Redmi Note 12 Review: The Best Display at This Price Point
Introduction:
The Redmi Note 12 is a new entry-level smartphone from Xiaomi that offers impressive features for its price point. In this review, we’ll be focusing on one of its standout features – the stunning display. But first, let’s take a look at the phone’s body build and aesthetics.
Redmi Note 12 Overview:
The Redmi Note 12 has a sleek and stylish design that is both practical and aesthetically pleasing. The metal ring around the phone has a soft matte finish that provides a smooth and soft touch feedback, and it also provides the phone with extra protection when needed.
The phone measures 165.66 x 75.96 x 7.85 mm and weighs 183.5g to house its 6.67-inch screen. Funny, I remember once upon a time, a phone like this would require me to use both hands to operate, but now, even with one hand, it is easy to handle and comfortable to hold.
The phone comes in three color options – Onyx Gray, Mint Green, and Ice Blue – each with a unique finish that gives the phone a premium look and feel.
Hardware:
The Redmi Note 12 is powered by a new SoC by Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 685 chipset. It comes in an octa-core CPU package with 4 Kryo 265 Gold Cortex A73 with a speed of up to 2.8GHz, and 4 Kryo 265 Silver Cortex A53 at 1.9GHz. This SoC package is similar to the SD680, just with a higher clock speed from 2.4 GHz to 2.8 GHz. Additionally, it features an Adreno 610 GPU, which provides good graphics processing power for daily use, but hardly impressive when it comes to gaming and other graphically-intensive tasks.
It comes with either 4GB, 6GB, or 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM, but a fixed 120GB UFS2.2 storage space. While the price of the phone might see less variable in between due to the fixed storage space, we do believe all users would benefit from more storage. For users who want even more storage, they can opt for expanding their storage using Micro SD cards, with support up to 1TB.
With USF2.2 storage onboard, users also get to utilize Xiaomi’s memory extension function, expanding up to 8GB worth of “virtual RAM”. This function, while won’t speed up the performance of the phone, would give the phone better ability to cope with handling multiple apps simultaneously.
One of the key features of the Redmi Note 12 is the huge 5000mAh battery that supports 33W fast charging. This is a welcoming sight as a large battery is quite common in the Redmi Note 12 price segment. Xiaomi’s 33W also improved the practicality of the large battery, giving the device a full charge from 20% to 100% within only 50 minutes.
Screen:
This is the center stage of the Redmi Note 12: its screen. We were surprised by how impressive this screen is on a phone at this price point. It features a 6.67″ AMOLED DotDisplay with a resolution of 2400 x 1080 and a pixel density of 395 PPI. The display’s brightness is also noteworthy, with a maximum brightness of 450 nits (typical), and it can go up to 700 nits in HBM mode, making it easy to view even in bright sunlight.
In addition, the display boasts a high refresh rate of 120Hz, which means that scrolling through content feels buttery smooth and responsive. This is particularly noticeable when compared to traditional 60Hz displays, which can often appear choppy and sluggish. Coupled with the high refresh rate, the Redmi Note 12’s screen also has a touch sampling rate of up to 240Hz, ensuring that every touch and gesture is registered accurately and quickly.
Lastly, the screen’s 4,500,000:1 contrast ratio with DCI-P3 wide color gamut allows for accurate and vivid colors, making images and videos come to life. Sadly, though, the screen only supports 8-bit color depth, which means there is no HDR support. Overall, the Redmi Note 12’s AMOLED DotDisplay is truly a marvel, offering an exceptional viewing experience that is unparalleled in its price range.
Redmi Note 12 Camera:
The Redmi Note 12 features a triple camera setup on the rear, with a 50MP main camera, an 8MP ultra-wide camera, and a 2MP macro camera. The main camera has a Samsung JN150M sensor with an aperture of f/1.8 and 0.64μm pixel size.
Note that the camera does not come with any form of image stabilization, optical or electronic, so users will have to compensate for stability themselves. The pictures have a faithful-to-real-life look to them, especially when taken under well-lit environments.
The ultra-wide camera uses Omnivision’s OV08D1 sensor, an 8MP camera with 1.12μm pixel size and a 120-degree field of view. While providing a greater field of view, it can almost keep up with the main camera, giving sharp-ish images when handled accordingly.
Audio:
The Redmi Note 12 features a mono speaker located below the phone and a 3.5mm headphone jack for those who prefer a more private audio experience. The audio quality is decent, but not exceptional. It’s good enough for casual listening, but if you desire a better audio experience, you might want to consider investing in a higher-quality pair of headphones. Fortunately, the phone supports Qualcomm AptX codec, which provides users with better audio quality compared to standard Bluetooth codecs.
Redmi Note 12 User Experience:
The Redmi Note 12 runs on MIUI 14 based on Android 13, providing a smooth and user-friendly experience. MIUI is already lightweight on the phone, giving it snappy responses and a great user experience. There is both a side fingerprint sensor and an AI face unlock to provide users with fast and reliable security options for unlocking the phone. Based on our tests, both options are fast to respond and unlock the device.
The highlight of the phone is undoubtedly its large and gorgeous screen. Its vivid colors and fast response rate are great for both binge-watching shows and gaming, so much so that the screen is certified with Netflix HD certifications. Although we would be slightly hesitant about the onboard audio department, given that there is only one mono audio speaker available, the presence of AptX codec gives users access to HD audio wirelessly, and the good old 3.5mm jack provides a real solution for users to enjoy their audio.
Although we need to point out that the SD 685 might not be the most powerful SoC out there, it is enough to handle common day-to-day work and some light gaming. You won’t get high FPS in games like Genshin Impact that demand almost the best hardware in the market to perform at its best, but with low settings, the game can still be enjoyed with a reasonable experience.
Redmi Note 12 Conclusion:
Priced at only RM799, there is no reason why users should not consider the Redmi Note 12. It is an impressive entry-level smartphone that offers exceptional value for its price point. The standout feature of the phone is undoubtedly its stunning display, which is incredibly responsive, bright, and vibrant. The phone’s build quality and aesthetics are also noteworthy, with a sleek profile that feels comfortable in hand and provides easy access to the fingerprint unlock. With that, we highly recommend the Redmi Note 12 for those in the market for an entry-level smartphone.
If you’re interested in knowing more about Redmi Note 12 younger brother’s the Redmi 12C, check out our review here.
Help us!
So here you go, our review on the Redmi 12. If you agree with us and want to pick one up, do consider purchasing via the link below. The affiliate link doesn’t cost you any extra, but will be a great help to keep our lights on here at HelloExpress.
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Redmi 12
Priced at only RM799, there is no reason why users should not consider the Redmi Note 12. It is an impressive entry-level smartphone that offers exceptional value for its price point.
Positives
- Most gorgeous screen at this price point
- Main camera is very practical
- Snappy fingerprint unlock
- Very affordable
Negatives
- Mono Speaker
- SD 685 so so powerful
