UPDATE: We now have official confirmation of the Realme 12 Series local pricing. The more capable Realme 12+ will retail for R15,000, while the regular Realme 12 will retail for R9,000. There’s still no word on local availability, though we can expect them to arrive in May or June of this year.
ORIGINAL STORY:
If you don’t mind yet another Chinese smartphone brand coming in to steal you away from the glitz and glamour surrounding Apple or Samsung’s flagships, turn your attention to the Realme 12 series, consisting of two mid-rangers that won’t break the bank when they launch in South Africa. We think.
See, Realme isn’t giving up the good stuff just yet. Just like it withheld that beautiful special edition Naruto-themed smartphone from us a while back, it’s keeping the juicier details, like pricing and availability, of the 12 Series launch under wraps. Officially, all we’ve got are a couple of specs and some names to gawp at in the meantime. Enter the Realme 12 5G and Realme 12+ 5G.
Time to get Real(me)
Unlike the C67 that recently got its start in South Africa, the Realme 12 Series is more than capable of hooking up to South Africa’s 5G network. That’ll be the MediaTek Dimensity 7050 and Dimensity 6100+ SoCs found in the 12+ and 12, respectively. The star of the show, the Realme 12+ 5G, comes stocked with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The standard Realme 12 arrives in 6/128GB, 8/128GB and 8/256GB flavours, according to GSMArena.
While it may be the weaker of the two, performance-wise, the Realme 12 5G puts up a better showing where cameras are concerned. Technically. It features a 108MP main sensor in contrast to the 12+’s 50MP Sony LYT-600 sensor. The 12+, however, includes a 16MP shooter on its front, trouncing its younger sibling’s front 8MP spec.
You’ll be looking at those images through a 6.67in AMOLED 120Hz display if you’re wielding the 12+, which has been reduced down to a 6.72in FHD+ ‘Sunlight Display’ and 950 nits at peak brightness.
Read More: The Vivo V30 5G officially arrives in South Africa with a R20,000 price tag
Both the Realme 12 and 12+ come stocked with 5,000mAh batteries inside them, putting them on the level of Samsung’s latest and greatest, with the cheaper of the two even matching the same 45W wired charging spec. The 12+ model steps that up to 67W, which the company reckons can get you to full in 48 minutes.
That all sounds fabulous, as long as these devices arrive at a competitive price. Considering the reasonable pricing surrounding the C67 which got its start in March, we’re not all that worried. We have reached out to Realme in the hopes of more details regarding local pricing and availability, and will update this article should we hear back.