The 5G smartphone market space is getting fierce with each passing day. Almost every major smartphone brand that operates globally now has a phone in this range. Such phones pack both useful features and a few gimmicks to lure customers.

The Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G is the ideal specimen belonging to the aforementioned category. Check out our full review of the Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G to understand the real-world capabilities of this "Marvel" collaboration.

Design
I have been using the Force Black variant of the Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G with 8GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The device has a plastic frame and back panel. The display is protected by a 2.5D tempered glass with a small notch at the top and a bit of a chin at the bottom. What I really liked about the phone is that it has a dedicated microSD card slot along with dual nano SIM card slots.

While the textured back panel (except for the camera module) makes the phone fingerprint resistant, the device does look a bit cheap when compared to its rivals. Although most of the phone is fingerprint resistant, the camera module does attract a few fingerprints due to its glossy finish.

The phone also has a 3.5mm headphone jack, a stereo speaker setup, and the power button also doubles as a fingerprint sensor. Although it does not look as premium as the Redmi Note 10 Pro 5G, the device does not compromise on the practicality aspect.

Display
The Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G has a fairly large 6.7-inch AMOLED display with FHD+ resolution and with 60Hz refresh rate. While the AMOLED part of the equation is at par with the competition, the lower refresh rate makes the phone feel slow while scrolling through social media platforms.

The display on the Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G is pretty vibrant and bright for indoor usage. There is Widevine L1 certification, and I was even able to stream FHD content on Prime Video and Netflix.

I liked the fact that Infinix has used an AMOLED display rather than an IPS panel. Thanks to the properties of OLED, the Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G can reproduce punchy colors with a very high contrast ratio. If you are a movie buff, then you will love the display on the Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G as it makes the content look vibrant and colorful.

Camera
The Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G has a triple camera setup at the back with a 108MP primary camera, a 2MP depth camera, and a 2MP macro lens. Hence, it is equivalent to having just a single camera. There should have been a dedicated ultra-wide angle lens, which most phones of this price range offer. The device does have a 16MP selfie camera at the front with support for HDR mode. The main 108MP camera can record up to 2K resolution videos, while the selfie camera can only shoot up to 1080p videos. The camera app is a bit cluttered, in fact, even the normal mode says AI camera, and there also seems to be some sort of built-in filter that cannot be turned off.
Photos taken from the primary camera mostly come out good, given you don't have shaky hands. There is a bit of a shutter lag, hence, the camera takes a bit more than a second to capture a picture even in daylight conditions. In 108MP mode, the shutter takes another second, again only a pair of steady hands can help you.

If you have time, then you can get some really good pictures out of the 108MP primary camera as you might have to re-shoot to get a perfect picture. As per the selfie camera performance is concerned, I felt that the 16MP sensor captures slightly softer and noisier pictures when compared to the primary camera.

Performance
The Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G comes with the Mediatek Dimensity 810 SoC with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The Note 12 Pro 5G is one of the most affordable smartphones with the Mediatek Dimensity 810 SoC, a capable mid-range 5G chipset.

The Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G did well on our throttling test. In fact, even after running the CPU throttling app for 15 minutes, the device was capable of sustaining 94 percent of its peak performance. This ensures that the Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G is more than capable of handling extended gaming sessions.

In our gaming test the Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G did exceptionally well on COD: Mobile. The device just handled the game like a champ and it didn't even get hot. Similarly, on Geekbench 5, the device scored 581 and 1710 points on the single-core and multi-core CPU tests and the device posted 381516 points on the AnTuTu benchmark.

Overall, the Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G is a good gaming device, it just delivers pure performance and can even handle heavy titles like COD: Mobile at high graphics settings.

Software And Connectivity
The Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G ships with Android 12 OS with custom xOS 10.6 skin on top. If you think phones from Oppo, Vivo, Realme, and Xiaomi have bloatware, then you haven't seen an Infinix smartphone. The device had over 15 pre-installed third-party (nonessential) apps that you cannot remove from the device.

While some of these apps can be disabled, it's just frustrating to see so many third-party apps that most users don't even care about. Again, the xOS 10.6 is heavy skin, which also takes a toll on the overall smoothness of the device, and this could further slow down the phone in the coming days.

When it comes to connectivity, the Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G supports a 5G network on both slots with support for 12 5G bands. The device also supports up to 5Ghz Wi-Fi along with Bluetooth 5.0. There is no NFC support here, so do keep a note of that.

Battery Life
The Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G comes with a 5,000 mAh sealed battery with support for 33W fast charging, and the fast charger is included in the box. The smartphone can deliver slightly over six hours of screen-on-time, given you don't play the game for more than two hours.

The battery life and the charging speeds of the Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G can be considered decent. For most users, the Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G should last for an entire day without any issue.

Verdict
Features like stereo speaker setup, AMOLED display, selfie flash, and even the 108MP primary camera make the Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G one of the best smartphones that Infinix has ever released so far.

If you can overlook the software experience, then the Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G is a great pick. The Infinix Note 12 Pro 5G is definitely a performance-oriented device, which makes it a great phone for casual gaming and normal day-to-day usage.

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