Infinix Note 12 Turbo review: a budget performance package

The Infinix Note 12 Turbo, powered by a Helioo G96 SoC and an FHD AMOLED panel, makes for a lucrative choice at Rs 14,999

• By Kshitij Pujari
Published On: 11 July 2022 | 17:59 IST

Infinix is a brand known for putting out smartphones that offer a wide array of features that, more often than not, undercut competing products. The Infinix Note 12 Turbo, made in association with Marvel’s latest flick Dr Strange: Into the Multiverse of Madness, appears to follow basically the same principles. Priced at Rs 14,999, the phone does make a statement in the budget department with the MediaTek Helio G96 SoC and an FHD+ AMOLED panel at the helm. Is it worth taking the Note 12 Turbo into consideration? Let’s find in this review.

Verdict

The Infinix Note 12 Turbo inculcates a few of the brand’s core values such as good design and strong performance. While the OLED panel is a nice touch to the viewing experience, the 60Hz refresh rate is not. The bloatware and average low-light camera performance also put the phone at a bit of a disadvantage.

The lowdown

• In terms of the design language, Infinix has always been a bit bold and different from the rest of the pack. The Note 12 Turbo, with its boxy look and squared edges, distinctly gives a good impression as a standout device. With a polycarbonate construction and a textured, almost matte, finish on the back, smudges are not going to be a problem. At 185g, the Note 12 Turbo feels light in the hand while the 8mm thickness is about in line with what can be expected from a device with a 5,000mAh battery.

• Triple cameras are arranged vertically on the top-left while a USB C port, speaker grille, and a 3.5mm headphone jack are placed on the bottom edge. I am also happy to see the earpiece doubling up as a secondary speaker for stereo output. There is a side-mounted fingerprint sensor that sits just below the volume rocker button. The Infinix Note 12 Turbo is impressively built and certainly exudes a much more premium vibe than what its price tag suggests.
• Coming now to the display, there is a 6.7-inch AMOLED panel up front with FHD+ resolution and 60Hz refresh rate. In a world where 120Hz has become all but a norm, the slower refresh on the display can leave you wanting for more. Nonetheless, the OLED nature of the screen allows for richer contrasts, better colours, and deeper blacks than any LCD panel in the price range. It also allows for an always-on display and Infinix has provided several customisation options to enhance it.

• Apart from the standard WideVine L1 certification for HD content, the phone doesn’t have any other visual enhancements like HDR10+. The display is plenty bright for my usage with Inifnix claiming nearly 1000nits of peak brightness. Bezels around the panel are not chunky but the waterdrop-style notch does look qute dated in a sea of devices with punch-hole cameras.
• The optics on the device are handled by a 50MP primary sensor which is supported by a 2MP depth lens and an AI lens. Daylight images are on par with current budget smartphones although the images are a bit oversaturated. While there does remain a visible lack of dynamic range in most scenarios, the focus speeds are snappy.

• With the UHD mode enabled, the camera can take highly detailed 50MP photos but they take a hit on the phone’s storage. The lack of any ultra-wide sensor does sting a bit and the portrait mode shots are not the best, but with good lighting, you can almost get flawless edge detection.
• Night shots look a bit grainy even with assisting light around. Focusing will take a while and exposure levels are not quite consistent on the device. With the Super Night Mode enabled the sensor introduces a lot of light, sharpens the image excessively, and saturates the colours. The overall look can be pleasing to those who like to post a lot on social media platforms. Lastly, the selfies from the 16MP front camera are nothing out of the ordinary except for a little oversharpening of the facial details.
• MediaTek’s Helio G96 is the SoC of choice on the Note 12 Turbo and the phone doesn’t miss a beat when it comes to medium-level tasks such as operating multiple heavy social media apps or Chrome browsing. Benchmark numbers are quite good with Antutu V9.3.8 churning out 349,257 and Geekbench 5 providing a multicore result of 1,739. The CPU Throttle benchmark showed the device cutting down its peak performance to 72 percent under sustained load which I think is not the best but shouldn’t affect your daily workload.

• For more heavy-duty tasks like BGMI, the device is able to get Ultra (45fps) frame rate at Smooth graphics. After about 30 minutes the device does heat up a bit but doesn’t register major drops in frame rate. Apart from that, the phone comes with up to 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB of UFS 2.1 storage which can further be expanded to 512GB using a microSD card slot.

• There are dual speakers on the Infinix Note 12 Turbo which are in the acceptable range. The side-mounted fingerprint sensor works fast and the 4G network on Jio’s Noida circle didn’t disappoint me while the earpiece and microphone worked as expected. XOS, the Infinix skin operating over Android 12, takes a bit to get used to. It is not as user-friendly or intuitive as Realme’s attempt at a proprietary UI and has a lot bloatware to deal with.
• Battery-wise the 5,000mAh cell is able to last easily for more than a day on regular usage. There is 33W charging present on the device that can charge the entire device in about 100 minutes. On PCMark’s Battery test the device got a score of 12h 53 minutes which can be considered fairly good for the battery capacity.

Final verdict

The lack of a higher refresh rate panel plays to the detriment of the Infinix Note 12 Turbo as does the bloatware-laden XOS skin. However, the device is priced lower than competing products like the Redmi Note 11S (review) and has more processing power than the Moto G52 (review). Those considering good performance, dual speakers, decent daylight photography, and a standout design in their buying decisions can definitely give the Infinix Note 12 Turbo a close consideration.

Editor’s rating: 3.5 / 5

Pros:

• Good design
• Stereo speakers
• Decent Performance

Cons:

• Ships with bloatware
• Low light images can be improved