Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G Review: Worth the Price Bump?

Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G was launched on Thursday as the company’s latest midrange smartphone in its Redmi Note 12 series. The handset has been launched as the successor to the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G, and is powered by a 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 1080 SoC. Like the Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge, the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G also offers 120W fast charging that featured on the Xiaomi handset, while packing a slightly larger battery. But does the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ offer good value for money like its predecessor?

On this week’s episode of the Gadgets 360 podcast Orbital, guest host Siddharth Suvarna talks to Reviewer Pranav Hegde and Senior Reviewer Sheldon Pinto to find out more about the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G and whether it offers enough features to match the competition.

Unlike previous phones in the Redmi Note series, the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G comes with a higher price tag, as well as several upgrades in the hardware department. Most importantly, the phone is equipped with a 200-megapixel Samsung ISOCELL HPX sensor and it is the first phone in this price segment to feature this sensor. It is also the first phone in the Redmi Note lineup to feature 120W fast charging.

The phone is powered by a 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 1080 SoC, which is the successor to the Dimensity 920 chipset, and the phone runs on Android 12 out-of-the-box, with MIUI 13 on top. Hegde says that it would have been nice if the phone was launched with Android 13, which makes sense as it has been a few months since the latest version of Android was released.

According to Hegde, the camera performance of the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G was mostly impressive, including in low light environments. Like most phones, the “industry favourite” 2-megapixel macro camera on the handset is a disappointment, he points out. He suggests that users should instead enable the 200-megapixel resolution mode in the camera app and then crop in for better image quality.

Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G First Impressions: Moving Up the Ladder

The AMOLED display on the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ offers good colour reproduction and watching content looks great, Hegde tells Sheldon, who asks whether the screen is tuned well. When it comes to gaming, the phone lags behind the Realme 10 Pro+ 5G, which features the same chipset. However, there’s no difference between both phones in terms of day-to-day performance.

Playing games or recording video does not cause the phone to heat up, according to Hegde. He says that after a gaming session, he accidentally kept the phone in his pocket while it was recording a video, and it was only slightly warm after around 12 minutes, he adds.

While the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ comes with a 4,980mAh battery, it offers fast charging at 120W like last year’s Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge, which was equipped with a smaller battery. Pinto asks about the phone’s battery performance, and he replies stating that the phone is capable of offering all-day battery life.

Realme 10 Pro+ 5G Review: If Looks Were Everything

Is it worth upgrading to the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G? This phone has a 200-megapixel camera and comes with 120W fast charging support. The phone comes with Android 12 out-of-the-box and will get two OS upgrades and four years of security updates. However, the price of the Redmi Note series has now breached the Rs. 25,000 mark. We discuss whether it makes sense to buy the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G in India.

You can listen to all of that in detail and more in our episode by hitting the play button on the Spotify player embedded above.

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