Realme has announced the launch of two new devices – the Realme 12 Pro and Realme 12 Pro Plus. Both devices are the successors of the Realme 11 Pro. Realme is known for its commitment to providing the best technology and stylish design at affordable prices. We recently got our hands on the latest Realme 12 Pro and we’re excited to share our thoughts on it.
DESIGN
Design is one of the appealing features of the Realme 12 Pro series. Like its predecessor, Realme 12 Pro offers the same design but with some design improvements. Realme 12 Pro has a vegan leather finish with a camera module ring in gold colour. A golden line extends from the camera module and divides the panel into two halves, adding an elegant touch. The leather finish at the rear makes the device less slippery. Although it is not prone to fingerprints, it may accumulate visible smudges over time if used with dirty hands. You can easily clean it with a soft cloth. It’s important to keep the phone away from sharp objects like keys as they may damage the leather surface.
Moving to the front panel, the phone features a curved display with slim bezels that offers an immersive viewing experience. The punch-hole cutout on the front houses the selfie camera. The phone has a gold frame, which gives a golden aesthetic to the device.
DISPLAY
The Realme 12 Pro has a stunning 6.7-inch AMOLED curved display with minimal bezels and impressive image quality, making it perfect for watching movies and playing games. The screen brightness is decent, reaching 950 nits, lower than other devices like the OPPO Reno11 Pro. However, it’s still bright enough to use even in direct sunlight. One of the best features of the display is its touch-haptic response. When interacting with the power, back, and menu options, it feels like pressing a physical button and provides gentle vibration or feedback, especially when gesture control is enabled. This adds realism and immersion to the experience. The haptic feedback is particularly impressive when playing high-octane games, as it provides a feel for the impact and responsiveness in your hands.
PERFORMANCE
Realme 12 Pro has impressed with its design and display, but a smartphone’s performance matters in the end. Unlike Realme 11 Pro, Realme 12 Pro shifted towards the Qualcomm processor. The realme 12 Pro has a budget Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 processor, on paper it is a mid-budget processor. Testing the Realme 12 Pro in day-to-day activities, the device performed well in various tasks like watching videos, listening to music, playing games, and using popular messaging and social media apps. Even after one week of usage, there were no noticeable lags or slowdowns in day-to-day usage. The phone did not have any heating issues except when the camera app was open for an extended period.
I had a decent gaming experience on the Realme 12 Pro. The phone remained smooth at standard settings; going to ultra settings gives noticeable lags. In standard settings, I encountered no stutters even after long gaming sessions. In benchmarking, the Realme 12 Pro performed well, achieving a single-core score of 941 and a multi-core score of 2667 on Geekbench 6.
However, the Realme 12 Pro has some drawbacks, and one of them is its software experience. The phone comes with Realme UI 5.0, which has a lot of bloatware that makes the home screen cluttered and confusing. There are pre-loaded apps that are unnecessary and unwanted.
Realme should address the bloatware issue and provide a cleaner, more streamlined software experience that allows users to choose the apps they want instead of bombarding them with not-so-useful apps. The focus should be on providing a better user experience without overwhelming notifications and pre-installed clutter.
BATTERY
The Realme 12 Pro has a 5000mAh battery and comes with a 100W fast charger. To test the battery, I played a 4K HDR video from YouTube. During the test, the phone’s battery went from 28% to 18% in just 22 minutes of playing the video. Surprisingly, the phone was only slightly warm, which is impressive considering the device’s curved display.
In my everyday use, the phone lasted a full day on a single charge with no issues. The included fast charger came in handy, as it was able to refill the battery by approximately 25% in just five minutes of charging. Overall, I’m very satisfied with the Realme 12 Pro’s battery performance.
CAMERA
It was surprising to see that the Realme 12 Pro has a 50-megapixel primary camera sensor, which is lower than the predecessor Realme 11 Pro’s 100-megapixel sensor. However, it’s essential to note that the number of megapixels doesn’t guarantee better picture quality. Despite being a mid-range phone, the Realme 12 Pro’s highlight is its 32-megapixel telephoto sensor. The device also has an 8-megapixel wide-angle lens and a 16-megapixel sensor for selfies.
Let’s discuss the camera’s performance in different scenarios. In good lighting conditions, the Realme 12 Pro takes impressive daylight shots. The images are vibrant, with rich colours and intricate details. You can appreciate the clarity and sharpness, even when zooming in to explore finer textures. Whether you’re taking photos of expansive landscapes or getting close to objects, the camera does an excellent job. For instance, the picture of the bunch of orange flowers showcases vivid and accurate colours, making the image visually captivating.
However, the camera struggles in dimly lit indoor environments. When taken to a restaurant with softer lighting, it had difficulty dealing with the direct lights facing the camera. As a result, some low-light images appeared grainy, especially when using the 20x zoom. In contrast, the camera performs better when there’s ample lighting available. The macro lens, in particular, shines in outdoor settings. The close-up image of the orange flower showcases vibrant colours and intricate details, making it quite impressive.
It’s worth noting that any subject can be zoomed very closely. The phone can capture tiny grain from a Relax case of my iPhone 15. You can achieve good image quality by zooming in on objects, giving you added flexibility to capture close-up shots without relying solely on the macro lens.
The Realme 12 Pro features a 32-megapixel telephoto 2x Optical zoom lens. Although the 2X is optical zoom, it can go up to 20X digital zoom. However, the quality of the picture degrades the more you zoom. My experience with the Zoom mode was underwhelming. However, it is a helpful feature that Realme still packs on a budget smartphone.
Realme 12 Pro 20x
Another issue I encountered is that even when I thought I had captured the image perfectly, it turned out blurry after processing. This was especially noticeable in low-light settings. The camera struggles to maintain sharpness and clarity in challenging lighting conditions.
VERDICT
The Realme 12 Pro is a device that offers a lot to its users. It has a visually stunning design, an immersive display, and reliable performance. The device offers a smooth user experience across various tasks, including multimedia consumption and gaming, without any noticeable lags or slowdowns. The battery life is impressive and can easily last a full day, and the included fast charger adds to the convenience. However, the camera performance of the Realme 12 Pro is a mixed bag. While it excels in capturing vibrant and detailed images in good lighting conditions, it struggles in dimly-lit environments. Additionally, the software experience falls short with Realme UI 5.0, as it is cluttered with bloatware and unwanted notifications, which can affect the overall user experience. Despite these shortcomings, the Realme 12 Pro still manages to impress with its attractive design and reliable performance. It is a solid mid-range option for users looking for a visually appealing device with satisfactory performance.