Xiaomi 12 Review; Dozen Reasons To Love
INTRODUCTION:
There's a reason why Xiaomi has never left the top 5 smartphone rank in the Philippines in terms of market share. The Chinese tech giant knows its consumers too well that all its launches have always been a hit. Recently, the brand rolled out its dual flagship – the Xiaomi 12 and Xiaomi 12 Pro.
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| Xiaomi 12 Review; Dozen Reasons To Love |
In Chinese numerology, combining numbers 1 and 2 represents the harmony of yin and yang. Is this somehow showing in the Xiaomi 12? Read on to find out.
DESIGN and BUILD:
Some smartphone brands often somehow compromise ergonomics just to suffice the aesthetics of a device. This isn't a problem with the Xiaomi 12. We know you'd agree with us when we say its beautiful physique is even more accentuated by how easy it is to grip, even with one-handed use. The Xiaomi 12 weighs 179 grams and is 69.9mm wide.
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| Xiaomi 12 in Purple |
This smartphone comes with a solid all-metal chassis – fitting to a flagship device – with rounded corners that promote a unibody, seamless, and pretty look. Its rear part is almost a barren beauty, save from a simple geometric design detail, a Xiaomi branding on the lower left part, and of course, its equally eye-catching camera module.
We also liked how Xiaomi picked just the right colors for the Xiaomi 12 – not too flashy but still so elegant at the same time. You can go for the black variant if you're the minimalist and subtle type. If you're looking for a smartphone with a chic color, you can choose the blue or the purple version.
The back part of the Xiaomi 12 has a smooth matte finish that veers away from the glossy kind. This is good news because you don't have to worry about too much unwanted smudges and fingerprints. Plus, the rear panel of the Xiaomi 12 also appears durable enough to withstand light scratches. It's still best to use a trusty smartphone case for coverage and protection.
The Xiaomi 12 has the following ports and buttons: a power button and volume rockers on the right side and antenna bands on the left side. At the top is where you'll find a speaker grille, an infra-red blaster, and a secondary microphone. At the bottom, you'll get a USB-C charging port, a primary speaker, a microphone, and the SIM card slot with a tray for two nano-SIM cards.
The Xiaomi 12 is almost perfect – design and build-wise. The only thing missing is water and dust resistance, which we can't quite figure out why Xiaomi chose to skip with this flagship device. With that said, be careful to put your smartphone anywhere near where it can get splashed or drenched.
Xiaomi Proves Flagship Dominance With The New Xiaomi 12; Get Yours For P39,999
DISPLAY:
Upfront, the Xiaomi 12 flaunts a 6.28-inch AMOLED DotDisplay in FHD+ (2400 x 1080 pixels) resolution with a 20:9 aspect ratio. Its screen is vivid and bright. This smartphone also has other features that make the screen even more alluring – Dolby Vision support, HD10+, and 120Hz Adaptive Sync.
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| AMOLED FHD+ Display, 120Hz Refresh Rate |
Xiaomi says that the Xiaomi 12 has over 68 billion colors. And while we can't exactly count this, the way this smartphone produces a color-correct and detail-rich screen is enough proof of this.
Outdoor use is also not a problem with Xiaomi 12 as it can reach up to 1,100 nits. Xiaomi also included Sunlight mode and Reading more for viewing comfort.
While there was a lack of IP rating for the build of the Xiaomi 12, the brand didn't miss planting protection onto the screen of this device. The display of the Xiaomi 12 comes coated with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. It also has a pre-installed thin polycarbonate screen cover out of the box, which you might want to replace immediately with a sturdier one.
The Xiaomi 12 will surely be a delight for avid binge-watchers of Netflix as this smartphone comes with HDR10+ support, making streaming a hundred times better compared with devices with the standard display quality.
The Xiaomi 12 carries an almost all-screen display with thin bezels all around, except for a small circle at the top-middle part for the front camera. Nonetheless, this isn't that much of a hindrance to enjoying the smartphone's screen.
PERFORMANCE:
Now, this is where the Xiaomi 12 truly shines, and with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, it's expected. Qualcomm says that this is their most advanced 5G platform ever, so once the 5G network becomes full-blown in the country, the Xiaomi 12 will definitely give you that super-fast internet experience.
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| Sound by Harman/Kardon |
Another selling point of this chipset underneath the Xiaomi 12 is how it's specialized for gaming. It carries a revamped Qualcomm Adreno GPU, which is 25% more efficient and 50% faster in graphics rendering.
Simply put, with the Xiaomi 12, lags and stutters are definitely out of the picture. We can attest to this as we never once experienced any hiccups when we used the Xiaomi 12 as our main driver for a couple of weeks – and we're heavy on multitasking, switching between multiple apps, gaming, and streaming. Out of the box, the Xiaomi 12 comes with the Android 12-based MIUI 13. If you've been a Xiaomi user before, the overall look of this user interface isn't a stranger to you. It still has that easy-to-use appeal with simple yet very convenient customization features.
What's also notable about the Xiaomi 12 is that it has Memory Extension or what others call as virtual RAM. When activated, this allows you to use a part of the smartphone's RAM as storage, providing more room for apps and other files.
Speaking of RAM and storage, the Xiaomi 12 has 8GB for the former and 256GB for the latter. That's all you can get since, as mentioned earlier, this smartphone comes without a microSD card slot.
Check out its raw performance based on the popular benchmarking apps for smartphones.
- Antutu - 980,512
- Geekbench Single-Core - 1,178
- Geekbench Multi-Core - 3,663
- PC Mark Work Performance 3.0 - 13,250
- PC Mark Work Storage 2.0 - 28,888
- 3D Mark Wild Life - 8,167
- 3D Mark Wild Life Stress Test - 8,164
- 3D Mark Wild Life Extreme - 1,189
- 3D Mark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test - 1,384
- 3D Mark Sling Shot - Maxed Out
- 3D Mark Sling Shot Extreme - Maxed Out
CAMERA:
The star of the show is definitely the cameras of the Xiaomi 12. They are placed beautifully at the back part of the smartphone and do outstandingly what they're made to perform. Its shooters consist of a 50-megapixel pro-grade primary camera, a 13-megapixel ultra-wide angle camera, and a 5-megapixel telemacro camera.
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| 50MP Pro-Grade Triple Camera |
Its main cameras come with a plethora of shooting modes for photography and videography. You'll get the very promising Xiaomi ProFocs with motion tracking and eye-tracking, Motion Capture, Portrait HDR, and Portrait Night Mode for photos. At the same time, there's up to 8K video recording and 4K HDR10+ video support for clips.
We couldn't emphasize enough how lovely the Xiaomi 12 cameras are. Photos we took using the smartphone look sharp in all areas – details, saturation, color – everything was spot-on. Even more, you'd appreciate its cameras when you shoot outdoors and in well-lit environments.
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| 32MP Front Camera |
On the flip side, its 32-megapixel front camera also did a great job in capturing selfies. Among its many shooting features is the Portrait mode, wherein you can tweak some parts of your face like blemishes.
Here are some photo samples shot on the Xiaomi 12.
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| Buildings, 1x Zoom |
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| Buildings, 2x Zoom |
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| Buildings, Night, Normal |
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| Buildings, Night Mode |
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| Playground, 1x Zoom |
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| Playground, 2x Zoom |
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| Playground, Night, Normal |
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| Playground, Night Mode |
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| Selfie with Mask, Normal |
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| Selfie with Mask, Portrait |
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| Selfie without Mask, Normal |
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| Selfie without Mask, Portrait |
BATTERY:
On paper, a 4,500mAh battery may seem insufficient, especially for a flagship smartphone whose competitors go beyond or at 5,000mAh. But what matters with the Xiaomi 12 is how it can last a day with moderate to heavy use. What we also like about this smartphone is its small yet powerful 67-watt charger which can refuel the device back to 100% within just 44 minutes, based on our experience.
CONCLUSION:
We could've given the Xiaomi 12 a 12/12, but some of its caveats may be considered a deal breaker for some. Others might not mind, too. But by and large, this smartphone from Xiaomi shines in all the right places – good display, strong internals, high-performing cameras, long-lasting battery, and eye-catching physique. If you have P39,999 to spare, the Xiaomi 12 is worth every penny.
How much is the Xiaomi 12 in the Philippines?
- The Xiaomi 12 price in the Philippines is Php39,999.
- Get yours via Lazada at https://bit.ly/xiaomistorephil or via Shopee at https://bit.ly/xiaomiofficialstorephs.
When will be the Xiaomi 12 available in the Philippines?
- The Xiaomi 12 is now available in the Philippines.
Xiaomi 12 Specs Philippines:
- Dual nano-SIM, dual standby, supports 5G connectivity
- 6.28-inch AMOLED FHD+ (2400 x 1080) display, 120Hz refresh rate, Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection
- Dimensions: 152.7mm x 69.9mm x 8.2mm
- Weight: 179 grams
- MIUI 13 based on Android 12
- Octa-core (1x3.00GHz Cortex-X2 + 3x2.50GHz Cortex-A710 + 4x1.80GHz Cortex-A510) CPU, Adreno 730 GPU, Qualcomm SM8450 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 4nm chipset
- 8GB RAM
- 256GB UFS 3.1 internal storage, non-expandable
- 50MP PDAF OIS f/1.9 main + 13MP f/2.4 ultra-wide + 5MP macro triple rear cameras with LED flash, 8K video recording at 24fps
- 32MP f/2.5 front camera, 1080p video recording at 30fps
- Multimedia player
- Hi-Res Audio
- 3.5mm audio jack
- WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dual-band
- Bluetooth v5.2
- NFC
- GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO
- IR Blaster
- USB 2.0 Type-C with OTG function
- Sensors: fingerprint (optical, under-display), accelerometer, light, proximity, gyroscope
- Battery: 4,500mAh lithium-ion polymer, non-removable, 67W wired fast charging, 50W wireless fast charging
- Colors: Gray, Blue, Purple, Green
- Price: Php39,999