ICYMI: realme Launches the realme 12 4G. Even Though the 13 Pro Series Is on the Horizon


The phones are BARELY a month old. Give it a rest

realme announced just a week ago the realme 12 4G in the Philippines. It’s quite overwhelming for consumers now considering that the brand has basically moved on not even a week later to launch the realme 13 Pro series 5G in time for the brand’s anniversary this August 28.

However, since the phone launched, it would be a waste of typing time and article to not talk about it. So, let’s do talk about it. The phone is a minor upgrade (“sidegrade”) to the realme 11 4G. Its structure is identical to the realme 11 series with its rounded camera island, but the overall design is different. This time, the phone takes cues from the more powerful realme 12 Pro series but obviously features watered down specs. It doesn’t even have a proper quad camera this time.

The first thing you’ll see are the colour options. These are Pioneer Green and Sky Blue. Its main feature is the Sony LYT-600 primary camera at the back, which should perform just as well as with the Sony IMX882. It is a midrange camera that acts like a flagship. It’s something in between. What’s more? This 50MP sensor has OIS.

Because Sony sensors are rather expensive, realme can only add so many competent cameras in a phone. So, aside from this camera, you’re getting a wimpy 2MP monochrome and a 16MP front camera.

It uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 685, a mediator between the Snapdragon 680 and 688. The chipset performs just as well as the aforementioned two but is weaker than the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1. realme also blew their budget on the phone’s display, which uses a very bright 2000-nit E4 AMOLED screen with 120Hz refresh rate, made by Samsung.

Other mentioned features include 67W fast charging, “dual stereo” speakers with Hi-Res Audio, a big vapor chamber cooling system, and realmeUI 5 based on Android 14. The phone is priced at PHP 13,999 which is pretty expensive if you ask us. The realme 11 4G costed 2K less than this for almost the same spec sheet.

SPECS:

  • 6.67″ FullHD+ (2400x1080px) AMOLED, 120Hz refresh rate, 2000nits peak brightness
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 685 (6nm)
  • CAMERAS:
    • 50MP (Primary), f/1.9, 1/1.95″, 26mm, Sony Lytia LYT-600, OIS
    • 2MP (Monochrome/Depth), f/2.4
    • FRONT: 16MP, f/2.4, 1/2″
  • realmeUI 5.0 based on Android 14
  • 5000mAh, 67W fast charging
  • USB-C, Hi-Res Audio, Stereo Speakers, In-display fingerprint scanner
  • 4G LTE, Dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.1, NFC
  • Pioneer Green, Sky Blue
  • PRICE:
    • 8/256: PHP 13,999