Final 12 months, Xiaomi managed to seize the second spot within the world smartphone market by pushing Apple to 3rd. A significantly spectacular feat, despite the fact that it was only for one quarter.
The corporate sells a ton of telephones priced beneath $300 worldwide, and that has helped it get forward within the quantity sport.
Nevertheless it hasn’t earned its stripes within the flagship machine enviornment. Maybe that’s why it has included nearly each top-end function you possibly can consider in its newest Xiaomi 12 Professional telephone.
I’ve been utilizing it for the previous few weeks, and it was actually enjoyable. The 12 Professional had me taking part in video games and watching movies for hours a day due to its top-notch display. Plus, it comes with a silly quick charger.
With this, Xiaomi is placing a powerful contender in opposition to the newest flagships of Oppo, Samsung, and OnePlus to be a prime canine of the Android world.
Earlier than we speak about all that, listed below are the machine’s spectacular specs.
| Xiaomi 12 Professional Specs | |
|---|---|
| Display | 6.73-inches WQHD+ LTPO AMOLED |
| Refresh charge | 120Hz |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (This 12 months’s flagship chip) |
| RAM | 8GB/12GB |
| Rear digital camera | 50-megapixel large sensor with f/1.9 aperture + 50-megapixel ultra-wide sensor with f/1.9 aperture + 50-megapixel telephoto sensor with f/2.2 |
| Entrance digital camera | 32-megapixel sensor with f/2.5 aperture |
| Inside storage | 128GB/256GB |
| Battery | 4,600mAh |
| Charging | 120W wired quick charging; 50W wi-fi quick charging; 10W reverse charging |
| Software program | Android 12-based MIUI 13 |
The perfect bits
The Xiaomi 12 Professional’s design isn’t revolutionary or pathbreaking, however the frosty textured glass on the again and curved sides makes it simpler to grip. And that’s all I’ve to say in regards to the construction.
The display is certainly the star of the present. It’s colourful, vivid, and vibrant, which makes it pleasant to make use of for apps, video games, and movies.
The 120Hz LTPO display makes all the pieces easy, and it additionally robotically adjusts the refresh charge primarily based in your present software and exercise. Scrolling timelines or performing actions in video games feels magical.
The telephone helps HDR10+ and Dolby Imaginative and prescient, so supported movies have punchy shade and particulars. Plus, it has quad audio system tuned by Harman Kardon that truly sound good.
It’s good to have balanced and loud speaker audio that I can sometimes get pleasure from with movies. Nonetheless, don’t anticipate the detailed and nuanced sound of a current iPhone.
The 12 Professional is utilizing the newest Snapdragon processor, and it doesn’t stutter whereas opening apps or taking part in video games. So no complaints about real-world efficiency.
On paper, the Xiaomi 12 Professional’s digital camera is enviable with triple 50-megapixel lenses. The principle sensor takes detailed pictures in daylight with spectacular dynamic vary.
The machine affords solely 2x optical zoom, however due to the 50-megapixel sensor, footage are richly detailed. The digital zoom feels ineffective past 5x, due to excessive noise within the pictures. The ultrawide sensor is fairly good, nevertheless it doesn’t have autofocus, in order that’s a bummer.
On the subject of low-light pictures, the telephone robotically switches to nighttime mode. Fortunately, the digital camera’s algorithm doesn’t attempt to artificially “brighten” snaps on this mode by boosting publicity. Listed here are some samples to have a look at:
The 12 Professional comes with a 120W charger within the field, and that helps you cost your telephone actually rapidly. I used to be in a position to get the telephone juiced up from 3% to 72% in simply 5 minutes. So, that’s an ideal benefit, nevertheless it comes with a caveat, which I’ll speak about in a minute.
So what’s the catch?
With these options and specs, Xiaomi appears to have nailed down the system for an ideal flagship. However I nonetheless have a number of gripes with the 12 Professional.
The most important concern for me is the battery life. With my work-from-home utilization of sunshine video watching, studying stuff, and gaming, I used to be in a position to simply barely squeeze out a day’s use.
By default, the show is ready at 1080p. If I activate the WQHD+ mode, the battery drains quicker, and I can’t afford that. For objectivity, you possibly can take a look at GSMArena’s lab take a look at outcomes for battery and CPU throttling. It confirms my commentary of below-par battery life.
Now, you’d wish to ask me, Ivan, why do you are concerned a lot in regards to the battery when you’ve gotten a 120W charger at hand? That’s proper, I can plug in my machine for a few minutes and squeeze out hours of utilization in a single go.
The issue is the scale of the charger, it’s monstrous, and weighs 200 grams. For comparability, the iPhone 13 Professional weighs 204 grams, and it’s the scale of a cigarette field. I don’t wish to lug such a heavy charger in my bag, and a typical charger would take longer for me to juice up.
On the software program aspect, MIUI isn’t bloated because it was, and there are fewer pre-installed apps. However I merely can’t get behind the iPhone-like break up Management Heart.
It’s important to swipe down from the upper-left nook for the notification heart, and swipe down from the upper-right nook, which is cumbersome for a tall Android telephone. I’ve ended up opening the management heart numerous instances after I truly wished to have a look at notifications.
You may change this to the traditional Android fashion of getting the management heart and notifications in a single pane from the settings menu, so I’m not overtly bitter about it.
Who’s it for?
For those who’re not Samsung, you’d be launching your flagship product in numerous areas at totally different instances. So all of it boils right down to availability and advertising.
Given how close Xiaomi 12 Pro’s specifications are to Oppo and Vivo’s (or rather iQOO’s) marquee devices, the provision chain would play a vital function on this mannequin reaching the market globally.
However extra importantly, Xiaomi is counting on issues like quad audio system, 120W charging, and 50-megapixel triple cameras to seize your consideration.
The machine is an leisure fiend’s delight, and ticks a lot of the containers for a 2022 flagship. Oppo targeted on a brand new NPU for its flagship, iQOO went with a gaming slant, and Xiaomi is aiming to beat these two with a powerful spec sheet and a complete lot of options. The sport is on.
The Xiaomi 12 Professional begins at $999 for the 8GB+128GB model, and might be out there in world markets together with Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, Center East, and Latin America.
