Xiaomi has carved out an almost cult-like following in India on the back of one sub-brand alone – the Redmi Note series. Built on the pillars of performance, camera, and design, the Redmi Note series has come to deliver segment-first features for the mid-range budget over the past eight years. It has sold over 70 million units in India alone.
The latest Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G is no different, touting an all-new 200-megapixel sensor, super-fast wired charging, and impressive performance at an all-new price point. And that takes the Series 12 Notes into the north of the Rs 25,000-mark. Will this 2023 mid-ranger appeal to the Note loyalists, or will the sticker shock deter potential buyers? Let’s find out.
The Redmi Note 12 series consists of three smartphones — the Redmi Note 12, the Redmi Note 12 Pro, and Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus — all packed in with support for 5G. The Pro+ comes in two storage options – a base model with 8GB of memory and 256GB of storage (Rs 29,999) and a 12GB memory variant (Rs 32,999). Bank offers and loyalty exchange bonuses will bring down the price to a slightly more appealing Rs 25,999/Rs 28,999.
With a design that’s somewhat reminiscent of the Redmi K50i from last year, the Note 12 Pro+ feels premium and elegant to the hands. This is primarily because of the rear glass-panel that curves towards the flat plastic frame – a gentle reminder of the budget territory in which Redmi operates. At 208g, it feels dense to the hand, but the weight feels well distributed. The IP53 splash protection is a welcome touch to the model as well. The almost Redmi-signature infra-red blaster accompanies a 3.5mm headphone jack and a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, but it’s hard to shake off the feeling that you’ve seen these all somewhere before. It feels a little generic; I wish the phone stood out more from the other Redmi phones from the past. Other than the Arctic White variant I had for review, you get an Obsidian Black and Iceberg Blue colour variants. But the fancier Stardust Purple colorway is reserved for the Redmi Note 12 Pro, not for the Note 12 Pro+. There’s a good stereo speaker setup, which can get plenty loud but gets mildly distorted at higher volumes.
At the front, the Note 12 Pro+ retains the same 6.67-inch full-HD+-resolution AMOLED display as last year’s model – this time including support for Dolby Vision and HDR10+ content. The panel adaptively refreshes its screen based on the content on it – between 30Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz and 120Hz. It is also great for gaming and consuming content on streaming services. The dual speaker setup is good for indoor use and there’s the Hi-Res-enabled headphone jack for good measure. Unlike the rear panel, where Xiaomi won’t say what toughened glass is used, there’s Gorilla Glass 5 protection for the display. While not as premium looking as its chief competitor, the flat edges of the display are good for media consumption and gaming. The only downside I noticed was that the display isn’t quite as bright as the 11 Pro+ outdoors, down from 1200 nits to 900, but it is only ever an issue on the brightest days.
During launch, the biggest headlines were reserved for the new 200-megapixel Samsung ISOCELL HPX sensor with optical image stabilisation. The 200-megapixel camera shines in daylight conditions, with regular photos pixel-binned down to 12.5-megapixel resolution to capture a lot more detail into each shot than one would typically expect. What’s impressive is that low-light performance benefits greatly as well – the images of the dimly lit toys and the driveway were all taken handheld (not on the night mode). Both in terms of details, the colours and the mood of the images are excellent for the category. The night mode comes in handy in situations where there is practically no light. However, it tends to boost the exposure levels to somewhat unrealistic levels. You can always switch to the 200-megapixel mode in good lighting conditions, which tends to capture really detailed images. Each of this sets your storage back by around 30MB or so. It’s a good thing that all variants of this phone ship with 256GB of storage then, isnt it?
The downside of so much attention being poured into the primary shooter is that the 8MP wide-angle pales in comparison in terms of details (colour consistency is well mated to the primary shooter) and the 2MP macro... well, the less said, the better.
Now, with MediaTek Dimensity 1080 powering the Redmi Note 12 Pro+, everyday performance was unsurprisingly good. Games like Asphalt 9 and Call of Duty: Mobile played smoothly on the device. Also, the large vapour cooling chamber seems to be doing its job keeping the phone cool in the oddly warm Bengaluru winter. In keeping with the Redmi Note tradition, the large 4,980mAh battery keeps things going for well past a day, even on the workload-heavy set of tasks one puts a device through during the review. This time, the phone borrows the 120W fast charging tech from the last year’s HyperCharge models that tops up the device in just a tad under 30 minutes (toggle Boost mode under battery settings to switch to 120W charging, though). And yes, there is a charger in the box.
For a phone launching in 2023, 5G support is tablestakes, and the Note 12 Pro+ offers support for 10 5G bands in India along with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2. This is a phone that checks off all the boxes but one – software. While MIUI 13 is feature rich and highly customisable, and the bloatware is slim, it continues to be based on Android 12. On the other hand, the competition offers Android 13 on similarly priced offerings. No clear timelines are vailable for MIUI 14 based on Android 13 rolling out to this device either, which is a miss. The only saving grace is the two major Android updates and four years of security support.
This is a phone that rightfully takes on the Redmi Note name into 2023 – it checks all the boxes of a strong sub-30,000-rupee phone without any real compromises (save for the software situation). About the pricing, though – at this price point, you’re left to wonder how much you need the headlining 200MP camera and 120W charging, when the equally capable but less glitzy Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G can do most of what this phone can do for a fair bit less. It’s a solid phone, just not as easy a recommendation as Redmi Notes of the past.
Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G
Pros: Excellent primary camera performance, premium (if a little generic) design, IP53 rating, good display, super-fast charging, capable performance
Cons: Ships with Android 12, haptics are average, sub-par macro camera
Rating: 8/10
Price: Rs 29,999 / Rs 32,999
(Tushar Kanwar is a tech columnist and commentator, and tweets @2shar.)