Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G Review: Good Camera But Lax Performance

The Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G is the successor of the Realme 11 Pro Plus, a mid-range smartphone from Realme. Even though, it’s a mid-range phone, Realme 12 Pro Plus boasts a periscope zoom lens.

The Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G price in Nepal is Rs. 50,999 (12/256GB). It is cheaper than the Realme 11 Pro Plus which launched a year ago for Rs. 61,999 (12/256GB).

Realme 12 Pro Plus is a good phone and it is probably one of the best camera phones for the price. But, can it justify its price tag? The answer is a bit complicated.

I’m Anmol Shrestha, and this is my Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G review.

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Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G Review

Luxurious Design

• 152.80 x 71.50 x 8.20 mm
• 196 g
• IP65 dust & water resistant

The design of the Realme 12 Pro Plus is quite similar to the Realme 11 Pro Plus, there’s a circular camera module on the rear and vertical patterns that run across the leather back. But it’s better than the Realme 11 Pro Plus.

The vegan leather back of the 12 Pro Plus is thicker which provides it a more premium feel compared to the 11 Pro Plus. Likewise, the camera module is inspired by a premium watch design. The circular bezel resembles a watch dial and the vertical patterns mirror the texture of luxury watch straps.

The edges meet the plastic side frame without forming any gaps, creating a smooth transition between the frame and back that makes the phone feel more comfortable. In addition, the leather back provides a good grip.

Realme 12 Pro Plus is well-designed with excellent craftsmanship.

The right side of the frame houses the power button and the volume buttons whereas the left side is kept clean.

On the bottom is a SIM tray slot, a microphone, a USB Type-C port, and a speaker. On the top, you’ll find the mic and a speaker outlet.

The front of the phone is curved with a thin bezel and a hole punch in the middle. The phone is IP65-rated for dust and water resistance, which was missing on the Realme 11 Pro+.

The in-display fingerprint reader on the 12 Pro Plus is fast and responsive. But it is placed too close to the bottom edge of the screen. Except for the fingerprint position and plastic frame, Realme 12 Pro+’s build quality, design, and overall feel are outstanding.

Below Par Performance

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 (4nm)
• Octa-core (4×2.40 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4×1.95 GHz Cortex-A55)
• Adreno 710
• 256GB 12GB RAM, no microSD card slot

Realme 12 Pro Plus disappoints with its below-par performance. It features the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2, a downgraded 7 series chipset. With 12GB RAM and 256GB storage, Realme 12 Pro Plus is fast in normal tasks.

It’s not surprising that Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 handles everyday tasks like UI navigation, app opening, and switching between apps like a champ. What’s disappointing is its benchmark score and gaming performance, especially compared to other smartphones in the same price bracket.

Realme 12 Pro Plus manages a competitive score against the Samsung M55 and Samsung A35 in ANTUTU 10. Likewise, in GeekBench 6, Realme 12 Pro+ has a surprisingly low single-core score. But it is quite competitive in multi-score.

In GPU benchmarks, 12 Pro Plus is quite close to Samsung M55 in 3DMark WildLife but M55 leads the pack with a good margin. However, in WildLife Extreme even the Samsung A35 manages to outscore the Realme 12 Pro Plus, albeit by a very slim margin.

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Gaming

The gaming performance of Realme 12 Pro Plus is not up to the mark. In PUBG Mobile, it can go up to HDR graphics and Ultra frame rate. If you opt for Smooth graphics, you can push the frame rate to Extreme (60fps).

I tested the PUBG Mobile in Smooth graphics and Extreme frame rate configuration. The game ran flawlessly without any interruptions. During 30-minute gameplay, it achieved an average FPS of 58 without any noticeable frame drops.

To further test its gaming prowess, I also ran Genshin Impact. With the graphics set to Low and a frame limit of 60fps, Realme 12 Pro Plus delivered an average FPS of 45-50 during the first few minutes. After 5 mins of gameplay, it could not even hit stable 30 fps.

I am not sure if this issue is exclusive to our review unit. To investigate, I played Genshin Impact multiple times by tweaking various battery optimization settings and performance modes. The result was the same.

Realme 12 Pro Plus cannot compete against its rivals in terms of gaming performance.

Good Camera

• Rear Camera: 50 MP, f/1.8, 24mm (wide), 1/1.56″, 1.0µm, multi-directional PDAF, OIS
  • 64 MP, f/2.8, 71mm, (periscope telephoto), 1/2.0″, 0.7µm, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom
  • 8 MP, f/2.2, 16mm, 112˚ (ultrawide), 1/4.0″, 1.12µm

• Front Camera: 32 MP, f/2.4, 22mm (wide)

The camera quality is the redeeming feature of the Realme 12 Pro Plus. It is equipped with a 50MP OIS main camera, a 64MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom, and an 8MP ultrawide camera. For selfies, it features a 32MP front-facing camera.

Impressive 3X Photos

The telephoto camera of the Realme 12 Pro Plus delivers top-notch image quality, especially in daylight conditions. The 3x photos retain good sharpness, excellent dynamic range, nice color reproduction, and consistent exposure.

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Not just 3x, the 6x digital zoom photos are equally impressive. Realme has gone further and added 120X zoom as well. It won’t be as good as S24 Ultra but it is good enough for a mid-range phone.

The 3X telephoto lens is the only redeeming feature that gives it an edge over its competition.

Ultrawide Camera

The ultrawide camera is average for the price as you get decent detail in good lighting conditions. Although the ultrawide camera offers a wide dynamic range, the photos appear slightly soft and noisy around the edges, even in daylight.

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Main Camera

The main camera of the Realme 12 Pro+ is good for the price. It is not exceptionally good for the price but it produces good images with a wide dynamic range and vibrant colors. It compares well to the Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus, there’s not much difference between the two. Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus produces brighter images with slightly better contrast.

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Portraits

The portrait mode on the Realme 12 Pro Plus is quite good. The background blur effect is impressive, although the edge detection may appear a bit rough around the edges in some photos. You have the option to capture portraits using both the main camera and the telephoto camera, but I prefer the results from the telephoto camera.

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Low Light

Realme 12 Pro Plus has satisfactory performance in low-light conditions. The main camera stands out as the best performer in low light with minimal noise.

Photos taken in low light exhibit good sharpness and retain colors nicely. The telephoto is inconsistent in low light as it lacks the same level of sharpness as the main camera, although it maintains good color and contrast.

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Front Camera

Moving on to selfies, they are not impressive because of muted colors, low sharpness, and noise. Though it has good detail, selfies are not appealing.

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Videos

• 4k@30fps

The Realme 12 Pro Plus supports video recording up to 4K at 30fps from the main camera and 3x telephoto camera. The ultrawide and selfie camera maxes out at 1080p 30fps.

In terms of video quality, the Realme 12 Pro Plus captures good detail with the main lens. The videos look sharp with a wide dynamic range. However, it lacks color and contrast. The same goes for the telephoto camera.

The video quality is a step up from the Realme 11 Pro Plus with improved stabilization but EIS is still not available at 4k. Nonetheless, Realme 12 Pro Plus does a good job of keeping the footage stabilized while panning and walking.

The 3x telephoto lens takes decent videos with good stabilization.

AMOLED Display

• 6.7 inches AMOLED
• 1080 x 2412 pixels
• 120Hz refresh rate
• 950 nits (typ), 800 nits (HBM)

Realme 12 Pro Plus has a big 6.7-inch FHD+ AMOLED panel with 120Hz refresh rate. It doesn’t feel any better than the display of the Realme 11 Pro Plus. Moreover, it doesn’t have any HDR support which is a huge downside compared to the competition.

The 950 nits peak brightness and 800 nits HBM don’t have the same appeal as its rivals, at least on paper. Similarly priced Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus boats 1800 nits peak and 1200 nits HBM. Whereas the cheaper Samsung A35 has 1000 nits HBM.

Battles are won in real life and not on paper. However, Realme 12 Pro Plus’s display feels dull compared to that of the Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus and Samsung A35 in real life as well.

It has a decent AMOLED panel but pales in comparison to the competition.

Moving on to the colors, it is vibrant, and watching content is enjoyable. However, I did not enjoy the 120Hz refresh rate. Even when set to “High” which should set the refresh rate to 120Hz across every app and menu. It runs at 120Hz while navigating the UI and menu but most of the apps only run at a 90Hz refresh rate.

Battery, Speaker, and Haptics

• 5000mAh
• 67W wired charging

The battery capacity remains the same as the 11 Pro Plus at 5000mAh. It is more than enough for a day of mixed usage. However, Realme has decided to downgrade the 100W charging to 67W charging.

Realme 12 Pro Plus comes with a 67W adapter in the box. Previously, the 11 Pro Plus shipped with a 100W charger.

The fast charging downgrade doesn’t matter to me because the phone still charges from 0 percent to 100 percent in 43 minutes.

The dual speaker of Realme 12 Pro Plus is average. The speaker is loud but it lacks bass and thump. The haptics are decent though. It has crisp feedback but stronger vibration would have made it even better.

Software

• Android 14
• Realme UI 5.0

In terms of software, Realme UI 5.0 provides a familiar experience as Oxygen OS and Color OS.

Realme 12 Pro+ comes with Android 14 out of the box along with Realme UI 5.0. Moreover, Realme promises 2 years of major OS upgrades and 3 years of security updates.

Realme UI has smooth and fast animations. It does provide a variety of customization features as you can change fingerprint animation, charging animation, and much more. Some of the standout features are the fingerprint reader shortcuts and partial screenshots.

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So, this is my Realme 12 Pro Plus 5G review. What do you think about the phone? If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments!