Xiaomi 12T Pro

Xiaomi 12T Pro

At the end of 2022, one thing is certain. From an exotic that consumers only read about in Kaldata and ordered from China, in three years the Xiaomi brand has developed a lot and is now well known to all Bulgarian consumers. The reasons for this are many and we will not discuss them now, but it is a fact that, apart from its popularity in Bulgaria, the Chinese giant can already boast of being the third largest phone manufacturer in the world after Samsung and Apple.

The company, which for a long time relied mainly on the lower-end models, leaders in the price/quality ratio, now presents quite a few flagship phones at a good price, while updating its flagship model quite often. So shortly after we enjoyed the 12 series smartphones, here is its 12T extension. We’ve already looked at the main model of the series, and now it’s the turn of the 12T Pro, which we had the opportunity to use for quite some time.

Just a quick look at the model’s specifications shows that it is a flagship. However, if you look at its price, you will wonder how it is possible to make a phone with such specifications at such a low price. There are ways and means of doing that, and if you can live with the compromises Xiaomi has made, this might be a phone to add to your shortlist for upcoming holiday purchases.

I bet the main reason you’re reading this review is because you’ve seen the 200Mp camera spec somewhere and want to know if the very reasonably priced 12T Pro is any good. Keep reading and you’ll find out.

Features and design

If one thing is clear, the 12T Pro is a step down from „true“ flagships like the 12S Ultra and last year’s Mi 11 Ultra. It doesn’t have an IP rating, for example, nor does the latest Wi-Fi 6E. You don’t get wireless charging or a screen with curved edges. The frame is made of plastic, not metal, and when you go beyond the 200Mp camera, the rest is – in a word – lacking.

Of these cut corners, only the last one will really matter to many people, and so the 12T Pro will appeal strongly to anyone who can’t afford or justify spending more than BGN 2,000 on their next phone – this one is almost twice as much. cheap, but more on that in a bit.

As with many of its competitors, the 12T Pro is a large phone, measuring 163 x 76 x 8.6mm and weighing just over 200g. It has stereo speakers on opposite corners, and is one of the increasingly few phones that still have an infrared port that you can use with the Mi remote app to control your TV and set-top boxes, as well as air conditioners and much more.

These speakers also sound good for a phone. They are tuned by Harmon Kardon and support Dolby Atmos. While that doesn’t mean much for such small, limited speakers, both deliver similar volume and are great for videos and games.

Biometrics on the model include an optical fingerprint scanner under the screen and a 20Mp selfie camera with software that can be used for facial recognition. This is less secure than using the fingerprint scanner, which I found to be fast and reliable.

Screen

As you’d expect, the 12T Pro has an excellent screen. It may be flat, but the 120Hz refresh rate and AMOLED technology mean games, videos, apps and web pages look good and scroll smoothly. Colors are rich, blacks are deep, and viewing angles are excellent.

Brightness is one of the compromises here, at 500 nits in normal conditions (tested using DataColor Spyder) and up to 900 nits at peak. It is excellent, but still not the brightest that we can see on the market at the moment.

It’s not a variable refresh rate panel either. It can operate at 30, 60, 90 or 120 Hz. The latest LTPO 2.0 panels can adjust the refresh rate to as low as 1Hz to save battery power. However, this again is not a problem and is a reasonable compromise to keep the price quite low. The resolution of 1220×2712 is also not the highest, but it is quite enough for a nice and sharp image.

Productivity

The Xiaomi 12T Pro features the latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset from Qualcomm. It is backed by 8GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. These are all suitable components for a flagship. Xiaomi claims to have improved the cooling system with an evaporation chamber that is 65% larger than that of the 11T Pro.

The 12T Pro managed to perform well in our benchmarks. In normal use, browsing the web, sending emails, taking and viewing photos, streaming Netflix and playing games, the 12T Pro feels like a flagship. There is no option to expand the memory with a microSD card, but the SIM tray will accept a pair of nano SIM cards, both of which can be 5G. You can also connect a physical SIM card to an eSIM card and get a dual 5G card that way.

cameras

How good is that 200Mp camera? That’s the biggest question. The answer is that she is impressive. Even the Xiaomi 12T’s 108Mp camera does great, and this one is even better. In default shooting mode, the 12T Pro will merge each block of 16 into 1 and record a 12.5Mp photo to your memory. This is done for a variety of reasons, the main one being storage space. You can shoot at the full 200MP if you want, but each image will take up about 50-70MB.

Performance is the other issue: you have to wait a few seconds between shots. There’s an intermediate 50Mp shooting option that speeds things up a bit.

Even if you don’t plan on printing huge wall posters with these high-resolution images, there are still advantages to having so many pixels. The main thing is that you can crop – a lot – and still get a detailed photo, not a blurry mess.

In the Gallery app, an icon appears on photos taken in Ultra HD mode. Tap it and ProCut will open, showing various cutting suggestions. You can select one or more of them and they will be saved as individual photos in your camera roll.

Overall, pictures from the main camera are sharp and have realistic colors. HDR is automatic by default and also helps to take impressive shots. Also, a lot of processing is done to sharpen the photos, and this is noticeable when you zoom in on the image and look at the details. However, thanks to the rather natural bokeh, which means a blurred background, most photos look quite impressive.

I was surprised by how capable the main camera is in low light, producing photos that look much brighter than the actual scene, and that’s without switching to the dedicated night mode.

The rest of the camera sensors are good without being anything special – I think anyone who gets this phone will only use the main sensor. You have a macro camera with a resolution of 2 MP, as well as a wide-angle camera with 8 MP. I would just use the main one.

On the front, the 20Mp selfie camera is very good, taking nice, sharp photos and doing a decent job of generating bokeh in portrait mode. In terms of video, the 12T Pro can shoot at 8K30, but it’s best to limit settings to 4K60, as footage will benefit from stabilization.

The video quality does not disappoint and the sound is not bad either. Xiaomi also throws in some fun shooting modes, such as Clone, where you can appear twice, and a selection of movie effects, including Parallel World, Slow Shutter, and a mode where it records from both the front and rear cameras simultaneously.

Battery

While not exclusive or new, 120W wired charging will likely be a discovery for most people buying the 12T Pro. Xiaomi supplies the necessary charger in the box, which is a real find. It replenishes almost 70% of battery capacity in just 15 minutes and continues to fully charge it in less than 25 minutes.

With its 5000 mAh battery, you probably won’t need to charge your model often, but especially if you forget to charge it in the evening – this fast charging is very convenient, literally in the morning while you’re getting ready for work.

The battery is good for about six or seven hours of real screen time, with the rest being drained when the screen is off.

Using PCMark’s battery test, the 12T Pro lasted a similar time—10 hours and 54 minutes—to the 12T, which has the same battery and screen but a Dimensity 8100 Ultra chipset.

As always, your „mileage“ may vary: you might be able to get almost two days out of the 12T Pro if you use it lightly, but it’ll almost certainly need the superfast charger if you’re spending four or more hours gaming. To keep costs down, there is no wireless charging.

Software

The 12T Pro is an Android phone, but Xiaomi’s MIUI skin makes some pretty drastic changes to the interface compared to many competitors. This makes Android a little more like Apple’s iOS. For example, swiping down from the right side of the screen will bring you a control center with lots of shortcuts to phone functions as well as smart home controls. If you swipe down from the left side, you’ll get a notification shade. A nice extra is the Game Turbo feature, which gives you shortcuts to various features such as overlays while you play, including changing the voice.

The better news is that Xiaomi has committed to three years of Android updates (which will bring the 12T Pro to Android 15) and four years of security updates. These are commendable things, as the lack of updates is usually one of the main reasons we avoid certain Android manufacturers.

Price

The price of the Xiaomi 12T Pro is currently around BGN 1,200 for free sale, and with contracts through various operators it becomes even more affordable. This makes the model one of the most profitable options to buy before Christmas. The model is significantly cheaper than many Android flagships. You will hardly find a phone with better parameters at the same price.

Eventually

With Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, the Xiaomi 12T Pro tries to carve out a good position at this sub-flagship price. The smartphone is a great price, comes with a whopping 120W charger and a clear case in the box, and comes with a pre-installed screen protector.

Specifications

•     Android 11 с MIUI 12
•     6,67-inch AMOLED 120Hz 2712×1220 display
•     AdaptiveSync: 30Hz/60Hz/90Hz/120Hz
•     In-display fingerprint sensor
•     Gorilla Glass 5 (front), anti-reflective glass (back)
•     Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
•     8/12 GB RAM
•     128/256 GB non-expandable memory
•     camera:

200Mp, f/1,69 main camera with OIS

8Mp, f/2,2 ultrawide camera

2Mp, f/2,4 macro camera

20Mp, f/2.2 selfi camera