realme has officially unveiled the 12 Pro series globally, with the 12 Pro+ highlighting a flagship-caliber camera setup thanks to a periscope unit. Despite the big upgrade, the reception for the 12 Pro series appear to be mixed, with most of the comments we got from our Facebook post saying that it is overpriced and does not offer good value.
We understand our community’s sentiments, and while we have yet gotten our hands on a review unit, let’s compare the realme 12 Pro+ to last year’s realme 11 Pro+ to see what has changed:
Design
Outside of the different color options, both the realme 12 Pro+ and 11 Pro+ share the same design language that includes a vegan leather back with a stripe running across the center. Both phones keep the same curved display and roughly the same dimensions, though the realme 12 Pro+ adds an IP65 rating. This means that the realme 12 Pro+ is dust tight and protected against water jets.
The realme 12 Pro+ also has a bigger camera module with a fluted ring that draws inspiration from luxury watches to give it a premium look. The bigger camera module is needed, as two of the realme 12 Pro+’s cameras have physically bigger sensors.
Display
Both realme phones feature the same display, which is a 6.7-inch 120hz curved AMOLED panel. Both have a Full HD+ resolution, an in-display fingerprint scanner, and a punch-hole for a 32-megapixel selfie camera. We have no complaints with realme retaining the same display on the 12 Pro+, since we generally liked the 11 Pro+’s overall display performance in our review.
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Cameras
The realme 12 Pro+’s biggest change is with the camera setup. While the 8-megapixel ultra-wide remains the same, the realme 12 Pro+ ditches the 11 Pro+’s filler macro camera for a much useful 64-megapixel OV64B periscope camera that has OIS and 3x optical zoom. This justified the realme 12 Pro+’s need to have a bigger camera module, and makes it more versatile for both photos and videos.
As for the main camera, the realme 12 Pro+ opted for a 50-megapixel IMX890 sensor that’s also found on realme’s higher-end phones like the GT3. While that may be far less megapixels than the realme 11 Pro+’s 200-megapixel ISOCELL HP3, it’s no secret that the IMX890 performs better especially with autofocusing because of its multidirectional PDAF system.
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Considering that the realme 12 Pro+ is positioned as a mid-range phone, the periscop camera is what will make it stand out, and that its main camera of choice effectively gives it a flagship-like camera setup.
Internals
The bulk of the criticsm for the realme 12 Pro+ is with its internals, where it uses a Snapdragon 7s Gen 2. The argument is that the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 is not an excellent choice for its asking price, but several media outlets point out that the mid-range Qualcomm chip is still better than the realme 11 Pro+’s Dimensity 7050–which is essentially based on the 2-year old Dimensity 1080.
Outside of performance gains, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2’s use of a 4nm process should also translate to better power efficiency compared to the Dimensity 7050’s 6nm process. We would like to confirm this once we get our hands on a review unit, so stay tuned for that.
Both phones also come with the same 5000mAh battery, but the realme 12 Pro+ gets a slightly slower 67w charging. The downgrade is not a big deal, as the charging time difference between 67w and 100w is around 10 minutes–and we still think that the former is the sweet spot for fast charging with mobile devices.
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Price
While we don’t know if the realme 12 Pro+ will have a 12GB/512GB variant, the price difference with the realme 11 Pro+ is not that far off. Assuming that there will be a 12GB/512GB variant available eventually, we expect the realme 12 Pro+ to be a few thousand Pesos more expensive than the realme 11 Pro+.
While the community may argue about the realme 12 Pro+’s processor of choice, the price hike is justified with the addition of a periscope camera, which is more expensive than the usual filler camera and is expected to drive the phone’s price higher. The realme 12 Pro+’s use of an IMX890 for the main camera is also a factor on why it’s expected to be more expensive.
That being said, the realme 12 Pro+ looks compelling on paper with its promising camera setup, but we will wait to get our hands on one to see if the camera upgrades are worth it.Â
