realme has officially brought over the most affordable variant of the realme 12 series to Malaysia. While its specs are nothing to boast about, the brand definitely did not skimp on the build quality, ensuring us, that while it’s a budget device, it still feels premium in hand.
The realme 12 gets a 6.72-inch 1080p LCD display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 950 nits. Those who hate curved displays, like me, will be glad to know that this phone gets a completely flat display and flat metal sides, giving it a sleek industrial look — my only gripe is that it has a big, ugly chin. It’s also quite slim and lightweight despite its large size, so it’s easy to wield in one hand.
On the side, you’ll find a button that triples as a power button, fingerprint scanner, and a “Dynamic Button”. The latter being a customisable one that lets you set up certain apps or actions for when you long press or even double-tap the button. It’s undoubtedly useful for frequent actions such as turning on and off the Do Not Disturb mode or calling up the voice assistant.
The realme 12 runs on a MediaTek Dimensity 6100 Plus chipset and while it’s obviously not the most powerful processor out there, it gets the job done for just regular everyday use. I did encounter some lag when switching between the zoom options in the camera app, but it only happens occasionally, as is expected with any entry-level smartphone.
For protection, the device is rated at IP54 for dust and water resistance and is even equipped with something called Rainwater Smart Touch technology. The latter is supposed to recognise and ignore raindrops to prevent your phone from going haywire when you’re trying to use it under a drizzle. Disappointingly, I tried this out by splashing drops of water on the phone while it was unlocked and the phone immediately opened up random apps, so this might need some extra tweaking.
The 5G-enabled realme 12 is powered by a 5,000mAh battery with support for 45W charging. It starts at RM1,099 for the 8GB+256GB model, while the variant with double the storage capacity retails for RM1,299.
