Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 5G review

120Hz OLED for the masses

Both, the Redmi Note 12 4G and Note 12 5G share the same display panel - AMOLED, 1080 x 2400px resolution, 6.67" in diagonal and with 120Hz refresh rate. There are no HDR video capabilities, but we weren't expecting any.

And since the two handsets share the same panel, our test results came back identical for all intents and purposes.

In manual mode, we got 447 nits max brightness, while in Auto mode, the panel peaked at 706 nits. Those are pretty close to the 474 and 744 nits we got on the 4G version, respectively. Don't mind the 30-40 nits difference; that's a fairly standard deviation across different units and hardly noticeable.

Long story short, with either Redmi Note 12, you'd be getting a bright enough OLED screen that will provide excellent sunlight legibility.

When it comes to color reproduction, we got the best results in the so-called Standard color mode. The dE2000 we measured against the sRGB color space was 1.4, which is impressive - that's a color-calibrated screen if we've ever seen one.

HRR control

The high-refresh-rate control is pretty simple. Too simple, in fact. The software won't dial down to 60Hz when the UI on the screen is idling, and it will only do so when you start a video player, such as YouTube, Netflix or the Gallery app. In all other scenarios, you will be getting fixed 120Hz. This approach increases overall power consumption, but it's not unseen - the Galaxy A34, which we reviewed recently, had pretty much the same behavior.

Battery life

The Redmi Note 12 relies on the same 5,000 mAh battery as its 4G sibling but also employs a different chipset, supposedly a more efficient one.

In our Active Use Test, the Redmi Note 12 posted unimpressive scores for web and gaming, but good video streaming and call times.

Charging speed

The two Redmi Note 12 phones also share the same battery and charging standard. We doubt that the chipsets would introduce any difference to the equation, and the results attest to that. The 5,000 mAh battery fills up completely after an hour and 8 minutes using the included 33W charger, while at the 30-minute mark, you would be looking at 56% of the charge. The difference between charging times on both devices is rather negligible and can be easily explained with statistical error.

Against competing solutions, the Redmi Note 12 fares well. The supported 33W fast charging is more than adequate for the price category.

Speaker

This year's vanilla Redmi Note is skipping the loudspeaker setup and relies solely on the bottom-firing one. This is a bit of a let-down since the Redmi Note 11 from last year offered a stereo setup.

In any case, loudness isn't amazing, but it's "Good" enough at -28.1 LUFS. In terms of quality, you shouldn't be expecting much, either. Bass is dull, and high-frequency sounds start to ring at higher volumes.

And while there weren't many alternatives to the Redmi Note 12 4G with stereo speakers, many of the Note 12 5G's competiors do have stereo loudspeakers.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.