I’m back in writing tech reviews for this time! I guess its a good start to go back in this blog for reviews and instead of shooting videos for my Youtube channel. But I might shoot a video review soon after I finish this write up project.
Thanks to realme Philippines for sending a realme 12+ 5G smartphone for me to try and test it and also, use it in my daily mobile lifestyle.
The realme 12+ 5G was sent before the official launch and I get to try it first and did several camera blind test shot. And let the people in my socmed to see which phone has a better camera quality.
In a short impression of the realme 12+ 5G smartphone, I’m impressed that the camera quality is much more better – thanks to its Sony LYT-600 sensor for a much sharp, crisp and clear photo quality. I’m a bit jealous that some of the reviewers got the better version - the realme 12+ Pro 5G which has a better camera and sensor specs and plus it can output a much better zoom in photo quality, thanks to its periscope feature. But thats okay, I got the realme 12+ 5G for review, but it has its limits – the zoom is not good, but the photo quality and video in normal or wide lens mode turns out to be fine.
That was a short review, but read the rest of my write up for a close up look and my full review of the realme 12+ 5G
Here’s the tech specs of the realme 12+ 5G
DISPLAY
6.67 inches Ultra Smooth OLED Display
120Hz refresh rate
600nits brightness, 2000nits peak brightness
240Hz touch smapling rate
1080 x 2400 FHD+
92.65% screen to body ratio
16.7M screen colours
Support Rainwater Smart Touch
IP54 water resistance
HDR 10+ Certification
TUV Reinland Low Blue Light Certification
BODY
Luxury Watch Design
Premium Vegan Leather
Polished sunburst dial
3D Jubille Bracelet
Polished PVD edges
CPU
MediaTek Dimensity 7050 5G Chipset
Octa Core
up to 2.6Ghz
6nm Process
GPU ARM Mali-G68 MC4
OS
realme UI 5.0
Based on Android 14
MEMORY
8GB RAM + 256 GB storage
12GB RAM + 256 GB storage
plus up to 12GB Ram Expansion
CAMERA
Rear camera
50 MP Sony LYT-600 sensor
8MP wide angle - 112 degree wide
2MP macro - 4cm macro
4K 30fps video recording
1080 30/60fps video recording
Super OIS
50MP Hi-res Mode
Front camea
16MP
1080p 30 fps video recording
Super OIS
Battery
5000 mah battery
67W SUPERVOOC Charge
UBS Type C port
Other Specs
Dual nano sim + 5G Dual mode
5G ready
In-display Fingerprint Sensor
USB Type C port
3.5mm earjack
Stainless Steel Vapor Cooling System
Dual speakers Hi-res sound
Antenna Array Matrix
Drop Protection
360 degree NFC
Body colors
Pioneer Green
Navigator Beige
SRP
Online Orders
8GB RAM + 256 GB - PHP 17,999
Lazada, Shopee, Tiktok intro price - PHP 14,999
12GB RAM + 256 GB - PHP 19,999
Lazada, Shopee, Tiktok intro price - PHP 16,599
March 7-15 only
Offline orders
8 GB RAM + 256 GB - PHP 17,999
freebie - TechLife 4.5L See-through Air Fryer worth PHP 2,799
12 GB + 256 GB - PHP 19,999
freebie - TechLife 4L Digital Rice Cooker or Hair Dryer
worth up to PHP 2,399
UNBOXING
Here’s the unboxing of the realme 12+ 5G
Inside the box of the realme 12+ 5G
- realme 12+ 5G unit
- jelly case
- manuals
- sim tray pin
- fast charging brick
- USB Type C cable
Take note that there are no earphones inside the box
CLOSE UP LOOK
Close up look of the realme 12+ 5G unit
Paper manuals
One of the most important thing here is the jelly case.
Im a jelly case user, because it can help protect the unit from damage if ever there are any accidental falls
SIM try pin tool.
You need this for your SIM tray access
Take note - its only for the dual SIM tray and not for microSD memory card.
The realme 12+ 5G dont have storage expansion
The ever reliable fast charging brick and cable.
Use it for ultra fast charging of your realme 12+ 5G
THE BODY
The body is very stylish using a premium vegan leather quality. It means that its a fake leather and not coming from an animal leather.
Since its like a leather quality body case, Im not confident that the fine and clean quality will last long, that’s why Im using that jelly case to protect the vegan leather body from damage or dirt.
The middle design has the 3D Jubilee Bracelet design, the one that gave another luxurious style to the realme 12+ 5G. It looks like theres a bracelet jewelry embedded on the body of the phone and connects a watch style to the circular shape camera.
Here’s the rear camera of the realme 12+ 5G with a Polished sunburst dial design and effect. You can see here the triple rear camera and the LED flash. When you look at the circular camera and move it around, you get a sunburst effect reflection from a light. That thing makes the realme 12+ 5G get a more premium look. I mentioned its a triple camera and you see that there’s a 4th one on the camera module, thats only a dummy design to add more balance to the camera module look. I tried covering it with my finger and there’s no effect on the camera’s output – it means there’s no lens on it.
The screen of the realme 12+ 5G, the pin hole design of the front camera with 16MP is at the top middle part of the screen and here you see the fingerprint scanner on the screen. I prefer this fingerprint scan on the screen, its easy to access the unlock feature and instead of that located on the side or at the back of the case of the phone.
At the bottom of the realme 12+ 5G you see here the SIM tray, USB Type C port and the speaker.
On top of the realme 12+ 5G is the 3.5mm headphone jack and some holes - the mic and also the other part is for a mini speaker for phone calls.
Right side of the realme 12+ 5G is the power button and the volume controls
Left side is just plain clean side of the realme 12+ 5G
THE CAMERA
Let’s talk about the camera of the realme 12+ 5G - which is the top selling point of this phone.
Back in the past, I didnt like the other old models of the realme smartphones. One of the most annoying feature is that some of their mid range models don’t have a wide angle lens. If they are putting a mid range price on the unit and competes with other brands, I prefer the other brands because they have the same price point but has a wide angle lens. Im not impressed on those mid range phones, but I guess some brands fell to it with the same problem, because another brand carries a much more better specs.
But here with the realme 12+ 5G – they finally listened to the smartphone users and realme fans that they now giving us a much better camera specs – for a mid range phone price now comes with a wide angle lens on the rear cam and also comes with an OIS or video stabilization on the rear and front camera.
The only thing that is missing is a - wide angle lens on the front camera. If they do this, the realme will be the perfect phone for people who loves to take pictures and do vlogs
Here’s a close up look on the rear camera photo mode.
It has a 1x, 2x and 0.6x feature on the photo camera menu. You can zoom the rear camera up to 20x, but dont expect a much better quality on it.
0.6x is already a much better wide angle lens feature.
There’s also a 0.6x wide angle for video. But the video will be cropped if you turn on the Ultra Steady mode during video mode. Some of the 0.6x will be lessen to give way the OIS to work on stabilizing the video
To turn on the video stabilization mode on video, just press the camera icon on the menu and you will activate the Ultra Steady feature – the only difference here is that the 0.6x and 1x will be cropped and the video will be set to 1080p 60fps.
If you are shooting at 1080p 30fps, and you turn on the Ultra Steady, the video will switch to 1080p 60fps, This is the only default when shooting with Ultra Steady. But if you are in 4K 30fps mode, it will shut off the 4K mode and switch to the Ultra Steady’s feature of 1080p 60fps
Is that good ?
For me its okay, the only thing I need here is the video stabilization
Even if the 0.6x angle is cropped, All I need to do is adjust and remind me that Im shooting a not so wide version of the video.
The Ultra Steady also works on the front camera!
Thank goodness!!!
Same thing, the default of the Ultra Steady on the front camera will switch to 1080p 30fps. Why 30fps? Because the front camera max resolution limit is up to 30fps. Which is okay.
Here are the other camera modes on the realme 12+ 5G.
PRO mode - if you want to control manually the entire settings of the camera. You can set the aperture, exposure level and the shutter speed.
Pano mode - I use this to capture a panoramic view in photos, much better to use this than the 0.6x if you want to get a much better quality
HI RES - set the shoot using the 50MP lens of the realme 12+ 5G, you get a much better quality in shooting at 50MP, but take note the zoom doesn't work or any other AI focusing at close up.
Macro - use this for close up of any tiny subject
Movie - a video setting where you can manually control the camera and also this one shoots a wider aspect ratio. If you convert it to a 1080p mode, you get that cinematic black bar to give a cinematic feel of your video.
Slowmo - slow motion video capture, you can set video speed of capturing moving subject at 120fps and up to 960fps
Time-lapse mode - shoot and capture landscape with time lapse feature in 10x speed up to 960x speed in 0.6x wide or in 1x normal mode.
Long exposure - use this to shoot star trails or any moving object to create a light trails on the photo. You can also use this to shoot a dark landscape view and want to capture more light on it. Better to use a tripod if you will use this feature.
Dual View video - shoot a video with the front and rear camera and create a video output in one shoot using the 2 cameras
Text scanner - take a photo of any text in a document and this will convert the text photo into a digital text copy – this is very useful for us bloggers when shooting info sheet in a press con
Group portrait - its a much better version of the portrait mode in wide angle, but the angle is not in full 0.6x but it has a good quality photo output using a wider mode for portrait shoot
Tilt shift - this photo mode add blur lines on the top and bottom of the photo, giving a better focus on the subject. Just choose and select how you want to use the DOF or the depth of field
One of my favorite on this realme 12+ 5G is this STREET camera mode. Using this it gives me a street photography simulation of using 3 different kinds of camera lenses. - the 16mm, 26mm and 52mm, one of the perfect style of using it for street photography. It simulates the focal length of the camera and gives you a street photography vibe.
Im using this mode, because I want to set my camera on the realme 12+ 5G to simulate the preferred lens that I want.
NOTIFICATIONS
Things that I didnt like in this phone is the notification of the App Market and Theme Store.
Im glad that you can turn it off after setting up the phone
Lots of these notif are a clutter on the screen. Im glad that you can choose any app to turn off or turn on the notif
THE SIM CARD SLOT
Here’s the SIM tray slot for the dual SIM
We’re hoping that we can expand the internal storage of the realme 12+ 5G, but some users prefer a much larger space. I know that the 256 GB storage is not enough, but thats the mid range tech specs of this realme unit.
SIM number 2
Its a back to back dual SIM tray.
GAMING
For gaming, I tested the realme 12+ 5G in playing Call Of Duty Mobile game. I super love the performance as the screen gives a 120hz refresh rate with 240hz touch sampling rate. A perfect specs for FPS gaming. Plus the performance of the game and also my game play has no lags, thanks to its CPU - MediaTek Dimensity 7050 5G Chipset
Watch my gaming test here in Battle Royale mode - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ks7YUpqeLs
Gaming is smooth and clear! The only thing I should complain is that the front camera pinhole is very distracting. You see the photo above? The fire button sits near the front camera, All I have to do next is to move the fire button away from the front camera. For FPS gamers, this will be an issue, But Im glad that we can move the fire button away from the camera.
Watch my gaming test here in Multi player mode- https://youtu.be/i7woJ4jfbnM?si=HRLIVZNIm104mOp0
CHARGING
In order to enjoy the max performance of the realme 12+ 5G, its better to use the original charger and USB Type C cable, so that you can get the SUPERVOOC 67W fast charging feature to the unit.
The 5000mah battery is big and charging it fast will not delay your mobile activity on the phone.
THE CAMERA BLIND TEST
Before the launch of the realme 12 series, I got a chance to post a teaser of the phone and let the netizen check out the camera quality of the realme 12+ 5G
Here are my samples.
HDR in photo works perfectly on the realme 12+ 5G
Color is much more vibrant using the rear camera of the realme 12+ 5G
It enhances the color and also the lighting of the subject.
The photo details is much more better with no harsh color
The selfie camera is also good!! Much more wider than the other phone that I use to take selfies.
SHOTS FROM REALME 12+ 5G
VIDEO SAMPLE
I did also a vlog test, you can view the sample here in my Youtube channel.
Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onBqnM1yDOA
THE REVIEW
I can say that the realme 12+ 5G is the best mid range realme smartphone of 2024. Im comparing to the old models of the yesteryears and Im happy to say that the realme 12+ 5G is a good grab if you want to upgrade your phone or want to switch to a mid range model.
For content creators like me, this phone is best to use because the photo and video performance fits well to our needs for content creation. It produces good quality photos, more camera modes to choose from and the video stabilization feature is the thing we need for our Tiktoks or vlogs, so bye bye to shaky video output and hello to well stabilized video content.
For gaming, Im much of a FPS guy, for gaming we require a much more fast paced action and movements when using the phone, thanks to its 120hz refresh rate, and the CPU is well good on the realme 12+ 5G, performing well on my Call of Duty Mobile activities. Plus the screen is bigger and the touch screen is very responsive during the FPS gameplay.
No more eye strains in using this phone, thanks to its HDR 10+ Certification and TUV Reinland Low Blue Light Certification, we can enjoy using the phone for longer times and no eye tiredness to experience. For screen performance, the realme 12+ 5G screen is much more better than my laptop’s screen!
Stylish and tech combines in one phone. The realme 12+ 5G is fit for the lifestyle user and for mega tech user. Why? Because combining the two genre makes one to be part of another. Means that a stylist lifestyle person can be a tech cyborg, and while the tech cyborg can be one of the stylish lifestyle person when it comes to the design of the phone and also its updated tech specs.
WATCH ALSO MY UNBOXING VLOG OF THE REALME 12+ 5G
Watch it here - https://youtu.be/xSkPTaCABS8?si=vH_449I8O7GQVDz4
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