Review Realme 12 Pro+: Visual treat

Review Realme 12 Pro+: Visual treat

Price: Rs 29,999 onwards

Over the years, successive iterations of mid-range smartphones have primarily prioritized enhancing power and functionality. While there have been some attempts at design innovation, progress has plateaued, resulting in a market where the majority of devices bear a striking resemblance to one another. However, there are exceptions, such as Realme, which has introduced a touch of premium flair by incorporating a vegan leather back, adding an aesthetically pleasing element to the design on last year’s Realme 11Pro.

This year too, Realme has elegantly elected to persist with the luxurious vegan leather finish on the rear of the 12 Pro+, maintaining continuity in the design ethos.

In my review unit, the combination of blue vegan leather with subtle golden trims at the rear and around the camera lens blended beautifully with the golden frame, elevating the device’s overall appearance. The rear curved towards the sides blended seamlessly with the side panels that houses power and volume control on the right. The front is dominated with a 6.7-inch AMOLED curved screen. Overall, the sleek profile at 8.8mm thickness makes it comfortable to hold and even operate using just one hand.

The in-display fingerprint scanner is toward the bottom and easy and quick to unlock the phone. Overall, on the design front, it emerged as a head turner. Also, the vegan leather didn’t attract any smudges or finger impressions. And in case of any spots, it was easy to clean too.

The 6.7-inch curved display with FHD+ resolution not only looks vibrant but also boasts great viewing angles, elevating your visual experience to new heights. Its support for a 120 Hz refresh rate ensures smooth scrolling and seamless transitions. Despite its peak brightness of 950 Nits, it remains visible even in direct sunlight. The edge-to-edge screen enhances content consumption, whether watching YouTube videos or streaming on OTT platforms, all complemented by the immersive sound delivered through the dual speakers.

Realme has placed a strong emphasis on elevating the photography experience with this phone, showcasing a robust camera setup that includes a 50MP primary sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide angle sensor, and an impressive 64MP periscope telephoto lens featuring 3x optical zoom in the 12 Pro+ model.

The 50MP primary sensor stands out for its consistent performance in various lighting conditions, excelling in both daylight and lowlight environments. The resulting images exhibit a commendable level of detail and sharpness, characterized by vibrant and lively colors. Notably, the phone’s proficiency in capturing portrait shots is impressive, with the camera exhibiting swift depth detection and accurate focusing on subjects, whether they be humans, pets, or objects.

While the 3x optical zoom maintains high quality, pushing beyond this threshold introduces some noise. Despite the phone’s support for an ambitious 120x zoom, practical usability diminishes significantly post the 10x mark. The ultra-wide lens contributes to the camera’s versatility, delivering satisfactory images in well-lit scenarios.

The camera interface bears a resemblance to the OPPO Reno phones, with an added bonus of a specialized mode for astrophotography, aptly named “Starry mode.” Street photography enthusiasts will appreciate the dedicated mode that allows experimentation with different focal lengths ranging from 16mm to 71mm. The inclusion of a ‘zoom’ option in this mode simplifies the process, automatically focusing and zooming when selected and tapped on an object.

On the front, a 32MP Sony camera captures impressive selfies with clear and natural skin tones, contributing to an all-encompassing photography experience.

The Realme 12 Pro+ truly stands out, making a lasting impact through its exceptional performance. Running on the Realme UI 5.0, a user-friendly interface built upon the foundation of Android 14, and fueled by the potent Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset, this smartphone offers a remarkably smooth and glitch-free user experience, leaving no room for complaints. It excels in multitasking, effortlessly navigating through multiple open tabs on Chrome and seamlessly handling other demanding applications. This capability ensures a responsive and fluid operation even under the strain of resource-intensive tasks. During extended usage sessions, it consistently demonstrated its exceptional performance by avoiding any instances of lag or application crashes. Although the Realme 12 Pro+ may not be explicitly designed for the demands of hardcore gaming enthusiasts, it perfectly handles casual gaming.

In relation to the user interface, the apps are organized within the app tray, ensuring a clutter-free home screen experience. There is bloatware on board as the device comes with some pre-installed apps, of which I was able to uninstall or disable most but not all.

The Realme 12 Pro+ is backed with a 5,000mAh battery that comfortably sustains prolonged usage throughout an entire day. This includes handling emails, engaging on social media, browsing the web, streaming videos, or capturing memorable moments with the camera. Unlike Apple and Samsung flagships, Realme continues to include an adapter and cable in the box. The one bundled fully juices up the phone in less than an hour.

With such good looks and reliable performance, the Realme 12 Pro+ starting at Rs 29,999 for the 8GB RAM with 128GB storage variant proves to be a dependable companion.

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