictures with good dynamic range and skin tones. There are ample details in the shots, too, and the color shift from the primary is almost negligible.

Similarly, the 6x in-sensor zoom offered by the sensor is also decent, and the pictures generally come out fine in daylight. However, the same isn’t true for low-light and night-time shots, as there’s too much noise, and the shadows are badly exposed.

Talking about the 8MP ultra-wide sensor, it’s gotten better than last year. Color shift is still apparent in some situations, but it isn’t as bad as that on the Realme 11 Pro+. The pictures come out sharp with good contrast levels in daylight, and there are no noticeable artifacts around the edges. Low-light and night shots do suffer in terms of noise, color reproduction, and sharpness.

Moving to the front, there’s a 32MP Sony camera. Realme has got a lot of things right this time around. The pictures are sharper, with better skin tones, than last year, albeit there’s some skin smoothening effect, which can sometimes make the skin look unnatural. Occasionally, with bright backgrounds, the highlights can get overexposed. Portrait captures are decent, though—and not the best—as the edge detection can be a hit or miss.

As for the video, the Realme 12 Pro+ can shoot up to 4K at 30fps. Sadly, OIS doesn’t work in 4K; for that, you’ll need to capture videos in 1080p. You can also shoot zoomed-in videos. Overall, the video quality is fine.

Realme 12 Pro+ Review: Verdict

Realme offers the Realme 12 Pro+ in three configurations:

• 8GB + 128GB: Rs 29,999
• 8GB + 256GB: Rs 31,999
• 12GB + 256GB: Rs 33,999

For a starting price of Rs 29,999, the Realme 12 Pro+ gives you a striking design, excellent battery life, a periscope telephoto sensor, and a generally good camera performance. However, when stacked against its competitors in the same price range, the phone appears to fall behind in some departments.

To begin with, the display isn’t the best in the segment. Then, there’s the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset, which isn’t the most capable and may not age well a couple of years down the line. Finally, you have minor but notable weak points like the maximum onboard storage option being limited to just 256GB, support for fast charging reduced to 67W, and protection being limited to just IP65, which can influence your purchase decision, considering that the competition offers them in the same price range.

If they do, the POCO X6 Pro, Motorola Edge 40, and the OnePlus Nord 3 are some good alternatives to the Realme 12 Pro+ you can consider in this price range. If you’re willing to spend a little more, then the Redmi Note 13 Pro+ is a no-brainer for its price.

Buy Realme 12 Pro+