The realme 12+ is part of the realme 12 series that is being announced just recently as part of addressing consumer needs of a phone with subtle yet formidable camera system and a slight upgrade over the hardware specs, while then it maintains a pretty compelling price.
Do take note that during the course of the review, our phone software may not be the final version, and the article may change if we find any point of improvement or enhancement within this article.
Design
The essential looks of the realme 12+ 5G is almost flat at the back of the phone with just a gentle slight bump on the camera island ring. Speaking about the camera ring area, it is designed with the collaboration from realme Design Studio x Ollivier Savéo, a known designer with brand like Rolex, which is why the stripe in the middle followed by the rounded ring area resembles a high end watch.
The realme 12+ 5G is not just looking premium with the back faux leather touch to it, but it is also lightweight, measuring at just 190 grams with thickness of just 7.9mm, this phone is easy to hold and use with the luxury style design that shines under any bright light. The frame is made of metal with Polished PVD Edges, that is achieved through 12 advanced processes.
The phone comes in two color choices, Pioneer Green and Navigator Beige, which is the color chosen for this review and evaluation.
Display & Audio
Now the realme 12+ 5G isnt really position itself or equipped with the premium resolution display, but it is still formidable one with a 6.67 inch, AMOLED dynamic 120Hz display, HDR10+ certified at the resolution of 2400 X 1080. That specification alone is actually quite decent with a minor downside that it can only dynamically goes down to 60Hz the most, but that is to be expected for devices set at an affordable price point. Apart from that the phone boast an E4 display with 100% P3 color gamut, based on our experiential usage, I find it vibrant and color representation are accurate on usage such as photo viewing, browsing and a couple of streaming, which by the way, the realme 12+ 5G does have Widewine L1 certification for premium streaming apps such as Netflix. Overall the experience is well enjoyable along with 600 nits of brightness. If your hands are wet but you still want to use your phone, the realme 12+ is IP54 certified with Rainwater Smart Touch, which still allows you to use your phone even though your hands or the screen is wet.
Audio wise, the realme 12+ 5G has a pair of stereo firing speakers that is very well able to project a good quality audible experience with proper support from their in house OReality Audio tuning with pre-customisable pre-sets from the sound menu, which can be used over your favourite realme or third party earbuds, or if you wish to use your wired headphone, that can still be done with the 3.5mm audio jack which is a rarity on phone these days or by using the more common USB C jack as the audio routing.
Camera
This is probably one of the biggest selling point of the realme 12+ 5G, which is the triple camera setup, consisting a 50MP OIS Sony LYT-600 sensor, followed by a 8MP wide angle camera and a 2MP macro camera.
Day time shots
Night Time shots
A comparison between normal and portrait mode
At a glance looking at the specs, this might look like any phone you can pick up at any day but the star of the show is the primary LYT-600 sensor which is a 5P based lens, able to take good shots even on automatic mode at any moment when you just wanted to take a casual shot. If you are serious, the portrait mode can do some wonders with 2x zoom and able to produce good separation of foreground and background, in part of realme’s AI post processing capability as well. Admittedly speaking, there is some minor downside during night shot, sometimes over sharpen but that can be easily ignored since it is still be able to capture the whole scenario with acceptable details and I find it a fun to use camera phone, not too hard to use with features layed out properly within the camera software menu, making it easily identifiable. If you are feeling adventurous, there’s still a pro mode there.
A 4K 30FPS video sample is provided as above and apart from that, should you need more of the control over depth, there’s an option for that, but it is only available over 720P recording mode. But still, during our testing we find even the 4K mode, the frame pacing is good and there is only tiny stutter when moved too fast, other than that, I have no complains and well suitable too as a Vlogging companion.
Performance & Software
On to the internal specifications, the realme 12+ 5G is powered by the 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 7050 5G SOC with 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM and up to 256GB of internal storage. There is no expandable storage so you will have to make do with what you have on the storage, or just upload your video and photo over the cloud such as Google Drive or Photos. Another worthy mention that is realme decided to moved from the button based fingerprint scanner to the In-display scanner module, which is a welcoming move and besides that, it support heart rate detection as well. The rest are pretty standard which includes Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.x and NFC for mobile payment via various app including Google Pay and Touch N Go.
Onwards to the usage, with 5000mAh battery inside this will last you the whole day if not slightly a bit more if you are using it for calls, social media, a bunch of photo taking and a few gaming session here and there. The 67W SuperVOOC Charger in included and this will get you back from 10% to 100% in less than 45 minutes.
Gaming wise, the realme 12+ 5G will not give you the top of the line gaming experience, however you will still get a well comfortable experience when setting graphics over to low mix with medium on more intensive game such as Genshin Impact and your overall gameplay can still be smooth sailing with good 240Hz touch sampling rate and VC Cooling System that keeps the temperature in check.
The realme 12+ 5G is came included with the latest Android 14 and realmeUI 5.0. This brings several key enhancements such as Microsoft PhoneLink support for Windows 10/11, a faster fluid response with animation, less clutters on the menu portion, optimised SuperVOOC charging management during night time or not in use, Smart sidebar and many more. To know more about realmeUI 5.0, click here to find out.
Lastly, above is the benchmark results. I find it quite on par against most of the similarly spec phones on the market and nothing unusual there.
Verdict & Conclusion
At less than RM1600, the realme 12+ 5G is a significant step forward for the mass market’s mid-tier segment. It offers a plethora of features and specifications that many would find difficult to find in a phone that is both reasonably priced and capable of providing all the essential features of a modern lifestyle phone. Therefore to realme this is not just a leap, but it sets an understanding of what a consumer list of needs for this segment.