Other returning elements include a large 5,000mAh battery and speedy 67W wired charging. As the name suggests, 5G connectivity also makes a return. Experience fast charging with 67W Turbo Charge and get 51% charge in 15 minutes which is enough to keep you going for the day along with the massive 5000mAh battery.

Not that it’s any great shakes. Xiaomi phones tend to struggle with this looping video test, and the Note 12 Pro 5G drops a whopping five hours short of the OnePlus Nord 2T with its smaller battery. Even the Poco X5 Pro 5G, which is a fellow Xiaomi product, lasted an hour longer. Xiaomi has clearly put all of its photographic eggs in this one 200MP basket, because the rest of the camera offering is pretty meagre. You get an 8MP (f/2.2) 120-degree ultrawide that can’t get within spitting distance of the main camera for sharpness, tone or dynamic range, while the 2MP macro camera is as useless as any other. With autobrightness switched off I measured a top brightness of 483cd/m² in the Standard screen colour mode, which is pretty competitive. As always, I found this slightly more muted colour scheme to be preferable to the default Vivid mode, with more accurate colours. There’s a somewhat surprising difference to the Redmi Note 11 Pro Plus in the form of a lower claimed peak brightness in high brightness mode (HBM) of 900cd/m², rather than the 1,200cd/m² of the Note 11 Pro Plus. It’s faster than before, its camera is capable of decent results in a variety of conditions, the phone’s 6.67in AMOLED display is as good as ever, battery life is dependable, and charging is nice and fast. Despite that, we have some familiar gripes about MIUI and the phone’s secondary cameras.Like its mid-range rival, the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus has had to justify a price bump over its predecessor. It has managed to do so, but perhaps not quite so comprehensively. The Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G runs on the same Mediatek Dimensity 1080 processor as the Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus 5G, which is quite a turn up for the books given the difference in price. It’s also an upgrade on the Snapdragon 695 used in the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G. In our video test, which plays a looped video at a standard 170cd/m² brightness with areoplane mode on, the Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus didn’t perform quite so impressively. It fell behind the Google Pixel 6a by several hours, and way behind the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G by almost ten hours.

Coming to the display, thankfully the picture, as it were, is positive. The Redmi has a flat, 120Hz OLED display, with ‘1 billion colours’ (a number which can only be taken at face value) and HDR capabilities. One area in which the ‘budget’ smartphone segment has come on in leaps and bounds across the years is in general performance. Even at especially low price points, most phones barring a few egregious exceptions remain performant for most tasks that can be thrown at them. What may be more of a deterrent for the general population is Xiaomi’s approach to software design. Xiaomi’s approach to software is ‘keep adding’, whether it’s new features, ways to access the same thing, ways to split simple interactions and more, Xiaomi gives a host of options, many that most people will never access. There’s been precious little change on the front of the Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G, even since the days of the Redmi Note 10 Pro 5G.

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In practical use, long 15- or 16-hour days would routinely leave me with around 40% left on moderate to intensive days, and well above 50% on lighter days. That’s good going. Much like last year’s model, the Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus is fronted by a 6.67in OLED display with a 2,400 x 1,080 (FHD+) resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. Triple Camera Setup: 50 MP Main Camera (Sony IMX 766 Sensor, 1/1.56 inch Sensor Size, f/1.88 Aperture with OIS, 2um, 4-in-1, 1um) + 8 MP Ultra Wide Camera with Night Mode and Ultra Wide Video Recording + 2 MP Macro Camera with Macro Video, Camera Features: Photo Mode, 50MP Mode, Panorama, Timelapse, AI Watermark, Long Exposure, Night Mode, Portrait Mode, Document Mode, Pro Mode, Movie Frame, Film Camera, Xiaomi Pro-cut, Voice Shutter, Tilt Shift Or at least, I did with that main sensor. The 8MP ultrawide is just as weak as before, failing to match the detail, tone and contrast of the main sensor. Ditto the 2MP macro, which is utterly pointless. I have yet to decide as a society what ‘Pro’ within the context of a smartphone really means. If we take the definition offered by Xiaomi, using the Redmi Note 12 Pro as an example, we see a device with a capable processor, a great screen, mostly decent cameras and decent battery life. For a lot of people, even those who aren’t a ‘Pro’, that is a compelling set of strengths.

Paired with 6GB of RAM, this leads to decent performance, and uniformly stronger benchmark results than last year’s model – especially when it comes to the GPU. On the other hand, the OnePlus Nord 2T performs better with its Dimensity 1300 chip, especially when it comes to graphical performance, while the Poco X5 Pro 5G performs better in the CPU stakes. Connectivity options on the Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G include Wi-Fi, GPS, USB Type-C, 3G, and 4G (with support for Band 40 used by some LTE networks in India). Sensors on the phone include accelerometer, ambient light sensor, and proximity sensor.

The smartphone carries a 50MP Sony IMX766 sensor with a 2 um pixel size for better low-light photography. Aside from the primary sensor, it has an 8MP ultra-wide camera and a 2MP macro camera with autofocus. Additionally, Redmi includes OIS or Optical Image Stabilization features that prevent capturing shaky images or videos. Besides, the phone has a 16MP punch-hole camera for assisting selfies and video chats. Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G Performance and Battery In my experience this is a slight upgrade on the Snapdragon 695 5G used in other more affordable models, with faster benchmark scores across the CPU and GPU tests. It also feels slightly snappier in the hand than a contemporary Snapdragon 695 device such as the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G. This 50MP + 50MP + 50MP camera setup bridges the Great Inconsistency by bringing you Our Most Consistent Camera Setup Ever with advanced computational photography and videography.

Remember what I said about that raised price placing the Redmi into elevated competition, however. Compared to the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G and the Google Pixel 6a, those performance figures don’t fare so well. The Sony IMX766 has been in a number of our favourite flagship and mid-range phones of the past few years, starting with the classy Oppo Find X3 Pro in 2021. More recently, it’s found its way into the Nothing Phone (1) and the OnePlus Nord 2T. Crucially, Xiaomi has paired that ageing but capable image sensor with OIS, keeping it nice and stable when the light starts to drop. Weaker image processing and optics means that the Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G’s main camera still doesn’t approach flagship levels of clarity, especially when the light drops, and the Pixel 6a is a much better all-round camera system for just a little more money. But I enjoyed my time shooting with the Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G nonetheless. The new 200MP camera is capable of taking excellent pictures, and the bump in battery capacity rectifies a curious mistake from the Redmi Note 11 Pro Plus. The design, too, looks and feels classier than before, with Xiaomi also providing another excellent AMOLED display.

Video is generally decent, with good detail and a restrained but pleasing colour rendition and maxes out at 4K@30fps. The audio recorded is a little choppy however, which harms the experience. Performance Selfies from the front-facing shooter are on the other hand very good. There’s nice colour, good detail and enough dynamic range to stop shots from blowing out completely. The less said about Xiaomi’s beauty filters however, the better. Rear Main Camera Video: 4K (at 30 fps), 1080p (at 60 fps), 720p (at 30 fps) | Front Camera: 1080p (at 60 fps), 720p (at 30 fps) Xiaomi has mixed things up on the photographic front, installing a large 50MP Sony IMX766 image sensor in place of last year’s 108MP Samsung ISOCELL HM2. No, it’s not as attention-grabbing as the Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus 5G’s 200MP sensor, but it’s a smart, quietly accomplished choice on Xiaomi’s part.