Xiaomi 12 Pro review

Powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip and with plenty of admirable specs, this phone seemingly wants to go toe-to-toe with market leaders Apple and Samsung. But is it ready to?

Here are our findings from this in-depth testing and our verdict on the Xiaomi 12 Pro.

Price:

• Buy Xiaomi 12 Pro | £999 at Currys
• Buy Xiaomi 12 Pro | £999 at Carphone Warehouse
• Buy Xiaomi 12 Pro | £48 per month £0 up-front costs at Fonehouse (contract)

Jump to:

• Xiaomi 12 Pro review: summary
• What is the Xiaomi 12 Pro?
• How much is the Xiaomi 12 Pro?
• Xiaomi 12 Pro features
• Xiaomi 12 Pro display
• Xiaomi 12 Pro battery
• Xiaomi 12 Pro camera
• Xiaomi 12 Pro design
• Our verdict
• Where to buy

Xiaomi 12 Pro review: summary

We very much liked the Xiaomi 12 Pro. It's got a real premium feel and it's a pleasingly tactile handset, packed with top-end features. From the easy-to-use high-detail cameras to the brilliant display — there is an awful lot to like.

The fast charging facility is a real boon and can fully juice up your phone in around 20-25 minutes. That's one of the fastest offerings there is!

Of course, the phone isn't without its flaws. MIUI 13 simply isn't as smooth a user experience as Android 12 without Xiaomi's overlay. That's a shame, but generally, we did find MIUI 13 easy to use and very functional, so you needn't necessarily be put off by this.

The other noteworthy issue was occasional heat issues with the handset. When undertaking particularly heavy workloads, the phone can heat up. We found this when downloading large apps, or transferring apps and files from an old phone onto the Xiaomi 12 Pro. Many users have reported issues with gaming. Some more demanding games have crashed, leaving users with an error report referring to overheating.

It's also worth noting that the camera — though good — doesn't quite seem to measure up to iPhone 13 Pro and the S22 Ultra.

Key specs and features:

• Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip
• Three 50MP cameras on reverse
• 32MP selfie camera
• 8GB or 12GB of RAM
• 128GB or 256GB of storage
• 6.7-inch AMOLED display
• Fingerprint sensor

Pros:

• Powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip
• Smooth user experience
• 120Hz display
• Good camera

Cons:

• MIUI 13 isn't perfect
• Can heat up during demanding tasks

What is the Xiaomi 12 Pro?

The Xiaomi 12 Pro is a new flagship device from the Chinese smartphone brand, Xiaomi. It's been available in China since December but just arrived in the UK market this month. It's now available to pre-order in the UK.

It packs plenty of impressive specs and is immediately recognisable as a top-quality handset. Compared to Xiaomi's previous 'flagship killer' style handsets, this is a much more top-end offering.

How much is the Xiaomi 12 Pro?

Xiaomi kept us waiting to confirm UK pricing, but we've now been told the phone will cost £1049. The standard Xiaomi 12 will cost £849.

Both the Xiaomi 12 and the Xiaomi 12 Pro will go on sale in the UK on 15h April, with a third entry to the series — the Xiaomi 12 X — not being available in this market.

Pre-order the Xiaomi 12 Pro now from Carphone Warehouse and you'll also bag a free Xiaomi Watch S1, worth £199.99. Other retailers are offering similar bundles, so it pays to shop around and find one that suite you. Take a loo at the links below.

• Pre-order Xiaomi 12 Pro | £1049 at Carphone Warehouse
• Pre-order Xiaomi 12 Pro | £1049 at Currys
• Pre-order Xiaomi 12 Pro | £49 per month £0 up-front costs at Fonehouse (contract)
• Pre-order Xiaomi 12 Pro | £59 per month £50 up-front at Three (contract)
• Pre-order Xiaomi 12 | £847 at Vodafone

Xiaomi 12 Pro features

The phone is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, which is pretty much standard for a new flagship. It's probably the best chip out there right now and it means that using the 12 Pro is a smooth, enjoyable experience.

The power of that chip also gives some extra 'oomph' to other features, powering up the AI of the phone's camera for example and making it quick and easy to fire up games or hop between tasks and apps.

The whole system runs on Android 12, overlaid with Xiaomi's MIUI 13. Some users in other markets — where the phone has already arrived — saw issues with MIUI 13, but a series of patches seems to have knocked it into working order. That said, it's not as slick as using Android 12 without an overlay, as you would on a Google Pixel 6 Pro.

Elsewhere on the features list, there's an in-display fingerprint scanner, a 120Hz refresh rate and a decent-sized 4600mAh battery. So, everything's looking about as flagship-y as we'd hope.

In the box, there's also a phone case for those of you that are worried about dropping or scraping the handset and there's a 120W fast charger.

Another feature, which Xiaomi is keen to shout about, comes in the form of the phone speakers. The quad Harman Kardon tuned speakers which are certainly better than average phone speakers, delivered good clarity. However, we did find this a slightly odd feature to single out and emphasise above others — very few smartphone purchases are made on the back of the phone's speakers, after all. That said, the speakers were pleasantly clear for music and for audiobooks from Audible.

Unfortunately, there's no support for the addition of a micro SD card for extra storage, but that's standard in the flagship phone space. Some lower-end Xiaomi handsets do offer this though, if you're particularly keen on expandable storage.

Xiaomi 12 Pro display

The Pro model packs a 6.7-inch LTPO AMOLED display. It's a good quality, curved panel that packs an adaptable 1-120Hz refresh rate. It also delivers HDR10+ quality visuals and up to 1600nits of brightness, making the smartphone a real pleasure to use. Navigating a scrolling is smooth and the display consistently delivers crisp, clear and bright visuals. Even in bright sunlight, the display is easy to read.

The refresh rate can be set to 60Hz, 90Hz or 120Hz. It's a great option having the 90Hz setting because it works as a compromise between smooth experience and battery longevity. That middle setting is only available on the Pro model. Or, you can leave this on auto mode and the phone will select the correct refresh rate for different tasks, doing its best to deliver a higher rate when it matters and lower the rate down when it doesn't, in order to conserve battery. We'd recommend using that adaptive setting.

The display also packs an in-display fingerprint reader and is made of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus — so there's no need to worry about most scrapes and scratches.

During testing, we found the fingerprint sensor was a responsive, easy-to-use one that reliably sped up our access to the phone and helped with security on other tasks, such as online banking.

Xiaomi 12 Pro battery

The Xiaomi 12 Pro packs a 4600mAh battery, very similar to that of the Samsung Galaxy S22+, which is one of its most direct competitors. However it beats the Samsung in the fast-charging stakes, offering a rapid 120W fast charge facility. This can fully charge your phone in around 20-25 minutes, making it one of the fastest charging phones on the market! The S22+ offers 45W fast-charging by comparison.

During our tests the battery performed passably. It's not a multi-day, stress-free long-life battery, but it's decent and the fast charging facility is a big improvement. It's not the best battery out there but it's more than serviceable and will last longer if used on 60Hz or 90Hz display settings, rather than the full whack 120Hz.

Xiaomi 12 Pro camera

The chunk rear camera array packs in three 50MP cameras. One wide-angle, one ultra-wide and one telephoto with a 2x optical zoom. The digital zoom feature allows you to get up to 10x zoom. The array can shoot 8K video, or the settings can be adjusted to shoot 4K or 1080p at higher frame rates.

On the front, the selfie camera is a 32MP snapper that can shoot video in 1080p.

Altogether that's a pretty good camera offering. During our testing, we found the camera performed well, the settings were easy to navigate and the overall effect was easy to use.

It's not necessarily going to out-perform some of the real big guns on the market in the camera stakes, but we found the camera consistently captured good detail and rendered colours accurately.

All three cameras offer night mode too and — in this department and several others — Xiaomi has been keen to claim the phone outperforms the iPhone 13 Pro. However, we've not quite seen that level of performance. Certainly though, the camera is good, just not best in class.

Xiaomi 12 Pro design

We really liked the design of the Xiaomi 12 Pro. It's by no means revolutionary among a packed Android flagship market, but it is very, very sleek. It could be this slim, sleek design that's contributing to the overheating issues we discussed earlier, as it leaves less space for cooling measures.

There's a small punch-hole camera on the front. It's not inconspicuous, but for our money the display still looks great and the sloping edges of the screen give it a nice premium feel. It's protected with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus too, for added peace of mind.

On the reverse, there's a fairly chunky camera bump, which might split opinion style-wise, but again is far from unusual. It's rectangular with rounded corners and contains the triple-camera array, plus a flash. The back of the back of the phone has a nice matte finish, it's tactile and doesn't scratch or mark up easily. Overall, we think it's a really nice handset in design terms, with a really nice feel and weight in the hand. It might not be a key criteria for some buyers, but handle this phone after a cheaper model and you will feel its quality oozing through.

There is one slight drawback of that aesthetically pleasing curved screen, in that — when holding it in one hand, in such a way as to hold it securely and press the on button — it's easy to tap the edge of the screen and navigate away from something you're reading, or working on.

Our verdict: should you buy the Xiaomi 12 Pro?

The Xiaomi 12 Pro is a very good phone with a few minor setbacks. MIUI can't quite live up to the smoot experience of pure Android 12, which is delivered by some competitors. However there's much much wrong with it, in itself. Elsewhere, issues with overheating mean this probably isn't the phone for you if gaming is your priority. It will run plenty of games just fine, but some very demanding titles can see the handset overheat.

Other than that, we thoroughly enjoyed our time with the Xiaomi 12 Pro and it does feel like a truly premium device, as it should for £1049. It packs a fantastic top-end display, feels like a quality item and — on most fronts — it's able to compete with other flagships. Of course, the over-heating issue means it won't be top choice for gamers, but for general use it's a fantastic smartphone.

There's plenty of quality on display, but obviously this is a pricey handset at £1049. The standard Xiaomi 12 at £849 is more affordable but also the same price as a stand-out competitor, the Google Pixel 6 Pro, which is very much worth considering.

Where to buy Xiaomi 12 Pro

The Xiaomi 12 Pro and the Xiaomi 12 are now available from a range of UK retailers.

• Buy Xiaomi 12 Pro | £999 at Currys
• Buy Xiaomi 12 Pro | £999 at Carphone Warehouse
• Buy Xiaomi 12 Pro | £48 per month £0 up-front costs at Fonehouse (contract)

If you're not quite sure what phone you want yet, it's worth taking a look at some competitors using the links below too.

Google Pixel 6 Pro is a fantastic alternative that's available right now and well worth considering. It uses a slightly older chipset from Google, but is still highly recommendable and offers an amazingly smooth user experience with Android 12 delivered as Google intended.

Samsung S22 is another great alternative. For more information, check out our full Samsung S22 Plus review, or find buying info and deals below.

For more on Xiaomi phones, check out our full review of the more budget-friendly Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro. Or, head over to our technology homepage for the latest news and reviews.