Realme 12 Pro 5G Review: Decent Mid-ranger for Everyday Use

Realme launched its Pro Number Series a little earlier this time. The series includes the successors of Realme 11 Pro and Pro+, the Realme 12 Pro and 12 Pro+ which arrived in the Indian market. The basic model of the series, Real Me 12 Pro is a mid-range device with features like telephoto lens in less than 30,000 categories. Apart from this, to improve the user experience, Realme has added a new chipset and other camera features. Although Realme 12 Pro shared specifications with its predecessor Realme 11 Pro, the prices have been increased slightly. For a starting price of Rs. $25,999, let's see whether or not the Realme 12 Pro can offer a decent camera, reliable performance, nice display, and long battery life for everyday use. . Realme 12 Pro 5G Review will answer the question whether it can be a reliable daily driver or not.

Realme 12 Pro 5G Review: Design and construction

The design of Real Me 12 Pro is similar to its predecessor, but there are also some changes. The blue color variant is new and there is a golden line in the middle and around the camera module on the back. With these small changes, the smartphone looks more premium and attractive than before. The first look resembles a flagship phone that features a leather back and a design inspired by the face of a luxury watch. To create this design, Realme partnered with a luxury watch designer who previously worked for Rolex.

The back panel has a leather finish and curved sides thanks to which the grip is correct and does not slip. The camera module also looks great with its blue color and glossy finish. There are 4 camera cutouts in the module, 3 of which are sensors and a 20x OIS camera is also written. For a price of $25,000, you get a curved display with a punch-hole selfie camera and a sleek metal frame in the middle. The right edge houses the power button and volume rockers and single-handed use is also convenient. The bottom edge includes a SIM tray, microphone, USB-Type C port, and speaker grille. There is also an additional speaker and microphone on the top edge.

Overall, the device is attractive, but since there are always pros and cons to everything, it's the same with this one. The leather back gives the device a premium look, but that same leather back easily attracts dirt and stains. The protective case helps in this area, but it steals the design thunder from the device. It also becomes thicker.

Considering the budget, Realme 12 Pro looks attractive and the new Underwater Blue color variant also looks pretty. The build quality is decent and the smartphone looks stylish as well. For protection, Realme also offers a protective cover. Even if the case makes it less beautiful if you want your phone to remain protected, its use is essential.

Realme 12 Pro 5G Goodbye: Display

There is no upgrade in terms of display from Realme 11 Pro to Realme 12 Pro. There's the same 6.7-inch curved display, an AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate and 950 nits peak brightness. HDR support is also available. While there's nothing new, the display isn't bad either.

The colors on the screen look nice and the color profile can be chosen according to your preference. Vivid, Natural and Pro modes are available, Pro mode also includes Cinematic and Brilliant. Profiles also allow you to choose the color temperature. We set the profile to Natural and chose Cool color temperature and loved the colors with those settings. If you prefer richer colors, you can also go for Vivid or Brilliant, but those aren't that easy on the eyes.

Although video streaming, colors and viewing angles are decent. Although some scenes appear oversaturated in Vivid's profile, this can be overlooked. With an AMOLED screen, dark areas appear black while bright areas glow. There is a brightness of 950 nits which works well indoors, but under sunlight it falls short.

The refresh rate can be adjusted up to 120Hz, but using Auto mode is more convenient because not only does it save battery, but it keeps moving between 60Hz, 90Hz, and 120Hz depending on the tasks being performed on the screen. Setting the refresh rate to 120Hz provides a smooth experience.

HDR10 support is also available. It worked on YouTube but on Netflix HDR content could not be played. Always-On-Display is also available.

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Realme 12 Pro 5G Goodbye: Performance

Realme 12 Pro 5G marks the debut of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset, based on a 4nm manufacturing process. It is an octa-core chipset with 4 Kyro Cortex A78 cores at a clock speed of 2.2 GHz and four Cortex A55 cores at a clock speed of 1.8 GHz. There is also an Adreno 619 GPU with up to 12GB of RAM. A vapor chamber cooling system is also available.

The performance of the device is fast. Whether you are doing any task, it can easily handle them all. We used multiple apps simultaneously and switched between them, but experienced no issues. Apps open quickly and without lag, but if gaming is your priority, this device isn't particularly suitable for you.

We played on Realme 12 Pro for a while and titles that require heavy graphics only run well for a while on this one. Indeed, during long gaming sessions with high frame rates and HD graphics, it starts to lag. Titles like Genshin Impact, COD, and BGMI will only run well for a while if played at low settings. The best part is that even after 30-40 minutes of gaming, the phone's temperature didn't increase much. Even if we had played more, it could have been a little warm, which is common with smartphones. The dual speakers provide a decent audio experience while gaming. We ran some benchmark tests and the results are given below.

Real Me 12 Pro runs Realme UI 5.0 based on Android 14 out of the box. Realme has promised 2 software updates and 3 security updates. The user interface is easy to use. The File Dock feature helps collect and share information faster and more efficiently. Flash Capsule provides easy access to third-party applications. Bloatware is present but it is less numerous than before and is easy to uninstall if it is not necessary.

Realme 12 Pro 5G review: Cameras

The camera of the Realme 12 Pro 5G can be considered one of its strong points as it is equipped with a telephoto sensor which is usually found in devices priced above 35,000. The triple setup camera includes a 50 MP Sony IMX882 camera with OIS and f/1.2 aperture, an 8 MP ultra-wide camera with f/2.2 aperture and a 32 MP telephoto lens which is a Sony IMX709 sensor with 4x optical zoom and f/ aperture 2.0. For selfies, there is a 16MP camera.

The main sensor delivers detailed images with good colors and dynamic range. Portraits are also good, with details such as hair and facial features being captured correctly. Edge detection is also good. There's a dedicated 2x telephoto lens that delivers good photos, while the 4x in-sensor zoom softens details. While Realme 12 Pro+ has 120x zoom, this one comes with 20x digital zoom. When zooming in, details seem to disappear, but you can't expect more than that from a mid-budget device. If you want a better zoom camera, you will have to go for flagship devices that cost much more than Realme 12 Pro Plus.

The 8MP Ultrawide camera also takes good photos. Low-light photos are noisy, but night mode takes better photos than normal mode.

The 16MP selfie camera also performs well and can take portrait photos as well. We turned off beautification mode and got good results with apt. Don't get your hopes up too much in dimly lit areas.

Realme 12 Pro 5G Summary: battery life and charge

Realme 12 Pro 5G contains a 5,000 mAh battery and the power station offers good backup. In half-hour video streaming, the battery level only dropped 5-6%. If you're a heavy user, the device will easily last a day as well. The device is equipped with a 67W adapter that charges the battery from 0 to 50% in just 20 minutes. To recharge to 100%, it only takes 45 minutes.

The smartphone also features a smart charging system that, when turned on, turns off charging when the battery reaches 80%. This leads to better battery health.

Review Verdict: Should You Buy Realme 12 Pro 5G?

Realme 12 Pro is a good mid-range 5G smartphone with a new and better chipset, which can easily implement all your daily tasks. You can play heavy titles on this device, but for a gaming-focused device, you'll need to consider more premium options. The battery backup is impressive and the display is suitable for content consumption. Considering the budget, the camera doesn't disappoint either. So if you look at features like display, battery, chipset, and camera, Realme 12 Pro 5G is a decent smartphone. However, if you want gaming and a powerful processor, consider options like Poco X6 Pro, Realme 12 Pro+ or OnePlus Nord 3.