Realme C12 Review: Refreshing Design, Massive Battery, Decent Cameras

Most smartphone makers in India are trying to win the budget segment. After Xiaomi first released its Redmi Note series, the segment below Rs. 10,000 has seen a lot more offerings. However, it seems like customers have shifted their attention to the sub Rs. 20,000 bracket. Most of the attractive smartphones launched recently have mostly been in this price range, including the new offerings from Redmi and Realme. While the Realme 6 series price in India starts at Rs. 14,999, Xiaomi offers its Redmi Note 9 series at a starting price of Rs. 14,999.

Starting with the Realme C1, it has already been clear that the Chinese brand wants to keep the series as the most affordable product line in its mobile portfolio. The Realme C12 is the latest offering and a direct successor to the Realme C11. 

Realme C12: Design 

The first thing you will notice about this phone is the size. It is a tall smartphone with a height of 164.5 mm. It’s also quite chunky too, but because Realme has to make space for the massive 6,000 mAh battery. One good thing is that it is quite narrow, so you can comfortably hold it in hands.

This phone is quite heavy on hands because it has to carry a beefy 6,000 mAh battery. However, I could still carry it around pretty comfortably thanks to the narrow frame and smooth edges. Its body is made of polycarbonate, which is expected for a smartphone in the price range. 

Realme C12: Display

The handset features a 6.5-inch display with a 19.5:9 ratio, and HD+ (720 x 1,560p) resolution. It is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass. Yes, the HD+ resolution is pretty disappointing, but given its affordable price tag, I wouldn’t complain too much. The IPS panel provides good viewing angles and natural colors. The brightness is sufficient when you use the phone indoor, but things will get worse when you go outside, to the point that the display looks off.

Realme C12: Camera

The handset has a triple-camera setup at the back, including a 13MP main sensor, a 2MP B&W sensor, and a 2MP lens for macro shots. It would certainly be much better if Realme puts an ultra-wide lens, but I believe this is enough for most users. The photos look decent in daylight with punchy blues, greens, and reds. The B&W camera’s main purpose is to capture monochrome photos, but can also be used as a portrait shooter. Its performance was pretty bad to be honest and needs some improvement.

As for low-light photography, users do have a dedicated Night Mode, which isn’t common for phones in the price bracket. If you take photos with the regular mode, the photos lack details and have soft focus around the edges. Turning on the night mode, the results do look better with higher details and better exposure. The 5MP selfie camera of the Realme C12 takes decent selfies, but not in low-light conditions. Unfortunately, there is no dedicated Night mode for the selfie camera.

Here are a few camera samples:

Realme C12: Performance & Benchmarks

The Realme C12 specs include a mediaTek Helio G35 chipset with PowerVR GE8320 GPU, and 3GB RAM. It has a pretty similar set of specs as its sibling C15, so I don’t expect to see a different performance. It runs smoothly if you use the phone for taking pictures, watching videos, and browsing social media. It can play some games, but don’t set your expectations too high and you might need to lower the graphics settings in some games. These are the Realme C12 benchmarks:

• Geekbench – 168 (Single-Core), 943 (Multi-Core)
• AnTuTu V8 – 108,120
• PCMark – 5,937 (Work 2.0)
• 3DMark SSE – 464 (OpenGL ES 3.1), 613 (Vulkan)

Realme C12: Connectivity & Battery Life

The handset supports standard connectivity features like 4G LTE, dual-SIM, Wi-Fi, micro-USB port, Bluetooth, and support for navigation systems. 

Moving to the battery, it carries a 6,000 mAh battery, which is very high. It can even be used as a power bank thanks to the reverse wireless charging feature. You can use the phone for two days with light or medium usage. It is rated at 17 hours & 21 minutes by PC Mark why it managed 25 hours and 29 minutes on our video loop test. Sadly, charging this phone might take a while because it only supports regular 10W charging.

Realme C12 2020 price in India: Rs. 8,999

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