[REVIEW] Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G: The best Redmi Note smartphone in history

We tested this year's highest model of Xiaomi's daughter brand, Redmi, which offers a top-notch 200 Mpx camera, AMOLED display and 120 W charging. It's about Redmi Note 12 Pro + 5G.

In the review, we will once again traditionally look at the processing quality, performance, system stability, and last but not least, we will also test the praised 200 Mpx camera to check if it is really as good as the manufacturer claims.

Where to buy Redmi Note 12 Pro + 5G?

For the purpose of the review, we ordered the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G smartphone from the seller on the DHgate portal, from where it was delivered to us within 5 calendar days. At the same time, the mi688 seller on DHgate is offering the best market price for this smartphone. This seller also offers full 2-year warranty applicable in Xiaomi Germany.

Current coupons for Redmi Note 12 Pro + 5G

You cannot officially buy Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G on the Slovak market, as Xiaomi decided not to release this model for our market. Fortunately, we have our foreign partners who offer this otherwise great piece. At the time of writing the review, this smartphone could be purchased for a price of up to €390.

Technical specifications

Contents of the package

The Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G was brought to us by SPS courier in a traditional silicone case. Inside, the smartphone box was covered with a paper layer and an air foil. The box was thus absolutely without any damage.

Inside we again have the standard content, namely a smartphone, a paper envelope with a silicone sleeve and a needle to open it SIM slot and below them the charger and cable.

So don't expect anything surprising in the package. There is exactly what is normally found in the packaging of smartphones from Xiaomi or Redmi. There is nothing missing, but there is also nothing extra.

Quality of workmanship and design

Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G is available in glossy black. There are also two other colors on sale, white and blue. The smartphone measures 162.9 x 76 x 8.98 mm and weighs 210.5 g.

Compared to last year's model, the design of the rear camera module has changed in particular. Honestly, we didn't like the design of the Note 11 Pro series much, and since this year's design is cleaner and simpler, it looks much better.

The only thing we don't like too much is the old boring black color. In this color, the back cover has a glossy surface that is extremely susceptible to fingerprints and everything is reflected in it like a mirror.

The smartphone is probably made of plastic, but the overall impression of the processing is good. The display is not curved, but the edges of the back cover are, which makes it comfortable to hold in the hand, even though it is a relatively large smartphone.

Let's also mention the silicone cover that is included in the package. It is translucent, relatively high-quality, but it has one thing that personally bothers us quite a bit. It is a cover for the USB-C port, which protects the port from dirt, but is extremely impractical when charging.

If you don't have longer nails, opening it before each charge will be a bit of a hassle. If you succeed, the next trouble will come during the connection of the charging cable, when this cover will automatically return to its original place in the USB-C port.

Layout of control elements

The new product from Redmi adheres to the good old classics in the layout of individual elements. In the lower edge there is a charging USB-C port, a speaker grill, a slot for a couple SIM cards and one microphone. Said slot for SIM the card is somewhat harder to open this time, but probably no one will open it often.

The left edge is traditionally empty, while on the right there is a double volume control button and a button to turn on / off the smartphone, in which the fingerprint reader is also integrated.

The top edge still contains some sensors, a second speaker grill, a microphone and the old familiar 3.5 mm headphone port. We don't know if anyone still uses such headphones nowadays, but if so, you can connect them directly here without a reduction.

Flat AMOLED display

The new Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G received a 6.67" display, the so-called Flow AMOLED, which the manufacturer refers to as high-end. It should be made of advanced flexible materials with a better base material, which overall results in higher brightness, more beautiful colors and higher contrast.

But if we are to be honest, we would definitely be a bit sparing with praise. The display in the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G is definitely not among the top and is quite far from the flagship AMOLED displays. Around the same time, we also tested the OnePlus 11, whose AMOLED display is several classes better. We don't like it when the manufacturer unnecessarily praises the display too much, even if it is an ordinary cheaper AMOLED.

The display has cooler and less expressive colors. However, the maximum brightness of 900 nits is quite a lot, so even in direct sunlight, its visibility is very good.

Let's also add that the display offers a resolution of 2400 x 1800 px, a contrast ratio of 5:000 and a high refresh rate of 000 Hz. According to the default settings, it is automatically adjusted as needed, or a manual frequency setting of 1 or 120 Hz is available.

We also remind you that, like in previous versions of Redmi smartphones with AMOLED displays, we still don't have the option to have the always-on display on continuously. It only shows up for 10 seconds which is again disappointing.

Processor from MediaTek

The new Redmi is powered by an eight-core MedaTek Dimensity 1080 processor. It is manufactured using 6 nm technology and consists of 2 Cortex-A78 cores with a clock frequency of 2600 Mah and six Cortex-A55 cores with a frequency of 2000 Mhz.

The processor is assisted by a Mali-G68 graphics chip and 8 GB of LPDDR4X type RAM. The storage has 256 GB and it is an older type of UFS 2.2. It is currently the only memory version. The official Xiaomi website does not mention other versions either.

Traditionally, we also installed the popular AnTuTu benchmark in the smartphone, in which we obtained a score of 427 points. Overall, the smartphone is very smooth and definitely not lacking in performance.

For comparison, the same processor can be found, for example, in smartphones such as the Realme 10 Pro+ 5G or the Samsung Galaxy A34 5G.

Main camera with 200 MPx

As we mentioned in the introduction, we were very curious about how the main camera, which carries so many superlatives in the presentation materials from the manufacturer, takes pictures. But first, let's look at the specifications of all the cameras:

At first glance, there is a huge disparity in the resolution of individual cameras or even in their size. The manufacturer clearly put everything on the main camera, and the others did not miss so much attention.

So is the main camera really that good? It's good, but not perfect, and we definitely wouldn't call it high-end like Xiaomi does. However, it is definitely among the better ones in its price category.

It offers surprisingly good dynamic range and realistic color rendering. They are not at all oversaturated or expressive, on the contrary, they are very similar to reality. Of course, sharpness is best in good light. In more demanding lighting conditions, the overall quality of the photos decreases slightly.

However, it also copes well in an artificially lit interior, where in previous models of the Redmi Note series we often saw many underexposed places that used to merge into black. Even the dark shadowy areas are nicely rendered here. However, the camera focuses more slowly in low light, which is not ideal. The images are sometimes blurry, especially if we take pictures of a moving object.

Ultra-wide and macro

The ultra-wide-angle camera is only 8 Mpx and, as usual, it is noticeably weaker compared to the main camera. On the one hand, it has a worse dynamic range, which manifests itself in several underexposed or overexposed places, if we take, for example, images with both sunny and shady places.

Sharpness is also weaker, and the overall presentation of colors is more towards warm and less natural shades. We do not find as many details in the images as with the main camera. Photos from the interior are generally darker and less attractive at first glance.

We also have a double zoom, which the camera application takes using the main lens, a cutout. The result is quite good and very similar to the main camera.

The third camera is a macro, which has only 2 Mpx. We don't really like such lenses because they usually don't offer a very good result. Even with this macro sensor, it is not easy to take pictures, since it does not have automatic focus. You have to hit the exact distance from the photographed object so that the pictures are sharp, which is not so easy.

Night mode

When taking photos in the evening or at night, we recommend always activating the night mode. Without it, there is too much noise in the photo, especially in the sky, the sharpness is poor, and different light sources cause strange artifacts and are too bright.

By using the night mode, the noise is slightly reduced, but especially the overexposed areas, which are most visible with various light banners or lamps, disappear. The sharpness is not the best, but the overall impression with the night mode is quite good in most cases.

The best part is of course the main camera, which offers the best output. You can compare individual cameras on the attached photos.

Video and selfie

We have the maximum video resolution of 4K at 30 fps, or 1080p at 30 or 60 fps, and still 720p at 30 fps. The strange thing is that the main camera is supposed to have optical image stabilization, but no stabilization is available in video.

The image quality in the video is good, but the overall impression is spoiled by the absence of stabilization, so the video recorded while walking is almost unusable without an external stabilizer.

The selfie camera has 16 MPx and quite good output. The maximum possible video resolution for the selfie camera is 1080p / 60 fps.

Battery and endurance

Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G comes with a 5 mAh battery, which can be found in many smartphones of a similar category today. What is not so common, the new Redmi received up to 000 W charging.

You can see the charging process from 20% to 100% in the table below. Honestly, from 120W charging, we expected the smartphone to charge a little faster. On the other hand, having your phone charged in 25 minutes is still great.

As for the duration per charge, it is quite decent. We mostly charged the smartphone every day during testing, but after several days when we didn't use it so intensively, we were able to get by for 1 and a half to 2 days.

Android 13 and MIUI 14

Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G runs on the latest Android in version 13, which is also supplemented by the latest version of the graphic superstructure from Xiaomi, MIUI 14. You can find about the new MIUI 14 on our sister website XiaomiPlanet.sk separate review, so we will not focus too much on the new features compared to the older version 13.

Let's just mention the interesting possibility of uninstalling almost all applications, which is unfortunately missing in this global version. The environment thus contains several different applications that we have never used. In this way, we can at least turn them off so that they do not take up unnecessary space on the desktop between applications.

We don't really like the overall default design of the main screen, as there are quite a few apps on it right away. Personally, we prefer a cleaner home screen with only a few apps. Pre-installed applications include, for example, Mi Browser, Music, Security, Themes, Mi Video, Game Center or Cleaning. We hardly use any of these applications.

In terms of reliability, the environment is very good. During the entire testing period, we did not register any system hesitation, nor any significant slowdowns or hangs. Everything worked without the slightest problem.

Connectivity and speakers

As the name of the model implies, the new smartphone from Redmi supports 5G networks. In addition to these, we also find support for NFC, Bluetooth 5.2 and WiFi 6. From the positioning systems, they are GPS L1, Glonass G1, BDS B1I and Galileo E1.

They will be pleased with the stereo speakers, which play quite decently for this price category. Their output is clean, loud enough with pleasant bass within the range of possibilities.

Redmi Note 12 Pro + 5G: Final evaluation

The new Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G offers very attractive equipment at an interesting price. It has a 6.67" AMOLED display, a MediaTek Dimensity 1080 processor and a 200 Mpx main camera.

The camera in particular should be a big draw at this price point. Its output is quite decent and it can definitely take very interesting pictures. However, the situation is worse especially with the wide-angle camera, which is not that good. Not to mention the almost unusable macro camera with a resolution of only 2 Mpx.

The smartphone comes with the latest Android 13 and the MIUI 14 superstructure. Overall, the system works very well and smoothly, without any slowdowns or hesitations. There is also NFC, WiFi in version 6 and support for 5G networks.