Xiaomi debuted its latest flagship, the 12 Pro on 27th April, 2022 in India. The launch comes after a few weeks of initial release in China. Now this device is officially available in Bangladesh. The 12 Pro is the direct successor of the Mi 11 Pro. From the outside, the 12 Pro seems almost similar to the 11 Pro. But Xiaomi has souped up the internals to be on par with 2022 specs. Let’s look at the detailed review of Xiaomi 12 Pro with key features, pros and cons.
Key Specifications of Xiaomi 12 Pro
Design and Build Quality
The Xiaomi 12 Pro takes much of its design inspiration from its previous iterations. In fact, other than the back and front camera module, nothing has changed from the 11 Pro. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Xiaomi has opted for a strategy similar to Samsung and Apple. Rather than completely overhauling the design in each release cycle, the company is focusing on incremental design updates.
One of the best things about the 12 Pro is its build quality. The glass front and back are complemented by an aluminum frame. It makes the device light as well as sturdy. The back panel is frosted which does an excellent job of deterring fingerprints.
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Speaking of external features, the device is absolutely stacked just as expected from a Xiaomi flagship. The ports and button selections are usual. Beyond that, there are 4 stereo speakers tuned by Harman Kardon. The fingerprint sensor remains under the display and Xiaomi has stayed with an optical sensor akin to the previous generation. There’s no 3.5 mm headphone jack, however. It was expected given that almost no flagship in 2022 included one.
Overall, the design of Xiaomi is nothing innovative, something many have come to expect from the brand. Yet there are minor tuning here and there which makes the 12 Pro a more refined device in terms of design than its previous iterations.
Display
The large 6.73-inch panel easily takes the spotlight in the 12 Pro. The panel itself is a 2K LTPO AMOLED screen with 1440 by 3200 pixels resolutions. In addition to being a super high res one, there’s Dolby Vision, HDR 10+, 120 Hz refresh rate, you name it. It seems like Xiaomi has incorporated every available display tech into the 12 Pro.
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The specs resonate in the performance of the display as well. From perfect viewing angles to excellent color saturation. The panel gets relatively bright with 1000 nits in high brightness mode. In most cases, this is enough for direct sunlight usage. But Xiaomi went ahead and included an additional 500 nits taking the total tally to 1500 nits for peak output. The screen of 12 Pro has Dolby Vision on higher dynamic range.
All in all, the Xiaomi 12 Pro is the perfect media consumption device along with the fluid interaction thanks to the high refresh rate.
Camera
The Xiaomi 12 Pro features a triple camera module. In most cases, it is seen that brands tend to favor the main lens extensively without much attention to the additional sensors. It's almost as if they are included for the sake of increasing the sensor count. This is an issue that has plagued Xiaomi as well. But the company has slowly come out of the bounds in its flagship lineup.
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The 12 Pro features 3 cameras and all of them have specific functions. But more importantly, all of them are uniform at 50 MP resolution. The main sensor is a 24 mm wide-angle shooter. The accompanying two are a 48 mm telephoto and 115-degree wide-angle shooter.
Now moving on to the performance, each of the sensors is on par with the industry flagship standards. The main lens can capture great details and the added telephoto lens assists in the portrait mode. Dynamic range is also decent with the performance being consistent every time. Unlike the previous models, the night performance of the device has been significantly bumped up. The regulated shutter speed helps to capture more light and produces detailed and well-exposed images even in the darkest lighting setup.
Xiaomi has also future-proofed the 12 Pro with the 8K videography support. The standard 4K and 1080P remain on board as well. The front camera is a 32 MP one. It’s the same as the Mi 11 Pro and offers a similar level of performance.
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Xiaomi flagships have ever so rarely let down in the camera department. and the 12 Pro continues the legacy of dependable and proven performance.
Processor and Performance
The 12 Pro comes equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, the current flagship chip for 2022. The 4 Nm chipset is built on 1 3.00 GHz Cortex-X2 and 3 2.50 GHz Cortex-A710 and 4 1.80 GHz Cortex-A510 processor designs. The high-powered processor is also complemented by the Adreno 730 GPU.
Xiaomi 12 Pro sports massive internal memory in its two variants featuring 128 GB or 256 GB. It is blessed with powerful RAM variants 8 GB or 12 GB. Thanks to Xiaomi for offering UFS 3.1, fast data transfer technology in this device.
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This latest Xiaomi flagship smartphone has been equipped with infrared technology. Therefore, you can use this device as a remote control.
Now it might seem like the processor will blaze through everything and it does. But the issue is with long term performance. Any graphics and processor-intensive tasks like videography and 3D gaming tend to heat up the device pretty easily. And the heat management system on the 12 Pro is not well developed. The device starts to throttle under excessive heat and the performance drops significantly. So much so that games like PUBG and Asphalt 9 start to stutter.
Now, this might be a software issue as well, and hopefully, Xiaomi will fix it in the coming updates.
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Battery and Charge Time
The Xiaomi 12 Pro comes with a 4600 mAh battery. The battery can churn out around 5 to 6 hours of SoT. It might feel a bit less compared to other flagships but it's easily substituted with the insane 120 W fast charging. The device can literally go from 0 to 100% in 18 minutes. The device also features 50W fast wireless charging which fully charges the device in under 42 minutes.
Xiaomi 12 Pro can be recharged with wireless charging technology. Certainly this is a great advantage for the professionals.
Price of Xiaomi 12 Pro
The official price of the Xiaomi 12 Pro in Bangladesh is Tk99,999 for the 8/256GB variant. The upper variant 12/256GB costs about Tk109,999. However, the price is subject to change.
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Pros, and Cons of Xiaomi 12 Pro
Disadvantages of Xiaomi 12 Pro
Xiaomi 12 Pro lacks a 3.5mm headphone jack. So, you have to use a bluetooth audio device or use a USB-C to 3.5mm converter.
Another drawback is its body is not water resistant which could be a deal breaker, as the users have to clean the device after returning home to stay safe from covid and other germs.
This phone’s performance is still an issue with the thermal throttling. Once Xiaomi fixes that, the 12 Pro will become an easy recommendation as an affordable flagship.
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Advantages of Xiaomi 12 Pro
If you are looking for a phone with a large screen and excellent resolution, 12 Pro’s 6.73-inch AMOLED screen will satisfy you.
On the rear side, Xiaomi 12 Pro has three powerful denses with diverse capacities. Not to mention, this affordable flagship is a blessing for photography enthusiasts.
Though 12 Pro has no external memory microsd slot, it offers a huge internal memory combined with powerful RAM and fast data transfer mechanism.
Infrared mechanism makes this phone work as a remote control. Xiaomi 12 Pro is equipped with a large battery capacity which is compatible with fast charging technology as well as wireless recharging mechanism.
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Verdict
The Xiaomi 12 Pro doesn’t really reinvent the wheel in the flagship category. It stayed true to its core design and made incremental updates to every front. Be it design, camera, or battery, the incremental update adds up to a solid device with reliable brand value. Overall, Xiaomi 12 Pro offers a good package. If you are looking for an affordable flagship, you can consider this device.