Realme 12 Pro Plus review: Premium design and excellent telephoto lens bogged down by a mid-range chipset

The Realme 12 Pro Plus has a thicker faux leather back that adds to the grip of the phone. (Image: Anurag Chawake/The Indian Express)

Realme 12 Pro Plus review: Design and Display

The Realme 12 Pro Plus might look like its predecessor at first glance with its curved AMOLED screen, but some huge changes make me feel as if I am holding a new device. The ‘Submarine Blue’ I have for review has a huge camera island that reflects light. The blackish-blue design combined with the reflections that start from the centre of the circle makes it look as if I am looking at a watch dial.

Realme seems to have increased the thickness of the faux leather, which makes it feel like you are holding a premium device. If you are someone like me with medium-sized hands, the Realme 12 Pro Plus offers a very comfortable grip, thanks to the combination of the faux leather back, and the golden-coloured circle around the camera island, which I often rested my fingers on when holding the phone with one hand. Never once did I feel like the phone would slip out of my hand, unlike phones with plastic and glass backs.

Surprisingly, the phone can stand out on its own without any external support. (Image: Anurag Chawake/The Indian Express)

Similar to last year, the volume and power buttons are placed on the right side, while the SIM tray and charging port can be found on the bottom. Another thing to note is that the leather back might get dirty if you are someone who often uses their phone when eating, or lays it down on a dusty bench, but this can be quickly cleaned by wiping the back panel with a damp cloth. Also, if you lay down the phone on a desk, the camera island glass will be the first one to touch the surface, meaning you will have to either buy a case or a camera glass protector to prevent it from getting scratched.

The Realme 12 Pro Plus is similar to other phones in the mid-range segment when it comes to the display. It has a 6.67-inch 120Hz AMOLED screen that maxes out at 950 nits. However, during extremely sunny days, you might struggle a bit, but that’s the case with most mid-range devices. The ‘Natural’ colour preset, which is the default mode on most Realme phones, has a slight yellowish tint to it, but switching to ‘Vivid’ mode fixed the problem for me.

The huge camera island protrudes a lot, so you will either have to buy a case or a glass protector to prevent scratches. (Image: Anurag Chawake/The Indian Express)

Realme 12 Pro Plus review: Performance and Software

Realme 12 Pro Plus runs on Realme UI 5.0 based on Android 14 out of the box. The company said the device will get two years of OS updates and three years of security patches, which is in line with other mid-range phones like the Redmi Note 13 series but almost half of Samsung’s Galaxy lineup

Powered by the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset, the Realme 12 Pro Plus performs similarly to the Nothing Phone (1), which features the almost three-year-old Snapdragon 778G. However, when it comes to multitasking, the phone did not lag or heat at all. Animations were fluid for the most part, but there are a few UI bugs here and there. For example, the recent apps menu was tricky to open from the bottom gesture navigation bar when I ditched the default launcher and switched to a third-party one like Nova.

The phone runs on Realme UI 5.0 based on Android 14 out of the box, which is pretty smooth for the most part. (Image: Anurag Chawake/The Indian Express)

Realme UI 5.0 also brings some useful software features like the File Dock in the sidebar that lets you quickly access recently added files like documents and images. Like always, there are a few pre-installed apps like Hot Games and Hot Apps, but most of these can be easily uninstalled or disabled.

However, gaming on this phone is a completely different story. While shooting games like ‘BGMI’ and ‘Call of Duty: Mobile’ are capped at 60 fps, for some reason, ‘Diablo Immortal’ runs at 30 fps. Adding to the woes, ‘Wreckfest’ and ‘Genshin Impact’ had an average of 25 fps while ‘GTA San Andreas: Definitive Edition’ could only output 15 fps, making these titles unplayable at best. One thing to note here is that these games were tested at the highest settings available, so you can always tune down graphic settings to get more performance.

Here’s a quick table that will give you an idea of how the phone performs in different games. (Image: Anurag Chawake/The Indian Express)

Realme 12 Pro Plus review: Camera

The Realme 12 Pro Plus has a 50MP Sony IMX890 primary sensor, which can be found on last year’s phones like the OnePlus 11R and Oppo Reno 11 Pro. During the daytime, the main sensors can retain the natural colour with a bit of post-processing. As one would expect from a mid-range device, images come out crisp and detailed. Even at night, the sensor can capture a lot of details while keeping noise levels to a minimum.

Another hazy afternoon in Delhi makes it hard to click good photos. (Image: Anurag Chawake/The Indian Express)

The Realme 12 Pro Plus retained details while keeping noise levels to a minimum. (Image: Anurag Chawake/The Indian Express)

The images are not overly processed and look natural. (Image: Anurag Chawake/The Indian Express)

As for the 8MP ultrawide sensor, it takes decent photos and so long as you don’t want to zoom in a lot or use them for social media, they are okayish at best. Also, nighttime photos are just passable at best.

However, the 64MP telephoto periscope lens that offers 3x optical zoom and 6x digital zoom is the show stopper here. It looks like the company has opted for the same Omnivision sensor that can be found on flagship devices like the OnePlus 12, OnePlus Open, and Vivo X100.

The phone takes really good photos using the 3x telephoto lens, with images that are on par or better than the main camera. To be honest, I have never used a high-resolution telephoto lens, but this phone has set the benchmark for upcoming mid-range devices. However, the telephoto lens struggles when it comes to 6x zoom. Images are sometimes so noticeably blurry to the point I preferred clicking photos in 3x and manually zooming in on the subject.

Here are some ducks captured at 3x zoom using the 64MP telephoto periscope lens. (Image: Anurag Chawake/The Indian Express)

In low light, the 64MP telephoto lens can capture a lot of details. I wasn’t able to see the logo of the restaurant in 1x, but using the telephoto lens to zoom in at 6x made it visible.

On the left is 3x optical zoom whereas the right photo is zoomed in using digital zoom. (Image: Anurag Chawake/The Indian Express)

The squirrel was so high up the tree that I had to resort to 6x zoom. (Image: Anurag Chawake/The Indian Express)

The phone offers 120x digital zoom but as expected from a mid-range phone, the photos are not usable. (Image: Anurag Chawake/The Indian Express)

For the most part, the images from the telephoto lens are really good, but it looks like there is a software bug that sometimes prevents me from focusing on a certain object. Another thing I noticed is that if you click photos in 1x Portrait mode, the camera often blurs out one part of the photo while the other one has no blur at all. Hopefully, Realme will fix these issues with a software update.

Realme 12 Pro Plus review: Battery life and charging speed

The Realme 12 Pro Plus packs a 5,000mAh battery that supports 67W fast charging, which is standard for the majority of devices under Rs 30,000. I don’t consider myself a heavy phone user but typically, my usage involves listening to music on YouTube for around 8-10 hours on mobile data, playing a game or two at night, browsing the internet, and replying to messages on different platforms all day long.

Similar to other devices, the Realme 12 Pro Plus will easily last you all day long without having to plug in a charger. I got around 6-7 hours of screen on time and only needed to charge the phone before going to sleep. In case you are like me who wakes up around an hour or so before going to work and forgets to plug in your device overnight, the 67W fast charging, which tops up the device from 0-50 per cent in half an hour or so might come in handy.

The golden ring around the camera island adds to the grip. (Image: Anurag Chawake/The Indian Express)

Verdict

The Realme 12 Pro Plus is a premium-looking device that ticks almost all the boxes. The main and telephoto cameras take excellent pictures during daytime and in low light conditions. The screen, speakers, and charging speeds, all are on par with other devices in the price bracket. However, the phone is bogged down by the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2, which might not be as snappy as other phones that cost the same two to three years down the line.

Moreover, for reasons unknown, Realme has limited storage capacity to 256GB, which might be a bummer for some. But if you can overlook the aforementioned cons and are looking for a phone that feels premium and has an excellent primary and telephoto camera for the asking price, the Realme 12 Pro Plus might be the only choice under Rs 30,000, at least for now.