Redmi's latest phone can be fully charged in nine minutes
Over the years, we've seen smartphone charging speeds going from the already-impressive 30 minutes down to 15 minutes, but apparently that's still too slow for Xiaomi. In the new Redmi Note 12 lineup unveiled earlier today, one model dubbed "Redmi Note 12 Discovery Edition" stood out with a whopping 210W HyperCharge capability. This feature is controlled by three 100W fast charging chips, which fully charge the phone's 4,300mAh battery in just 9 minutes. To put things into perspective, both Xiaomi's earlier 120W HyperCharge and Oppo's 150W SuperVOOC need 15 minutes to juice up a 4,500mAh battery.
The Redmi Note 12 Discovery Edition also sees the debut of MediaTek's mid-range Dimensity 1080 processor, and it's completed with a 6.67-inch OLED screen (2,400 x 1,080, 120Hz), a 200MP main camera (Samsung's brand new HPX sensor; with OIS), an 8MP ultra-wide camera, a 2MP macro camera and a 16MP selfie camera. You'll also find dual-SIM slots, dual speakers, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a side fingerprint sensor, NFC, and an infrared blaster on this Android 12 device.
As for RAM and storage, this model only comes with one combo: 8GB LPDDR4x RAM and 256GB UFS 2.2 storage. Unlike last year's Redmi Note 11 Pro+, microSD expansion is missing here, which may be a deterrent for those who are considering an upgrade. Still, not bad for 2,399 yuan or $330.
Despite the name, the Redmi Note 12 Discovery Edition is actually based on the Redmi Note 12 Pro+, with the main difference being the lesser charging power (120W) but bigger battery (5,000mAh) for the latter. This model starts from 2,199 yuan or about $304, which comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage; or you can pay 2,399 yuan or around $331 to bump the RAM up to 12GB.
Then there's also the lesser but similar-looking Redmi Note 12 Pro, which swaps the 200MP main camera for a 50MP one (using Sony's IMX766 sensor), and it only uses 67W charging for the same 5,000mAh battery. This starts from 1,699 yuan or about $235, which gets you 6GB of RAM with 128GB of storage; and you can max out at 12GB of RAM with 256GB of storage for the price of 2,199 yuan or around $304 — the same as the Pro+'s starting price, interestingly.
Last but not least, the Redmi Note 12 is positioned as an affordable smartphone, starting at 1,199 yuan or about $166. It packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 chipset, a slightly lesser-grade OLED display of the same size (mainly lower brightness and contrast, as well as the lack of HDR support), less powerful cameras (48MP main, 2MP depth sensor and 8MP front), weaker charging power (33W) and just a mono speaker. In terms of variants, it starts from 4GB of RAM with 128GB of storage, going all the way up to 8GB with 256GB, respectively (1,699 yuan or around $235; same as the Note 12 Pro's base price).
As with recent Redmi phones, there's a good chance that these new models will make their way to international markets later, so we'll be keeping an eye out for further updates.