Realme 12 Pro Plus hands-on: Zoom in on style

The Realme 11 Pro Plus was one of the best-looking phones in its segment last year, and the Realme 12 Pro Plus takes it up a notch. Due to its attractive design, people around me have considered it to be a premium smartphone. The style quotient is amped up with a dedicated telephoto lens, which isn’t ideal in the price range yet. These factors make it different but is it enough to compete with Redmi, iQOO and Poco?

The Realme 12 Pro Plus is one of the most stylish phones you can buy right now. I liked the finish of the purple edition of the Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus but this one looks even better. Compared to its predecessor, it features a redesigned camera module. There is gold trim around the camera and on the back, which gives it a premium look. The phone has been given IP65 rating for dust and water resistance.

At 196 grams, the Realme 12 Pro Plus is light and comfortable to use for a large phone. The volume and power buttons are each easy to reach and the curved edges of the screen make it feel thinner than before. It features a 6.7-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display that supports 950 nits peak brightness with 120Hz refresh rate and 100% DCI-P3 color gamut.

In harsh light, you’ll want it to be brighter. The display supports 2160Hz PWM dimming, so it’s comfortable on the eyes. It’s a vivid panel with HDR10 support and hi-res dual speakers with Dolby Atmos support. However, Netflix does not support HDR on this phone. The display also brings ProXDR for a better viewing experience. But overall, I like the screen of the Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus.

Realme 12 Pro Plus is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset. In my five days with the phone, I didn’t experience any lag or lag, which is what you’d expect from a device in this range. However, it is not meant for extensive gaming sessions. It is paired with 8GB/12GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB/256GB UFS 3.1 storage. The in-display fingerprint scanner is accurate and reliable.

The new Realme phone sports a triple rear camera setup that is powered by a 50MP Sony IMX890 primary camera. It is accompanied by a 64MP OV64B periscope telephoto lens and 8MP ultrawide-angle camera with 3x optical zoom support. There is a 32MP selfie shooter on the front.

Photos taken from the primary camera are detailed with good dynamic range. I focused more on 3x and 6x zoom camera performance for this practical task. While the first is optical, there is a 6x in-sensor zoom, which is better than the digital zoom, which can go up to 120x. I liked the shots at 3x with good performance in portrait mode. The 3x portrait had good Bokeh and good edge detection. The ultrawide camera performance is good but nothing extraordinary.

The Realme 12 Pro Plus runs Android 14-based Realme UI 5.0 which has a cleaner look than before but you still get notifications from the app market and theme stores even when not connected to the internet. The company is promising two years of major software and three years of security updates with the Realme 12 Pro Plus, so it will last you until 2027.

The Realme 12 Pro Plus packs a 5,000mAh battery that supports 67W fast charging, and you get a SuperVOOC charger in the box. Although this is a downgrade from the 100W on the 11 Pro Plus, I’d prefer to keep the 67W if it gives a brand the ability to add a telephoto camera. It can charge the device from 5% to 50% within 20 minutes, which is superfast. This isn’t a full review, but in my time, the phone easily lasted a day.

Realme 12 Pro Plus starts at Rs 29,999 for the 8GB + 128GB variant. Looking at the competition, the Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus offers a better display and performance with an IP68 rating at Rs 31,999, which is similar to the 8GB and 256GB storage variants of the Realme phone. If you need a smartphone for extensive gaming sessions, check out the Poco X6 Pro. However, if you want a smartphone that looks stylish and offers 3x optical zoom, then you should consider the Realme 12 Pro Plus.