The Redmi Note series doesn’t challenge Xiaomi’s mainline flagships, but these models bring some impressive cameras and fairly fast chipsets to a low price.
The Redmi Note 12 Pro+ is the top-of-the-line model with a 200 MP main camera – a fairly large 1/1.4″ sensor with built-in zoom functionality and the f/1.7 lens also supports OIS. The cameras 8MP ultra wide angles and 16MP selfies seem almost trivial in comparison.
The Pro+ model boasts 120W fast charging for its 5,000 mAh battery: in our tests 15 minutes was enough to reach 81% with Boost enabled (and 58% with Boost disabled). The display is a 6.67-inch FHD+ panel with 10-bit colors (and Dolby Vision and HDR10+) and a 120 Hz refresh rate. Xiaomi has chosen the Dimensity 1080 as the brains of this phone.
And it’s the same chipset that powers the Redmi Note 12 Pro. This too has the same high-quality display. What it doesn’t have is a 200MP main camera: instead you have a 50MP 1/1.56” sensor. Additionally, charging the 5,000mAh battery is limited to 67W, which gets you to 78% in 30 minutes (it takes a total of 55 minutes for a full charge).
We reviewed the 5G models, but the Note 12 series also has 4G phones. The Redmi Note 12 Pro 4G loses next-gen connectivity and switches to a weaker Snapdragon 732G chipset. The display also lacks HDR support. On the plus side, the 50MP sensor is replaced with a similarly sized 108MP 1/1.52” sensor and there is a microSD slot.
Further down the ladder is the Redmi Note 12 4G. This runs on a Snapdragon 685 and has a tiny 50MP (1/2.76”) sensor. The 5,000mAh battery also drops down to 33W, so it takes 1 hour and 11 minutes for a full charge.
We leave the Note to visit the Redmi 12 – strangely, this is bigger than the Note. It has a 6.79-inch IPS LCD (a 90z panel) and uses the Helio G88 chipset. The camera is the same as the Note 12 4G (with the exception of the selfie module, which has an 8 MP sensor). The 5,000 mAh battery is even slower to charge at just 18W.
If you want a 200MP camera, but the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ isn’t to your liking, take a look at the Realme 11 Pro+. This also has a 200MP 1/1.4″ sensor and OIS, along with an 8MP (112°) ultra-wide sensor and fast charging for its 5,000mAh battery: it’s rated at 100W and it gets to 63% in 15 minutes and takes 28 minutes to get to 100%.There is a vegan leather-backed option with decorative stitching on the back.The front is covered with a 6.7″ curved AMOLED display inches with a refresh rate of 120 Hz and 10-bit colors (HDR10+).
It may be a while before Google releases a Pixel 8a, so the Pixel 7a is the one to consider if the Pixel 8 series is beyond your budget. It uses the older Tensor G2 chipset and has a 6.1-inch 90Hz (FHD+) OLED display. The camera hardware includes a 64 MP (1/1.73”) sensor and OIS, as well as a 13 MP ultra-wide sensor. The battery has a capacity of 4,385 mAh with 18W wired and 7.5W wireless charging.
The Realme C55 is a large, affordable phone with a 6.72-inch IPS LCD display, a 90Hz FHD+ panel. It’s powered by a Helio G88 chip like the Redmi 12 above, and has a 64MP main camera (but not ultra wide angle). Realme has faster charging for its 5,000mAh battery, 33W versus 18W.
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