Finding a phone that balances features and price is tough. You want decent cameras, a smooth display, and a battery that won’t quit halfway through the day — all without breaking the bank.
Enter the realme 12 Pro Plus 5G, which recently made its debut in the Philippines with a P25,999 (roughly $468) suggested retail price for the variant with 12GB of RAM and a whopping 512GB of storage. It promises all that and more in a design that screams luxury from top to bottom.
But does it deliver? We put it to the test to find out.
Luxury vibes without the crazy price tag
The realme 12 Pro Plus 5G has followed up last year’s design and made something even more attractive and worth comparing to a modern flagship smartphone. This year, the company worked with Ollivier Savéo, whom watch aficionados will instantly recognize, to produce the realme 12 series. Savéo has made a name for himself with beautifully crafted timepieces for giants like Rolex and Breitling, and has brought that luxury design language to mobile phones — in particular, the realme 12 Pro Plus 5G.
This device oozes classic watchmaking vibes. You’ve got the polished sunburst dial effect on the camera island; that deep, rich shade of blue; the golden fluted bezel detail. And, yeah, even that textured element on the vertical line that runs across the back is inspired by the 3D Jubilee bracelet.
The vegan leather with a dirt-resistant texture looks nice and feels like the real deal in the hand, smooth to the touch, but with a bit of resistance as well. The attention to detail here is top-notch and goes beyond what the previous model offered, which was already generous.
Holding it, with its 196-gram weight, you get the sense of a meticulously crafted object, not just another slab of glass and metal. realme has also made the 12 Pro Plus 5G dust- and water-resistant with an IP65 rating, so it should be able to survive accidental water splashes and moderate rains.
The only eyesore is the huge camera bump that makes the unit rock when resting on its back, leaving it more susceptible to sliding around. Curiously, there are four camera cutouts on the rear module, but there are only three functioning cameras there.
Instead of having a metal frame, the smartphone’s sides are made of plastic with a metallic finish. This houses the volume and power buttons, SIM card slot, charging port, built-in microphones, and dual speakers.
Similar to the previous generation, you get a hybrid setup with the top-mounted speaker pulling double-duty as an earpiece. Of course, this means the secondary speaker is weaker and doesn’t sound as good as the bottom-firing one, but as a duo, they deliver a balanced sound profile with smooth mids and highs. It’s also worth mentioning that we didn’t have to raise the volume too high to achieve sufficient loudness.
A visual treat
The realme 12 Pro Plus 5G keeps the 6.7-inch, 120Hz curved OLED of its predecessor. The color depth is among the best in the category, with 100% DCI-P3 color-gamut coverage and an impressive contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1. realme even throws in high-frequency PWM dimming, if you’re prone to eye strain. There’s also 240Hz touch sampling that cranks up to a blistering 2,000Hz in supported scenarios. Meanwhile, those tiny bezels give you a 93% screen-to-body ratio for that immersive feel.
The fast and accurate in-display fingerprint sensor is complemented by stylish animations. Combined with its X-touch Anti-mistouch algorithm, the brand says the 61-degree curvature of the front-glass design should minimize false-touch issues. Brightness is adequate, too, making the screen fairly readable outdoors under the sun. At 950 nits peak brightness, though, it certainly won’t outshine the flagship crowd. Still, the realme 12 Pro Plus 5G aims high. You get a gorgeous, fast display, plus some thoughtful extras.
The not-so-good news? HDR support is a mixed bag. While YouTube does play nice with HDR, you won’t see it on Netflix, which can be a bit of a bummer if you’re obsessed with the absolute best picture quality.
Zippy and (mostly) bloat-free
The realme 12 Pro Plus 5G runs the company’s own realme UI 5.0 Android overlay out of the box. It is based on Android 14, and realme promises two major OS updates and three years of security updates — a decent deal for a midrange device. Outside the usual bloatware, realme UI 5.0 is generally light. The company has smartly focused on practical additions rather than a complete overhaul. The core layout feels familiar, so if you’re coming from other Android devices, there’s minimal adjustment needed.
realme does throw in a few genuinely useful bonuses. We like the new File DOTS feature, which gives you quick shortcuts to recent images, videos, and documents — useful for those who use their smartphone as part of their workflow. And PC Connect is handy, letting you easily mirror your screen to a Windows PC.
App recommendations can be turned off completely, and realme will easily let you opt out of Glance, a smart lock screen that delivers personalized content, if you desire. But the biggest win? Performance. The software feels snappy. The combination of solid hardware and the brand’s lightweight skin makes everything feel responsive.
Under the hood, the realme 12 Pro Plus 5G packs Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7s Gen 2. This 4nm chip is like a slightly souped-up version of the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 featured on the realme 12 Pro 5G and HONOR X9b 5G, which we reviewed earlier this year. Graphics-wise, it relies on the Adreno 710, just like the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1.
It’s definitely a step up from the MediaTek Dimensity 7050 SoC found in the realme 11 Pro Plus 5G, but don’t expect flagship-level speeds. It holds its own in most tests, especially in GPU-heavy benchmarks like 3DMark. The realme 12 Pro Plus 5G handles day-to-day tasks, including web browsing and scrolling through social media, like a champ, and with 12GB of physical RAM, multitasking feels smooth as well.
Going the distance
The realme 12 Pro Plus 5G packs a 5,000mAh cell, same as last year’s model. And although realme hasn’t bumped up the capacity in the current generation, the battery backup can stretch a long way.
Our unit delivers impressive battery life. In our tests, we achieved over 7 hours of screen-on time and more than 15 hours of overall usage time with regular usage. This included activities like streaming videos, playing music, browsing websites, attending to emails, and some light gaming. We ran it through PCMark’s battery benchmark and got 14 hours and 24 minutes.
The phone supports 67-watt fast charging using the included power brick. It gets to 50% in around 20 minutes, while a full charge usually takes about 45 minutes.
The first 3x periscope telephoto in its segment
Of course, the star of the show is the realme 12 Pro Plus 5G’s camera system at the back. The company has packed some serious hardware into this setup, and it’s the only camera-centric model in its price range with a 3x periscope telephoto.
Meanwhile, the main camera uses a 50-megapixel Sony IMX890 image sensor with OIS. It’s the same sensor found in high-end flagships — and it shows. Thanks to pixel binning, which improves the quality of the 12.5-megapixel output image, daylight shots are crisp, colors pop, and the dynamic range holds its own.
realme’s Street mode adds some fun portrait-style options and an auto-zoom function that’s useful for grabbing candid shots without moving. Low-light performance is respectable without Night mode, but activating it may improve results considerably. The phone’s focus and shutter speeds are surprisingly snappy, even in tough lighting.
Sample shots mostly taken in Barcelona, Spain, by Revü Philippines editor Alora Uy Guerrero
The 8-megapixel ultrawide is arguably the weakest link. It lags behind the main camera in colors and dynamic range. The 64-megapixel periscope zoom is where things get really interesting. Image quality with the 3x optical zoom is good. Beyond that, it’s digital-zoom territory, although the 6x option is perfectly usable under bright conditions.
Post-processing kicks in when shooting in this mode, so you may want to keep your hand steady after pressing the shutter button to get clear results. In addition, shooting in dim environments will likely trigger Night mode, unless you disable it. At high zoom levels, the image quality tends to fall apart pretty quickly, lacking detail and showing some shaky OIS.
The 32-megapixel selfie camera is decent and offers a 90-degree wide field of view, allowing you to capture group selfies with ease, if you need to fit more people in the frame.
Final thoughts
The realme 12 Pro Plus 5G positions itself as a strong contender in the midrange segment, offering a compelling package of features at a competitive price, especially when you purchase it at a discount during its introductory period.
This phone handles everyday tasks smoothly and boasts a battery that can keep up with your busy lifestyle. The curved OLED display with impressive color reproduction makes everything from browsing the web to watching videos a delightful experience. Elsewhere, the camera system on the rear houses a formidable primary sensor alongside a 3x periscope telephoto that no other phone at this price point offers. All this wrapped in an elegant vegan-leather design accented by a gorgeous camera island.
If those features resonate with your needs, the realme 12 Pro Plus 5G is definitely worth considering for your next smartphone purchase.
— realme Philippines (@realme_ph) March 7, 2024
Availability
realme 12 Pro Plus 5G specs
- 6.7-inch FHD+ AMOLED curved display with 120Hz refresh rate, 240Hz touch sampling, double-reinforced glass
- 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 5G chipset
- Adreno 710 GPU
- 12GB RAM
- 512GB storage
- Triple 50-megapixel main, 64-megapixel periscope telephoto, 8-megapixel ultrawide rear cameras
- 32-megapixel front camera
- Under-display fingerprint reader
- 5,000mAh battery with 67-watt charging
- Dual speakers
- IP65 rating
- realme UI 5.0 based on Android 14
- Colors: Submarine Blue, Navigator Beige
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