Last year realme introduced the vegan leather design on their number series. The realme 11 series carried an astonishing and eye catchy appearance when it first came out. Since then I have been impressed and was planning to buy the realme 11 Pro+ to experience a leathered-back smartphone. Then realme 12 series was announced and fortunately, we got a hold of a review unit earlier than expected.
There are two current iterations of the realme 12 series just like the 11 series when they first came out. Today we will talk about the realme 12+ 5G and what it brings to the market for mid-range smartphones.
Design & Build
If you compare the build of the realme 12+ 5G to last year’s realme 11, this device is a lot thicker. It weighs about 190g but it doesn’t feel heavy and it is easy to carry around. It comes with rounded edges and a thickness of 7.87mm. In terms of feel, the vegan leather of the realme 11 series still feels good to hold since it is thinner and softer. Although it didn’t lose its grip, and it is still comfortable to hold on to.
Around its frame, you get a speaker grille on top and at the bottom of the device. It also comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack on top. Volume rockers and the power button are located on the right, USB C port for charging, and a SIM Tray that has a Dual-Sim slot located at the bottom.
Display
For its display, the realme 12+ 5G boasts a 6.7″ FHD+ E4 AMOLED display that is then paired with a 120Hz refresh rate and a touch sampling rate of 240Hz. It also offers IP54 dust and water resistance but with no indicated glass protection.
Its bezel-less design looks great, and it looks like the whole front of the phone is full-on display. For its display quality, the colors are great with decent sharpness and vibrancy. There is also no noticeable color change when viewed from a different angle so enjoying a show while doing other activities is not a problem.
Camera
Heading to its cameras, the realme 12+ 5G is equipped with a triple camera setup that houses a 50MP Sony LYT600 OIS main shooter, 8MP ultrawide, 2MP macro, and 16MP front-facing shooter. It doesn’t come with a protruded camera module like the Pro+ but it still has some camera bump on it.
The quality of shots is great, especially in the outdoors. It offers a wide dynamic range with good sharpness and contrast. Colors are also vibrant and sharp with an impressive amount of details. There are times that highlights tend to blow out but overall the quality of all the images taken is post-worthy.
The 16MP also delivers good quality images with true-to-life skin tone and good details. Although there are times that results tend to have flares due to lighting all in all the selfie quality is good.
For its video recording, It can shoot up to 4K@30FPS with ultra steady off. If you want to use the ultra steady then you can only shoot up to 1080P@60FPS. Here are some sample videos;
Performance & Benchmarks
Under the hood, realme 12+ 5G is powered by a 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 7050 chip. Our review unit comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Both RAM and storage are expandable with up to another 12GB RAM via RAM expansion and up to 2TB of expandable storage via microSD card. In terms of performance, the 7050 chip is ample enough to deliver decent performance while providing a greater display.
Running on its software is Realme UI 5.0, which is based on Android 14. There are some pre-loaded applications installed but all of them can be uninstalled easily. Navigating through its display is also smooth thanks to its 120Hz refresh rate. I’ve been using this device as my daily driver for a couple of weeks now and so far we haven’t encountered any problems.
Here are some of its benchmark results.
Battery
As for its battery and charging, the realme 12+ 5G is backed by a 5000mAh battery capacity which is then paired with 67W of fast charging. Juicing up the device from 0 to 100 percent took us about 45 minutes which is always good, especially for people who are always in a rush. In terms of battery life, during our video loop test our battery lasted for about 17 hours and 45 minutes.
Overall the realme 12+ 5G is a good offering by realme in the mid-range market. It has good performance, good camera qualities, and a premium vegan leather design. Even though it doesn’t look as luxurious as its Pro+ counterpart still switching from a plastic or glass back towards a vegan leather design is a refreshing experience.
The realme 12+ 5G is priced at Php 17,999 pesos. Starting on March 7 up to March 15 you can get it for 14, 999 pesos on Realme’s official Lazada, Shopee, and Tiktok shops. If you are eyeing a new mid-range device that is affordable but offers a vegan leather design, good cameras, and decent performance then the realme 12+ 5G is a good upgrade path.
