Xiaomi Redmi 12, A well-awaited smartphone for the Bangladeshi market. This is for a few different reasons. The mainstream Redmi releases are already popular in this country for at least five years. We are not talking about the Redmi Note series. Note series is also popular but it’s usually a bit pricier than the regular Redmi releases. Recently the Redmi Note 12 was released and we have also reviewed the Redmi Note 12 (4/128 GB variant) which is priced at ৳19,999. But the new Redmi 12 is priced at ৳18,999 so, the price difference is almost nothing. But here we are talking about an 8/256 GB model at a lower price. Now, this is interesting. Should you then go for the Redmi 12 or Redmi Note 12? We have compared these two phones in this article. You can check it to make a decision about it. But here we are only going to review the Redmi 12.
Design and Build
In our release announcement article about Redmi 12, we have already complimented this phone for its design. But here we are going into a little more detail. It comes with a boxy shape which generally gives a good grip and it shall for this phone as well. Even though the display is huge, it’s only 8.2 mm slim and the weight distribution is pretty nice. It should generally give a very good feeling and experience while holding in hand. The center punch hole on the front looks nice. The iPhone-like back camera design isn’t like one of those cheap replicate attempts. It looks elegant, and professional. The glass back brings it to a different level. You would hardly find any smartphone with a glass back around this price these days. The bezel is pretty thin. The fingerprint is also side-mounted, integrated into the power button. In one word, “stunning” design.
When it comes to build, yes the use of glass on the back makes it premium. A noticeable disadvantage of this phone is that there is no Gorilla Glass protection on the front. Perhaps this is the only reason why we can’t call this device a complete gadget. It was well expected. On the other hand, there is IP53-certified dust and splash resistance. Some phones at lower prices like this do offer this splash-resistance feature but only a very few come with a proper certification. So, this is a good advantage here.
Display
6.79 inches is a huge display. It’s one of the biggest you can get in the market. We usually see this kind of display only on Tecno phones now and then. Such as the Tecno Pova 4 comes with a huge 6.82 inches screen. Xiaomi used an IPS LCD panel and there is no AMOLED but we didn’t expect it for this price. Even it is not AMOLED the vibrant colors of the screen will surprise you. It is one of the best on a low budget. And we are talking about a proper Full HD+ screen as we as with 90Hz refresh rate support. It also has an SGS Low Blue Light Certification for better eye care and protection. Fabulous display.
Camera
Now let’s move on to the camera. We are dealing with a triple 50+8+2 Megapixel back camera and an 8 MP front camera. The results are satisfactory. We saw good colors and details, natural-looking shots, also quite fine during the night-time. You can’t expect it to be too good around this cost, but considering the price of course, the results are pretty nice. There is Full HD recording in both cameras without any stabilization which is another drawback of the phone if you want to shoot a video while walking outside for example.
Performance
It’s always a big and central deal. It’s like we say, people make the place, and similarly so, we can say, performance makes the phone. There is the latest optimized MIUI 14 user interface from Xiaomi on top of the latest Android 13. So, the software is super optimized and smooth. There is a Helio G88 chipset from MediaTek. You won’t get a better chipset than this for the price. But there is an exception. The Infinix Note 30 is offering a superior Helio G99 chipset for the same price (as of August 20, 2023). But that’s a big exception. Helio G99 is a mid-range chipset and Infinix came out of nowhere with the Note 30 as perhaps one of the greatest low-budget killers of all time. We have reviewed Note 30 from Infinix and also compared it with Redmi 12.
Apart from the Infinix deal, Helio G88 is a strong chipset for the price and Redmi 12 performs pretty smoothly. There is also 8 GB RAM so, no issue whatsoever with multitasking or any day-to-day tasks.
The battery is a part of the performance as well. There is a 5000 mAh battery with 18W fast charger. it may take about 2 hours and 10 minutes to charge the phone from 0-100% which is pretty fast and appreciated.
Connectivity and Others
There is USB Type-C, OTG, FM Radio, Infrared, NFC (market dependent), GPS, Bluetooth, dual-band WLAN, Hybrid dual SIM, 3.5 mm jack, etc. connectivity features. We also have a shared MicroSD slot and 256 GB eMMC 5.1 internal storage.
