The realme 12 5G has finally arrived completing the realme 12 series 5G lineup under its Number series.
If you already like the features found on its top-tier models but have budget concerns, we would recommend the realme 12 5G. However, there will be some slight changes but you’ll still enjoy the elegant design aesthetics, flagship-level camera, and hardware performance just like the realme 12 series 5G higher-end models.
We’ve already shared our initial impression of the phone, we will now share our experience and add more additional information of the features included on the new realme 12 5G.
So, let’s go on to the review.
Build Quality and Design
During the long weeks spent on the realme 12 5G, the phone is lightweight, sleek, comfortable to hold, and shows off its really great aesthetics.
You can choose from two available color ways in Twilight Purple and Woodland Green the color variant we got.
The first thing that catches your eye is the premium back panel design adding a touch of elegance and class to the device.
Just like its top-tier variants (realme 12+ 5G and realme 12 Pro+ 5G) it is inspired by trendy watch design found on the large circular camera module in which realme calls it the Polished Sunburst Dial. When light shines on the Sunburst Dial, it reveals a number of gradient sunburst patterns which in return creates the classic sunburst effect of luxury watch dials.
Additional design elements is the 3D Jubilee Bracelet easily found at the center which has these beautiful embossed diamond patterns flowing all the way from top to bottom. It also resembles a textured effect of luxury watch straps.
The back cover look so premium offering an appealing dark green tones in gradient finish and adding a shimmer effect.
The buttons and ports are all complete of what you need like the USB-C port for charging and data transfers, loud speaker grille, SIM card tray, volume, and power button. They also added a 3.5mm audio jack for your wired headphones or external portable speakers.
The side-mounted power button doubles as a biometric fingerprint button. In addition, it has a Dynamic Button feature that you can set a specific function by double tapping or double pressing it. Here are the following functions:
- Sound Modes (Ring, Vibrate, Mute)
- Quick Card Pack / Snap Cards
- Turn On / Off DND (Do Not Disturb)
- Turn On ”Riding Mode”
- Turn On / Off Airplane Mode
- Turn On Camera (Street Mode / Google Smart Lens)
- Set Timer
- Open Camera
- Open An App
Looking on the front of the phone are thin bezels all around except for the bottom chin which is slightly raised and never been an issue with our viewing experience.
It has an IP54 rating allowing good protection from dust and water resistance suitable for use in various environments.
The company ensures that the phone is durable and capable of withstanding wear and tear by subjecting it to more than 320 stringent tests including 200,000 times of clicking the power button, 200,000 times of clicking on the volume rocker buttons, 20,000 times of plugging and un-plugging the USB cable, Temperature tests at -40 degree Celsius to 75 degrees Celsius for 300 hours, Long-term high temperature and high humidity at 65 degrees Celsius.
Display
The 6.72-inch AMOLED display is bright, sharp, and vibrant. Even when the brightness is reduced to 40 percent at night, the screen remains intense.
You can even buff up the saturation using the screen color mode from vivid or natural if you prefer the colors are a bit less. I use the vivid mode when I watch cartoons like X-Men ‘97 on the phone for a more toned up colors.
Scrolling is more smooth on the screen with the 120Hz refresh rate and a big help when playing games or scrolling through your social media feed to reduce the input lags.
For maximum power efficiency and performance, the phone supports a 6-Level Dynamic Refresh Rate – 45Hz, 48Hz, 50Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz, and 120Hz, allowing the display to tweak the refresh rate depending its use.
With the Sunlight mode feature, the brightness of the display will go up to 950 nits which I was able to barely see the phone under direct sunlight. However, if you’re not planning to use the phone outdoors, I would recommend turning off this feature as it can drain your battery faster.
You will definitely enjoy watching your favorite streaming apps, YouTube videos, web browsing as well as playing games on this phone with the display looking sharp, vibrant, smooth, and excellent color reproduction.
Performance
Let’s explore the built-in chipsets of the realme 12 5G.
The phone is based on Mediatek’s mid-range SoC the Dimensity 6100+ an octa-core processor manufactured on a 6nm process with an integrated 5G modem. The CPU offers clock speed of up to 2.2GHz and paired with an ARM Mali-G57 for its graphics.
It has 256 GB of internal storage, but upon on its initial startup, a 21.7 GB of storage is already consumed with the system occupying 12.8 GB of space.
You still have a lot of storage space with 234.3 GB remaining. If ever you need more space, the phone offers expandable storage capabilities of up to 2 GB via a microSD card.
For the RAM, it utilizes 8GB of memory, but it can enhance performance even further through the Virtual RAM expansion feature, which adds an additional 8GB from the device’s internal storage bringing to a total of 16GB RAM. You can choose the RAM capacity either in 4GB, 6GB, or 8GB.
Sharing out benchmark scores we got for the realme 12 5G:
- GeekBench 6 CPU: 734 Single Core / 1919 Multi-Core
- GeekBench 6 GPU: 1279 OpenCL Score
- CPDT: 244.34 MB/s Write, 314.93 MB/s Read
- PCMark: 9677 Work 3.0 Performance
- 3DMark: 1230 Wild Life (7.37 fps)
Sound Quality
The realme 12 5G also features stereo speakers certified with Hi-Res Audio for a superior sound quality. The audio is mostly coming out from its bottom grille speakers, they’re fairly good with clear vocals, loud on the high-tones, and lacks a bit of bass. However, it is still sufficient for streaming video content or listening to your favorite tunes on this device.
The Ultra Volume mode can extend the speakers volume up to 200 percent for your media, ringtones, alarms and notifications should you need a more clear audible sound especially in noisy environment.
Biometrics and Security
For biometrics, the realme 12 5G has a face and fingerprint unlock, they are easy to register, it’s responsive and fast.
For more added security on your device, you can opt for the screen lock choosing between a numeric, alphanumeric or pattern.
Camera
On the camera department, the realme 12 5G sports a dual camera setup at the rear with a 108MP lens for its main camera and a 2MP portrait lens
The main camera employs a Samsung HM6 sensor featuring a 9-in-1 pixel-binning technology to produce clear photos when shot at night or dark situations. This sensor is also fitted on the other realme phones including the realme 9, 11, and C67.
You can now shoot photos or portraits from much closer distances using the built-in 3x In-Sensor Zoom without the need to physically approach the subject to get a clear and sharp results.
Selfie shooters will get an 8MP lens with a f/2.0 aperture on the front camera. It has a sensor size of 1/1.67-inch, a focal length of 25mm, and an 80-degree field of view.
There’s no ultrawide lens on the camera, but if you need to take photos for a wide view of the surrounding, there’s a Pano or Panoramic mode that you can pan the phone from left or right to put together a wider scenic shot.
The functions on the camera app were properly laid and easy to use to take your photos.
By default you get five shooting modes ready to use – night, street, video, photo, and portrait. If you click the more options there’s another set of shooting modes with pro, pano, hi-res, movie, slo-mo, time-lapse, dual-view video, text scanner, group portrait, and tilt-shift.
On the camera viewfinder, the top portion allows users to access the flash, Google lens, and the hamburger menu to gain access to the other settings or functions.
Just above the shooting modes, the zoom switch dial provides easy access to 1x and 3x zoom options at the center, extending up to a maximum of 20x.
Next to it, you’ll find access to color filters and retouch tools for further photo enhancement.
On the portrait mode you only get zoom options at 1x and 3x, on its left side you can toggle the depth of field to control the bokeh or amount of background blur.
Use the Group Portrait mode if you are shooting more people on the frame as the sensor will easily detect everyone’s face to enhance more details. The face detection can catch up to 10 people in the frame.
realme has partnered with Claudio Miranda, Oscar Award Winner for Best In Cinematography and realme Invited Photography Master, to developed three new Portrait Filters that include Journey, Memory and Maverick. These color filters can help enhance portrait shots by altering the appearance of your photos by affecting the light, colors, contrast, or sharpness of the image.
I was fortunate to receive an invitation by realme Philippines to their “realme Real Summer Experience” event in Zambales. In the said event, we were able to test out the capabilities of the phone’s camera as we took photos during our island hopping activities and the stunning resort where we stayed.
After checking our photos, we found out that the photos captured using the main camera during well-lighted conditions especially direct sunlight turned out to be bright, contrast is good, colors not too oversaturated, and detailed images. You’ll definitely get outstanding photo quality.
The 3x In-Sensor Zoom also performs very well with sharp images and good color reproduction. Portrait images also managed to capture good details with a nice separation between the subject and the blurred background.
Low light situations can produce decent image quality with softer details, and a small amount of noise. With this kind of situation, we suggest to try the Night mode to help your photos appear bright, adjust a decent amount of good exposure, and lessen the presence of noise.
Sharing the photos we took for you to see the image quality of the camera on the realme 12 5G.
1x Photo mode, Main Camera, Sunny Weather
1x Photo mode, Main Camera, Sunny Weather
3x Photo mode, Main Camera, Sunny Weather
3x Photo mode, Main Camera, Sunny Weather
1x Photo mode, Main Camera, Sunny Weather
Group Portrait mode, Main Camera, Sunny Weather
1x Photo mode, Main Camera, Low Light
Night mode, Main Camera, Low Light
Night mode, Main Camera, Low Light
Selfie camera test resulted in pretty decent image quality with facial details, skin tones are natural, and accurate colors. However, if you shoot in low lit environments the photo quality becomes soft and a few presence of noise can be spotted.
Selfie, Front Camera, Sunny Weather
Portrait mode, Front Camera, Sunny Weather
For videos, you can record resolutions at 720p or 1080p with the available frame rate at 30fps.
Connectivity
It supports smart 5G connectivity with a hybrid SIM tray enabling users to use either 2 nano-SIM cards or 1 SIM card + 1 microSD card for storage expansion.
Other connectivity features on the realme 12 5G are NFC, OTG, and the latest version of Bluetooth 5.3 which allow for better battery life and data transfer more efficient and faster.
Software
The realme 12 5G runs on realme UI 5.0 based on the latest version of Android 14.
There are some apps pre-installed on the phone like Booking.com, Facebook, Fineasy, Lazada, LinkedIn, Netflix, Shopee, and TikTok, There are a few games installed as well, then you also have some of realme’s proprietary apps. If you don’t want these apps on your phone, you can easily uninstall them.
The realme UI 5.0 performs very well it’s smooth and responsive with extra customization options if you wish to tweak the colors of the UI, wallpaper, themes, font, etc. You get the usual set of features that might help boost productivity such as an always-on display for a quick glance at your notifications, smart sidebar for easy access to apps, floating windows, and split screen.
The brand incorporated their innovative realme lab-developed technology called the Mini Capsule which is found on the front camera section. This Mini Capsule resembles a sizable pill-shaped area with an animated effect that expands horizontally that display a short information such as charging and battery status, music playback, weather updates, step tracking, and data usage.
I enjoyed how convenient it is of being able to control some functions on my Spotify app directly from the Mini Capsule. With a simple tap, I could play/pause the music, swipe all the way from the right to skip to the next track, or swipe left to go back to the previous song.
Another added feature is the File Dock that enables users to manage files like images, text, or videos by temporarily storing them in the smart sidebar to allow for easy retrieval, transfer, or organization of files.
This is convenient tool, especially when composing a document or presentation that incorporates photos and text for easy organization and streamline content creation without the hassle of repeatedly opening the photo gallery or engaging in back-and-forth doing copy-pasting texts.
Now, if you’re driving a car or riding a motorcycle/bike, the Riding Mode proves to be a practical feature to use. When activated, Riding Mode mutes all notifications except incoming calls and sends an auto-reply if a call is declined. The interface provides shortcuts for Google Maps, easy access to contacts, and a music control to aid the driver in avoiding distractions and maintaining focus on the road.
Battery
The realme 12 5G packs a large 5,000mAh battery capacity and can be charged quickly, thanks to the 45W SUPERVOOC fast charging technology.
In our charging test, you can get a 45 percent charge in just under 30 minutes, it went up to 52 percent after 20 minutes. It took us around 1 hour 34 minutes to fully charge the phone from 0 to 100 percent.
To prevent abnormal charging and keep the device safe due to the quick speed charging, it is equipped with an intelligent chip and an array of 38 safety protection feature.
There are more options found on the battery settings like power saving mode, smart charging, screen battery optimization and more. It can aid in keeping the battery from draining or extending its lifespan.
The battery life is quite impressive. During our “realme Real Summer Experience” event, we used the phone all day to capture photos and videos of our travels to Zambales, two-hour island hopping, and our arrival at Sundowners Beach Resort. We also used the device to check, update, and post the photos on our social media apps. Despite these activities, the day ended with the battery of the phone at 58 percent.
We also did some gaming, watch a few TikTok videos, and more camera tests during our siesta time in which resulted to drain the battery more. However, we were happy to see that the realme 12 5G can last for an entire day of use before it needs to recharge.
If you’re not a heavy user, the battery would last for up to two days on a full charge.
What We Like
- Trendy Watch Design Concept
- 120Hz AMOLED Display
- RAM and Storage Expansion
- Main Camera
- Group Portrait Mode
- Dynamic Button
- Mini Capsule, File Dock, and Riding Mode
- Battery Life
- 45W SUPERVOOC
- Price
What We Want
- 1080p @ 60fps
- Ultra-wide Lens
- Improve Sound Quality
Conclusion
The latest Realme 12 5G is priced at PHP14,999 and is now available in all Realme concept stores nationwide, as well as on its official e-commerce partners on Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok Shop.
We loved the elegant look featuring a trendy watch inspired design on the circular camera dial and the diamond patterns that are sure attract anyone’s attention.
The performance is pretty solid, the AMOLED display is bright and sharp, while the battery life is good, and the main camera is reliable that captures good photos especially during bright scenarios. While it lacks an ultra-wide lens, users can choose the Pano mode in case you need to shoot a wider field of view.
The Realme 12 5G met our expectations by delivering a balanced overall experience almost similar to its top-tier variants.
Overall, the realme 12 5G is an ideal choice for yuppies, seasoned workforce, millennials, executives, and even parents who’s looking for a phone with excellent aesthetics and camera quality with an attractive price point.
If you’re considering the phone, we recommend visiting a nearest realme concept store to truly experience the realme 12 5G firsthand.
realme 12 5G – Full Specifications
- Price: PHP14,999 (1-year Warranty)
- Color: Woodland Green, Twilight Purple
- Screen Type: LTPS LCD
- Screen Size: 6.72-inch
- Screen Resolution: FHD+ 1080×2400 pixels
- PPI: 391
- Screen-to-Body Ratio: 91.4%
- Refresh Rate: 120Hz
- Dynamic Refresh Rate: 45Hz / 48Hz / 50Hz / 60Hz / 90Hz / 120Hz
- Touch Sampling Rate: 240Hz
- Brightness: 800 Nits (Typ); 950 Nits (HBM)
- Protection: IP54 Dust & Water Resistance
- Processor: MediaTek Dimensity 6100+ (6nm; 5G)
- RAM: 8GB
- Dynamic RAM Expansion: Up to 12GB
- Storage: 256GB (Expandable Up to 2TB via MicroSD)
- SIM Card Tray: Hybrid
- Rear: 108MP 3x Zoom Portrait + 2MP Black & White
- Front: 8MP
- Video: 720p / 1080p at 30fps
- Battery: 5,000 mAh
- Power Supply: 45W SUPERVOOC Charge
- Operating System: realme UI 5.0, Android 14
- Voice Assistant: Google Assistant
- Speakers: 2
- Audio Ports: 3.5mm Headphone Jack
- Audio Certification: Hi-Res
- WiFi: 2.4GHz, 5GHz
- Bluetooth: Bluetooth 5.3
- Frequency Bands: 2G / 3G / 4G / 5G
- Dimensions (LxWxH): 165.7mm x 76.1mm x 7.69mm
- Weight: 188g
- In the Box: realme 12 5G, 45W SUPERVOOC Charging Adapter, Type A to Type C USB Cable, Warranty Card, Safety Guide, Quick Guide, SIM Ejector Pin, Screen Protector (Pre-Applied) and Clear Protective Case
