Xiaomi 12T Pro review: A flagship Android phone for less

If Xiaomi is a model that’s nonetheless unfamiliar – and unpronounceable – to you, then it’s excessive time that scenario modified. The Chinese language large is the world’s third-biggest cellphone maker after Samsung and Apple, in spite of everything

It’s pronounced shau·mee, and makes not solely flagship cellphone to rival one of the best round, but additionally good-value low-cost telephones.

The 12T Professional is a bit tougher to pigeonhole. A fast have a look at its specs, and also you would possibly bounce to the conclusion it’s a flagship. However have a look at its worth and also you’ll marvel the way it’s attainable to make a cellphone with these specs at such a low worth.

There are methods and means to do it, and when you can reside with the compromises Xiaomi has made, this might nicely be a cellphone so as to add to your shortlist.

I’d wager the principle purpose you’re studying this overview is since you noticed that 200Mp digital camera spec someplace and needed to know if the very-reasonably-priced 12T Professional is any good.

Preserve studying and also you’ll discover out.

Options & design

• Bland design
• Stereo audio system
• Glass again with plastic body

If one factor is evident, the 12T Professional sits an excellent couple of rungs down the ladder from ‘true’ flagships reminiscent of the corporate’s 12S Extremely and final 12 months’s Mi 11 Extremely.

It doesn’t have an IP score, for instance, nor the newest Wi-Fi 6E. You don’t get wi-fi charging or a display with curved edges.

The body is constituted of plastic, not metallic, and whenever you get past the 200Mp digital camera, the others are – in a phrase – lackluster.

Of these lower corners, solely the final one will actually matter to lots of people, and that’s why the 12T Professional will attraction strongly to anybody that may’t afford or justify spending $1000/£1000 on their subsequent cellphone.

One factor that doesn’t attraction is the 12T Professional’s relatively bland design which it shares with its sibling, the 12T, reviewed. Xiaomi despatched me the black model to overview and that’s the dullest of the lot. The blue and silver variations are extra enticing, however the fully flat display and, dare I say, generic total look means it doesn’t actually stand out.

As with so many rivals, the 12T Professional is an enormous cellphone, measuring 163 x 76 x 8.6mm and weighing simply over 200g.

It has stereo audio system on reverse corners and is one in every of more and more few telephones to nonetheless function an IR blaster that you need to use with the Mi distant app to manage your TV and set-top containers.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

These audio system sound good for a cellphone, too. They’ve been tuned by Harmon Kardon and assist Dolby Atmos. Whereas that doesn’t actually imply a lot for such tiny, restricted audio system, each ship related quantity and are nice for movies and video games.

Biometrics embody an under-screen optical fingerprint scanner and a 20Mp punch-hole selfie digital camera that can be utilized for face recognition.

That’s much less safe than utilizing the fingerprint scanner, which I discovered to be fast and dependable.

Display screen

• 6.67in CrystalRes AMOLED show
• 446ppi, 120Hz (480Hz contact sampling)
• HDR 10+, Dolby Imaginative and prescient

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

As you’d rightly anticipate, the 12T Professional has an honest display. Flat it could be, however the 120Hz refresh price and AMOLED tech imply video games, movies, apps and net pages look good and scroll easily. Colors are wealthy, blacks are deep and viewing angles are wonderful.

Brightness is among the compromise right here, with 500 nits in regular circumstances (verified by utilizing a DataColor Spyder) and as much as 900 nits peak (one thing I couldn’t check). It’s completely good, however not the brightest on the market.

It’s not a variable refresh price panel both. It could actually run at 30, 60, 90 or 120Hz. The most recent LTPO 2.0 panels can modify the refresh price to as little as 1Hz to preserve battery energy.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Nevertheless, as soon as once more, this isn’t a deal-breaker, and is a wise compromise to maintain the worth down.

The decision of 1220×2712 isn’t the very best both, however it’s loads ok for a pleasant, sharp picture.

Efficiency

• Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
• Twin 5G

The Xiaomi 12T Professional has the newest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset from Qualcomm. It’s backed by 8GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage.

All are correct flagship elements and in some nations – not the UK, sadly – you possibly can go for a mannequin with 12GB of RAM.

Xiaomi says it has improved the cooling system with a vapour chamber that’s 65% bigger than the 11T Professional’s.

Sadly, the 12T Professional nonetheless heats up noticeably when pushing the cellphone laborious with intensive video games and different apps. It managed to finish our benchmarks tremendous, however it’s most likely greatest to not think about this a gaming cellphone and as an alternative view it as a high-performance gadget for extra informal use.

And in regular use, shopping the online, sending emails, taking and viewing images, streaming Netflix and taking part in ‘informal’ video games, the 12T Professional feels each inch the flagship.

There’s no choice to develop storage utilizing a microSD card, however the SIM tray will settle for a pair of nano SIMs, each of which might be 5G.

You too can pair a bodily SIM with an eSIM and get twin 5G that approach too.

Cameras

• 200Mp foremost digital camera with OIS
• Extensive-angle with f/2.2
• Macro with f/2.4 lens

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Simply how good is that 200Mp digital camera? That’s the largest query. The reply, briefly, is that it’s not masses higher than cameras with far fewer pixels.

It is rather good, although. Simply don’t anticipate miracles. Even the 108Mp digital camera on the Xiaomi 12T has too many pixels. The next quantity sounds nice, however the fact is that you just don’t really want them.

Within the default capturing mode, the 12T Professional will “bin” most of these pixels (merging each block of 16 into 1) and saves a 12.5Mp picture to your digital camera roll. That’s executed for quite a lot of causes, chief amongst which is cupboard space. You can shoot on the full 200Mp in order for you, however every picture will take up round 50-70MB.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Efficiency is the opposite drawback: it’s important to wait a couple of seconds between pictures. There’s an in-between choice to shoot at 50Mp which speeds issues up slightly.

Even when you don’t plan to print huge wall posters with these excessive decision photos, there are nonetheless benefits to having so many pixels. The primary one is that you may crop in – rather a lot – and nonetheless find yourself with an in depth picture, relatively than a smeary mess.

Within the Gallery app, an icon seems on images taken within the Extremely HD mode. Faucet it, and ProCut opens, displaying quite a lot of urged crops. You may choose a number of of those they usually’ll be saved as separate images within the digital camera roll.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

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Typically, images from the principle digital camera are sharp and have real looking colors. Allow the AI mode and also you’ll find yourself with oversaturated images, which you may not respect.

HDR is computerized by default, however both didn’t kick in whenever you’d anticipate it to or didn’t actually make a noticeable distinction. Within the panorama pictures that you may see within the gallery under, the sky is properly uncovered, however the foreground is under-exposed and too darkish.

Additionally, it’s annoying that there’s no indication of whether or not or not the autofocus has labored. It is a drawback outside in vibrant circumstances the place it isn’t straightforward to see simply by wanting on the display in case your topic (such because the pink dahlia flower instance under) is simply too shut or not. Whether it is, you’ll get a blurry picture.

There’s additionally lots of processing occurring to sharpen images, and that is noticeable whenever you zoom in and examine the small print. Nevertheless, due to fairly a little bit of pure bokeh, which suggests blurry backgrounds, most images are likely to look fairly spectacular.

I used to be stunned by how succesful the principle digital camera is in low gentle, producing images that seemed a lot brighter than the precise scene, and that’s with out swapping to the devoted Night time mode.

As talked about, the supporting cameras aren’t nice. The 2Mp macro digital camera appears current solely to make up the numbers and the wide-angle – though able to first rate pictures – has a really low 8Mp decision.

Across the entrance, the 20Mp selfie digital camera is superb, taking good, sharp images and doing an honest job of producing bokeh in portrait mode.

Video-wise, the 12T Professional can shoot at 8K30, however it’s greatest to restrict settings to 4K60 as footage will profit from stablilisation.

Video high quality doesn’t disappoint, and sound isn’t dangerous both. Plus, Xiaomi throws in a couple of enjoyable capturing modes reminiscent of Clone, the place you possibly can seem twice, and a choice of Film Results together with Parallel world, Gradual shutter and a mode that data from the entrance and rear cameras on the identical time.

Battery & Charging

• 5000mAh battery
• 120W wired charging
• No wi-fi charging

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Although it isn’t unique or new, the 120W wired charging is prone to be a revelation to most individuals shopping for a 12T Professional.

Xiaomi provides the required charger within the field, which is an actual boon. It replenishes virtually 70% of the battery’s capability in simply quarter-hour, and goes on to completely cost it in underneath 25 minutes.

That is excellent news because it mitigates the truth that, regardless of a 5000mAh battery, the 12T Professional doesn’t final fairly so long as you would possibly assume it ought to.

Don’t get me mistaken: it isn’t dangerous. In the course of the week or so I’ve used the cellphone, it managed to get by means of a full day with energy to spare, even when that was solely 20% or so. My colleague Anyron had an analogous expertise with the 12T.

It’s sufficient for about six or seven hours of precise display time, with the remaining draining with the display off.

Utilizing PCMark’s battery check, the 12T Professional lasted an analogous period of time – 10 hours 54 minutes – to the 12T which has the identical battery and display, however a Dimensity 8100 Extremely chipset.

As ever, your mileage might differ: you would possibly be capable to stretch the 12T Professional to final virtually two days when you use it flippantly, however it’s going to virtually definitely want that super-fast charger when you spend 4 or extra hours taking part in video games.

To maintain prices down, there’s no wi-fi charging.

Software program

• MIUI 13 (Android 12)
• Three years’ OS updates, 4 years’ safety patches

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

The 12T Professional is an Android cellphone, however Xiaomi’s MIUI pores and skin makes fairly drastic adjustments to the interface in comparison with lots of  rivals.

I don’t thoughts it for essentially the most half as a result of it makes Android a bit extra like Apple’s iOS. For instance, swipe down from the right-hand aspect of the display and also you’ll get a management centre with plenty of shortcuts to cellphone options in addition to sensible house controls.

Swipe down on the left and also you get the notification shade.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

There are nonetheless too many apps preinstalled, although, together with video games, Reserving.com and extra, however many might be uninstalled merely sufficient.

Some can’t, although, together with Xiaomi’s personal apps for safety, video, music and themes.

A pleasant further is Sport Turbo which supplies you shortcuts to numerous options as an overlay whilst you play, together with a voice changer.

Higher information is that Xiaomi has dedicated to a few years of Android updates (which is able to take the 12T Professional as much as Android 15) and 4 years of safety updates.

That is commendable stuff, as the shortage of updates is often one of many key causes to keep away from sure Android producers.

Worth & Availability

The Xiaomi 12T Professional prices £699 from Xiaomi’s website. It isn’t bought within the US, sadly, however it’s obtainable in Europe for €799.99 for the 128GB model.

It’s additionally bought by Currys, and on contract through Three, though at £51 per 30 days. Carphone Warehouse was providing the identical mannequin on Vodafone for £32 per 30 days on the time of overview, however with a £99 up-front price  in comparison with £30 with Three.

This makes it significantly cheaper than many Android flagships, although you do want to remember the compromises which were made with a view to lower your expenses.

You’ll be laborious pushed to discover a better-specc’d cellphone for a similar worth, however Motorola’s Edge 30 Extremely, reviewed, is arguably value the additional £50.

It has the identical 200Mp digital camera, the identical measurement display (at a decrease decision), a greater set of supporting cameras, 12GB of RAM (within the UK), Wi-Fi 6E, 125W wired charging plus 50W wi-fi charging. Importantly, it runs a close-to-stock model of Android.

You may additionally have a look at the Pixel 7 Professional, reviewed. For £150 extra, it has wonderful cameras, an excellent show and pure Android software program.

For different alternate options, see our roundup of one of the best telephones.

Verdict

With a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, the Xiaomi 12T Professional tries to make an excellent case for itself at this sub-flagship worth.

Nevertheless, Motorola’s Edge 30 Extremely is a more sensible choice for most individuals. It doesn’t include plenty of bloatware, doesn’t fiddle an excessive amount of with Android and affords greater than sufficient {hardware} upgrades over the 12T Professional to make it value spending slightly extra.

Finally, the Xiaomi 12T Professional remains to be nice worth: Xiaomi bundles the charger and a transparent case within the field and pre-installs a display protector. Primarily, then, when you see it on sale or cheaper than the common £699 worth, it may tempt you away from the Edge 30 Extremely.

Specs

• Android 11 w/ MIUI 12
• 6.67in AMOLED 120Hz 2712×1220 show
• AdaptiveSync: 30Hz/60Hz/90Hz/120Hz
• In-display fingerprint sensor
• Gorilla Glass 5 (entrance), anti-glare glass (rear)
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
• 8/12GB RAM
• 128/256GB non-expandable storage
• Cameras:
  • 200Mp, f/1.69 foremost digital camera with OIS
  • 8Mp, f/2.2 ultrawide digital camera
  • 20Mp, f/2.2 selfie digital camera
• Stereo audio system
• Twin-SIM 5G (nano SIM + eSIM, or twin nano SIM)
• Wi-Fi 6
• NFC
• Bluetooth 5.2
• 5000mAh battery
• 120W quick charging
• No wi-fi charging
• 163 x 76 x 8.6mm
• 205g