Redmi, an independent sub-brand of Xiaomi, has announced the Redmi Note 12 in China , an update to the main budget line of four models that replaced the Redmi Note 11 models . Leading the series is the “flagship mid-range” Redmi Note 12 Discovery Edition, which is distinguished primarily by support for 210W ultra-fast charging (the marketing name of the technology is HyperCharge). This power is enough to fully (from 0 to 100%) charge the phone’s 4300 mAh battery in just nine minutes. At least that’s what the manufacturer promises.

HyperCharge at 210W

Xiaomi, along with Oppo, Realme and other Chinese brands , are the undisputed leaders in fast charging technologies for mobile gadgets. In the past few years, they have rapidly increased the power and speed of their proprietary technologies ( Xiaomi11T Pro supported 120W , and Oppo brought its own SuperVOOC to 150W and swung at 240W), and in the summer of 2021 they even teamed up. True, since then there has been no more news about the status of the initiative. As for Xiaomi, it is worth remembering that it first demonstrated 200W HyperCharge charging at the end of May 2021 – a modified version of the Mi 11 Pro with a 4000 mAh battery charged up to 50% in 3 minutes and up to 100% in 8 minutes. It was later reported that the 200W HyperCharge would go into mass production in 2022. And so it happened – Redmi Note 12 Discovery Edition became the first mass-produced Xiaomi smartphone with support for HyperCharge charging with a maximum power of 210 watts.

Yes, of course, 210 watts is the peak value, which is more about marketing (the laws of physics are inexorable, so as the charge is replenished, the power drops). How such high powers will affect the battery’s longevity is anyone’s guess – Xiaomi previously said that charging at 200W reduces capacity by only 20% in 800 cycles.

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Redmi Note 12 lineup

210W HyperCharge charging is not the only bright option in the Redmi Note 12 Discovery Edition specifications. Also, the novelty boasts the main camera with the main Samsung HPX sensor at 200 megapixels – the main sensor of the main camera of the flagship Xiaomi 12T Pro has the same resolution, but the model is different there. You can take pictures both in 200 MP mode (16384×12288 pixels); 50 and 12.5 MP modes are also supported (the well-known binning technology, when neighboring pixels are grouped together to produce brighter and clearer images in low light conditions). The main module is accompanied by an ultra-wide-angle, 2-megapixel macro and a 16-megapixel selfie camera.

In the Redmi Note 12 series, in addition to the top-end Discovery Edition, there are three more models. A step lower is the Redmi Note 12 Pro + – without HyperCharge charging at 210 W (only 120 W), but with a noticeably larger 5000 mAh battery.

Even lower in rank is the Redmi Note 12 Pro model, in which the charging speed was “cut” to 67 W, and the 200 MP sensor was replaced by another one with a lower resolution of 50 MP. Finally, the base Redmi Note 12 5G offers 33W fast charging and, unlike the three brothers, does not run on MediaTek Dimensity 1080, but on Snapdragon 4 Gen 1.

All models of the Redmi Note 12 series have a 6.67-inch 1080p OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, and Xiaomi MIUI 13 Android 12 interface.

The full specifications of Redmi Note 12 can be found in the table below.

Price and availability

In China, the Redmi Note 12 series will go on sale from October 30, with prices starting at 1,199 yuan (about $165) for the Redmi Note 12 5G with 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage and going up to 2,399 yuan for the Discovery Edition. When the global release will take place has not yet been specified. Usually, international versions come out a few months after the start of sales of new products in China. At the same time, Xiaomi, along with other Chinese companies, suspended their activities in Ukraine after the full-scale invasion of Russia and continued their business in the aggressor country for some time.