Redmi Note 12 5G in Nepal: Will it be the best budget phone of the year?

Xiaomi’s Redmi Note series is one of the most popular smartphone series in Nepal and India. In 2022 Xiaomi released the Redmi Note 11 series–including the Redmi Note 11, Redmi Note 11 Pro and Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G–which was very successful like its previous Note series.

Xiaomi released the Redmi Note 12 series on January 5, globally and it is expected to be available in February in Nepal.

Redmi Note 12 series this year includes three phones like the previous series. The phones are Redmi Note 12, Redmi Note 12 Pro and Redmi Note 12 Pro+. Redmi Note 12 5G is the budget variant of the Note 12 series, which is likely to be the most popular among the three.

But, will it be the best budget phone of the year is still an unanswered question as the phone is yet to arrive in Nepal. Nonetheless, it possesses some qualities that hold the possibility alive.

Specifications

Design and display

Redmi Note 12 5G is very similar to the rest of the phones in the Note 12 series. It has a 6.67-inch full-HD+ Super AMOLED display. It has 1200nits brightness with SGS eye care, sunlight mode and reading mode too. It is also IP53 splash and dust-resistant, which protects it from dust and water.

Redmi Note 12 Pro is 188 grams in weight and is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. It has curved edges in the back and a small notch on the front for the front camera system. It is also slim with a thickness of 7.9mm.

Redmi Note 12 has a max refresh rate of 120Hz and covers 100 per cent of DCI P3 colours. The phone is available in India in three colours: frosted blue, matte black and mystique blue.

Cameras

Redmi Note 12 5G also has a good camera system for its price. The rear camera is a set of triple cameras with a 48MP main camera, an 8MP ultra-wide camera and a 2MP macro camera. The camera has standard looks with a placement. The rear camera supports a video resolution of 1080P at 30fps and 720P at 30fps. The ultra-wide angle camera also records 1080P video at 30fps and 720P at 30fps.

The rear camera has portrait mode, panorama, pro mode, night mode, custom watermark, document mode, HDR, AI scene detection, time burst, google lens and other features. The video specs include short video mode, time-lapse, movie frame, macro video, filters, beautify and kaleidoscope.

The front camera has a 13MP camera, which is pretty decent for selfies and front-camera videos. The front camera records videos of 1080P at 30ps and 720P at 30fps. It also has many features such as portrait, HDR, time burst, AI beauty mode, AI watermark, movie frame, palm shutter and voice shutter. The video features include a short video, movie frame, kaleidoscope and time-lapse.

Performance and storage

The performance of Redmi Note 12 5G is relatively good. It has a Qualcomm Snapdragon® 4 Gen 1 chipset with Adreno™ 619 as its GPU. The RAM offered is in two variants, 4GB and 6GB, with an internal memory of 128GB, which is expandable up to 1TB using a micro SD card.

Redmi Note 12 5G is based on MIUI 13 based on Android 12. According to the company, the phone will get two Android OS updates and four-year security patches.

Battery life and others

Redmi Note 12 5G comes with a massive 5000mAh li-polymer battery with 33W max charging support. There will be a 33W fast charger in the box.

The sensors in the phone include ambient light sensors, proximity sensors, an E compass, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and a side-mounted fingerprint scanner. The thermal cooling in it is a dual graphite sheet.

It includes a 3.5mm headphone jack and dual microphones for noise cancellation. It supports dual 5G sim and also has a hybrid sim card slot, meaning you can use it for both e-sim and physical sim.

The phone in the box includes a phone, adapter, USB tye-C cable, SIM eject tool, quick start guide and warranty card and protective case.

The prices of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 5G in Nepal are expected to be Rs 30,999 and Rs 34,999 for 4/128GB and 6/128GB variants respectively