Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 5G review: Cheap mid-range with 120 Hz and four-digit brightness

Is more smartphone needed? The Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 5G packs a lot of features into its light plastic case. On top of a 120 Hz AMOLED screen, there is the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 SoC, a 48 MP camera with Samsung’s ISOCELL JN1 as the image sensor, and a 5000 mAh battery with a 33 watt fast-charging power supply. However, the Android version raises questions.

Manuel Masiero, 👁 Daniel Schmidt (translated by Jacob Fisher), Published 06/08/2023 🇩🇪

Note: The manufacturer may use components from different suppliers including display panels, drives or memory sticks with similar specifications.

You won’t find a metal frame, a glass back or the latest generation of Gorilla Glass on the Redmi Note 12 5G, which shouldn’t come as a surprise given its price. Its sturdy plastic case doesn’t feel particularly high quality, but is very well made. At 189 grams, it’s also quite light for a smartphone of its size. Thanks to IP53 certification, it is also protected against dust and splashes of water.

The Redmi Note 12 5G uses the same design as its Redmi Note 12 colleagues and thus hardly differs visually from the Pro models. However, the screen bezel is marginally wider, which still results in a good display-to-surface ratio of around 85 percent. Xiaomi provides no information about the protective glass used for the display. A protective display film is applied to the AMOLED panel ex works.

Xiaomi offers the Redmi Note 12 5G in the three colors Forest Green, Ice Blue and Onyx Gray. All three have a matte, slightly velvety shimmering back cover on which fingerprints hardly leave any traces. A glossy surface finish is only available for the camera module, which protrudes around 2 millimeters from the back.

      Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 4G       Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 5G       Motorola Moto G73 5G       Honor Magic5 Lite 5G       Samsung Galaxy A34 5G       Xiaomi Redmi Note 11       Nothing Phone (1)       DIN A6 ❌

The Redmi Note 12 5G comes with 4GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB of UFS 2.2 storage. The latter can be expanded via a microSD card, which can be up to 1 TB in size and can also be formatted in the exFAT file format. If you do without the memory expansion, there is space for 2 nano SIM cards in the card slot. 

In addition to NFC, Bluetooth 5.1 and a 3.5 mm jack, there is also an OTG-capable USB-C port that works at USB 2.0 speed. Thanks to the support of DRM Widevine L1, the smartphone can easily play HD streams from Netflix and the like.

Using our Angelbird AV Pro V60 microSD reference card, the Redmi Note 12 5G achieves a decent copy speed of just over 23 MB/s and also does well in sequential data transfers.

Basically, buyers of Xiaomi smartphones can assume that their device will receive 2 OS upgrades and security updates every three months for 3 years. This is also the case for the current Redmi series, which is comes with the manufacturer’s MIUI 14 user interface, but we do not really understand Xiaomi’s software strategy here.

While the Redmi Note 12 is launched with Android 13, the Redmi Note 12 5G and the Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G, which are actually higher in the Redmi hierarchy, only have Android 12. So, the 4G version benefits most from the OS upgrades because it is the only one eligible for an upgrade to Android 15, according to the Xiaomi Security Center. In contrast, our Redmi Note 12 5G test candidate and the Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G will only have Android 14 as the last OS upgrade.

In terms of WLAN, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 5G communicates via WiFi 5. Connected to our Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 reference router, the smartphone achieves transfer rates of up to 363 MBit/s, which are very stable in both sending and receiving. Rival smartphones also achieve very similar speeds. Only the Samsung Galaxy A34 5G has significantly more WiFi 5 bandwidth to offer thanks to its VHT80 support, while the Nothing Phone (1) supports WiFi 6E.

The mobile frequency range of the Redmi Note 12 5G isn’t too extensive at 12 5G bands and 13 LTE bands. So the smartphone doesn’t really have any globetrotting qualities, but connectivity issues shouldn’t occur in the EU region at least.

The Xiaomi pinpoints its current location via the GPS (L1), Glonass (L1), Galileo (E1) and Beidou (B1) satellite navigation systems. Under testing, it managed to do this both outdoors and indoors at an accuracy of 3 meters.

We also tested the real-world tracking capabilities of the Redmi Note 12 5G by having the smartphone compete against the Garmin Venu2 on a bike ride. Comparing the route recordings, the smartphone shows almost as much precision as the fitness tracker, even if it occasionally deviates few meters in densely built-up areas. Overall, the Redmi Note 12 5G is well suited to navigational tasks.

Two nano SIM cards, or one nano SIM card and one microSD card fit into the hybrid SIM slot of the Redmi Note 12 5G. VoLTE and WiFi calls are supported.

The Redmi Note 12 5G performs well in terms of voice quality. Voices are clearly reproduced at both ends of the line and sound only slightly muffled in hands-free mode.

Image Comparison

Choose a scene and navigate within the first image. One click changes the position on touchscreens. One click on the zoomed-in image opens the original in a new window. The first image shows the scaled photograph of the test device.

Daylight photo 1Daylight photo 2Ultra wide angle5x zoomLow light

The display of the Redmi Note 12 5G works with a touch sampling rate of 240 Hz, which in combination with the 120 Hz refresh rate makes operation nice and smooth.

Despite the responsive screen, it sometimes falters during use because the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1, supported by 4 GB of RAM, is not a performance miracle. There can be small delays, for example, when waking the smartphone from standby or switching between large numbers of apps open at the same time. But overall, the delays are not particularly noticeable.

Xiaomi’s always-on display is able to show elements such as the date, time, battery status and a background motif. However, this does not remain permanently active, but rather is displayed for 10 seconds after tapping the screen. The smartphone can be unlocked biometrically once via the fingerprint sensor integrated in the power button, which works reliably. Authentication via the 2D facial recognition sensor of the selfie camera is just as fast, but less secure.

* … smaller is better

Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)

Screen flickering / PWM detected	343 Hz
The display backlight flickers at 343 Hz (Likely utilizing PWM) . The frequency of 343 Hz is relatively high, so most users sensitive to PWM should not notice any flickering. However, there are reports that some users are still sensitive to PWM at 500 Hz and above, so be aware. In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 19035 (minimum: 5 – maximum: 3846000) Hz was measured.

In terms of image quality parameters, the Redmi Note 12 5G offers three color schemes: Vivid (preset), Saturated and Standard. There is also the option of adjusting the color temperature. The display achieves the best image quality when the color scheme and color temperature are set to Standard. The AMOLED panel then hardly shows any deviations in terms of colors or grayscale and combines this with an almost ideal color temperature.

Display Response Times

↔    Response Time Black to White
1 ms … rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined	↗ 0.523 ms rise
	↘ 0.475 ms fall
The screen shows very fast response rates in our tests and should be very well suited for fast-paced gaming. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.1 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 1 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is better than the average of all tested devices (22.3 ms).
↔    Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey
1.35 ms … rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined	↗ 0.691 ms rise
	↘ 0.658 ms fall
The screen shows very fast response rates in our tests and should be very well suited for fast-paced gaming. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.25 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 2 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is better than the average of all tested devices (35.1 ms).

Thanks to its high brightness, the Redmi Note 12 5G is well suited to outdoor use. Even in direct sunlight, content on the viewing-angle-stable display can be read without much difficulty.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 5G is one of the first smartphones to use the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1. As the successor to the Snapdragon 480+, it is said to run around 15 percent faster than its predecessor. Qualcomm speaks of up to 10 percent higher performance for the GPU. In addition to two fast Cortex-A78 cores that clock at up to 2 GHz, the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 presented in October 2022 has six energy-saving Cortex-A55 cores that run at a maximum of 1.8 GHz. The Adreno 619 is used as the graphics unit.

The performance of the Redmi Note 12 is enough to narrowly beat the Redmi Note 12, which is equipped with the Snapdragon 685. However, users are unlikely to notice this minor performance difference in practice. The toughest rival for the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 in the test field is the Snapdragon 695 in the Honor Magic5 Lite 5G. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G is even faster and is able to compete with the Samsung Galaxy A34 5G in terms of performance.

Unfortunately, AnTuTu v9 did not run on the Redmi Note 12 5G because the smartphone blocked the connection to the server of the benchmark provider. Almost the same fate befell 3DMark. At least we were able to carry out the slingshot tests.

Unlike the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1, the GPU integrated in the new SoC is an old acquaintance on the smartphone market: the Adreno 619 allows the Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 5G to achieve solid 3D performance, which, as shown in the synthetic benchmarks, is slightly above that of the Redmi Note 12. However, some of the other Snapdragon and MediaTek competitors are much faster, including the Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 5G performs well in web surfing. Delays in page loading rarely occurred in testing. 

* … smaller is better

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 5G uses UFS 2.2 storage and delivers good performance typical of its class. However, the 4G version of the smartphone is much faster in sequential reading and writing, even though it uses the same memory standard.

Games run smoothly on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 5G, even if you have to reduce the graphics details every now and then. Nevertheless, the Adreno 619 GPU in our review sample makes it the better choice than the 4G version, which has to make do with the weaker Adreno 610.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 5G achieves a good average of 95 FPS in Armajet. In contrast, the frame rate of the Redmi Note 12 is much lower and drops significantly again and again. The small but noticeable performance advantage of the review sample’s Adreno 619 GPU is also noticeable in PUBG Mobile. Unlike the Redmi Note 12, you can not only select the HD setting, but the shooter also runs almost constantly at 60 FPS.

Frame rates were determined with our Gamebench test tool.

(±) The average temperature for the upper side under maximal load is 37 °C / 99 F, compared to the average of 32.6 °C / 91 F for the devices in the class Smartphone.
(±) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 40.3 °C / 105 F, compared to the average of 34.9 °C / 95 F, ranging from 21.9 to 54.6 °C for the class Smartphone.
(+) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 39.5 °C / 103 F, compared to the average of 33.7 °C / 93 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 29.6 °C / 85 F, compared to the device average of 32.6 °C / 91 F.

In contrast to the Redmi Note 12, the Redmi Note 12 5G does not feature stereo sound. Instead, you have to make do with the mono sound produced by a speaker located next to the USB-C port. Bass is hardly present and the mids are not too linear. All in all, the sound is satisfactory for the price range.

External audio devices can be connected to the Xiaomi via the 3.5 mm jack or Bluetooth 5.1. The Redmi Note 12 5G supports all common Bluetooth codecs such as AAC, LDAC, LHDC V3/V4 as well as aptX HD, aptX Adaptive Audio and aptX TWS+ Audio.

Frequency diagram (checkboxes can be checked and unchecked to compare devices)

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 5G does not support wireless charging, but it does support fast charging with up to 33 watts. In testing, it takes 65 minutes to bring the 5000 mAh battery from 0 to 100 percent.

The smartphone is rather inconspicuous in terms of power consumption. It is not particularly economical, but is not wasteful either. It consumes more power than the Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 at up to 4.72 watts under load.

* … smaller is better

With its display brightness adjusted to 150 cd/m² and a refresh rate set to 120 Hz, the mid-range smartphone lasts 10:45 hours in simulated web surfing and manages a good 17:45 hours in video playback. This makes it a little less enduring than the Xiaomi Redmi Note 12, which also has a 5000 mAh battery.

Battery Runtime