Introduction
It’s been quite a while since we last reviewed or seen an HTC device. The company was having a tough time in recent years as the sales figure keep on dropping. With that, the company announced lesser and lesser devices than before. The Desire 12+ was announced in the first half of 2018, a mid-range smartphone that won’t cost you a lot. However, with so many mid-range phones here in the market right now, is this the phone you should get? Here’s our HTC Desire 12+ review!
Liquid Surface Design
Looking at the front of the device, it looks quite similar to most smartphones in 2017. Nope, the phone doesn’t have a notch display, but it has the trendy 18:9 display with somehow thick bezels around the phone.
The phone inherits its U-series flagship rear design, which is being called as the liquid surface design. It is quite reflective and will actually show different colors depending on which angle you are looking from. Unlike its U-series flagship brother, the phone rear is made of plastic instead of glass. Nevertheless, the phone is quite fingerprint-magnet.
6″ HD+ 18:9 Display
The Desire 12+ sports a 6-inch HD+ IPS LCD display, which isn’t bad. However, I was expecting a Full HD+ display, 720p just doesn’t make sense right now for a smartphone at this price point. My only complaint is the display isn’t sharp enough.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 450
The Desire 12+ packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 octa-core processor with 3GB RAM and 32GB expandable storage. It is the first 14nm processor in the Snapdragon 400 series, which has better capabilities in supporting dual higher resolution rear cameras and more battery efficient.
Performance of this phone is quite okay when you handle simple tasks like web browsing, checking emails, and watching YouTube videos. Games like Rules of Survival and PUBG Mobile are still playable but don’t expect to play in high graphics settings.
Android Oreo on Sense UI
The phone runs on Android Oreo on top of Sense UI, a very light-skinned interface by the company. The company did a great job in keeping the software as light as possible such as only using one app for calendar, text messaging, photo gallery, and more.
BlinkFeed remains at the left page of the home screen, replacing Google Now page. For people who want to read the news and social media posts on a single page, this is actually quite useful.
Sense Companion is an AI assistant that offers suggestions based on the time of day and location that is integrated with Google Assistant. It will advise you stuff such as nearby restaurants, weather forecast, and more. However, I found that it is not quite useful as Google Assistant, and it constantly shows the notification, which is a bit annoying.
Dual-Camera
The Desire 12+ comes with a dual-camera setup on the back — 13MP f/2.2 + 2MP depth sensor. Selfie wise, it has an 8MP f/2.0 fixed-focus front camera. The camera interface is simple and straightforward, but not as usual friendly as its competitors. Additionally, there’s no full manual mode as well.
The phone is able to capture nice photos with a great amount of detail and nice color saturation under good lighting conditions. When it comes to low-light condition, the images turn out to be quite soft and noisy.
2,965mAh Battery
The phone packs a 2,965mAh battery, which is good enough for a mid-range phone like this. Unfortunately, it only comes with a 5V/1.5A charger, making it slow to charge the phone. In terms of battery life, the phone is able to last through a day easily with moderate usage.
Final Words
Retailing at RM799, the HTC Desire 12+ is now available via Shopee Mall. As usual, HTC once again has made a nice looking smartphone. However, when you look at other offers like the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) and Xiaomi Mi A2, the Desire 12+ is a bit lacking behind. It is not fair for HTC, though, as the Desire 12+ was announced before these two smartphones. Don’t get me wrong, the Desire 12+ is still a great phone, just that when you have other better options at around the same price, it is hard to ignore the shortages.
Yay
- Beautiful design
- Decent camera
- Good battery life
Nay
- Only HD+ display
- Only Snapdragon 450 processor
- Slow charger