Review Summary
Expert Rating
The Realme 12+ is the first-ever ‘Plus’ smartphone in the company’s numeric-series lineup. The handset fills the void between the vanilla Realme 12 and Realme 12 Pro (review) smartphones. The Realme 12+ has been priced in India starting at Rs 20,999. Key specs of the 12+ include an AMOLED display, MediaTek Dimensity 7050 SoC, 50MP triple rear cameras, and a 5,000mAh battery. Read this Realme 12+ review to discover its real-world performance, camera prowess, battery life, and more.
Table of Contents
Verdict
The Realme 12+ should appeal to you if you are looking for a smartphone under Rs 25k with attractive looks, decent performance, excellent battery life, and a respectable viewing experience. It even comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack – so, go ahead and jack it up with your wired headphones/ earphones.
Design and display
The Realme 12+ boasts the same vegan leather back design as the Pro models. However, there are a few noticeable changes. The curved screen has been ditched for a flat one, and so are the edges. Additionally, there is no fluted bezel around the circular camera module at the back. Despite that, the phone still looks gorgeous. The handset comes in two colourways: Navigator Beige and Pioneer Green.
If you intend to use the smartphone without a case, we highly recommend opting for the green one, as it is less prone to picking up stains. Additionally, the silver seam running vertically on the back panel beautifully complements the shade. The handset also offers a comfortable grip despite its glossy edges. However, it would have been better if the corners around the back were slightly curved to prevent them from digging into your palm, while holding the device.
The Realme 12+ is equipped with an in-display fingerprint scanner, which might not be placed perfectly but is quite consistent with its accuracy. As for the ports, the phone touts a USB Type-C port for charging and data transfer at the bottom edge, while its top edge is equipped with a 3.5mm headphone jack. The handset delivers stereo experience with its dual speakers.
Up front is a 6.67-inch display of OLED variety. It bears FHD+ resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, and 100 percent P3 colour Gamut. While the bezels may not be as slim as those of its elder sibling 12 Pro, the Realme 12+ supports a higher peak brightness of 2,000 nits, as opposed to 950 nits on the former. This provides for easy legibility under the sun. The colours and contrast ratio also look good, and the deep blacks ensure crisp picture quality. The handset is Widevine L1-certified for streaming FHD content from Netflix and other streaming platforms.
Cameras
The Realme 12+ ships with a similar camera setup as the Pro models, except for the telephoto lens. Instead, the smartphone features a 2MP macro sensor for close-up shots. This is accompanied by a 50MP Sony LYT-600 main sensor and an 8MP ultra-wide lens. Up front, the handset sports a 16MP snapper in the punch-hole setup for selfies and video calling.
The cameras do a good job in favourable lighting conditions. Images shot from the 50MP OIS primary camera default to a 12.5MP resolution due to pixel binning. This shouldn’t be an issue if you are looking at the images on a small screen like that of your smartphone. There is a 50MP mode that lets you click images with maximum resolution, which tends to appear less grainy on devices with larger screens, such as your laptop. Nonetheless, there is a slight decline in quality. The colours and dynamic range don’t look as natural as clicked in the default 12.5MP mode. The sensor comes with a 2x digital zoom, which outputs similar results as the 1x zoom in a well-lit environment.
The 8MP ultra-wide camera provides a 112-degree field of view (FoV) and captures acceptable shots. The details and colours look slightly underwhelming. Moving on to the 2MP macro sensor, it is average at best. To achieve satisfactory results, it’s essential to avoid shadows falling on the subject and maintain steady hands when capturing close-up shots. Otherwise, you may end up with slightly hazy and grainy images.
The 16MP selfie camera could have done better with facial detailing, but the skin tones appear accurate. Both the front and rear cameras utilise computation skills to capture portrait shots, with good exposure and detailing. However, edge detection needs improvement. For lowlight shots, the Realme 12+ boasts a night mode that effectively reduces graininess, albeit at the expense of some finer details. Be that as it may, you’ll likely be satisfied with the overall results.
Besides this, the smartphone offers some exclusive movie filters curated by Claudio Miranda, an Oscar Winner for Best Cinematography, to add some fun to your photos.
Performance and software
The Realme 12+ is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7050 SoC, which can be found in several other smartphones, including last year’s Realme 11 Pro. Not much has changed for the chipset since its launch; it offers smooth performance without any crash or app freeze issues. Additionally, the handset hardly throttles under intense load and doesn’t stutter while running graphically demanding games such as Call of Duty. There is a noticeable spike in temperature, which isn’t really concerning given this isn’t a gaming-centric smartphone. The handset features vapour cooling tech to keep its thermals under check.
Moving on, the phone is available in a couple of RAM and storage variants: 8GB + 128GB and 12GB + 256GB. The storage is expandable using a microSD card in the secondary hybrid SIM slot. Check out the Realme 12+ AnTuTu and Geekbench scores in comparison to its competitors.
Moving on, the Realme 12+ boots Realme UI 5.0 atop Android 14 out of the box. The experience is arguably the same as the Realme 12 Pro, so you can head to its review to read about it in detail. In essence, the software is relatively clean with a few third-party apps pre-installed that can be removed if desired. Additionally, there are ads and the customisation options are plenty, allowing you to tailor the device to your preference. The handset is expected to receive two years of major software updates.
Battery and charging
The Realme 12+ packs a 5,000mAh battery, which delivers an impressive backup. On the PC Mark battery test, it displayed a run time of 17 hours and 24 minutes. Additionally, streaming a 30-minute 4k video with 50 percent brightness and volume level saw just a 2 percent drop in the phone’s battery level. This suggests that the handset should comfortably last well over a day with moderate to heavy usage.
When it comes to charging, the handset takes roughly 45-50 minutes to bring a nearly dead battery to 100 percent using its bundled 67W fast charger.
Final verdict
The Realme 12+ can be obtained for under Rs 19,000 with bank offers as part of the early bird deal. Otherwise, the handset retails at Rs 20,999 for the 128GB storage variant, while the 256GB variant costs Rs 21,999. This is quite close to the asking price of the Realme 12 Pro, which comes with a curved-edge display and a 2x telephoto lens, offering superior close-up shots without the need to approach the subject closely. That said, the performance and display brightness of the device are somewhat underwhelming in comparison.
Other competitors of the phone include Nothing Phone (2a) (review), Motorola Edge 40 Neo (review), and Samsung Galaxy F54 5G (review). Nevertheless, the Realme 12+ manages to set itself apart with its striking design, featuring a vegan leather back and camera module inspired by luxury watches. Furthermore, the display delivers crisp visuals, and the performance is smooth even during demanding tasks and gaming sessions. The substantial 5,000mAh battery provides excellent endurance, complemented by fast charging capabilities. Overall, the new Realme smartphone offers a compelling package for its price range, making it a worthy consideration for those not prioritising just the cameras, but instead, seeking a well-rounded mid-range smartphone.
Editor’s rating: 8 / 10
Reasons to buy
- The vegan leather back looks attractive.
- Vibrant AMOLED display with 2,000 nits peak brightness.
- Offers smooth performance without any crash or app freeze.
- The handset delivers an impressive backup.
Reasons not to buy
- Ultra-wide and macro cameras could have been better.
- Software experience may include some pre-installed bloatware.
 | Rs. 20,932.00 | Go To Store |
