First impressions: realme 12+ 5G

Year after year, realme impresses us with what it offers in the midrange segment. By the looks of it, the upcoming realme 12+ 5G is no exception. The tech brand hits the right spot by continuously innovating the number series’ design and mobile photography. 

Design and build

The realme 12+ 5G followed the fashionable footsteps of its predecessor, boasting a premium vegan leather finish at its rear. The gold accent that stretches from top to bottom is a nice touch to amplify its premium look.

What’s new and worth our attention is the situation at the camera layout. The design is heavily inspired  by luxury watches. This starts with the polished sunburst dial, followed by the golden fluted bezel, and ends with the 3D Jubilee bracelet. Props to Ollivier Savéo, well-renowned watch designer, for skillfully blending these elements to create one of the most luxurious camera panels I’ve seen so far. 

It leans more on the heavier side, weighing 190g; but at least it’s able to keep a relatively slim profile of 7.87mm. On a different note, If you’re a fan of boxy frames like I am then you have more reasons to like the realme 12+ 5G. It’s much easier to grip without completely compromising comfort. 

Display

Up front, a large 6.67-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate greets you. It also has a 92.65% screen-to-body ratio and 2000 nits of brightness. Durability is also one of its strengths as it’s built with 0.68mm Secondary Tempered High Strength Glass and supports Rainwater Smart Touch. 

Everything combined, you can expect that the realme 12+ 5G will satisfy doom scrollers, series bingers, clumsy fingers, and outdoorsy fellows.

Camera

If you’ve been following realme’s number series you’ll know that the tech brand is no slouch when it comes to mobile photography. The flashy triple camera layout flaunts the 50MP Sony LYT 600 OIS, 8MP wide angle camera, and 2MP macro camera. 

Those who love to shoot at night can take advantage of the main shooter as it allows a high level of light intake to produce well-lit photos. At the same time, it supports Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) for clearer and crisp photos even when you have shaky hands. There’s also the 2x In-Sensor zoom at your disposal to achieve high quality zoomed-in shots. 

If you want to get creative, the realme 12+ 5G is equipped with cinematic filters that are customized with the help of Oscar Award Winner for Best Cinematography, Claudio Miranda. This includes Journey (inspired by Life of Pi), Memory (inspired by The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), and Maverick (inspired by Top Gun). 

Finally, for selfie enthusiasts, the front panel houses the 16MP selfie camera.

Performance

Similar to its predecessor, this newest iteration is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7050 processor. If we’re going to use our previous experience as a reference, we can expect good things from the realme 12+ 5G in terms of performance. 

Running various loads should be smooth all throughout. But we’ll find out if there’s more to it that’ll get us talking. 

Storage options for this variant include 8GB RAM + 256GB ROM and 12GB RAM + 256GB ROM. The latter is what we’re reviewing, which should allow us to multitask seamlessly and store a lot files.

Battery

To be considered a great companion for one’s daily grind, a device should possess the combination of a large battery life and fast charging capabilities. That’s something we can expect from the realme 12+ 5G as it’s built with 5000mAh battery and comes with a 67W SUPERVOOC charger. According to realme, the device can power up from 0 to 100% in just 48 minutes. 

Initial thoughts

The realme 12+ 5G leaves a good impression with its luxurious design and enhancements in mobile photography. As for the remaining features, they all look good on paper so we’ll see how it’ll fare once we put it to the test. 

Catch the livestream launch on March 7 at 6pm to know more about the realme 12 series.