Interestingly, in our usual looping video test, which plays a looped video at a standard 170cd/m² brightness with Flight mode on, the Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G performed better than its Plus brother, lasting an hour longer. What may be more of a deterrent for the general population is Xiaomi’s approach to software design. Xiaomi’s approach to software is ‘keep adding’, whether it’s new features, ways to access the same thing, ways to split simple interactions and more, Xiaomi gives a host of options, many that most people will never access. You can even shoot in HDR 10+ and view the incredible output in HDR 10+ for a complete video experience

There’s been precious little change on the front of the Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G, even since the days of the Redmi Note 10 Pro 5G. Moving to the ultrawide camera we see shots that have decent detail and colour for the segment, and the macro cam, as ever, is difficult to use and produces muddy shots. It’s faster than before, its camera is capable of decent results in a variety of conditions, the phone’s 6.67in AMOLED display is as good as ever, battery life is dependable, and charging is nice and fast. Despite that, we have some familiar gripes about MIUI and the phone’s secondary cameras.At up to 900 nits of brightness, it was mostly able to combat bright sunshine, with the caveat being that testing took place in the UK, not noted for challenging sunny conditions. Talking of accuracy, I recorded an sRGB gamut coverage of 99.6% against a gamut volume of 103.9%, with an average Delta E score of 1.36. This is a strong result for a mid-ranger, handily beating the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G. And, unlike Samsung’s brilliant effort, you also get HDR10+ and Dolby Vision support. Our Note Series has been received with a lot of love & appreciation in the past, so we are extremely proud to be presenting the next big thing, Redmi Note 12 Series. Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G features the flagship 50MP Sony IMX766 sensor with OIS, 120Hz Pro AMOLED Display, a brand new processor Mediatek Dimensity 1080 with 10 5G Band support and 67W Turbo Charge. India's first Sony IMX707 camera sensor on the wide angle sensor + OIS, The big 1/1.28" super large 50MP main sensor catches up to 120 percent more light and considerably more details in night photography, resulting in photographs with exceptional clarity and detail.

Xiaomi has clearly put all of its photographic eggs in this one 200MP basket, because the rest of the camera offering is pretty meagre. You get an 8MP (f/2.2) 120-degree ultrawide that can’t get within spitting distance of the main camera for sharpness, tone or dynamic range, while the 2MP macro camera is as useless as any other. Other than that, the app is the usual Xiaomi mish-mash of modes, some of which you may use, many of which you will not. It doesn’t get in the way of taking photos, and for the most part, is intuitive. It feels pretty smooth in the hand, though if you’ve spent any amount of time with a flagship phone, or even a snappier mid-ranger such as the Pixel 6a or the Realme GT Neo 3T, you’ll be able to tell the difference. There are more tiny pauses here and there, while apps take a little longer to load up and switch between. Remember what I said about that raised price placing the Redmi into elevated competition, however. Compared to the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G and the Google Pixel 6a, those performance figures don’t fare so well.Like its mid-range rival, the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus has had to justify a price bump over its predecessor. It has managed to do so, but perhaps not quite so comprehensively. One area in which the ‘budget’ smartphone segment has come on in leaps and bounds across the years is in general performance. Even at especially low price points, most phones barring a few egregious exceptions remain performant for most tasks that can be thrown at them.

MP Front Camera: Camera Feature: Portrait Mode, Front Video Recording, Palm Shutter, Voice Shutter, Movie Frame, Night Mode, Slow Motion, Timelapse, AI Watermark, Long Exposure, Panorama, Short Video The Sony IMX766 has been in a number of our favourite flagship and mid-range phones of the past few years, starting with the classy Oppo Find X3 Pro in 2021. More recently, it’s found its way into the Nothing Phone (1) and the OnePlus Nord 2T. Crucially, Xiaomi has paired that ageing but capable image sensor with OIS, keeping it nice and stable when the light starts to drop.

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In my experience this is a slight upgrade on the Snapdragon 695 5G used in other more affordable models, with faster benchmark scores across the CPU and GPU tests. It also feels slightly snappier in the hand than a contemporary Snapdragon 695 device such as the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G. I have yet to decide as a society what ‘Pro’ within the context of a smartphone really means. If we take the definition offered by Xiaomi, using the Redmi Note 12 Pro as an example, we see a device with a capable processor, a great screen, mostly decent cameras and decent battery life. For a lot of people, even those who aren’t a ‘Pro’, that is a compelling set of strengths.