The battle between Xiaomi and Realme has been continuing from past many years as each of them tries to bring a smartphone in different segments by packaging some of the best specifications and as of now these two brands have captured the mid-range and the premium mid-range smartphone segment in the market. 

Off late Xiaomi launched the Redmi Note 12 series which comprises its three offerings where the Redmi Note 12 Pro has been a sweet spot as it brings some very good specifications for its price and on the other hand, there is the Realme 10 Pro Plus (Review) which has gained a lot of attention with its curved display and brings some good specifications for the price.

So can the Redmi Note 12 take on the well-settled Realme 10 Pro Plus or will the Realme 10 Pro Plus be the better buy of the two? Let's find out in the full comparison.

Also Read: Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus Review

In terms of build and design, both smartphones have different design philosophies. The Realme 10 Pro Plus has a shiny look at the back and gives a prism-like effect when the smartphone is tilted at different angles only if you get the HyperSpace colour variant. Other than there is also the Dark Matter Black variant that has a clean matte finish that provides a good grip and does not catch many fingerprints. 

The Realme 10 Pro Plus has a triple camera setup which is present in the form of two rings placed horizontally along with a LED flashlight where the first camera ring houses the main camera and the second camera ring has the ultrawide and the macro camera. On the Other hand, the Redmi 12 Pro houses a rectangular camera module that has three cameras with a LED flashlight.

On the other hand, the Redmi Note 12 Pro has a glossy back with a mirror finish which does attract a lot of fingerprints whether you consider the Frosted Blue or the White colour variant. The Redmi Note 12 Pro has a flatter back instead of the Realme 10 Pro Plus that has slight curves to the sides that does make it easier while holding hands.

But the build quality of the Redmi Note 12 holds the edge as it has a glass back instead of the polycarbonate back of the Realme 10 Pro Plus so definitely the Redmi Note 12 Pro feels premium to hold in hands. In terms of weight distribution, the Realme 10 Pro Plus weighs around 173 grams making it much lighter while holding in hands than the 187 grams weight of the Redmi Note 12 Pro.

The Redmi Note 12 Pro has an IP53 rating which means it is splash resistant whereas there is no such protection on the Realme 10 Pro Plus. Around the sides, both smartphones get a polycarbonate frame that houses the power button and volume buttons on the right, whereas the left side remains completely cleaner. The power button on the Redmi Note 12 Pro doubles up as a fingerprint scanner. 

On the top, both smartphones have a secondary speaker setup that doubles up as a stereo speaker and a secondary noise canceling microphone but the Redmi Note 12 Pro gets an extra IR Blaster and also has a 3.5mm headphone jack which is really good. At the bottom, both have a USB Type-C port, a dual SIM card slot, a primary microphone and a primary speaker setup.

On the front, both have a single punch-hole display with minimum bezels around and here the Realme 10 Pro Plus has even thinner bezels than the Redmi Note 12 Pro and also it gets a curved display which is curved to the sides making it look like a premium smartphone. Overall, the build and design are good on both smartphones but with a premium glass back and some extra features, the Redmi Note 12 Pro is the better one.

On the front, the Redmi Note 12 Pro houses a 6.67-inches display and the Realme 10 Pro Plus has a 6.7-inches display where both these displays have Full HD+(1080x2400 pixels) resolution and are AMOLED so you get deeper blues and blacks with excellent viewing angles. Both these displays have a 120Hz refresh rate which makes all tasks like scrolling between webpages, playing games, etc. feel smoother.

Talking about the refresh rate, the one on the Realme 10 Pro Plus is a standard one where the display can be set to Standard (60Hz) or High (120Hz) and also there is an Auto-Select option where the display automatically switches between 60Hz or 120Hz depending on the content on the display whereas the Redmi Note 12 Pro has an adaptive refresh rate where there are two modes - Default and Custom.

The display refreshes either at 60Hz or 120Hz only when set to Custom whereas switching to the Default mode enables the display switches between different refers rates - 30Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz or 120Hz depending on the content. Both have support for a 240Hz touch sampling rate for faster touch responses during gaming and other multi-tasking activities.

In terms of brightness, both displays can achieve a peak brightness of 950nits and under direct sunlight both these displays have good visibility but the display on the Realme 10 Pro Plus is slightly brighter of the two. Both these displays get different colour modes to choose and you can set the display temperature to a warmer or cooler tone. 

The Redmi Note 12 Pro has Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for protection on the front whereas the display protection is unknown on the Realme 10 Pro Plus. The Realme 10 Pro Plus houses an in-display optical fingerprint scanner that works accurately and faster. Both these displays have support for HDR on YouTube and Widevine L1 so you can stream HDR content on OTT platforms. 

Still, on Netflix, there is no support for HDR on the Realme 10 Pro Plus whereas there is support for HDR and Dolby Vision on the Redmi Note 12 Pro which is really good as Dolby Vision enhances the multi-media consumption. Both these displays are great for multi-media consumption but the one on the Redmi Note 12 Pro holds the clear edge.

Both smartphones are powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 1080 chipset which is a good chipset and handles almost all the small to heavy tasks easily. The chipset does a good job of handling all the tasks easily. Some of the powerful games like Call Of Duty Mobile, BGMI, etc. run easily at the highest graphics settings on both of them.

In BGMI, you can easily achieve Smooth graphics with Extreme frame rates and also HD graphics with Ultra frame rates without any stutters or frame drops noticed except for Genshin Impact where there were minor frame drops noticed on both smartphones. After long hours of gaming, the back of the Redmi 12 Pro did feel slightly warmer compared to the Realme 10 Pro Plus but still, it is negligible.

The stability was slightly better on the Redmi 12 Pro and in the CPU throttling test, both smartphones could achieve a sustained performance of around 90-95 per cent which is good with slight throttling. In benchmarks, the scores came out equally good on both smartphones. In terms of network connectivity, you have good carrier aggregation on both and they also get 8 bands of 5G each.

Both smartphones are available in two different variants - 6/8/12GB LPDDR4X RAM with 128/256GB UFS 2.2 storage speeds. Overall, both smartphones are great when it comes to performance and gaming.

This is one area where there have been a lot of changes from the past which will be discussed in this section later. The Realme 10 Pro Plus runs on the latest RealmeUI 4.0 based on Android 13 whereas the Redmi Note 12 Pro runs on the older MIUI 13 based on Android 12 which is slightly disappointing as all smartphones launched in 2023 come with Android 13 out of the box.

Both these user interfaces have a lot of features to offer where you can customize icon shape and size, change different styles for Always-On display and fingerprint scanner, different themes and wallpapers, etc. The look and feel of the RealmeUI are closer to Stock Android whereas the MIUI is more inspired by iOS where you get a Control Center after swiping down from the right and a notification toggle while sipping down from the left.

However, in terms of updates, both smartphones are assured to get another two years of AndroidOS updates and three years of security updates. In the software experience, MIUI has been improved with each of its iterations as you now get very minimal bloatware compared to RealmeUI which comes with a lot of bloatware which can be uninstalled. Xiaomi has improved over the years in reducing bloatware.

Both smartphones have a different main camera setup where the Realme 10 Pro Plus comes with a 108MP f/1.8 Samsung HM6 sensor for the primary camera and on the other hand, the Redmi Note 12 Pro houses a 50MP f/1.8 Sony IMX766 sensor for the primary camera with OIS. However, both have a similar 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera and a 2MP f/2.4 macro camera. On the front, both smartphones have a 16MP f/2.5 camera.

In terms of images taken during the daylight, the images on both of them have sharper details and good dynamic range with less noise in the background. The colours look saturated and boosted on the Realme 10 Pro Plus compared to the Redmi Note 12 Pro has a natural look and also has better contrast compared to the Realme 10 Pro Plus. In HDR images, the details and colours look better on the Redmi Note 12 Pro.

At night, the images taken from both smartphones come out with good details that look sharper and have good dynamic range. However, the noise is slightly less on the Redmi Note 12 Pro as it has OIS and also it maintains the exposure very well and has better contrast compared to the Realme 10 Pro Plus. Both of them also get dedicated Night Mode which further improves the dynamic range on both of them.

The 8MP ultrawide camera does a good job in terms of details that look sharper and have good dynamic range. There is a lot of distortion around the edges and a slight amount of noise on both of them. However, colours look natural on the Redmi Note 12 Pro and also it has better contrast compared to the Realme 10 Pro Plus which provides saturated colours. 

Both the ultrawide camera suffer when it comes to night photography where the images have slightly washed-out colours with average dynamic range and softer details. Though the dedicated Night Mode on both of them work really well but here the exposure is slightly better on the Redmi Note 12 Pro compared to the Realme 10 Pro Plus.

The 2MP macro camera is just for adding those numbers which is a fixed focus camera that takes images with an average amount of details, and colours look washed out and have a poor dynamic range with a lot of noise in the background. In terms of portraits, both smartphones provide sharper details with good dynamic range but the Redmi Note 12 Pro has warmer skin tones compared to off-white skin tones on the Realme 10 Pro Plus.

In terms of edge detection, both are equally good but in terms of background blur, the Redmi Note 12 Pro is slightly better than the Realme 10 Pro Plus. Selfies on both smartphones come out with a good dynamic range and details look good with natural skin tones but the Realme 10 Pro Plus does suffer from overexposure in the background. 

In terms of videos, both smartphones can record 4K videos at 30fps and the videos from both of them come out with good dynamic range and have sharper details with less noise but the colours look natural on the Redmi Note 12 Pro compared to the Realme 10 Pro Plus that provides saturated colours. The stabilization is better on the Redmi Note 12 Pro as it has OIS compared to the Realme 10 Pro Plus.

Both the ultrawide cameras are restricted to 1080p videos at 30fps only and the videos from both of them come out with average dynamic range and softer details with a lot of noise in the background. The selfie camera on both smartphones can record 1080p videos ta 30fps and here the Redmi 12 Pro has the clear edge in terms of stabilization and slightly better dynamic range compared to the Realme 10 Pro Plus.

Both smartphones have a 5000mAh battery which can easily last for two days with the display set to 120Hz and normal usage that includes casual gaming for 1-2 hours, streaming social media, web browsing, etc. and heavy usage that includes continuous playing games for 4-5 hours, rendering videos, attending phone calls for 7-8 hours, etc. both smartphones can last a single day and need a top up at night.

The standard screen-on time was around 7-8 hours on both smartphones with normal usage and with heavy usage, the standard screen-on time was around 3-4 hours. In terms of charging speeds, both smartphones support 67W fast charging but the charger bundled with the Realme 10 Pro Plus is an 80W one and with the Redmi 12 Pro you get a 67W fast charger. 

Both smartphones take around 45-50 minutes for a full charge from 0 to 100 per cent so battery life and charging speeds are equally good on both smartphones.

Both smartphones have dual stereo speakers that sound adequately loud and clear with a good amount of loudness at the highest settings. The bass level is slightly better on the Redmi Note 12 Pro and also it gets a 3.5mm headphone jack which provides good sound quality. There is also Dolby Atmos on both smartphones for enhanced sound output.

Both the Redmi Note 12 Pro and the Realme 10 Pro Plus are very good smartphones in the mid-range segment as they do all the basics right which include a good build and design, a 120Hz AMOLED display for multi-media \consumption, a powerful MediaTek Dimensity 1080 chipset that provides good performance and gaming, a good set of cameras, and good battery life with fast charging.

However, there are some areas where there are a lot of differences between both of them. The build is slightly better on the Redmi Note 12 Pro as it has a premium glass design compared to the polycarbonate design of the Realme 10 Pro Plus, then it has a better set of cameras for images and videos, and also the display supports Dolby Vision which is not present on the Realme 10 Pro Plus.

On top of that, though you get an older Android version, there is less amount of bloatware compared to the RealmeUI which is good. On the other hand, the Realme 10 Pro has that curved display which will attract many buyers and it has the newer Android version running as these two parameters are better than the Redmi Note 12 Pro.

So if you are someone who is looking out for a curved display with all the good specifications, then the Realme 10 Pro Plus is a solid buy but if you are someone who wants to buy a smartphone that has all the best specifications except for the older Android version, then the Redmi Note 12 Pro is a good buy. Overall, considering the cameras, design, display, software experience, etc., the Redmi Note 12 Pro beats the Realme 10 Pro Plus and is the better choice of the two.