Xiaomi 12: An Android Powerhouse You Must Consider

XIAOMI MI 12

Xiaomi 12: An Android Powerhouse You Must Consider

So let's face it these days there aren't exactly many shocks in the wonderful world of smartphones!! Shiny slabs are great and all, but they've also kind of become tediously predictable. Samsung and Apple seem happy enough to release identical phones year after year. Xiaomi and Motorola are still relentlessly launching two dozen very similar handsets a month. But for me, at least 2022 has thrown up one absolute whopper of a surprise!!! Xiaomi 12!! So far at least here, it's been almost completely ignored as most tech enthusiasts dribble all over its bigger more expensive sibling the Xiaomi 12 pro and that's a massive bloody. Because the regular blower isn't just cheaper, it's actually much better at least in my eyes. I've been using the Xiaomi 12 on and off as my personal handset since it's launched. I finally had the chance to stick my sim in there full time this last week and a bit. I gotta say I'm in love with the ruddy thing, so here's my full in-depth Xiaomi 12 review.

So small phones these days are ludicrously huge take Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, for instance, if you were ever on a plane and you happen to crash into the Atlantic Ocean you could use this bloody thing as a flotation device. And that's just one of the ways that the Xiaomi 12 sets itself apart from the crowd, because this lovable set is just 6.3 inches making it one of the most compact phones in 2022. Certainly about three or four years ago, if I'd heard myself using the word compact, to describe a 6.3 inch Smartphone I'd have probably given myself a slap. But seriously that's the state of the world these days! the Xiaomi 12 is comfortable to clutch, helped by the 180 gram lightweight finish. And it can just be used one-handed when required. It's certainly a refreshing experience coming to this smartphone. After reviewing the likes of the find, X5 Pro and of course the Xiaomi 12 Pro, which is yet another whopper and yeah the Xiaomi 12 may be the runt of the bunch. But it's also a proper hard case, you've got Gorilla Glass Victus up front just to help prevent any cracks or shattering. If you have to fumble this device, you've also got a screen protector shoved on there by default as well. Which is good news, because Victus's does tend to scratch up a little bit easier than previous generations. And then around back Gorilla Glass 5 which is still pristine, a full month on. Despite the fact I've taken the Xiaomi 12, chucked it in my backpack God knows how many times, just have it bouncing around in there with keys and laptops. And all kinds of and likewise that frosted finish means no grubby prints or greasy marks.

You don't get a huge choice of colors with the Xiaomi 12, but I do like this subtle purple effort, which is very easy on the eye. I've had quite a few people asking me about the water resistance of the Xiaomi 12 as well, because there's no official Ip rating. Here the good news is, this thing has taken an absolute drenching this past month. It's literally been out in rainstorms, I've had it in the bath with me, all kinds of stuff and it's been absolutely fine. No issues with water at all. As with all premium androids you've got version 12, on here as enhanced by Xiaomi's own MIUI 13 launcher, enhanced in some ways. That is because MIUI like a lot of launchers, has its fair share of, we can say quirks little things, like you'll want to lock in your messaging apps for instance. They don't accidentally get hibernated in the background and then you miss something important trickling through the launcher was generally well behaved, here on the Xiaomi 12. But one bug that I did notice was, the occasional random disappearance of the google feed. This was very much a sporadic bug, but occasionally you could just like swipe this way until your fingertips started to bleed and the google discover feature would refuse to appear. And of course as always pre-installed on this thing you've got the usual crapwear that you didn't ever want or ask for like doom and bucking.com. Which seems to infest every bloody modern smartphone even Samsung's. But thankfully the Xiaomi 12 isn't the usual garbage dump, that you get on some of Xiaomi's cheaper blowers, with just a plethora of awful games and just random you spend like half an hour on installing. As for the optical fingerprint sensor, this works perfectly well, unless your fingers are a bit moist or sweaty or whatever, in which case you'll often have to revert to the face, and lock which thankfully does the job.

Packed inside of this compact chassis is 256 gbs of UFS 3.1 storage, not expandable via microSD. However, like a lot of premium smartphones these days,the 6.28 inch OLED screen is surrounded by skinny bezels. And it does ever so slightly curve around those left and right edges, but only a tiny amount I very rarely was troubled by any kind of palm intrusion issues. As for the visuals well this thing may be dinky, but it still spaffs out stunning images with 10-bit color support, so yes you can stream Dolby Vision and HDR 10+ content and enjoy a realistic natural looking picture. It's not a WQHD+ resolution panel like the pro and some other rivals, but that full HD+ resolution combined with the smaller stature of the screen means you still get a razor sharp viewing experience. The panel is still more than bright enough so you can clearly see everything you're trying to do when you're outdoors on a sun shiny day and while the refresh rate only dips as low as 60 hertz, it does still boost all the way up to 120 hertz for a visual experience. And they are proper loud on top volume even, louder than the bigger pro. In fact although the quality isn't quite as good they definitely do the job when you're just streaming a bit of Youtube or Netflix or whatever. Also while enjoying a bit of music, I had no trouble streaming over bluetooth 5.2 to a speaker or pair of headphones or anything like that as well. You've got full Dolby Atmos support on here the quality stays strong even at range. But again like other premium smartphones not only do you not have expandable storage on the Xiaomi 12, you've also got no headphone jack, just little issues that are just slightly annoying and slightly ruining otherwise perfect experience. The haptics are pretty good here on the Xiaomi 12 lone are quite, as quiet as some rivals like the Oneplus 10 pro. But they are fully adjustable within the audio settings menu so you can have them as gentle or as fierce as you like.

Now despite its smaller stature the Xiaomi 12 still packs a proper punch using that self-same Snapdragon 8 Gen1 chipset, as also found in the pro model and most other android flagships. Xiaomi also somehow found room in this dinky wee blower, for 12 gigs of DDR5 RAM as well. So no matter how many apps you chuck at this thing, they'll all run perfectly smoothly. Got to admit though, before I actually tested out the Xiaomi 12, I thought it would probably still struggle with the most demanding titles out there, like Genshin Impact. Once I punched up the graphics to maximum settings, purely because the heat buildup would be too much to handle, but full credit to Xiaomi, its multifaceted liquid cool tech does a sterling job of shifting that pesky heat suggestion impact, plays beautifully even when you push it to its very limits. And you also have that game turbo mode, easily accessed in game with a quick flick of your finger to tweak the performance settings and play about with various other helpful tools you got dual 5G support. You've got WiFi 6E connectivity as well. So no issues on the network inside of things, whether you're indoors or out.

Now one of the main issues I had with the Xiaomi 12 Pro model was the rather lackluster battery life. It was disappointing to say the least quite often, i was in battery saver mode before the end of the day and occasionally I'd even run out of juice entirely before stumbling into bed. So I was slightly concerned coming to the regular Xiaomi 12 that this would once again be a massive problem, but thankfully not an issue at all. You've got a 4500 mAH capacity cell, crammed into tiny chassis. So almost as big as the Pro and that combined with the fact that you've got the paired down tech, means that battery life is absolutely fine. I've never once had to charge up this phone before the end of the day, usually have 15 or 20 battery life remaining come the end of it. And of course then you've got the 67 watt wire charging support the 50 watt wireless charging support, so super flexible. So it's another massive ticked box and another reason, why I prefer the regular Xiaomi 12 to that Pro Model. So finally the camera tech, so you do get a different primary sensor here to the Pro Model, but you've still got the excellent 50 MP Sony IMX 766, as seen in the Oppo Find X5 Pro and the Realme GT2 Pro. Once again with a bit of built-in optical image stabilization, the Xiaomi 12 does a fantastic job of tracking moving subjects to keep them sharply in focus at all times. So it's ideal for snapping kids and pets and the like. Thanks to the 766 you can expect mostly natural looking photos, whether you're shooting in bright daylight indoors or even at night time with just the occasional bit of polish to make things look a bit more vivid than they really do. Every shot is packed with detail, unless there's very little light to work with, in which case yeah you'll see some grin creeping in, I had no issues with lens flare. Strong brightness and HDR situations don't pose a problem either, you can forget about oversaturation or coming up with murky results. As well as that primary shooter, you've also got a basic 13 MP Ultra Wide angle option. This is handy when shooting some scenery and while this is generally fine for low light shots, you can't expect the same natural color capture that many rivals do serve up. And unlike the Pro model there's no telephoto lens here, so if you do want to get closer to your subject you'll have to do it the old-fashioned way, by actually using your legs. Still you do have the option of shooting a 50 megapixel photo and cropping in to get a closer view. Which works well as long as the lighting is decent and you don't crop in too enthusiastically. The Xiaomi 12 also packs a 5MP Telemacro camera as well, if you want an extreme close-up of something very very near to you and you've also got a Pro Mode of course, as usual on the Xiaomi 12 with full support for raw image capture. Although there's no raw plus support as you get on the likes of the Oneplus 10 Pro. For movies you can shoot 4k HDR 10+ footage, so even really strong contrast doesn't phase. The Xiaomi 12 tracking is once again on point, I had no issues at all with focus while the visuals are up to snuff, except in rather low light that's definitely where the Oppo Find X5 series still claims a massive victory, with its MariSilicon Smarts. If you want to you can even boost the resolution at 8K here though again with impressive results but to me that does seem a bit like overkill.

Last up, the Xiaomi 12 serves up a 32 MP selfie shooter, which is perfectly fine. Just remember to switch off all that beautified bollocks, if you don't want to look like some sort of weird CGI creation. That sensor can deal well with harsh lighting once again, and it isn't too put out by ambient conditions either. Using that selfie shooter you can capture full HD 1080p footage as well, with the HDR options still in place as well. If you are shooting against a bright sky or what not and the vocal capture is absolutely fine. So this  is my full final review of the Xiaomi 12 the regular model, not that bloody Pro and I gotta say, it's not quite the perfect handset there are a few little issues in there most of which are pretty standard for expensive smartphones. The lack of expandable storage, the lack of a headphone jack, occasional bit of launchy jank as well. Off course, but what you do get with this thing is incredible performance, fantastic battery life, a dependable bit of camera tech, solid media chops and it's all wrapped up in a pleasingly compact chassis. Yeah it's up against some big rivals right now, the Oppo F5x5 series, the roomy GT2 and the Realme GT2 Pro. But I got to say I really enjoyed using the Xiaomi 12, one of my favorite smartphones that I've used so far in 2022. So that's what I think, anyway what do you guys recommend? Be great at your thoughts down in the comments below.