Redmi 12 Review

Xiaomi has just launched the Redmi 12 in the Philippines and it’s the newest generation of their popular and budget-friendly smartphone. As expected, this one would pack an entry-level specifications but it still pack a punch inside.

Design and hardware

One of the selling points of the Redmi 12 is the glass back of the smartphone. It might not be unique but in its price point, this makes the Redmi 12 more premium than most smartphones in its price range. While the back of the smartphone is made up of glass, the frame is still made up of plastic. Unlike other smartphones, the camera lenses are protruding but it doesn’t have a large protruding camera module like most smartphones these days.

As for the ergonomics, this one wouldn’t be the most ideal as the smartphone packs a flat frame and it comes with a bigger size. Nonetheless, the smartphone is a little bit light despite having a glass back. The color that we got comes in Polar Silver and I love the slight chromatic effect on the back of the smartphone.

For the ports, this one comes with a USB-C below along with the speaker grill and on the right side, there’s the volume rocker and also the fingerprint scanner that also acts as the power button of the smartphone. While on the top, there’s the headphone jack of the smartphone.

Display

The smartphone might be a budget one but the Redmi 12 comes with a pretty large 6.79-inch Full HD+ IPS display with a 90Hz refresh rate. It’s larger than the previous generation and the size is perfect for watching videos and for social media.

For its price, the Redmi 12 will do just fine for most of the basic stuff and as for the quality, again, it’s just fine for its price but you would definitely feel that it lacks the brightness and the colors compared to midrange smartphones in the market right now.

But hey, at least we got here a 90Hz refresh rate on the display and also a punch hole camera. 

Battery

For the battery, there’s the standard 5000mAh battery on the Redmi 12 and for the charging, the smartphone comes with 18W which isn’t as fast as their other smartphones and for today’s standards, it’s kinda slow now.

But again, we’re talking about a budget smartphone here so it will take a few hours before you can fully charge the smartphone. As for the battery, this one fell a bit short at around 11 hours in PC Mark Work 3.0 Battery Test which is a little bit disappointing

Software and performance

For the processor inside the smartphone, there’s the MediaTek Helio G88 processor for the smartphone along with the 8GB of RAM and also 128GB of storage which is pretty standard these days but thankfully, it’s not under that at its price range.

In our benchmarks, it’s pretty much the scores that we’re expecting from an affordable smartphone like this and with the Helio G88 inside it. Nonetheless, it does help that the smartphone packs an 8GB of RAM inside.

As expected, demanding games wouldn’t run at a higher frame rate despite setting it at a lower settings. Games like Farlight 84 would run but you need to set it at the lowest settings to enjoy a higher frame rate. If you’re planning on playing games like Call of Duty Mobile and Mobile Legends, these games would run just fine.

Camera

For the camera, the Redmi 12 comes with a 50MP main camera along with an 8MP ultrawide camera and also a 2MP macro camera while for the front-facing camera, there’s the 8MP sensor.

Again, it’s an affordable smartphone so my expectations weren’t really that high and for most shots, this one would do just fine if you just want to take photos and for its price, I wouldn’t really complain. But at least, it packs an ultrawide camera

The colors aren’t perfect, it’s not the sharpest one out there but it wasn’t as bad as I expected since this one is an entry-level smartphone. So if you’re thinking on a big leap from the previous generation, well, not so much. But the smartphone’s camera does the job. Check out the shots that I took using the smartphone:

Verdict

The Redmi 12 is a budget smartphone and it does the job as a budget smartphone. While the chipset is a bit dated and struggles in the demanding games, the smartphone can do the basic job that we need on a basic smartphone.

The camera needs a little bit of work and the battery wasn’t really that good. Nonetheless, this would pass as a basic smartphone that you can use as a secondary phone or just for browsing the web.

The Redmi 12 is priced at Php7,999.