Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro review

Old Android 12 with new MIUI 14

The Redmi Note 12 Pro is running the company's latest MIUI 14 on top of the older Android 12. The team behind MIUI 14 updated the system architecture on the Android Kernel level with CPU, GPU and memory resource scheduling, lighter system firmware size and decreased memory usage.

Let's quickly go over the new things. Only eight system apps cannot be uninstalled, which is a major leap from past MIUI releases. Other neat optimizations include automatic compression for apps that are not actively used and a toggle to turn off permanent notifications.

Going over the list of expected new additions to MIUI 14 from its official release, we oddly found a lot of teh user-facing features still missing on our Redmi Note 12 Pro unit. Perhaps some of the new features will be delivered later with updates. Our unit lacks the new animated character widgets, for one, but it does have the new style of enlarged folders.

Enlarged folders

We also didn't find the duplicate file merger, Xiaomi wireless accessory cross-device switching controls, nor the new family account features. The improved text recognition and extraction from images in the gallery were not present, too.

Other than these few changes, MIUI hasn't morphed in any major way, and users will feel right at home.

The split between a notification shade and Control Center is enabled by default this time, and that's probably a good thing. We found it to be quite convenient, and it's a way to educate users about MIUI's unique approach to the UI. And in case you are not a fan, you can always revert back to the standard notification shade with quick toggles in one place.

Lockscreen • Home screen • notification shade • Control center

The home screen, recent apps and the general settings menu are business as usual. The app drawer is also enabled by default, and we like that Xiaomi has placed the search bar at the bottom of the screen for easier reach. There are custom and preset app categories for faster navigation.

Unlike the standard recent apps menu, the MIUI task switcher lists the apps vertically and provides several useful shortcuts. That's where you can open up apps in floating windows. However, you can have only one floating app open at a time. In case you want a faster shortcut to apps that support free-form windows, just enable the Sidebar.

Recent apps • Options • Floating window • Split screen • app drawer

Notably, the Sidebar is different depending on the scenario. In games, the Sidebar provides a couple of gaming-related features, while in video apps, the Sidebar becomes a Video toolbox. It lets you launch video apps in pop-up windows, Screenshot, Record screen, Cast, and Play Video with the screen off, including on YouTube without a Premium subscription. The only caveat is that the apps where you want the feature enabled need to be whitelisted in advance.

Sidebar and Video toolbox

Customization is, as always, a big part of MIUI. The system lets you choose the style of the Always-on display or the theme of the UI. Aside from the ones pre-installed on the device, there's a Themes store that gives you a wide selection. The themes themselves change not only the general appearance but also the ringtones and system icons.

Themes and Always-on display

Moving on to privacy and security, MIUI comes with a pre-installed system Security app. Aside from the additional malware protection layer it provides, the app holds many of the app settings and privacy features in one place. It can manage your blacklist, manage or restrict your data usage, configure battery behavior, and free up some RAM. It can also manage the permissions of your installed apps, define the battery behavior of selected apps, and apply restrictions only to certain apps.

MIUI 14 offers Memory Extension option that's active by default (you can disable it if you like). On our review unit, we could choose between 2GB, 3GB and 5GB of internal storage reserved to serve as RAM extension. Less important memory blocks should come here.

Security app • Security app • Memory extension

Speaking of security, the side-mounted fingerprint reader is fast and reliable. And you can choose between Touch or Press as a scanning trigger.

Fingerprint settings

MIUI comes with its proprietary multimedia apps - there's Gallery, and Music and Mi Video (both with local and streaming options). A MIUI File manager is also on board. And, of course, there is a Mi Remote app that uses the integrated IR blaster.

Gallery • Music • Video • File manager • Mi Remote

All in all, MIUI 14 changed a little over the 13th iteration. At least on our Redmi Note 12 Pro unit, that is. It's just as snappy and customizable as ever. Xiaomi has paid special attention to the haptics on this unit, and we found the motor to be crisp, strong and accurate. There's even haptic feedback intensity adjustment if you find it obtrusive or not strong enough.

Some MIUI ROMs include ads in the default apps; it is a well-known thing. And the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ does come with baked-in ad "recommendations".

You can disable those even if it's a bit tedious to do it because you have to do it for every system app that has them. For example, if you are annoyed by the app scanner's ads, just hit the settings gear, and disable recommendations. Ads in the File Manager - Settings->About should do it. Themes - go to Settings and disable Recommendations. It's not ideal, sure, but at least you can get rid of them all. Note that some of the opt-outs are for a 30-day period, and after that, you will need to disable it again. And again.

Opt-out of ads

Performance and benchmarks

The Redmi Note 12 Pro, just like the Redmi Note 12 Pro+, is powered by the Dimensity 1080 chipset by MediaTek. It's an improved version of the Dimensity 920 inside the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ with slightly better performance, better efficiency, and beefed-up camera support. But if you are coming from the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G and its Snapdragon 695 chip, this should make for quite the leap forward.

The most significant changes here (since the DM920) are the chip's camera capabilities. The new Dimensity 1080 can handle image data from sensors up to 200MP (previously 108MP) with the Imagiq ISP. There's mention of hardware-accelerated HDR video at up to 4K resolution, but this isn't a new feature.

This new Dimensity 1080 5G chipset gets slightly updated performance with two Cortex-A78 performance cores clocked at 2.6GHz (up from 2.5GHz), while the six Cortex-A55 remain clocked at 2.0GHz.

The GPU is the same Mali-G68, and the chipset is still built on the 6nm process. From the performance aspect, benchmark scores may not see a significant jump compared to devices running the preceding chip.

The global Redmi Note 12 Pro is available in three memory options with LPDDR4X and UFS 2.2 storage - 6GB RAM with 128GB (limited), 8GB RAM with 128GB (mainstream), and 8GB RAM with 256GB (high tier). This year the Pro models have no microSD expansion.

First, we ran the usual CPU benchmarks. As you can see, there is no difference in the CPU performance between the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ (DM920) and the Redmi Note 12 Pro (DM1080), but there is a nice improvement over the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G (SD695). The processor is not the fastest in the price bracket either but it will surely not disappoint.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Poco F4
  3190
• Xiaomi 12 Lite
  2943
• Xiaomi 13 Lite
  2936
• OnePlus Nord 2T
  2790
• Samsung Galaxy A54
  2703
• Realme 10 Pro+
  2371
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro
  2229
• Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  2225
• Poco X5
  2088
• Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  2063
• Realme 10 Pro
  2021
• Galaxy A53 5G
  1891
• Redmi Note 10 Pro
  1780
• Redmi Note 11 Pro
  1729

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Poco F4
  975
• Realme 10 Pro+
  842
• Xiaomi 13 Lite
  795
• Xiaomi 12 Lite
  785
• Samsung Galaxy A54
  770
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro
  758
• Galaxy A53 5G
  743
• Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  736
• Realme 10 Pro
  698
• Poco X5
  693
• Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  688
• Redmi Note 10 Pro
  569
• Redmi Note 11 Pro
  511
• OnePlus Nord 2T
  491

GeekBench 6 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus Nord 2T
  3350
• Samsung Galaxy A54
  2797
• Xiaomi 13 Lite
  2434
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro
  2372
• Galaxy A53 5G
  1941
• Redmi Note 10 Pro
  1797

GeekBench 6 (single-core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus Nord 2T
  1107
• Samsung Galaxy A54
  1008
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro
  958
• Galaxy A53 5G
  947
• Xiaomi 13 Lite
  938
• Redmi Note 10 Pro
  735

The GPU performance of the Mali-G68 MC4 is identical on the new Redmi Note 12 Pro and the previous Redmi Note 11 Pro+ model. But it offers between 35% and 40% boost over the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G and its Snapdragon 695, which should make a big difference when it comes to gaming.

As far as competition goes, it is among the best scoring, bested by the most recent Snapdragon 7 Gen 1's GPU and the flagship-grade Snapdragon 870 (Poco F4).

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco F4
  49
• OnePlus Nord 2T
  40
• Xiaomi 13 Lite
  33
• Xiaomi 12 Lite
  29
• Samsung Galaxy A54
  25
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro
  22
• Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  22
• Realme 10 Pro+
  21
• Galaxy A53 5G
  19
• Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  17
• Redmi Note 10 Pro
  16
• Realme 10 Pro
  16
• Redmi Note 11 Pro
  12

GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco F4
  114
• Xiaomi 13 Lite
  80
• Samsung Galaxy A54
  69
• Xiaomi 12 Lite
  68
• OnePlus Nord 2T
  60
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro
  57
• Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  57
• Realme 10 Pro+
  56
• Galaxy A53 5G
  55
• Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  41
• Realme 10 Pro
  41
• Redmi Note 11 Pro
  34

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• OnePlus Nord 2T
  4577
• Poco F4
  4357
• Xiaomi 13 Lite
  2969
• Samsung Galaxy A54
  2818
• Xiaomi 12 Lite
  2483
• Galaxy A53 5G
  2292
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro
  2255
• Realme 10 Pro+
  2252
• Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  2014
• Realme 10 Pro
  1218
• Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  1204
• Redmi Note 11 Pro
  1101

Finally, the compound AnTuTu test puts the new Redmi Note 12 Pro among the top-scoring phones in this class, bested only by the more powerful phones like the OnePlus Nord 2T (Dimensity 1300) and Poco F4 (Snapdragon 870).

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Poco F4
  698586
• OnePlus Nord 2T
  604467
• Xiaomi 13 Lite
  534143
• Xiaomi 12 Lite
  528905
• Realme 10 Pro+
  522376
• Samsung Galaxy A54
  506678
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro
  490526
• Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  437872
• Realme 10 Pro
  401860
• Poco X5
  400895
• Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  382902
• Galaxy A53 5G
  379313
• Redmi Note 11 Pro
  319093

And, before we draw some conclusions, let's explore the stability and the sustained performance on the Redmi Note 12 Pro.

The CPU Throttle test returned 78% stability, but you can see that most of the time, the phone actually kept about 90% stability and for that, we give it an excellent mark for sustained performance.

The 3D Mark GPU stress test returned 99.6% stability, an outstanding result.

CPU test • GPU test

Well, the Redmi Note 12 Pro is certainly not the most powerful smartphone in its price barked, but it features adequate hardware and offers satisfying performance for the class. Both gaming and multi-tasking were fine on the Redmi Note 12 Pro, and we had no issues.

Finally, the thermals and the stability were also great across the board - the sustained performance is great, and the Redmi Note 12 Pro never became hot, just warm.