Xiaomi 12 vs 12 Pro: Should You Pay More?

Estimated read time 7 min read
Xiaomi 12Xiaomi 12 Pro
BUY NOWBUY NOW
PROSPROS
✅ More Affordable.
✅ Same chipset as the Pro variant.
✅ Compact Design
✅ Refined, sleek, fingerprint-resistant finish.
✅ Incredibly fast wired charging.
✅ Brilliant screen quality.
CONSCONS
⛔ Battery Life Not Good.
⛔ Camera not good as Pro variant.
⛔ Limited optical zoom.
⛔ No official IP rating.

Xiaomi 12 vs 12 Pro: Specs

Xiaomi 12Xiaomi 12 Pro
Display6.28-inch AMOLED, FHD+ (2400 x 1080)6.73-inch E5 AMOLED LTPO, QHD+ (3200 x 1440)
Refresh rate and others120Hz, Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support120Hz, Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support
ProcessorSnapdragon 8 Gen-1Snapdragon 8 Gen-1
RAM8GB/12GB LPDDR RAM8GB/12GB LPDDR RAM
Storage128GB/256GB128GB/256GB
OSMIUI 13MIUI 13
Battery4500mAh4600mAh
Fast charging67W wired, 50W wireless fast-charging120W wired fast-charging, 50W wireless fast-charging
Connectivity options5G NR, NFC, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, USB Type C5G NR, NFC, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, USB Type C

Xiaomi 12 vs 12 Pro: Design

Xiaomi is hoping to attract customers who are looking for a smaller device with the Xiaomi 12. It’s based on a 6.28-inch display, which is rather small these days. As a result, you’ll have a phone that’s easier to slip into pockets and use with one hand. The Xiaomi 12 has a gorilla glass 5 back and an aluminium frame. In terms of appearances, everything is fairly consistent and conservative; the frosted finish is quite smooth to the touch, and the phone feels quite sturdy overall.

Xiaomi 12 pro is the top model available from this series, this won’t be for too long though as the ultra model will come out in the near future. The 12 pro design doesn’t break the mold but is quite nice rather than going for contrasting accents, you get a sleek uniform look. The glass back tapers into the aluminum frame and the satin finish is silky smooth. For some reason, this phone has no ip rating against water and dust which competitors and even this year’s xiaomi mid-rangers do have.

Xiaomi 12 vs 12 Pro: Display

The Xiaomi 12 features a 6.28-inch oled display with a 1080p resolution, gorilla glass victus protection, and a fast 120hz refresh rate. The screen is curved rather than flat, and it wraps around the phone’s edges. Thanks to the oled technology, the content looks good, it’s sharp and contrasty, and this is one of the first devices we’ve seen with 12-bit colour, which equates to 68 billion colours. There’s also new support for Dolby Vision to go along with it. With a manual brightness slider, we measured almost 500 nits, which increases to around 900 nits in auto mode in bright conditions. Color accuracy isn’t great by default, but depending on the colour profile you choose in settings, the colours can be very accurate, and there are options to tweak them even more. The screen has a 480hz touch sampling rate, which could give you a competitive advantage when gaming. Swiping and scrolling are especially smooth thanks to the high refresh rate.

The screen of the xiaomi 12 pro was a curved 6.73 inch amoled with gorilla glass victus protection, a QHD resolution and a high 120hz refresh rate. The resolution is quite sharp, it comes out to 521 ppi and content looks crisp and clear. Blacks are super deep, thanks to the amoled technology and you have support for HDR 10 plus as well as dolby vision. You can also make colors quite accurate if you want through the profiles and color settings. For the refresh rate, you can choose a maximum ceiling in custom settings or select the auto mode which also goes up to 120 Hz. Regardless of your choice, the phone can dial down the refresh rate based on your activity to save energy and xiaomi claims it can go all the way down to 1 hertz. There’s also a really fast 480 hertz touch sampling rate here for better responsiveness, it’s a useful feature for gamers. The max brightness of the xiaomi 12 pro’s display is flagship grade too, we were able to measure around 500 nits maximum with a manual slider and this can boost up to over a 1000 nits in auto mode.

Xiaomi 12 vs 12 Pro: Speakers

The Xiaomi 12 has a pair of harman kardon-branded stereo speakers, with the second speaker having two grilles: one on the earpiece and one on the top. On our charts, the speakers received a very good loudness rating, and we like the overall sound quality. Although Dolby Atmos is supported, we believe it does not improve the sound quality. Indeed, it appears to enhance the mids while distorting the vocals and flattening the bass.

The xiaomi 12 pro has stereo speakers with one at the bottom and the other which outputs sound through both the earpiece and a grille at the top. The speakers have harman kardon branding but we’re only able to score an average rating on our loudness chart and subjectively sound quality is nothing special here you get some bass but the highs are lacking clarity.

Xiaomi 12 vs 12 Pro: Android 12 & UI

Both phone’s interface is xiaomi’s miui 13 on top of Android 12, but it’s nearly identical to the xiaomi phones that run on Android 11. Thanks to Android 12, you can set your location to be approximate rather than precise per app, and you’ll see a green indicator in the corner when apps access the camera or microphone.

Xiaomi 12 vs 12 Pro: Performance

The heart of the xiaomi 12 and xiaomi 12 pro is the new top android chipset; Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. The performance is excellent, as expected, and a step up from last year’s flagships. For heavy gaming and multitasking, there’s plenty of raw power here. However, this chipset gets hot, which is a concern, especially on a small device like this one. Despite Xiaomi’s advanced passive cooling system, we saw significant thermal throttling during our tests.

Xiaomi 12 vs 12 Pro: Battery & Charging

The xiaomi 12 has a 4500mah battery which is a large capacity for a compact device. Still battery life is unimpressive here, the phone earned an endurance rating of 82 hours in our battery life tests. You get a 67-watt charger in the box. We were able to charge the phone from 0% to 87% in half an hour.

The xiaomi 12 pro has a 4600 milliamp hour battery which isn’t small but we’ve seen plenty of devices lately with a larger power pack. The phone was able to score just a 74 hour endurance rating in our battery tests which is underwhelming. Charging speed though was incredibly fast thanks to the huge 120-watt adapter that comes in the box. With it we were able to charge the phone from 0% to 100% in just 21 minutes.

Xiaomi 12 vs 12 Pro: Camera Specs

XIAOMI 12XIAOMI 12 PRO
🔹50MP (main, f/1.9, PDAF, OIS)
🔹13MP (ultrawide, f/2.4)
🔹5MP (telemacro, f/2.4, AF)

🔸32MP (Front Camera)
🔹50MP (main, f/1.9, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS)
🔹50MP (2x optical zoom, f/1.9, PDAF)
🔹50MP (ultrawide, f/2.2)

🔸32MP (Front Camera)

Xiaomi 12 vs 12 Pro: Conclusion

A sturdy and compact design, a nice high refresh rate amoled display, stereo speakers, a top-tier chipset, and fast charging are all included. The image quality is also quite good. The most significant drawback is the short battery life. Still, if you’re looking for a compact flagship, the Xiaomi 12 is worth considering.

The xiaomi 12 pro brings a smooth finish, a curved high-res amoled with an adaptive refresh rate, stereo speakers, the top android chipset, blazing fast charging, and very capable and versatile cameras. There are a couple of issues here though while you can charge at amazing speeds but the battery life itself isn’t great. The speaker quality isn’t the best around either and there’s no IP protection for the phone. But if you don’t mind these things then the xiaomi 12 pro could be worth looking into.

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