Xiaomi 12 Pro Review: An Ultra Fast Flagship Phone

Xiaomi has launched the Xiaomi 12 Pro in Nepal. It is Xiaomi’s first flagship phone for the year 2022.

Xiaomi 12 Pro price in Nepal is Rs. 1,14,999 (12/256GB). It is available for purchase all over Nepal via authorized Xiaomi stores.

I have been using this device for a couple of weeks and I’ll tell you all about it in this review article.

Xiaomi 12 Pro Review

Design

• 163.6 x 74.6 x 8.2 mm
• 204 g

Xiaomi 12 Pro comes with a simple but functional design. The rear of the phone is made out of glass and has a premium frosted matte finish.

Xiaomi has not mentioned the type of protection on the rear glass panel. We know that Xiaomi 12 has Gorilla Glass 5 protection, so it is only sensible for the 12 Pro to have the same or better.

The rear camera module has a triple camera setup with a big main camera sitting on top of similar-sized extra sensors. The rear panel curves on the sides to meet the aluminum frame matching the shape of the display on the front.

It doesn’t feel heavy on hands even though it weighs around 204 g and it has got a good grip but the rear panel is a bit slippery.

Moving on, it has a USB-C port, sim tray slot, and speaker on the bottom. On top, it has another dedicated speaker, mic, and an IR blaster. The volume button and power button are on the right side whereas the fingerprint is underneath the display. The optical fingerprint is one of the fastest out there and it works well every time.

Display

• 6.73 inches LTPO AMOLED
• 120Hz
• 1440 x 3200 pixels
• Gorilla Glass Victus

Xiaomi 12 Pro rocks a 6.73 inches 1440p AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate. The display boasts a 480Hz touch sampling rate along with Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support.

Xiaomi claims max brightness of 1000 nits under regular use and 1500 nits while watching HDR content. The 12 Pro delivers on this promise with very good brightness.

Xiaomi 12 Pro’s display is more than bright enough outdoors and it rivals the likes of the Samsung S22 Ultra.

The panel has punchy colors and it is a very good panel to enjoy HDR content on Netflix. Netflix also recognizes Dolby Vision and it can easily play HDR videos on both YouTube and Netflix.

ALSO READ: Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus Review: No Complaints!

You can adjust the resolution between WQHD and FHD, there’s an additional option to enable a dynamic resolution to save battery. Likewise, you can set the refresh rate at 120, 90, or 60Hz. In auto, the max refresh rate is 120Hz and the lowest refresh rate is 10Hz. If the screen is static, the refresh rate will drop to 10Hz and it will do the same in video streaming apps as well.

Camera

• Rear Camera: 50 MP, f/1.9, 24mm (wide), 1/1.28″, 1.22µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS
  • 50 MP, f/1.9, 48mm (telephoto), PDAF, 2x optical zoom
  • 50 MP, f/2.2, 115˚ (ultrawide)

• Front Camera: 32MP, 26mm (wide), 0.7µm

The Xiaomi 12 Pro rocks an interesting camera setup with three 50MP sensors on the rear. There’s a main 50MP F/1.9 Sony IMX 707 sensor, an ultrawide 50MP F/2.2 Samsung JN1 sensor, and a telephoto 50MP  f/1.9 Samsung JN1 sensor.

NORMAL PHOTOS

The main sensor does a really good job in daylight situations. The images have crisp details without looking oversharpened. Along with excellent dynamic range and balanced color pop, the 12 Pro has a very good main camera.

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ULTRAWIDE PHOTOS

Moving on the 50MP ultrawide is flagship worthy as well. The 50MP sensor can pull good details but you can still notice slight noise around the edges. While the dynamic range is not as good as the main camera, it has the same color reproduction as the main camera.

Xiaomi 12 Pro’s ultrawide shooter is good in all areas but the FOV is only average and it is a fixed focus sensor. Thus, you cannot take up-close macro shots with the ultrawide sensor.

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ZOOM PHOTOS

12 Pro’s zoom prowess is nowhere near Samsung’s top flagship-level phone with 2X optical zoom. However, it’s not bad, the 2X zoom photos have good detail and the color reproduction is similar to the main camera. Plus, the photos look sharp and the dynamic range is good as well.

As for the digital zoom, photos up to 5X zoom look fine for social media.

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LOW LIGHT PHOTOS

Xiaomi 12 Pro keeps it natural when it comes to low-light photos. The exposure level is close to what we can see with our eyes. It doesn’t overexpose the shadows, rather it would have been better if the shadows were boosted slightly.

The colors are also well maintained and the noise is on the lower side.

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PORTRAIT PHOTOS

Moving on to some portraits, the zoom lens is responsible for portraits and it does a good job. It does a very good job of identifying and separating the subject. The background blur is not totally convincing as it looks a bit overdone, lowering the blur level should provide better results.

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FRONT CAMERA

On the front, there is a 32MP selfie camera. In daylight, the selfies look good with good details, a wide dynamic range, and popping colors. However, it lacks autofocus which can result in some photos looking a bit out of focus.

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VIDEOS

Interms of videos, it is capable of capturing 8k 24fps videos. The 8k videos do not have a significant advantage in detail compared to 4k videos. On top of that, it cannot capture 30fps videos in 8k.

The 4k videos look great with a wide dynamic range and excellent detail. The noise is on the lower side but the color looks a bit boosted than necessary. The telephoto sensor and ultrawide sensor can also capture up to 4k60 but they do not have good detail as the main sensor. But, the ultrawide sensor does a better job in terms of color accuracy.

As for stabilization, the 12 pro does a good job of stabilizing the videos when we walk or jog. On top of that, the panning is smooth as well.

Performance

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (4nm)
• Octa-core (1×3.00 GHz Cortex-X2 & 3×2.50 GHz Cortex-A710 & 4×1.80 GHz Cortex-A510)
• Adreno 730
• 256GB 12GB RAM, UFS 3.1

Xiaomi 12 Pro boasts the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset which is the latest flagship chipset from Qualcomm.

Much has been said about its throttling issues and we see a similar result in the Xiaomi 12 Pro. The 8 Gen 1 starts throttling inside 5 mins and it throttles to 69% within 20 mins. After that, it continues to perform at 69% of its full capacity.

It should be noted that this kind of situation will not arise in our daily usage. In day-to-day affairs, Xiaomi 12 Pro runs buttery smooth.

GAMING

For gaming, we tested COD Mobile and Genshin Impact on the Xiaomi 12 Pro. COD Mobile can be played at ‘Max’ fps and ‘Very High’ graphics settings.

At Max fps, COD Mobile runs smoothly with average fps of 59.5 without any issues. There were no frame drops and stutters as well.

For Genshin Impact, I tested it on default medium settings and it ran quite smooth. There were some frame drops but it was smooth overall. Interms of thermals, the phone does heat up when you play heavy games like Genshin Impact but it did not result in any performance issues.

Battery and OS

• Non-removable Li-Po 4600mAh battery
• 120W Fast Charging, 50W Fast Wireless Charging
• Android 12
• MIUI 13

Xiaomi 12 Pro features a 4600mAh battery that can last a day. In moderate usage, the 12 Pro was providing me 5-6 days of screen on time.

For charging, it comes with a 120W charging brick that takes just 18 mins to charge from 0 to 100%. By default, the charging speed is slighlty reduced and a full charge takes 24 mins. You can turn on the speed mode to use the charger at 120W.

Xiaomi 12 Pro runs on MIUI 13 on top of Android 12. Xiaomi has claimed that MIUI 13 is 40% more efficient interms of background processes and consumes 10% less power than its predecessor.

MIUI 13 also features some new features such as Smart Toolbox (Sidebar) for fluid multitasking with pop-up apps. Likewise, you can customize the Always-On-Display and Notification effect.

Overall, I did not face any issues with Xiaomi 12 Pro’s MIUI 13.

Should You Buy Xiaomi 12 Pro?

Xiaomi 12 Pro is a proper flagship that provides a very good experience in every department.

READ NEXT: Samsung S22 Ultra Review: The Ultimate Flagship Phone

It doesn’t have a fancy design but it offers a flagship chipset, a very competent camera setup, and a ridiculously fast 120W charging. Not only that, it has one of the best displays in a smartphone that can go head to head with the Samsung S22 Ultra’s display.

If you can get over the nuances of MIUI, Xiaomi 12 Pro is a cheaper but good alternative to Samsung S22+ and iPhone 13.

What do you think about the Xiaomi 12 Pro? If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments!

Also, watch our review video of the Samsung S22 Ultra in Nepali.