Xiaomi 12 Pro review: Everything you need to know before you rushing to pre-order

Our verdict

The much-anticipated Xiaomi 12 series are recently available for global customers. But WAIT for a while! Before your rushing to pre-order, here is a detailed review for your reference.

The Xiaomi 12 series is made up of the Xiaomi 12, the premium Xiaomi 12 Pro, and a more affordable Xiaomi 12X. We have been lucky enough to get hold of the Xiaomi 12 Pro to put it through its paces.

The Xiaomi 12 Pro has three 50MP rear-facing cameras coupled with a 32MP front-facing camera. It is also the first smartphone of Xiaomi’s line-up to employ the new Sony IMX707 sensor.

Design

This time, Xiaomi has spent a lot of time in design, offering one of its most attractive looking smartphones. Available in grey, purple, or blue (China’s green leather model doesn’t have an international counterpart), the 12 Pro is sleek and simple, with only a gradient matte-finish that helps catch the eye.

Display

The Xiaomi 12 Pro has an excellent display. The 6.73in AMOLED panel boasts a high WQHD+ resolution, excellent peak brightness of 1500 nits, and uses LTPO 2.0 tech so that it can scale the adaptive refresh rate from 1-120Hz – giving you benefits to the battery on static screens, and smooth scrolling.

Audio
As usual, the 12 Pro continue to impress on audio lovers thanks to quad speakers co-developed by Harman Kardon and Xiaomi, which performs well when you watch videos or play online games.

Camera

Xiaomi still adopts traditional 50-megapixel rear triple cameras, which however, are arranged in a different way from its predecessor-Xiaomi 11 Ultra, simpler.

The rear camera setup includes a 50-megapixel wide camera with f/1.9 aperture and OIS (the only one endowed with OIS), a 50-megapixel telephoto with f/1.9 aperture, and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera with f/2.2 aperture and a 115-degree field of view. That huge main rear camera lens is at the heart of things, powered by Sony’s 50MP, 1/1.28in IMX707 sensor. Both the ultrawide and the 2x telephoto zoom lens use smaller Samsung sensors though they also can provide 50MP.

Of course, the Sony’s IMX707 sensor has its unique advantages over the other two. In fact, the 12 Pro is the only phone to use the high-performance sensor so far. Sony IMX707 sensor’s specifications include 50-megapixel resolution, 1.22μm pixel size, and 1/1.28-inch sensor size. The new MX707 contact image sensor is improved a little based on last year’s IMX700 sensor seen from Huawei P40 and Huawei Mate 40, and both pack a near-identical set of specifications. However, slight tweaks have likely been put in place. The biggest difference between the two sensors lies in the fact that IMX707 sensor changes the previous RYYB array to the RGGB array. That means an increase in the amount of light intake, so the light sensitivity is also improved. That’s the most surprising thing!

On top of that, the Samsung 1/2.76in JN1 sensor falls behind on quality, though not bad at all. The remaining cameras hold their own surprisingly well at night, preserving detail and exposing light almost as well as the main sensor.

In all, the 12 Pro indeed strikes a balance between the design and quality. With a 6.73in display, 204g weight and 8.16mm thickness, it is not the thinnest smartphone in the market, but is comfortable to hold.

Theory test
001 Sharpness
We have used ISO 12233 charts with all the three cameras and now show you 100% crops at the center and corners to measure sharpness.

As you can see above, the wide (main) camera boasts the best sharpness, sharp in both center and edges, with abundant details. As for the other two, they are sharp in the center but a little soft on edges.

002 Latitude
As in the “Pro” mode, RAW and JPG formats are available, so we have tested them respectively.

JPG

It’s easy to find that jpg files include 4 stops of exposure latitude (0 to 4 under). At 1 stops over, pushed back details are lost with the increase of stops. At 4 stops under, pushed back apparent noise appears but acceptable.

RAW

When it comes to Raw files, stops of exposure latitude are increased a little (1 over to 4 under). At 2 stops over, you just fail to push back images. That indicates the 12 Pro is inclined to protect dark details instead of suppressing highlights.

003 Sensitivity
Adjusting within a sensitivity range of ISO 50 to 12800, we shoot the image and analyze details and dark parts to see how the image quality changes as the sensitivity increases gradually.

It’s clear that the 12 Pro presents a relatively pure picture in terms of details and dark parts under ISO 800.

At ISO 1600, the dark parts are partially smeared with visible noises; at ISO3200, a lot of noise emerge. It doesn’t make sense to pull up ISO value further.

004 Lens distortion
As tested, there is only a slight pincushion distortion on the 2x telephoto.

(main lens)

(ultrawide lens)

(2x telephoto zoom lens)

Real-world test

Photo photography
Xiaomi 12 series debut with the slogan "Faster and more stable". Well, how they perform in practice? Take the 12 Pro for example, it’s fast in terms of startup time and continuous shooting. In addition, thanks to the addition of the IMX707 sensor, it has witnessed large improvements in white balance, delivering more solid and brighter images.

The 2x optical zoom kicks in quickly with a simple screen tap, and digital zoom takes a similar approach, with one pinch of the screen opening tappable buttons that zoom in increments -- 5x, 10x and 20x. There's also a slider that allows for zoom in finer gradients. As the image quality and details are damaged a lot, so it’s not recommended to shoot with large zoom values.

(2x telephoto zoom lens)

(main lens)

(ultrawide lens)

Due to the absence of OIS, the 2x telephoto camera function not well in nighttime which calls for holding the smartphone for a long time.

(Photographed by Jiang Jihang)

(Photographed by Jiang Jihang)

The 12 Pro comes without the periscope telephoto lens, which, more powerful, is expected to be exclusive to the high-end Xiaomi 12 Ultra.

Focus

Xiaomi states that it is using advanced autofocus technology from its Xiaomi CyberDog in the Xiaomi 12 series, that is called, the CyberFocus technology. With this next-gen advanced autofocus technology, the autofocus algorithms can now accurately determine the outlines of the subject. Even if the subject is out of the frame, it has already stored data of the subject and the subject will automatically be back in focus when you move back to shoot the subject.

(Photographed by Jiang Jihang)

The optimal focus coming true depends on the support of the two sensors—Sony IMX707 and Samsung JN1.

We have tested out some common situations such as capturing someone walking along the road and tracking the focus of a running dog in the frame. Then we found that the Xiaomi 12 Pro camera’s advanced autofocus software truly showed its prowess and you need not worry about the subject being out of focus anymore.

(Photographed by Jiang Jihang)

The Subject Track Focus is available in both main and 2x telephoto cameras which only needs to double-click to kick in.

A majority of ultra-wide-angle lens is the pan focus lens, with the 12 Pro being no exception. Because of a larger DOF, images can be presented in a clear way.

(Photographed by Jiang Jihang)

(Photographed by Jiang Jihang)

When taking close shots, there is a very stiff jump in the image, where the background is defocused, making the subject more prominent.

In its official launch, Xiaomi didn’t publicize close-up shooting, so it’s kind of a Easter egg. We suggest that users who have purchased the Xiaomi 12 Pro try this.

Night photography
In the presentation of the Xiaomi 12 Pro, the manufacturer presented us with its novelty known as "Night Owl 2.0", an important improvement with respect to the first version that incorporates innovations specially designed to achieve a superior photographic result in low light conditions.

In the following samples, the left side shows the ambient brightness of the actual scene taken with the brightness manually reduced, while the right side shows the image shot without any adjustment.

Intuitively, the right picture is brighter with pure details and dark parts, not much noise, except for slightly dirty feeling.

It’s incredible that when we shoot in certain situations where the overall environment was very dark, images can keep bright, sharp and clear at the same time, but, highlights are not quite as good as they should be.

Keep in mind that you need to hold the smartphone for 2-3 seconds once pressing on the shooting button.

(Photographed by Jiang Jihang)

(Photographed by Jiang Jihang)

Video photography
The 12 Pro can record in a dual video mode, namely the video and Pro mode. The latter one is a bonus for those who want to shoot more professional videos with massive adjustment options.

Besides, the HDR 10, HDR10+ and HLG only functions in the main camera, which provides wider dynamic range and latitude.

The Xiaomi 12 Pro is able to shoot slow-motion shooting 720p at 120fps, 240fps, 480fps, 960fps, and 1920fps.

As for video, you can shoot at 4K 60fps across all three rear lenses, with an 8K 24fps option restricted to the main camera. 8K video, of course, provides better image quality, and bigger space for second composition in the post process, but also higher requirements. Therefore, it’s not so practical. To test its performance, we mainly shoot 4K footages at 60fps.

Stability
Talking about the stability, only the main camera can access both OIS and digital stability the latter of which is available in Super Stability and Super Stability Pro options limited to 1080p 30fps.

We have tested its stability in three modes respectively, illustrated in the following footages.

In short, the Super Stability Pro mode is the best. But at the same time, the image quality of the video shot in the mode decreases the most if cropped.

It’s recommended to use 4K to obtain good results, when using the main camera's OIS; if you want to shoot videos with complex effects, then a stabilizer is a better choice.

Verdict
There is no doubt that the Xiaomi 12 Pro as a flagship product has a comprehensive good performance. With the aid of two well-known sensors, Cyberfocus and low-light shooting capabilities impress on users a lot.

Unfortunately, OIS is exclusive to the main camera. As a result, you may get more blurred footages when shooting in nighttime. Well, we look forward to more upgrades in terms of focus, stability and so on.

For all that, it’s not enough to stop me from recommending the Xiaomi 12 Pro from comprehensive perspectives. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us by leaving your comments.