Around the same time last year, Redmi Note 11 series launched in China with three phones under it. And today, the Note 12 series went official in the Chinese market. In this article, we will discuss the Redmi Note 12, the cheapest phone in this lineup, starting at ¥1199, which translates to around $165 or ₹13,500.
Like last year, all the Note 12 series phones have a similar camera module design. This year, Redmi went for the same camera module design for its Note 12 series as the Redmi Note 11T series. The vanilla Note 12 has a dual camera setup on the rear. There are flat sides, and the fingerprint scanner is on the side. The Redmi Note 11 also had a dual camera setup, but due to curved sides, it wasn’t as premium-looking as the Note 12.
Another design change is the colors. There are no gradient color options, as the phone comes in clean and simple Black, White and Blue colors.
On the front, Redmi Note 12 has an OLED display with a hole punch cutout in the center. This is a 6.67-inch Samsung panel with up to 120Hz refresh rate and a Full-HD+ resolution. The peak brightness of this panel is 1200 nits. This is a significant upgrade over the 90Hz LCD on the Redmi Note 11.
Under the hood, Note 12 has a Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 SOC, which is built on the TSMC’s 6nm process and supports 5G. On the AnTuTu benchmark, this chip scores around 390,000 points. There is 4GB or 6GB, or 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and up to 256GB UFS 2.2 storage. The battery size is 5,000mAh, and there is 33W fast charging support.
The dual camera setup on the rear includes a 48MP primary sensor and a 2MP depth sensor. This is a downgrade from the 50MP + 8MP (UW) setup on the Redmi Note 11. For selfies, there is an 8MP sensor. The Redmi Note 11 had a 16MP selfie camera, so this shows that while everything seems to be upgraded from last year, the camera setup is downgraded.
Finally, the phone runs on MIUI 13.
Redmi Note 12 comes in three colors, and here is the pricing for China –
- 4GB + 128GB – ¥1199 (~₹13,500 / $165)
- 6GB + 128GB – ¥1299 (~₹14,700/ $179)
- 8GB + 128GB – ¥1499 (~₹17,000/ $207)
- 8GB + 256GB – ¥1699 (~₹19,000/ $235)
So, the launch price of the Redmi Note 12 remains the same as Redmi Note 11, which is impressive considering there is a new design, new SOC, an upgraded display, and more.