Infinix Note 12 Pro review: a capable all-rounder

The Infinix Note 12 Pro is available for Rs 17,999 and it comes with an FHD+ AMOLED panel, Dimensity 810 5G SoC, and more

• By Kshitij Pujari
Published On: 20 July 2022 | 17:11 IST Last Updated On: 22 May 2023 | 12:18 IST

The Infinix Note 12 Pro, revealed by the smartphone maker recently, comes at a price tag of Rs 17,999. A few highlight features on the device include a 108MP sensor, Dimensity 810 5G SoC, and an FHD+ AMOLED panel. Xiaomi, POCO, Motorola, Samsung, and Realme, all offer competitive products at this price point, and in this review, I will try to decipher if the Note 12 Pro is a cut above the rest.

Verdict

Infinix’s Note 12 Pro tries to provide a fulfilling budget smartphone experience in a few key areas and succeeds in most of them. While the company’s bloatware issues persist and the display refresh rate is capped at 60Hz, the phone’s robust design, good primary camera, and decent battery life compensate for it.

The lowdown

• Build-wise, the Note 12 Pro is largely indistinguishable from the Note 12 Turbo (review) announced a while back. The phone has a standard polycarbonate build, textured AG-matte finish, and a boxy design with rounded corners for better grip. A set of triple cameras, arranged vertically in a rectangular housing, are present alongside the flash module. Weighing just under 190g and having a thickness of 7.9mm make the phone easier to carry and use than a few other options on the market. The rest of the Note 12 Pro’s design includes an integrated fingerprint sensor on the power button, a set of stereo speakers, a headphone jack, and a USB Type-C port.

• On the display side of things, the phone’s front is dominated by a 6.7-inch AMOLED screen that has a 60Hz refresh rate and a waterdrop notch. While the viewing experience on the phone in terms of colour accuracy, contrast levels, and white balance is better than LCD offerings in the market, the lack of a higher refresh rate panel is disappointing. Infinix claims a 100 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut while the display’s 1000nits of peak brightness is more than enough to use the device in sunny conditions. Apart from that the Note 12 Pro only has WideVine L1 certification to stream HD content on platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime.

• As for the camera, the primary shooter is a 108MP sensor which is supported by a 2MP depth and a 2MP macro shooter. The images taken are actually a big step-up from a few other Infinix phones in terms of detail and dynamic range, although the saturation levels were a bit higher than what I would’ve liked. Auto HDR works well for the most part and exposure levels remain consistent with the scenario. I was also satisfied with the snappy autofocus and shutter speeds which aid in clicking fast-moving objects. However, using a depth and macro sensor instead of an ultra-wide lens is not the best hardware choice.

• I’m also reasonably happy with the camera’s low-light shooting capabilities, especially when there’s ample external lighting. Without using the dedicated Night mode, the device manages to bring acceptable details even in the shadowy parts of the frame while also keeping the colours natural. The 16MP selfie shooter on the front is your standard run-of-the-mill sensor with some facial oversharpening and skin tones that are a bit off.
• The MediaTek Dimensity 810 5G SoC is being employed on the Infinix Note 12 Pro, and the performance it offers is quite commendable. It pushes through all major smartphone applications and tasks with relative ease. Had the phone offered a cleaner interface than Infinix’s XOS, I feel that even more processing gains would’ve been noticeable. In any case, the device gets an overall score of 387,252 on Antutu and a multi-core result of 1,724 on Geekbench 5.

• Talking about some gaming performance, I tested out BGMI and was able to run the title at Ultra frame rate (45fps) with Smooth graphics. Apart from that the phone also performs quite well under sustained load with the CPU Throttle benchmark showing peak performance holding steady at 88 percent. Finally, the phone comes in a single 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB UFS 2.1 storage variant that can be upgraded to 512GB using a microSD card slot.

• The dual speakers on the device can be considered above average at best with volume levels not reaching the desired limit. As for authentication speeds, the phone does unlock quite fast using the fingerprint sensor but not so much using facial recognition. 5G capabilities on the Note 12 Pro should be available as soon as the necessary telecom infrastructure is in place.
• Software-wise, as mentioned before, XOS 10.6 based on Android 12 is running on the device. You can read more about it in my Note 12 Turbo review. The basic gist is that Infinix should work on reducing the amount of bloatware, most of which cannot be uninstalled, on its skin while making the interface more user-friendly.

• There is a 5,000mAh battery present on the device which is capable of charging at 33W. I ran PCMark’s battery benchmark on the phone and got a healthy score of nearly 13 hours. It takes about just under 2 hours to completely juice up the phone from 0 percent.

Final verdict

At Rs 17,999, there are a heap of smartphones vying for the title of the best budget phone under Rs 20,000. Infinix Note 12 Pro missed out on providing a clean software experience, an ultra-wide lens and a higher refresh rate display. Options like the Redmi Note 11 Pro can take care of you in those departments for about the same price while the POCO X4 Pro (review) can do it for less.

However, none of them will be able to give you 8GB of RAM at Infinix’s price point. Combining that with the robust build quality, a capable primary camera, and long battery life, the Note 12 Pro is definitely worth a closer consideration.

Editor’s rating: 3.5 / 5

Pros:

• Good design and build
• Bright AMOLED panel
• Good battery life
• Decent primary camera

Cons:

• Bloatware
• Could use an ultra-wide lens
• Refresh rate capped at 60Hz