The realme 12 5G is the newest smartphone of the company in the country designed for those who want good looks and stable performance without spending too much cash. |
realme 12 5G's unique design |
It features a 120Hz 6.72-inch AMOLED screen, a 6nm Dimensity 6100+ octa-core processor, LPDDR4X RAM, 256GB of storage, and a 5,000mAh battery with 45W SUPERVOOC charging.
At the back of the phone are the 108MP main camera and a 2MP depth sensor while in front is the 8MP selfie camera.
Running the show is Android-14-based realme UI 5.0. It retails for PHP 14,999 making it PHP 1K more expensive than the realme 11 5G last year.
Let's take a look at it.
Unboxing/Accessories
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realme 12's outer packaging |
It arrived with the usually yellow realme box with a simple print of the phone model and branding in front and some of the key details at the back. What's new is the diagonal line pattern that adds a new visual interest to the box.
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realme 12 5G box inclusions |
Inside, you will immediately see a smaller carton box with the documentation, the SIM ejector tool, and the FREE TPU clear case.
After that, you will get the phone itself, the 45W SUPERVOOC brick, and the fast-charging ready USB-A to USB-C cable with data transfer support.
There are no included earphones and the screen protector is preinstalled on the phone's screen.
Build Quality/Design
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realme 12 5G's design takes cues from its big brothers who were inspired by luxury watches |
At first glance, the realme 12 5G looks similar to the realme 12+ 5G without the gold trim. Like it, it is made of a combination of glass and polycarbonate. At first glance, the phone is head-turning.
Neat frosted-glass-like finish
The front glass has a preinstalled screen protector while the rear panel has a frosted-glass-like finish. This makes it resistant to fingerprint smudges, but the phone is still slippery despite this and the flat-sided frame. We recommend wearing a case.
If you look closely at the large circular camera module, there are faux metal ridges that invoke the luxury watch aesthetic. The ridges aren't as prominent as the realme 12 Pro 5G but add to the watch's overall look and feel.
It measures 165.6 x 76.1 x 7.69 mm and weighs 188 grams. It is IP54 water and dust resistance rated.
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realme 12 5G's display |
In front, the device boasts a 6.72-inch LTPS LCD screen with a 2,400 x 1,080 resolution, a Dynamic 120Hz refresh rate, a 240Hz Touch Sampling rate, and a 950 nits peak brightness.
The phone has slim enough bezels to offer a 91.4 percent screen-to-body ratio.
On the upper part of the panel is the punch hole that houses the selfie camera while at the middle lower third is an in-display fingerprint scanner.
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Top and bottom sides of the realme 12 5G |
On top, it has the microphone, the secondary speaker, and the SIM tray. Below, it has the 3.5mm headphone jack, the other microphone, the USB-C port, and the speaker grill.
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Left and right |
There's nothing on the left side while on the right side are the polycarbonate volume rocker and the power button. Both have short travel and a plastic-y feel when pressed.
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realme 12 5G's rear camera module |
The back has the 108MP f/1.75 main camera with a 1/1.67-inch sensor and the 2MP f/2.4 depth sensor with an LED flash.
Improved 108MP processing?
The included modes of the stock camera app include Photo, Video, Night, Street, Pro, Pano, Portrait, Time-lapse, Slow-Motion, Text Scanner, Hi-Res, Tilt-Shift, Movie, Dual-view video and Group Portrait.
First Camera Samples
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realme 12 5G's rear main camera in daylight |
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realme 12 5G's rear main camera in daylight 1x |
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realme 12 5G's rear main camera in daylight 2x |
So far, the rear camera's 1x and 2x crop are producing great daylight images. The color and contrast are pleasing while being tack sharp and with plenty of detail.
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realme 12 5G's selfie camera daylight |
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realme 12 5G's selfie camera portrait |
While the selfies are surprisingly good. The image has good color reproduction while being decently sharp and contrasty. The portrait mode's edge detection worked well and only missed fine hair fibers.
Stay tuned for more camera samples soon.
realme 12 5G Specs
Display: 6.7-inch LCD (IPS) screen w/ 120Hz refresh rate, 240Hz touch sampling rate, FHD+ 2400 x 1080 resolution at 392 ppi
CPU: 2.2GHz 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 6100+ octa-core processor
GPU: Mali-G57 MC2
RAM: 8GB
ROM: 256GB
Back Camera: 108MP f/1.75 Samsung HM6 main camera + 2MP f/2.4 depth + LED flash
Selfie Camera: 8MP f/2.0
Battery: 5,000mAh w/ 45W SUPERVOOC
OS: Android 14 w/ realme UI 5.0
Connectivity: WiFi (2.4GHz/5GHz), 5G SA/NSA, Dual 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 5.2, OTG, GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, QZSS, NavIC, dual SIM
Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic
Others: Side-mounted fingerprint sensor, Super Linear Dual Speakers, 3.5mm audio jack, Hi-Res Audio, Dolby Atmos, Dual-mic Noise Cancellation, USB-C, Colors: Woodland Green, Twilight Purple
Dimensions: 165.6 x 76.1 x 7.7 mm
Weight: 188 g
Price: PHP 14,999
Quick thoughts
The realme 12 5G is looking to be one of the more elegant and unique-looking smartphones in its price category.
Out of the box, we are happy that it comes with a 108MP main camera with 3x zoom portrait camera capability, a luxury-watch-like design, a 120Hz FHD+ display, and dual stereo speakers.
Under the hood are the MediaTek Dimensity 6100+ octa-core processor and the 5,000mAh battery with 45W SUPER VOOC charging. It supports up to 16GB total RAM with an additional 8GB Dynamic RAM.
On paper, the specs are not the bleeding edge, but it is fairly competitive in the price category. Only time will tell how it will perform and how it will endure a user's everyday use.
So far, we are seeing very few compromises with the new realme 12 5G.
We are working on our full review which will be finished by next week, so stay tuned.
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