Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro review

The usual triple camera, OIS now available

The Redmi Note 12 Pro features a familiar triple camera on its back - a high-res main camera, a basic ultrawide, and a tiny macro shooter. This year both Pro models are updated with OIS for the primaries, which should help in certain occasions, such as low-light photography.

The primary camera on the Redmi Note 12 Pro uses a 50MP Sony IMX766 1/1.56" sensor with 1.0µm pixels and a Quad-Bayer filter. This sensor is paired with a 6-element 24mm lens that is stabilized (OIS) and has an f/1.88 aperture.

The ultrawide camera uses an 8MP Samsung S5K4H7 ISOCELL Slim sensor with 1.12µm pixels behind a 16mm f/2.2 lens. The focus is fixed at infinity.

The macro camera uses a 2MP OmniVision OV02B1 sensor behind a 24mm f/2.4 lens and a fixed focus at 4cm away.

Finally, the front camera utilizes a 16MP OV16A1 1/3.06" sensor with 1.0µm pixels and a 24mm f/2.0 lens. The focus is fixed, too.

Camera app

The camera app on the Redmi 12 Pro is more or less the same as on other Xiaomis. The basic operation for changing modes works with side swipes as expected, and you can also tap on the modes that you can see to switch to those directly. You can add, remove, and rearrange modes in the main rolodex by going to the More tab and navigating to the edit button, and you can access that from the settings menu as well.

At the far end of the viewfinder, you have a flash mode switch, an HDR switch, and the AI toggle. There's also the hamburger menu which contains additional options like aspect ratio, self-timer and grid lines, the Macro switch is here, plus the shortcut to the settings. You won't find an option to set the output resolution for any of the cameras (not that we particularly care), besides the High-res 50MP/200MP mode that outputs at full res.

On the near end, you have the camera zoom switch that operates in one of two fashions. The first one is simply tapping on one of the four dots that represent the ultra-wide (0.6x), primary (1x), primary (2x digital zoom) options. Or you can tap on the active magnification and reveal even more zoom modes.

There's a nicely capable Pro mode, where you can tweak the shooting parameters yourself. You get to pick one of 4 white balance presets or dial in the light temperature with a slider; there's a manual focusing slider (with peaking as an option), and shutter speed and ISO control with ranges depending on which camera you're using - primary or ultrawide.

Night Mode is available on main and ultrawide cameras.

Camera app

Daylight photo quality

The primary camera saves 12.5MP images by default. We shot all photos with the HDR set on Auto and the AI turned off.

The standard photos from the main camera are great - they have enough detail, high contrast, zero noise, and punchy if a bit oversaturated colors. The dynamic range is good, but not over the top, and that's the way we prefer it. We should also note that we did not see the HDR trigger in any of these scenes.

These photos are surely not flagship-grade, though we've seen flagships do the same or worse. We could say they are a bit artificial, overprocessed if you will - they are just too clean and shiny. But we are entering nitpicking territory, and there is no need for that on a mid-ranger.

Main camera, 12.5MP

There is a dedicated 2x zoom shortcut on the viewfinder. After a close inspection, we found out that these photos are a bit better than what a simple crop and upscale from the 12.5MP standard output offers. This led us to believe that the 2x zoom is actually a smart one, achieved by cropping from the 50MP photo, though the quality is not on par as it was shot, saved, and cropped faster than a 50MP photo would have required.

Anyway, the 2x zoomed photos are alright, with passable detail, low noise, and the rest is a match to the standard 1x photos.

2x zoom, 12.5MP

And here are a bunch of 50MP samples. The high-res photos exhibit average detail and low noise, while the rest - colors, contrast, dynamic range - are identical to the default 12.5MP photos.

Resizing such 50MP images will give you a less processed look with a bit more detail, as it wasn't smeared by the noise reduction.

Main camera, 50MP

There is no depth sensor on the Redmi Note 12 Pro, but the phone is capable enough of making a good depth map without one. And thus, the portraits we shot on the phone are pretty good - the subject is detailed, well-exposed, and colorful, while the separation is proficient. The dynamic range is great, too, and we liked the blurred background. Overall, the portraits are excellent for sharing over the social networks.

Portraits, 12.5MP

The 8MP ultrawide photos are excellent considering the basic camera and lens. There is a lot of fine detail, and the noise is low, but it hasn't been cleaned as aggressively as on the primary camera, and that's why the photos look somewhat more natural instead of artificial and shiny.

The ultrawide photos are of high contrast and good dynamic range, and the colors are mostly true to real life.

Ultrawide camera, 8MP

The 2MP macro camera saves colorful closeup photos - the detail is good, and so is the saturation. The noise stays low if the light is sufficient, and the dynamic range is good for closeup purposes.

The focus is fixed at 4cm away, so it may take some time to get used to shooting with this camera.

Macro camera, 2MP

The 16MP camera uses a Quad-Bayer filter (OV16A1Q sensor), one of the many such shooters Xiaomi has put on its phones throughout the past few years. Instead of 4MP photos, it still saves 16MP ones, and those are likable - the subject is well-developed with okay-ish detail, the colors are great, and the contrast is high. The dynamic range is usually low, so if you want more - you should turn on the HDR mode.

Selfies, 16MP

Low-light photo quality

The Redmi Note 12 Pro supports Auto Night Mode like many other Xiaomi phones. It is enabled by default in the Advanced camera settings. This means that, theoretically, the camera app will decide when and where to use Night Mode and its exposure time. And it does, but it works only on the main camera.

The Auto photos we took with the main camera look great. They required about a second or two to capture, and they have a great exposure, plenty of resolved detail, low noise, excellent color saturation, and superb dynamic range for the nighttime purposes.

Some shadows are again too dark to the point where you can't see any detail in there - a common thing for Xiaomi's low-light processing.

Main camera, Auto

Using the dedicated Night Mode will sometimes save a bit brighter photos with better-exposed detail in the shadows. The difference is minor, though, and you'd be quite safe to stick to the Auto mode for most occasions.

Main camera, Night Mode ON

Opting out of all Night enhancements is a good idea if you want much more detailed and natural-looking photos. They are obviously darker and with low dynamic range, but the tradeoff could be worth it.

Main camera, Night Mode OFF

The standard 2x zoomed photos we took at night are good - they are bright, with nice colors, low noise, and good dynamic range. The detail is rather poor as those were cropped and upscaled from the default 12.5MP output.

Opting for the Night Mode at 2x zoom is not a good idea, as there is a noticeable drop in the already poor detail even if the photos gain better exposure dynamic range.

2x zoom • 2x Night Mode • 2x zoom • 2x Night Mode

The standard ultrawide photos are okay, we guess. The resolved detail is passable, and the color saturation is fine. The photos are quite dark, a bit noisy, and their dynamic range is low.

Ultrawide camera, Auto

The Night Mode does improve the ultrawide photos with better exposure, dynamic range and more popping colors, but the detail is halved, and the images are quite smeared.

Ultrawide camera, Night Mode

Here are photos of our usual posters, taken with the Redmi Note 12 Pro. You can see how it stacks up against the competition. Feel free to browse around and pit it against other phones from our extensive database.

Redmi Note 12 Pro against the Realme 9 Pro+ and the OnePlus Nord 2T in our Photo compare tool

Shootout with the Redmi Note 12 Pro+

One of the biggest questions in this Note 12 generation - if the 200MP camera on the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ is that much better than the 50MP one on the Redmi Note 12 Pro? Let's find out.

The default daylight photos from both the Redmi Note 12 Pro and 12 Pro+ are nearly identical, and it's so hard to find a difference. If we had to point out some - let's say the 12 Pro+ camera offers a bit more accurate colors, and its intricate detail presentation (like foliage, building details, textures, paintings) looks a tiny bit more organic.

Still, for all intents and purposes, the photo quality is identical on both devices.

Main camera, Note 12 Pro

Main camera, Note 12 Pro+

And if you thought the 200MP camera would at least provide better digital zoom, well, you've thought wrong. The 2x zoomed photos from both shooters are similar, and looking very closely reveals slightly better-developed foliate and more accurate colors on the Plus model. But, the difference is so minor, that once again we'd say these are identical samples.

Note 12 Pro 2x • Note 12 Pro+ 2x • Note 12 Pro 2x • Note 12 Pro+ 2x

One aspect where the Pro+ model shows superiority is the 50MP output. While it's sort of native for the 12 Pro, it comes downscaled from 200MP on the Pro+. That's why the 50MP samples from the 12 Pro+ look a bit more detailed and less processed, and we can read some writings and numbers that are impossible to make out on the 12 Pro images.

The difference in the detail sure isn't groundbreaking, but it's there.

Note 12 Pro 50MP • Note 12 Pro+ 50MP • Note 12 Pro 50MP • Note 12 Pro+ 50MP

There is barely any difference between the low-light photos taken with the primary cameras on the two Redmi Note 12 models. We used the Auto Night Mode, and we noticed it required 1 second less to shoot on the 12 Pro+ model.

And you can see for yourself the photos are quite similar. You can notice the ones taken with the Pro+ are a bit darker, and rarely they may come a bit sharper, too. But for all users' purposes, the output is identical.

Main camera, Note 12 Pro

Main camera, Note 12 Pro+

And we can say the same for the photos taken without Night Mode. The ones taken with the 12 Pro+ are a bit darker, but they look a bit more natural, and their rendition is more organic.

Main camera no Night Mode, Note 12 Pro

Main camera no Night Mode, Note 12 Pro+

Long story short, the photos might be coming from different cameras, but their quality is 99% similar, and the good news is that it's great across the board.

Video recording

The Redmi Note 12 Pro supports 4K@30fps video capturing on its primary camera. The ultrawide camera maxes out at 1080p@30fps, while the 2MP macro supports 720p@30fps. Finally, 1080p at 60fps is available on the main and selfie cameras.

There is an always-on electronic stabilization working across all cameras but the macro. Unfortunately, it does not work in 4K and 1080p@60fps modes.

Audio is always captured stereo with a 256Kbps bitrate.

The 4K videos from the main camera are impressive - they offer a high level of resolved detail, a pleasant overall rendition and lively if a bit over-saturated colors. The sharpening could have been a notch down, but even as is, the footage is really good.

The daylight videos are also noise-free, with high contrast and good dynamic range.

The 2x zoomed 4K videos are poor in detail as they are cropped and upscaled, while the rest of their properties are a match to the non-zoomed output.

The low-light 4K videos from the main camera are good, too. They are bright and very colorful, with a good dynamic range and enough detail. They are a bit noisy, though, noisier than what we experienced on the Note 12 Pro+, and this should be the first, and probably only difference we've noticed so far.

The Full HD videos from ultrawide camera are great. They are very detailed, with low noise, accurate colors, and outstanding dynamic range. You may notice they are not that wide from the 4K videos, but that's because the ultrawide camera uses electronic stabilization, while the main camera omits one when shooting in 4K.

Finally, the 1080p videos from the selfie camera are quite likable and stable. The detail is satisfying, the noise is low, and the colors are good. The noise is low, too.

The subject is well exposed in the video, though the dynamic range is a bit low as evident by the clipped background.

And here are some walking videos with the main camera (no EIS), and the ultrawide camera (with EIS). If you want a stabilized video from the main camera, you should use the 1080p resolution.

Finally, the Redmi Note 12 Pro in our video comparison database.

2160p: Redmi Note 12 Pro against the Realme 9 Pro+ and the OnePlus Nord 2T in our Video compare tool