If you are in the market for a compact and powerful smartphone, Xiaomi 12 seriously deserves your consideration. The phone has a lot of things going for it, with a few cons. The phone was first announced on the 28th of December 2021 and released on the last day of 2021. It comes at a starting price of $739 and in Gray, Blue, Purple, and Green. The device has three variants, and the most economical one has 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage. The more expensive variants have 256 GB of ROM with 8 GB and 12 GB of RAM. It doesn’t support an SD card, which is typical of high-end phones. As for network technology, it can handle 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G.
What makes this device different from the competition is its compact size. This is because smaller phones are rare not just in the high-end segment, but across all segments. For reference, it should be mentioned that Xiaomi 12 measures 6.01 by 2.75 by 0.32 inches. The gadget is also pretty lightweight at 180 grams. The phone’s build quality is almost perfect. The reason it isn’t flawless is due to the lack of an IP rating. On the bright side of things, the phone has a glass front and back which is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus and Gorilla Glass 5 respectively.
Xiaomi 12 has a 6.28-inch FHD+ AMOLED screen with a refresh rate of 120 Hz. It has a screen-to-body ratio of 89.2% and an impressive PPI density of 419. In addition, it supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+ and can also go up to 1100 nits of brightness. Looking at the specs, it’s safe to say that the device will deliver a great multimedia experience. The presence of stereo speakers and high-resolution audio tuned by Harman Kardon only adds to the experience. The Qualcomm SM8450 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor delivers superb overall performance, as expected. The Adreno 730 GPU handles its gaming requirements.
Moving to the software side of things, the device runs Android 12 with MIUI 13 on top. The device isn’t free from bloatware, which is certainly a downside. On the positive side, the phone will get the major operating system and security updates for 3 and 4 years respectively. Besides all the usual sensors, Xiaomi 12 has a color spectrum and virtual proximity sensor. For communication, it has dual-band Wi-Fi, Hotspot, Bluetooth 5.2, and GPS. The device also has USB Type-C 2.0, USB On-The-Go, NFC, and the quite rare Infrared port. Despite having a disappointing battery life, Xiaomi 12 would still effortlessly get you over a day of moderate use.
The phone supports 67W fast charging, 50W wireless charging, and 10W reverse wireless charging. Coming to cameras, its main camera delivers great performance. The selfie camera works well too. The device features a 50 MP wide-angle camera with OIS (optical image stabilization), 13 MP ultrawide, and a 5 MP telephoto camera on the rear. On the front, Xiaomi 12 has a 32 MP wide-angle camera. The phone’s camera features include Dual-LED dual-tone flash, HDR10+, and gyro-EIS. As for video recording, the rear can do so up to 8K while the selfie camera can only go up to 1080p.
