Realme 12+ Review: A Seriously Good Phone for the Price

Back in January, Realme unveiled the 12 Pro series, and now, they've further expanded the 12 series with the addition of the Realme 12 and 12+. Having had the chance to use the latter for a few weeks, here are my thoughts.
Price

The Realme 12+ starts at Rs 20,999 for the base 8/128GB variant while the 8/256GB flavor will cost Rs 21,999.

PROS

• Excellent 120Hz AMOLED display
• Impressive main camera performance, especially in low light
• Efficient battery with rapid charging
• Head-turning design
• Excellent speakers
• Attractive price

CONS

• Design could benefit from matte sides
• Haptics have room for improvement
• Realme could cut down on bloatware
• Ultrawide angle camera can be a hit-and-miss

Build and Design: One of the Best Looking Phones in the Segment

The Realme 12+ exudes a sense of premium quality with its unique material choices. The back panel, available in Pioneer Green and Navigator Beige, comes in a luxurious leather finish that feels smooth and comfortable in the hand. It's evident that the design is a key highlight of this phone.

The frame of the Realme 12+ is crafted from polished polycarbonate. This material contributes to the phone's overall sleekness and keeps the weight down compared to using metal. However, it does come with the drawback of attracting fingerprints easily. Frequent cleaning with a microfiber cloth is also necessary to maintain a fingerprint-free appearance.

Despite the fingerprint issue, the polished polycarbonate frame feels sturdy and well-constructed. It seamlessly integrates with the leather back, creating a cohesive and visually appealing design.

The phone feels well-constructed and can withstand everyday bumps and knocks. Realme also provides a good-quality TPU case in the box, which is always welcome.

Form Factor: Sleek and Comfortable to Hold

The Realme 12+ maintains a slim and sleek form factor despite its 6.67-inch display. The phone measures 162.95mm in length, 7.4cm in width, and approximately 7.87mm in depth, making it comfortable to hold and use single-handedly for most users. Additionally, its weight of around 190g contributes to the comfortable in-hand feel.

The Realme 12+ features a centrally located punch-hole cutout for the front-facing camera, minimizing bezel disruption and maximizing screen space. The volume rocker and power button are positioned on the right side of the frame for easy access. The bottom edge houses the USB-C charging port, the primary microphone, and the loudspeaker grille.

Display: A Visual Feast for Everyday Entertainment and Use

The Realme 12+ boasts a stunning 6.67-inch AMOLED display, making it a compelling option for users who prioritize a premium visual experience. The display utilizes AMOLED technology, renowned for its ability to produce vibrant colors, deep blacks, and exceptional contrast levels. Furthermore, the display boasts a Full HD+ (1080 x 2400 pixels) resolution, offering a sharp and detailed viewing experience. This resolution is sufficient for most everyday tasks, including browsing the web, watching videos, and playing games.

The display's true standout feature is its 120Hz refresh rate. Whether you're scrolling through social media, playing games, or simply navigating the user interface, the 120Hz refresh rate makes the experience noticeably smoother and more enjoyable.

The display boasts a peak brightness of 1200 nits, ensuring excellent visibility even under harsh sunlight. This makes the phone ideal for users who frequently use their devices outdoors or in brightly lit environments.

Lastly, HDR (High Dynamic Range) support is available. HDR enhances the visual experience by offering a broader spectrum of colors and improved contrast. This is noticeable when viewing HDR content.

Performance: Handles Everything Like a Champ

Under the hood, the Realme 12+ is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7050 5G chipset, paired with 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of storage.

Everyday Tasks: A Smooth and Responsive Experience

For most users, the Realme 12+ delivers a smooth and responsive experience when tackling everyday tasks. This includes activities like browsing the web, checking social media, using messaging apps, and streaming videos. The 8GB of RAM ensures efficient multitasking, allowing you to switch between several apps without noticeable lag. Additionally, the device has a RAM expansion feature, which allocates a portion of the internal storage as virtual RAM. This feature increases the virtual RAM up to 8GB, effectively providing a total of 16GB of RAM.

Gaming Performance

I kicked things off with Real Racing 3, a game that throws serious graphics punches. The Realme 12+ handled it like a champ, even with Spotify jamming in the background. No stutters, no lags - just smooth gameplay. The Dimensity 7050 chipset flexed its muscles, showing off its multitasking skills.

After a solid 20-minute gaming session with screen recording on, the phone got warm but never uncomfortably hot.

Curious about the aftermath, I ran Geekbench. Surprise, surprise! The Realme 12+ didn't just hold its own; the GPU score actually went up. This was unexpected but definitely a pleasant surprise.

Switching gears to NFS No Limits, the Realme 12+ maintained a steady 30 FPS, but the graphics weren't particularly impressive. The game lacks graphics settings, as it automatically adjusts based on the phone's specifications. However, the phone handled heat management exceptionally well.

At last, I decided to throw in a curveball - installing another game in the background while gaming. The Realme 12+ didn't flinch. Sure, it got a tad warmer, but it didn't let that affect the gaming fun.

Upon launching a game on the Realme 12+, a handy game mode kicks in. This mode provides a comprehensive set of features, allowing users to check important metrics like ping and FPS, tweak system settings such as brightness, and perform various actions to enhance their gaming experience. Additionally, users can effortlessly take screenshots, block calls to avoid interruptions during gameplay, record their screen, lock the device orientation, monitor the phone's temperature, and access a plethora of other cool features such as a voice changer.

Cool as a Cucumber: Vapor Chamber Cooling

Now, let's talk about that warmth. Yes, the phone got warm after an intensive gameplay session, but it didn't cross any red flags. Thanks to its vapor chamber cooling system, the Realme 12+ knows how to regulate temperature efficiently.

Camera: Delivering Detail and Low-Light Excellence

The Realme 12+ boasts a triple-camera system on the back. The heart of the camera system is the SONY LYT-600 with a 1/1.95" sensor. This sensor captures detailed and sharp images in good lighting conditions, offering excellent clarity and vibrant colors. The large sensor size also contributes to improved low-light performance, capturing more light and minimizing noise in dimly lit environments.

The Realme 12+ impressed me with its remarkable post-processing capabilities. In a less-than-ideal scenario, I took a photo of my Nothing Phone in a room lit only by a tube light. The conditions weren't perfect, with a cabinet beneath the light causing shadows on the subject. When capturing the image, the display of my phone got fully overexposed due to direct light falling on it. Despite being unable to correct it in the viewfinder, I decided to take the photo anyway.

To my surprise, the Realme 12+ efficiently processed the image and completely corrected the overexposure. This allowed me to see the contents on the subject's display clearly. Additionally, the post-processing speed was impressively fast.

Night Mode: Shining a Light on Low-Light Photography

The Realme 12+ truly shines in low-light photography thanks to its impressive night mode, revealing details that would have been lost in regular modes.

Neon Signs and Indoor Photography

Despite its overall impressive performance, the camera faltered when encountering neon signs, resulting in overexposed and washed-out images. However, the device excelled in indoor photography under artificial lighting conditions.

Ultrawide Sensor: A Decent Offering with Room for Improvement

The secondary camera is an 8MP ultrawide sensor. While it captures decent shots in daylight, its performance falls short compared to the main sensor, especially in low-light conditions.

Macro Sensor: A Questionable Inclusion

The presence of a 2MP macro sensor is somewhat questionable. While it allows you to capture close-up shots of small objects, the image quality is poor and lacks detail. In most cases, using the main sensor with its 2X in-sensor zoom can often achieve better results.

Front-Facing Camera: Fulfilling Video Call and Selfie Needs

The 16MP front-facing camera on the Realme 12+ does a good job capturing selfies, suitable for sharing on social media and video calls. It provides decent detail and comes equipped with features like portrait mode and beauty filters, allowing users to customize their images further.

For those looking for a more cinematic touch, the bokeh algorithm enhances the texture of shots, creating a natural and textured background with subtle blurring and light spots.

The adjustable aperture feature adds another layer of control for users. Before each portrait shot, the aperture can be adjusted and previewed in real time, providing complete control over the blur effect.

The AI beauty feature is also a noteworthy addition. This feature processes and refines the skin texture, catering to the style preferences of users in different regions.

Video Recording Capabilities

The Realme 12+ offers impressive video recording capabilities, supporting up to 4K resolution at 30fps. A notable feature, Super OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), enables the lens to swiftly return to its original position between frames. This enhancement, with an OIS frame reset speed of 8ms, marks a 40% improvement in lens reset speed, as per Realme. The result is enhanced stability, making the main camera suitable for capturing fast-paced scenarios like sports.

This feature significantly reduces the likelihood of capturing blurry videos due to movement and minimizes shake in all shots taken. As a result, users have a higher chance of capturing clear and sharp videos and images.

To put this to the test, I recorded my jog, and I was genuinely impressed with the stability and quality of the footage.

Battery: All-Day Endurance, and Then Some

The 5000mAh battery capacity is becoming increasingly common in the mid-range segment, and for good reason. Under typical usage patterns, which might include browsing the web, checking social media, streaming videos, and occasional gaming, the Realme 12+ can easily last a full day on a single charge.

Charging the Realme 12+ is a swift process, thanks to the 67W SUPERVOOC Charge technology. In half an hour, the phone topped up from 7% to an impressive 66%.

Even during strenuous gameplay sessions with multiple apps running in the background, the phone maintained a decent temperature and didn't exhibit alarming battery drainage.

Software: Navigating the Realme UI 5.0

The Realme 12+ comes with Android 14 out of the box with Realme UI 5.0 on top. Regarding software updates, the company is promising 3 years of OS updates and 2 years of security patches.

There are a number of useful features here:

File Dock offers a straightforward solution for efficient content management. It simplifies the process by allowing users to recognize and extract content, such as text, images, and links, with a single click. Sharing different file types becomes convenient through the user-friendly drag-and-drop feature.

Flash Capsule simplifies access to popular third-party services like Grab, Swiggy, and Zomato directly from your device. It offers a one-touch solution for essential functions such as hotspots, recordings, TV mirroring, screen recordings, and calls.

Smart Image Matting allows easy isolation and sharing of subjects from your photos. It efficiently separates subjects from similar backgrounds and recognizes multiple subjects (up to 3). You can seamlessly move cutouts between apps through drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste actions, making it convenient for social media sharing.

The only gripe I have with Realme's software is the abundance of bloatware. There are a bunch of third-party apps and games preinstalled, but thankfully you can delete them. However, a recent annoyance has been the occasional full-screen ads that prompt the installation of a specific app or game while using the device. Though, it's worth mentioning that these pop-ups seem to have reduced lately.

Miscellaneous

The realme 12+ 5G features dual speakers that have been certified for Hi-Res Audio. This certification ensures high-definition audio resolution, providing a more immersive and realistic sound experience with clear and loud sounds. In my testing, I found the speakers to be crisp and loud.

The rainwater smart touch on the phone is a handy new feature. During testing, it generally worked well, but there were instances where the keyboard popped up randomly, causing interruptions in my activities. Additionally, the fingerprint sensor failed to recognize my wet finger when attempting to unlock the phone.

The phone also offers IP54 dust and water protection, which is a decent protection against occasional splashes.

Regarding connectivity, the device is 5G-enabled and features Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, and USB Type-C 2.0 support. It also supports dual SIM functionality.

Verdict

The Realme 12+ emerges as a solid contender in the mid-range smartphone market, offering a captivating display, commendable performance, and impressive camera capabilities.

While certain quirks exist, they don't overshadow the overall positive aspects, making it a recommendable choice for users seeking a reliable and feature-rich smartphone in the mid-range segment at an attractive price.