Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro+ review

An improved triple camera with a 200MP Samsung primary

The Redmi Note 12 Pro+ has three cameras on its back and one at the front, matching the Redmi Note 11 Pro+. The rear setup contains a 200MP OIS primary (up from 108MP), an 8MP ultrawide, and a 2MP macro shooters. The selfie camera relies on a 16MP imager.

The main camera has seen a major overhaul since the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ and, in fact, it appears to be the only one to get an update. The primary on the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ now uses a 200MP Samsung HPX 1/1.4" sensor with 0.56µm pixels and a Tetra2Pixel color filter, making it the smallest 200MP sensor Samsung has made so far. The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra uses the HP1 (200MP, 1/1.22", 0.64µm), while the Galaxy S23 Ultra relies on the HP2 (200MP, 1/1.3", 0.6µm).

The sensor is coupled with a 24mm f/1.6 stabilized (OIS) lens. And the Tetra2pixel RGB Bayer Pattern color filter means the sensor groups 16 pixels into 1 and effectively outputs 12MP images by default.

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 Sony IMX 471 1/3" sensor with 1.0µm pixels and f/2.4 lens. The focus is fixed, too.

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 main camera saves 12MP images when using the default Photo mode, and those are really good. The resolved detail is plenty. Foliage and other small details come through well-developed. There is some oversharpening, but it's reasonable.

All photos are free of noise. The dynamic range is good, but not over the top, and the photos don't have this artificial HDR-y look. In fact, you could say the contrast is a bit too much, which leaves the shadows dark and inky with not many details.

Finally, the color rendition is faithful to reality, even if with a whiff of a saturation boost.

Main camera, 12MP

You might expect that such a high-resolution sensor should offer some high-quality digital zoom, and in the case of the Redmi Note 12 Pro+, it has a 2x mode.

The 2x zoomed photos are alright, but they are not as sharp as we would have liked them to be. They are a notch more detailed than what a regular crop and upscaled would have done, but that's about it. This could have been much better if cropped from the 50MP or 200MP output, but they are obviously not.

Long story short, the 2x zoom offers far less detailed images than the 1x mode, but still of good quality and usable if you don't need them in full resolution.

2x zoom, 12MP

And speaking of the high-res mode, it's called Ultra HD on the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ and saves 50MP photos by default. There is also a 200MP toggle.

The 50MP high-res photos offer more detail and definition and will allow you to capture previously impossible to see stuff like wall texts, car plates, better faces. All 50MP samples we took are sharp and detailed and don't have the over-sharpened and over-contrasty look of the regular images, thus lending a more natural output.

You can crop the center of these photos, and you will get much more detailed 2x zoomed photos than what the camera app saves by default.

Main camera, 50MP

The 200MP option saves upscaled 50MP photos, and the only thing you get is more wasted megabytes - one photo is about 40MB.

Main camera, 200MP

As we said you can use the 50MP (or 200MP) option to get more detail. Here is a comparison between the default mode and the 50MP-resized-to-12MP.

The 8MP ultrawide photos turned out surprisingly good, with a lot of fine detail for an ultrawide-angle camera. The noise is incredibly low, the contrast is high, the dynamic range is alright, and the colors are mostly accurate.

While the dynamic range could use a minor boost here, our impressions remain positive as this camera saves natural-looking photos, sharp and detailed. And the automatic distortion correction does an excellent job of straightening the corners.

Ultrawide camera, 8MP

The 2MP macro photos are nice - they have a good level of detail and are nicely saturated. The noise is low across the photos, provided they were taken in good light conditions and the dynamic range is enough.

Since the focus is fixed at 4cm away, it will take some time and a bunch of out of focus photos in order to get the distance right.

Macro camera, 2MP

There is no depth sensor on the Redmi Note 12 Pro+, though Portrait mode is still present. The portraits are shot on the main camera, and algorithms calculate the depth of field. And the samples we took with the Note 12 Pro+ are quite alright - the subject separation is proficient; the blur is convincing. The photo quality is somewhat average, with low dynamic range and average detail.

Portraits, 12MP

The 16MP selfie camera appears to use a Quad-Bayer filter as on many other Xiaomi phones before this one. It takes good selfies with a well-developed subject, lively colors and high contrast. The detail is okay, though far from high - as we said, this is a Quad-Bayer imager, which is supposed to save 4MP photos and not 16MP as it does.

The dynamic range is low, but you can trigger the HDR mode, and you will get a properly developed background.

We are happy with the selfies we took, even if they are just average.

Selfies, 16MP

Low-light photo quality

The Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G supports Auto Night Mode - 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.

That is not exactly the case, though. For starters, this mode works only on the main camera. And then, it's not a full-blown Night Mode, but more like an HDR improvement over the regular output.

And here are the Auto Night photos we took with the main camera - they require less than a second to capture. They offer more than enough detail for low-light photos, excellent exposure, outstanding dynamic range and lovely color saturation. The noise is low even on the darkest of these photos, and we'd say these are some solid night photos, rivaling even flagship ones.

Our only criticism is that the shadows are again too dark to the point where you can't see any detail in there.

Main camera, Auto Night

If you opt for the dedicated Night Mode, it will take about one or two seconds to shoot and save a photo, and it will turn slightly brighter than the Auto one with a minor boost in the shadows. It's a positive change, that's for sure, but the difference is minor.

Main camera, Night Mode

Finally, opting out of the Auto night mode yields noticeably more detailed and sharper photos with realistic exposure and color saturation. The dynamic range is low as there are plenty of blown highlights, but if the detail in the shadows and overall sharpness is a priority, the Photo mode without Auto Night Mode will give you flagship-level photos.

Main camera, Auto Night OFF

The Auto Night Mode doesn't seem to engage when shooting in 2x zoom. The photos are quite nice, bright and colorful, with minimal noise, though the detail is not as impressive.

Main cam 2x zoom, Auto

Using the Night Mode in 2x is not preferable, as it saves incredibly poorly detailed photos, even if with improved dynamic range and exposure.

Main cam 2x zoom, Night Mode

The Auto (read no Night Mode) ultrawide photos are usable - the detail is average, and the colors are good, but they are dark and a bit noisy. The dynamic range is poor.

Ultrawide camera, Auto

The Night Mode improves the dynamic range and the exposure, but the detail takes a noticeable hit and becomes incredibly low.

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 Galaxy A54 and the Realme 10 Pro+ in our Photo compare tool

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 easily class-leading with an exceptional level of resolved detail, a natural balanced look, and accurate colors. They are free of noise, with good dynamic range and great contrast.

The zoomed 2x daylight videos at 4K are good, too, even if their detail is halved. The 2x video zoom will do a fine job on most occasions, too.

The low-light 4K videos from the main camera offer a lot of fine detail and are clean of noise. Their color saturation is excellent, the dynamic range is enough for the purposes, and the contrast is high. While the footage may not be the best we've seen from a smartphone, it's quite good for a mid-ranger.

Even better, the 2x zoomed videos at night are surprisingly good, too, and we'd once again recommend using the 2x zoom when necessary.

The ultrawide camera saves excellent 1080p videos with top-notch detail, accurate colors and outstanding dynamic range. The clip we took is free of noise. There is just one thing - it's not that wider from the main camera's 4K videos.

Finally, the 1080p videos from the selfie camera are solid, too. The video has enough detail, low noise, high contrast, and likable colors. The subject is well-exposed, even if the background is often clipped because of the low dynamic range.

We also shot a couple of videos to test the always-on EIS. It works like a charm on the ultrawide camera, but is not supported in 4K on the main one, which relies only on OIS in this resolution.

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

2160p: Redmi Note 12 Pro+ against the Galaxy A54 and the Realme 10 Pro+ in our Video compare tool