Realme 12+ review

Design, build quality, handling

The Realme 12+ has a really premium design that punches above its weight. Realme says it is inspired by luxury watch design, and we can definitely see that. The design language is actually quite similar to the Realme 12 Pro series. You get the same 3D Jubilee Bracelet spanning the length of the rear panel, interrupted by the circular camera island.

The back is made of faux leather (silicone polymer, if you want to get technical), which won't be to everyone's taste, but we attest that it's superior for grip and handling. It feels quite premium to the touch. It is also surprisingly fingerprint and dirt-resistant.

You can choose between two color options - Pioneer Green, which is our review unit and we would call more of a turquoise or teal, and a Navigator Beige.

The Realme 12+'s camera island flaunts the Polished Sunburst Dial pattern seen on the Pro models, creating a nice visual effect when light hits it at different angles. It also matches the color of the back panel, which, in our case, is green since we've received the Pioneer Green version. The other variant is Navigator Beige.

However, the difference here is that the Realme 12+'s camera island isn't surrounded by the Golden Fluted Bezel we have on the Pro and Pro+, which makes those phones look more premium. You get a shiny, reflective, golden-colored ring around the camera module, though.

Another difference is the flat design. Unlike the Realme 12 Pro and Pro+, the Realme 12+ has flat frames and a back cover, making the phone less comfortable to hold. In our opinion, having slender curves around the edges of the rear panel would've made the Realme 12+ easier to hold.

Even without significantly tapering edges, the Realme 12+ has a very slender profile of just 7.87mm.

While it is fair to call the faux leather back material smudge-resistant, the polar opposite is true of the flat middle frame of the phone. It gathers fingerprints and dirt like a magnet and is very slippery and hard to hold. It is quite shiny, too.

Realme 12+

As you can see from these shots, the Realme 12+ has a pretty standard set of controls and general layout. Perhaps the one interesting bit is the 3.5mm audio jack, which is not something you see too often these days.

The side buttons are nice and clicky and offer plenty of tactile feedback.

The front of the Realme 12+ is pretty flat. While not exactly symmetrical, its display bezels are reasonably sized (92.65% screen-to-body ratio advertised). The selfie punch hole is not particularly large, either. There are no visible sensors above the display. Everything is nicely hidden away or underneath the display itself. In case you were wondering, there is no notification LED.

The Realme 12+ uses an under-display optical fingerprint reader. It is quite fast and reliable. We have no complaints about it. The fingerprint reader also supports Heart Rate Detection 2.0, which seems to work reasonably well.

Finally, we should mention that the Realme 12+ is a well-built device with no noticeable flex or hollowness. It has Asahi hardened glass on the front. Unfortunately, we don't know exactly what kind. As we already mentioned, the middle frame is plastic, while the back is faux leather.

The Realme 12+ has IP54 ingress protection, which is about what you can expect at its price point.