Xiaomi 12 Pro review: Iterative improvements add up

The theme of phones so far this year has been repetition. Most phone manufacturers take what worked last year and improve on it with the latest parts and specifications. This is exactly what Xiaomi did with the Xiaomi 12 Pro, a phone that is an iterative but still meaningful upgrade over the Mi 11, which the company launched as part of the Xiaomi 12 series on March 15.

Xiaomi 12 Pro

8.00 / 10

The Xiaomi 12 Pro is the definition of a solid phone. It has a sharp display, best-in-class speakers, and a great camera setup. However, it’s big, it doesn’t work in the US, and MIUI would be a major overhaul coming from any other Android phone.

to set

• Brand: Xiaomi
• SOC: Snapdragon 8 first generation
• an offer: 6.73-inch 3200 x 1440 pixels LTPO OLED, 120 Hz
• ram: 8GB/12GB
• storage: 128GB/256GB
• battery: 4,600 mAh
• Ports: USB C
• Operating system: MIUI 13 interface based on Android 12 operating system
• Front camera: 32 megapixel
• Rear cameras: 50MP wide, 50MP telephoto, 50MP ultra-wide
• Contact: 5G, Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi 6/6E
• Dimensions: 163.60mm x 74.60mm x 8.16mm
• colors: Pink, gray and blue
• weight: 206 grams
• price: $999

Pros

• Feels great in the hand, best matte finish glass on any phone
• 120W charging is incredibly fast
• Some of the sharpest night mode on any phone
• Beautiful OLED screen made by Samsung

cons

• It’s a bulky phone that doesn’t encourage one-handed use
• Does not work in the United States
• 2x zoom is not enough in a flagship anymore
• MIUI will not be to everyone’s taste

Design, hardware and what’s in the box

The Xiaomi 12 Pro is remarkably similar to most of the flagship phones on the market currently. It has a curved, bezel-less, punch-hole display with a massive camera module and an in-display fingerprint scanner. There’s nothing special here, except for the rear glass. I’m not sure what Xiaomi did differently here, but the matte texture on the glass is great. It feels soft and adds a little grip without showing any scuffs.

The 12 Pro’s display is a 6.73-inch Samsung OLED display with a resolution of 1440p. This year, Xiaomi has chosen to use an LTPO panel, which means it has a dynamic refresh rate of 10Hz and up to 120Hz. The display also supports Dolby Vision, which is not very common on Android devices. Dolby Vision is the most advanced HDR standard, but most apps on Android don’t support it, opting to support the accepted and widely used HDR10 standard. In apps like Netflix, Dolby Vision movies and TV shows will look better on the Xiaomi 12 Pro than on almost any other Android phone, including the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Xiaomi has also included a quad-speaker system with two sets of identical settings. At the top and bottom are the tweeter and tweeter, with the same speakers on both parts. This system creates great sound quality and is very loud. These are the best speakers I’ve ever heard on a smartphone, and they’re much better than the previous champ, the Galaxy Z Fold3.

The Xiaomi box includes a charger, case, USB-A to USB-C cable, the usual manuals and the like. The charger supports 120W fast charging for Xiaomi 12 Pro. The included case isn’t super high quality, it’s just a cheap TPU case that you can throw in there until you can get something a little better.

Software, performance and battery

The Xiaomi 12 Pro comes with MIUI 13 based on Android 12. If you have used MIUI in the past two or three years, you won’t really notice anything different. It’s the same interface with the same features, just based on Android 12, which isn’t a bad thing. It’s still smooth, fast, and highly customizable.

If you are used to most Android phones that have a similar UI to Android with minor tweaks to colors and design, this might be an inconvenience. Xiaomi is heavy-handed when it comes to the changes it makes to Android. It can feel more like iOS than Android to some, but at its core, it’s the Android you know and love. All the default apps are Google apps and everything works the same, but a lot of the system stuff can be a bit annoying.

One of the unfortunate parts of it is the lack of material to support it. It should be required on Android 12 devices soon, but is missing at the time of review. It’s not a big deal, but most other major Android devices running Android 12 are already adopting it.

Support for updates has never been more important, and Xiaomi isn’t the quickest to roll them out. This time next year, the Xiaomi 12 Pro will likely get Android 13. Xiaomi promises three Android OS updates and four years of security updates, which is better than nothing even if it’s slow. It’s just shy of Samsung’s four Android OS updates and matches Google’s three.

The performance on the Xiaomi 12 Pro is very good. It’s powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, so you know it’ll be fast and hot. The phone gets warm while running performance-intensive tasks like gaming, but stays cool overall.

If you’re worried about Samsung or OnePlus apps throttling, no. Although we’ve run some tests proving that the Xiaomi 12 Pro engages in similar throttling tactics, it doesn’t seem to have much of an impact in day-to-day use – just like it does on Samsung phones. The 12 Pro offers a few different performance modes, and you can switch between them depending on what you’re doing with the phone. I kept my phone on balanced mode, because I didn’t notice a real difference in any of the apps.

As for the battery, the 4600 mAh battery runs the phone all day without any problems. I was easily getting a full day of use, but not much more. I was watching between four and six hours of screen time. The standby mode on the phone is pretty good too, barely draining 5% overnight. This is better than most Android phones I’ve used recently.

camera

Cameras have always been the focus of Xiaomi phones, and the Xiaomi 12 Pro is no exception. The rear camera setup includes a 50MP main Sony IMX 707 sensor, a 50MP ultra-wide Samsung JN1 sensor, and a 50MP 2x Samsung JN1 sensor. The selfie camera is a 32-megapixel sensor. There are no fancy toys with super zoom or anything like that; It’s just a tried and true camera setup with some high-resolution cameras.

The main sensor is one of the largest in the 2022 flagship model yet. It’s actually larger than the ISOCELL HM3 sensor on the Galaxy S22 Ultra and the 50MP sensor on the Galaxy S22. The result of this size? Really clear images with lots of detail, day or night. I’ve got some of the best, most detailed Night Mode photos I’ve ever seen on the Xiaomi 12 Pro. It delivers quite true colours, although there is an occasional white balance issue. It’s not a big deal, but some photos will end up with a funky color.

Closes

The telephoto and ultra-wide cameras are good, there’s not much to report here. I have no real complaints or comments, but I also have no compliments. The sensors themselves are very small, at 1/2.76 inch. I think a phone in this price range needs more than 2x zoom on the telephoto lens. The sensors on the Galaxy S22 and S22+ are better than this.

The selfie camera is better, but still not as good as the S22+. In apps like Snapchat or TikTok, where the selfie camera is important, that’s fine. Images appear to be HDR processed and offer good detail, but images also seem to become blurry due to any slight movement. Video seemed to be around 15fps in good light and overexposed while recording video in apps like TikTok, which is par for the course on Android phones, even the S22s and Pixel do it.

Should you buy it?

YesIf you are outside the United States. The phone is sold for $999, but this price will vary depending on the region. This puts it in the same category as the Galaxy S22+, and between the two, I’d rather get the Xiaomi 12 Pro. It has a top-tier camera, 120W super-fast charging, a clear screen, great speakers, and good software (you’ll really get used to it). The build quality is great and it’s hard to think of anything necessarily wrong with the phone.

Ultimately, it all comes down to whether you like Xiaomi’s software. MIUI stands out compared to the competition. It’s smooth, fast, efficient, and looks good, but it lacks some of the external support that skins like Pixel UI and One UI provide. Whether or not this phone is right for you really depends on how much you value the more general Android experience and how much you use social media apps that require good selfies.