There’s a price to be paid for every financial decision you make and it’s not always money related. Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 12 lineup ensures that you’ll pay the (literal) price you want while getting the features that you absolutely need.
There are three stopping points down the road to the Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G. First is the stock Note 12 and its R4,599 price point. The next stop is the Note 12 Pro, which will demand just R6,299 of your wallet. Finally, the terminal point is the Note 12 Pro+ 5G. Expect to pay R11,699 if you order via Takealot but it’s also the most attractive option.
Going big
What is it worth to you to have flagship smartphone features like the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G’s massive 200MP main camera sensor? Sure, the tech is available on other smartphones but you’d expect to pay more than R20,000 for one of those. How exactly does Xiaomi manage to offer the same thing for about R8,000 less? That’s one of those technological mysteries you don’t have to find the answers to. You can just take advantage of it.
Other flagship features are also on display. The 6.67in AMOLED display ticks all of the headline boxes – 120Hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision and HDR 10+ support, for starters, and a max brightness of 900 nits from the 1,080 x 2,400 panel. 8GB of RAM and plenty of power from the Dimensity 1080 chipset are almost bonuses at this point.
The 5,000mAh lithium polymer battery supports Xiaomi’s 120W super-fast charging, so you’ll never be without this smartphone in your pocket. It’ll crank back up from completely dead to completely full in less than twenty minutes.
Pole position
There’s nothing wrong with second place. That’s especially true of the Redmi Note 12 series of devices, where slightly less cash investment still nets you the sort of features you’d expect from much more expensive hardware. The 6.67in OLED display sticks around here, as it does with the stock Note 12. So does the 5,000mAh battery, though its charge capability steps down to a ‘mere’ 67W. That’s plenty fast enough to keep you ahead of the vagaries of Eskom.
But there’s still a headline feature to go with the price tag. The main camera sensor is a still-impressive 108MP, capable of the sort of social media images you used to need a dedicated camera for. Since the Dimensity 1080 processor sticks around, there’s plenty to life your eyebrows in the middle sibling’s skillset.
Runner-up
By comparison, the Redmi Note 12 is definitely the least-capable of this trio. But there are degrees of capability, and this budget smartphone is also no slouch. The 6.67in OLED display, with all its attendant features, remains but the processor steps down to a Snapdragon 4 Gen 1. The 5,000mAh battery sticks around but charging steps down to 33W – that’s enough to get you to 50% in 22 minutes. Hey, you’ll expect this sort of thing from a smartphone that costs less than half of the already-affordable Note 12 Pro+ 5G.
In short, it doesn’t matter what your budget is or which of the many South African partners you buy them from. Whether it’s cash or contract, there’s a device with the capability and price tag to suit your needs. And your pocket. Can’t forget about the pocket.
