Realme 12 Plus 5G review: Affordable luxury

The mid-range or sub-$500 smartphone segment continues to be a bustling one especially in price-sensitive markets like India. Realme has managed to carve a niche for itself here by continually delivering new offerings with improved specs and great designs. The latter aspect has always been the brand's signature recipe for any new smartphone, and that’s still going strong in 2024. 

The Realme 12 series is the latest number offering from the Chinese brand and already, we have about five different models ranging from $150 to about $400. The one on test today is the Realme 12 Plus 5G, which sits somewhere in the middle of the pack and yet, manages to cram some pretty impressive features. 

Realme claims it’s the first in the segment to get a 50MP Sony LYT-600 main camera sensor, along with IP54 water resistance with “Rainwater Smart Touch” treatment for the display, and a 120Hz AMOLED display with incredibly high peak brightness. These features, coupled with a sophisticated design and aggressive pricing makes it a very tempting proposition. It’s time to find out if you should indeed consider it over the competition. 

Realme 12 Plus 5G: Price and availability

The Realme 12 Plus 5G is available in many Southeast Asian countries like India, Malaysia, and the Philippines. I received the Indian retail unit of the top-end variant, priced at Rs. 21,999 ($265), which comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The base variant isn’t much cheaper at Rs. 20,999 ($253) and has the same amount of RAM but 128GB of storage. Needless to say, you should get the 256GB variant directly if you're considering this phone, as it’s the best value for money. 

The 12 Plus 5G comes in two colors, Pioneer green and Navigator beige. The latter is more of a neutral shade and will go well with any attire, but the green variant certainly has its own charm and looks equally striking. 

Realme 12 Plus 5G: What I like

The entire 12 series is built around the same design language in partnership with luxury watch designer Ollivier Savéo. The single, circular rear camera dial, vegan leather back panel, and the diamond-patterned stripe running vertically through the center of the phone are all said to be inspired by luxury watches. The Pro models in the series get more intricate patterns, but for what it costs, I think the Realme 12 Plus looks stylish and unique. The faux leather back also means there’s no worry of cracks if you drop it or ugly fingerprint smudges. 

The phone doesn’t feel too heavy at 190g despite packing a large display and battery. Realme has included a headphone jack for those who still prefer wired audio, and the second slot of the dual-SIM tray can accommodate a microSD card if you need more storage. The Redmi 12 Plus is also IP54-rated for dust and water resistance, which is a big deal in this segment. It’s not waterproof, but it should easily survive a heavy drizzle or light splashes of water. 

The display on the Realme 12 Plus is also very good for its segment. It’s a flat 6.67-inch AMOLED panel with a FHD+ (2,400x1,080) resolution and a dynamic 120Hz refresh rate. The protective glass has 3D-curved edges all around so it’s gentle on your fingers when performing gestures. Color reproduction is vibrant and the screen has a peak brightness of up to 2,000 nits (600 nits typical). 

Thanks to this, content was always easily visible, even under the harsh Mumbai summer heat. The vibrancy of colors can be adjusted in the Settings app, but I found the default Vivid profile to be quite accurate. I also didn’t notice any major color shift when viewing the display off-axis, which is a good sign.

The 12 Plus 5G’s display also gets something called a Rainwater Smart Touch feature. This is supposed to maintain accurate touch response even when water falls on the display and also keeps the in-display fingerprint reader functional with moist fingers. 

This kind of works to an extent, but not always. For instance, the display still registers phantom touches when placed under running water, but once removed, it’s actually usable even with big droplets still on the screen. Using the fingerprint sensor in such conditions was hit or miss, as it worked sometimes but struggled to register otherwise.  

The performance of the Realme 12 Plus 5G has been a smooth affair in the two weeks I’ve been using it. It’s backed by a decently powerful MediaTek Dimensity 7050 SoC, which is a bit more potent than a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 but on par or little behind something like a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 in benchmarks. 

If you’re a casual mobile gamer like myself, then you’ll enjoy playing games like Asphalt 9: Legends or Call of Duty Mobile (with low to medium graphics) on the 12 Plus. The visuals are great, the framerate is generally solid, and the sound from the stereo speakers will keep you engaged for hours. Some portion of the frame and the rear camera bump get a bit warm after, say, 30 minutes of playing, but never overly hot. The screen has a standard 240Hz touch sampling rate, which I found to be adequate. 

The Realme 12 Plus 5G worked well on the 5G networks here in India. The phone supports a total of nine 5G bands, some of which are also supported by all the major U.S. carriers, which means you can easily use the phone on your travels to the U.S. NFC is not present, but you get Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.

Battery life is quite impressive, too, with the 5,000mAh capacity easily lasting for up to two full days on one charge. Even with a bit of gaming and heavy camera testing, I was still able to go past one full day of use. The 12 Plus 5G can also be charged quickly, thanks to 67W SUPERVOOC fast charging. In practice, you can get a 50 percent charge in just under 20 minutes. The best thing about Realme phones is that the charger comes bundled in the box. 

The primary camera on the Realme 12 Plus 5G is pretty good for the segment. The 50MP Sony LYT-600 sensor is optically stabilized (OIS) and has an aperture of f/1.9. Photos are saved at roughly 12.5MP resolution by default, but you can take a full 50MP photo if you need to. Landscapes and close-up photos generally have good sharpness, vivid colors, and decent details in daylight. The ultrawide also manages some decent shots here under bright sunlight. Low-light shots from the main camera are fairly detailed, autofocus is quick, and you can get away with shooting single-handed in Night mode (with a one-second delay) thanks to OIS.

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The large sensor also lets you do a 2x lossless zoom (in-sensor crop). Some interesting shooting modes include Street, which lets you toggle an auto-zoom feature. Once you tap your subject, the app tries to aesthetically frame the shot by zooming in on it. You also get the usual selection of shooting modes like slow-mo, timelapse, etc. The 12 Plus 5G can also shoot videos up to 4K 30fps, but without any stabilization.

Realme 12 Plus 5G: What I didn't like

Apart from the main camera on the 12 Plus 5G, the rest are pretty run-of-the-mill sensors that fail to impress. The rear camera dials make it look like there are four cameras, but one of them is just a dummy to complete the symmetry. The 8-megapixel ultrawide camera fares well in daylight, with minimal barrel distortion, but colors and details are weak compared to the main camera. In low light, Night mode helps maintain a decent exposure, but peek a bit closer, and you'll notice colors and details are simply lacking. 

There’s a 2MP macro camera in the dial, too, but it’s not great and best left unused. Sadly, the 16MP selfie camera isn’t much to shout about either. You can expect passable selfies under good lighting but average ones in low light. There’s a screen flash to assist in low-light shots, but it can only do so much. 

The quality of recorded video is fairly average too from the ultrawide camera. You can only record up to 1080p 30fps with it, but if you begin recording with the main camera at this resolution, there’s no way to switch to the ultrawide mid-shooting. 

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My main gripe with the 12 Plus 5G is the bloated nature of Realme UI 5.0 itself. It’s a derivation of Oppo’s ColorOS, which has also received touches of OnePlus' OxygenOS along the way. This version is based on Android 14, and Realme claims that it will get three years of software updates. Unfortunately, there are simply way too many redundant and spammy apps that are preinstalled, and even when you first set up the phone, it feels like someone has been using it for a month.  

You also have to be mindful to skip suggested app installs during initial setup, or else you’ll be saddled with even more apps before you even begin. What makes it worse is the non-stop notifications from some of them that clutter your notification shade. Thankfully, you can minimize this by disabling most of the suggestions within the apps, but it’s still annoying having to deal with it in the first place. 

My other little niggle is with the phone’s always-on display (AOD) feature or the fact that you can’t exactly have it always on. There’s usually an option to enable this, but it’s absent from the 12 Plus 5G. This means the AOD disappears if you place the phone down and only activates again if you get a notification or move it a bit. 

Finally, the 12 Plus 5G is a large phone and while that 190g of total weight is distributed well, the flat nature of the frame is not the most comfortable to hold and use, especially with one hand. The glossy finish of the side rail is also a pain to keep clean and as it attracts dust and fingerprints almost immediately. 

Realme 12 Plus 5G: Competition

As impressive as the features are of the Realme 12 Plus for its segment, there are other players with equally impressive rivals. The Poco X6 5G starts at roughly the same price but offers double the storage, and it even has a 512GB variant with 12GB of RAM for not much more. It packs a more potent Snapdragon SoC and Gorilla Glass Victus, while staying competitive in all other areas with Realme. 

The iQoo Z9 is another recent offering with a feature set similar to the 12 Plus 5G. It, too, features a very capable Sony main camera sensor and a more power-efficient 4nm MediaTek SoC. 

Realme’s own premium models are not too far off, either. By spending a bit more, you can get the Realme 12 Pro 5G, which has a more premium design, curved-edge display, a better chipset, and a portrait camera with 2x optical zoom. There’s also the excellent Nothing Phone 2a which has the unique transparent back with programmable notification lights and superb all-round performance. 

Realme 12 Plus 5G: Should you buy it?

You should buy this if…

•  You want a unique-looking phone without spending a lot   
• You want certified water resistance 
•  You want a vivid display and great battery life  

You shouldn't buy this if…

•  You want a lean version of Android 
•  You want quality selfie and ultrawide cameras 
•  You play a lot of heavy games  

The Realme 12 Plus 5G is a solid budget offering that checks off most of the boxes if you’re shopping in this segment. Design has always been one of Realme’s strong suits, and it’s on full display here. The vegan leather finish and luxury watch-inspired camera dial on the back is sure to turn heads, as it makes it look more expensive than it actually is. It’s also water resistant, supports expandable storage, and has a headphone jack. The performance is decent, the display is bright and punchy, the battery life is great, and the main camera is reliable no matter the time of day. 

A couple of things that you might not like is the annoying fluff in Realme UI. The redundant apps and their tendency to spam you with ads and unsolicited suggestions get annoying very quickly. The secondary cameras could have been a lot better, too, especially in low light. Finally, if you’re in the U.S., then you’re out of luck trying to get this. In fact, Realme hasn’t yet launched the 12 series outside a handful of Southeast Asian countries. Not to worry, as there are plenty of good cheap Android phones that are more easily accessible.