Xiaomi Redmi 12 review

Standard triple-camera setup

The camera hasn't changed much compared to the Redmi 10 - you get one less unit, but that's the 2MP depth sensor which barely contributed anything anyway. You still get the same budget 50MP main sensor paired with a wide f/1.8 aperture.

A regular old 8MP ultrawide unit joins in with its f/2.2 aperture and an advertised 120-degree field of view. The third camera is a 2MP macro unit.

On the front, we have another 8MP shooter only this one has an f/2.1 aperture.

Camera menus

The default Camera app hasn't changed much, with the standard modes arranged in a carousel formation. There aren't many modes in general, so they all fit on main screen. The additional settings found on the viewfinder are now hidden in a pop-up menu. It opens up when you tap on the arrow and it appears close to the shutter button for easier selection. We like the change to some extent but don't like that you need to open a separate menu just to toggle HDR on and off, for example.

Camera menus

Speaking of the HDR, we are once again observing a very frustrating issue with the mode. Every time you close the app, the HDR function is turned off. So you have to turn on the HDR Auto mode every time you launch the camera app.

Camera settings

We are also puzzled by the default 5x zoom toggle. The Redmi 12 doesn't have the sensor size or the computational capabilities to capture a decent-looking 5x zoom photo. A 2x zoom toggle would have made some sense at least, but this is just useless.

You also get a Pro mode that allows you to tinker with white balance, focus, ISO, shutter speed and exposure. We doubt it will see much use on this particular phone, though.

Daylight samples

Main camera

Despite sharing the same hardware, the Redmi 12 and the Redmi 10 take completely different daylight photos. Xiaomi put some effort into optimizing the image processing and it shows. The daylight samples are solid and right the wrongs of the Redmi 10 in almost every aspect.

Main camera daylight samples

The images are decently sharp, have an impressively wide dynamic range and have plenty of fine detail. The solid contrast and punchy colors give the photos a lively vibe. Indoor conditions are a challenge, though, as the post-processing often lets some noise into the frame, but at least quality stays somewhat consistent.

Main camera daylight samples

Ultrawide camera

We didn't have high hopes for this one, but we were pleasantly surprised. The ultrawide photos have good contrast, punchy colors and even though they are overprocessed they do look alright when downsampled. And that's more than we could ask for from this budget 8MP sensor. At pixel level images are soft and lack fine detail, while dynamic range is limited.

Ultrawide camera daylight samples

2x and 5x zoom

As we said Redmi decided to put a 5x zoom toggle in the viewfinder but seeing how the main camera struggles even with 2x zoom crops, we are still looking for a reason why anybody would ever use the 5x zoom. We think the samples below speak for themselves.

2x and 5x daylight samples: 2x • 5x

Macro camera

The macro camera uses a tiny 2MP sensor with a fixed focus, so taking proper macro shots is a challenge. The detail isn't sufficient, the lack of contrast makes images dull and the colors are washed off, so we can't see this camera getting much use at all.

Macro samples

Low-light samples

Main camera

Sadly, the Redmi 12 offers unsatisfactory nighttime performance and is even worse than the Redmi 10 in this scenario. The samples below have limited dynamic range and lack fine detail. Highlights are clipped, and everything looks fuzzy.

Main camera low-light samples

The dedicated Night mode, which takes a lot of time for each shot, doesn't offer much improvement. The highlights are still clipped in some of the photos, and there's still a noticeable oil painting look. What's even worse, the further brightening of the shadows in this mode reveals even more noise.

Main camera Night mode samples

Ultrawide camera

There's really no point in using the ultrawide camera after dusk. It struggles to produce usable images, and there's no Night mode to at least partially make up for the tiny sensor.

Ultrawide camera low-light samples

Here's how the primary camera on the Redmi 12 stacks against the rest of the competition in the controlled environment of our Photo Compare Tool.

Xiaomi Redmi 12 against the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G and the Redmi Note 12 4G in our Photo compare tool

Portraits

Portraits in isolation are okay. This mode delivers natural colors, good detail, decent dynamic range and a convincing bokeh effect. However, when we took some standard Photo mode pictures of the same subject, we found them to be considerably sharper with plenty of fine detail. The difference grows as the ambient light drops. The additional processing that portraits require clearly sees something go wrong with the rendition of skin.

Portraits: Portrait mode • Photo mode

Selfies

The selfies are pretty decent for the price range. Even in subpar lighting conditions, the images look sharp enough. Keep your hand steady, though, as we got occasional blurry shots in lower ambient lighting. Maybe a bit more color and contrast wouldn't hurt, but we are still happy with the result. We've seen worse selfies on much pricier smartphones.

Selfies

Video recording

The Redmi 12 can only shoot 1080p@30fps videos - 4K is off limits due to chipset's limitations. The main camera has the needed resolution in theory, but there's not enough processing power for 2160p footage.

The main's camera footage is just average for its class. Maybe a bit too soft even for 1080p resolution and exposure is higher than it needs to be, leading to clipped highlights and overly-bright asphalt. A little bit of extra color wouldn't have hurt either.

The ultrawide camera captures surprisingly decent video with better exposure, similar sharpness and more lively colors.

Once you are done with the real-life scenarios, take a look at our video compare tool to see how the Redmi 12 stacks against the other phones we've reviewed.

Xiaomi Redmi 12 against the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G and the Redmi Note 12 Pro 4G in our Video compare tool