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.

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.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. Other returning elements include a large 5,000mAh battery and speedy 67W wired charging. As the name suggests, 5G connectivity also makes a return.

Similarly, the 16MP selfie camera struggles with exposure and tends to wash colours out somewhat, but it does an adequate job.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 The Xiaomi 12 Pro | 5G also brings the latest in charging technology which is the 120W HyperCharge technology and charges the phone to 100% in 18 Mins 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. Xiaomi’s solution, for the moment it seems, is to invent categories to test the water and see if people will come. The Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G is part of an attempt to reach the kind of consumer who doesn’t want to spend too much, who doesn’t want to sacrifice quality, and who is a ‘Pro’ of nebulous definition. I don’t know what this theoretical Pro does, but they need 5G and a high megapixel count to achieve it. You can even shoot in HDR 10+ and view the incredible output in HDR 10+ for a complete video experience

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. 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. Talking of accuracy, I recorded an sRGB gamut coverage of 99.6% against a gamut volume of 103.9%, with an average Delta E score of 1.36. This is a strong result for a mid-ranger, handily beating the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G. And, unlike Samsung’s brilliant effort, you also get HDR10+ and Dolby Vision support. I’ve observed similarly disappointing results in this test with Xiaomi’s flagship phones, including the range-topping Xiaomi 13 Pro, so it seems to be a quirk of the brand’s approach to power management. Other than that, the app is the usual Xiaomi mish-mash of modes, some of which you may use, many of which you will not. It doesn’t get in the way of taking photos, and for the most part, is intuitive.

Discuss

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.