Not everyone wanted a 5G Phone, although as we seen many of the devices getting cheaper, 5G phone is still not common, well, even not all areas in every country is massively covered by it, till this date, there is still a wide adoption for 4G phones. Xiaomi as well as other brand still produces 4G devices, but with updated specifications to keep track of user needs today, especially coming to even intensive apps and multitasking purposes, minus the fast blazing 5G connections of course.
Enter the Redmi Note 12 4G, as the name implies it is indeed a 4G phone, and lets just quickly dive into the review and see what it has to offer.
Who is this for ?
The Redmi Note series is basically a low to mid tier segment, with some standing near to beginner flagship specifications, for the Redmi Note 12 4G, this is standing on a mid range mixed with modern specs in it, without 5G, but otherwise, a formidable device for starters who wanna dive into light to medium use case, which including some multitasking on apps and games, great for students and those who just started their career, but needs a phone that is able to process moderate level of picture taking, multimedia and of course smartphone communications as usual.
Unboxing Contents
- Redmi Note 12 4G Phone
- 33W PD/Fast Charger
- USB Type-C cable
- Quick Start guide
- Protective case
Design : Essential, Practical look that still looks good
The whole phone is in polycarbonate plastic while the back is a little bit frosted touch on it, which it is still looking fashionable for a budget level phone, and still carries some of the design language from Xiaomi and POCO as well. While the curves are all rounded, this means that it is easy to hold and symmetrical on the frame body. The whole phone weights around 183 grams only making it not overly light, yet balanced on hand while it is easy to handle too, with no dust and smudges after holding it for a long time. The front of the display is further protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3 with IP53 certification for dust and light water splashes. Overall I find the design is everlasting for the price with a mix of their flagship phones combining affordable lineups together.
It came with 3 color choices, Onyx Gray, Mint Green and Ice Blue. The one that we are on hand is the Mint Green which will change to a slightly blue hue when exposed to bright areas.
Display & Audio : Modern Equipped view, and still has some to shout about
The Redmi Note 12 4G is well equipped with 6.67 inch AMOLED display which displays in FHD+ resolution and also 120Hz refresh rate. While most of the time using it, the display is still somewhat accurate in colors and contrast on its segment, and still pleasant even under sunlight which it can boost up to 1200nits at peak brightness. Using the phone to watch a couple of streams and social media is still going all smooth with the fast refresh rate but one should take note that, it is not dynamic, and you can change to 60Hz if you want to stretch some of the usage time a little but further, or otherwise it will also drop down to 60Hz based on apps that you used. Other than that it does offer a 240Hz touch sampling rate which in return giving it a slightly better response when gaming or when you are interacting it real fast, which in my opinion it is not the best, for the price on this phone, definitely a value added in the phone.
Not much for the audio, you get just a bottom firing speaker with basic presets on modes, I find the audio quality is just ok, and loud enough for a person, maybe two hear it, and thats just about it. Plugging in a headphone via 3.5mm audio jack or bluetooth audio will give you some equalizer adjustments and for personal enjoyment, it could be better this way.
Camera : Decent enough for the most part
Rear : 50 MP, f/1.8, (wide), 1/2.76″, 0.64µm, PDAF
8 MP, f/2.2, 120˚ (ultrawide), 1/4″, 1.12µm
2 MP, f/2.4, (macro)
Front : 13 MP, f/2.5, (wide)
My overall impression on the shooters are decent, by what I mean decent is, good for all your social media uploads and fast video uploads. During day time, accompanied with natural lights, the Redmi Note 12 4G performs well and at almost all times, produces pictures that is on par with any modern day phones, you dont lose much of the details even zooming an actual take, but taking pictures in zoom mode does soften the images abit and close up macro shots may end up losing some of the details, but it is still usable on all of our cases, especially social media like instagram or just a quick whatsapp image sending.
Evening shots resulted in recognizable images that still retain background details and shadows as long you are not zooming images, which high noise and distortion can be seen, if you don’t, it is perfectly acceptable for the most part.
Selfie pictures can be captured in portrait, wide angle and normal mode, which works well with a softer color and images, when taking selfie indoors but night time may cause the images lack in certain details and clarity.
Finally video, you can record up to 1080P at 30 frames, no fancy 60FPS standard there and minor jitters may exhibit when object or subject moving too fast, but thats pretty much about it, suitable also for fast YouTube channel uploads, or TikTok works ok as well.
Performance, Benchmarks, Experience
The Redmi Note 12 4G is well came with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 685 Octa Core processor with either 6GB or 8GB RAM with 128GB of internal storage. The specs may not be the most impressive but the SD685 is actually a slight bump up processor from the previous SD680, and of course with the included 4G modem inside, you are pretty much no access to high speed 5G data, but instead, you still get slightly current common hardware such us the inclusion of AC WiFi, Bluetooth 5.x and good GPS positioning standard, making it somewhat a great companion for most of the features needed today. NFC support is market dependent, but if you got one with NFC, you can use it for mobile payment as well, the one that we receive however does not have NFC inside, which is a bummer. Should you need more expansion in storage, you can expand up to 1TB with the vacant MicroSD card slot.
Experience wise, most application and games will just run fine, multitasking is still switching over smoothly as long you know what you should be using with, if you are playing games like MLBB, CODM, or Temple Run, it is in fact it runs smoothly at 60FPS with minor stutters that you should not feel it, if you plan to run Genshin Impact, it will barely run over 35FPS on very low graphic settings, so please set the expectations right. Normal multimedia, work, email, word processing, calls, WhatsApp will work business as usual. The built in 5000MaH battery capacity is estimate to last 11 hours on moderate tasks and recharging will take less than 2 hours from empty to full with the inclusion of the 33W fast charger.
I will just include the benchmarks for those who are interested, definitely not your high end score as per expectations.
Verdict & Conclusion
The Redmi Note 12 4G is a combination of decent modern outlook, combining with a Octa Core processor that is refreshed and up to most app multi tasking in return suitable for daily use, whether it is some of your MOBA session, social media uploads, editing some of your text documents, it supports a wide range of today or even future applications to come. While the price is ranged at an affordable ones, this also means that the majority can use it as a backup or secondary device which appeal on the looks, and retains the elegance it has for your essential communications needs.
Pricing and Availability
It is now priced from RM699 and it is now available at Xiaomi’s online and offline retail store for pre-order starting from 6th April 2023.