It’s always exciting to talk about the first phone launch of the year, especially if it’s a Redmi device because this is a brand that sets new pricing benchmarks and gives flagship phones a run for its features.
What we have here are the first impressions (a detailed review will soon come your way) of Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G. It’s a phone that will change the way we look at mid-range devices and what we want from them.
Big on design and camera
There are quite a few changes to be excited about. The flashy back on the Note 11 Pro+ has given way to a clean design. Had the phone arrived two years ago, many would have mistaken it for a flagship device. The back is tempered glass but in the last many days of usage, it hasn’t collected fingerprints. Weighing 208g, there is enough room in the 8.9mm thickness to accommodate a 3.5mm headphone jack.
All the other features that you expect from Redmi are here — IP53 rating, excellent haptic feedback, IR Blaster, and so on. It’s a device that supports high-res audio, both wired and wireless. There are stereo speakers, both of which are very loud and clear, complete with Dolby Atmos. It’s impressive to see users being given 256GB storage as the base model. Frankly, 128GB is no longer enough and Redmi has made the correct move.
One of the distinguishing features is the display. It’s an AMOLED 6.67-inch display with 10-bit support. What does that mean for users? The display supports over one billion colours. Also present are Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and adaptive 120Hz refresh rate. Dolby Vision supported shows take viewing experience out of the park. The phone has WideVine L1 DRM certification.
The second big upgrade is the camera system. You get a 200MP camera with OIS. What you get is the Samsung HPX sensor with f/1.65 aperture. There is also an 8MP ultra-wide angle lens and a 2MP macro camera. By default the main camera takes 12.5MP photos using 16:1 pixel binning. There is also a 200MP mode that captures a huge amount of details. Of course, file size will be heavy when using this mode. There is excellent dynamic range and a natural look in photos.
In the last gen phone there was no 4K but that has been fixed. Combine this with OIS and you get fairly good videos. The ultra-wide camera is 8MP that offers good colour reproduction when switching from the main camera. The selfie camera has a 16MP sensor. The front camera offers 1080p video at 60fps videos, which is standard.
The Howrah Bridge captured around 5.45am using Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G
Powering the device is Mediatek Dimensity 1080 chipset that supports a 200MP sensor. The base variant comes with 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB UFS 2.2 storage. We will talk about the performance in our full review.
Photos have a natural feel
There is MIUI 13 on top of Android 12 while the company has said that there will be two major Android upgrades and four years of security patches. The 4,980mAh battery so far has been behaving well and easily giving a day’s worth of on-screen time. In this department too there is an upgrade — support for 120W HyperCharge. You will get a full charge in around 20 minutes, depending on whether you are using the phone. There is also support for 10 5G bands, carrier aggregation support and Wi-Fi 6.
The phone supports 120W HyperCharge and the charging brick comes in the box
Frankly, after using the phone for more than a week, one wonders what’s the new definition of a mid-range phone? Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G has many things going for it — spec sheet, brand name and sheer value. Pricing? That will be revealed on January 5.
