Xiaomi also has mobiles of more than 1,000 euros. The Xiaomi 12 Pro wants to compete with any high-end that comes before it and has several tools to stand up to the premium segment. It is not the most expensive Xiaomi phone in Spain, and the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra continues to hold that position.
But it is the Xiaomi with the best processor, with the fastest charging system at the moment (in mobile for sale in Europe), and it comes with the necessary ambition to compete with the best mobiles in the highest range. We thoroughly analyze the Xiaomi 12 Pro, a phone that, we already told you, comes with as many lights as shadows.
Screen: betting on what corresponds to you goes well.
6.73 inches, LTPO type AMOLED technology, compatibility with Dolby Vision, QHD+ resolution, and adaptive refresh rate from 10 to 120 Hz. The Xiaomi 12 Pro arrives with a panel of the most current generation, type E5, with a maximum brightness of 1,500 nits.
The operation of the refresh rate can be improved. The average values (24, 30, 50 fps, etc.) are only respected in local content playback.
The refresh rate is somewhat aggressive, and, in our tests, it drops well to the minimum when we do not touch the panel, but it does not respect the intermediate ranges too much (videos at 24, 30, or 50 FPS). It usually jumps directly to 120 Hz when we touch it, 60 Hz in video playback in apps, and 10 Hz in static content. It has not been possible for us to reach 1 Hz in any scenario, and we have verified that it is only capable of respecting intermediate values when playing local files.
If we talk about touch sampling rate, this Xiaomi 12 Pro has 480 Hz, practically double that of many of its rivals. This means that the time it takes for the panel to respond to touch is minimal, so the sensation of fluidity is excellent (with some important nuances that we will detail in the performance section).
Auto-brightness work is outstanding, being one of the best we’ve tested to date. Indoors, the brightness drops immediately, and as soon as we go outside, it reaches the automatic maximum brightness peak almost instantly.
The panel looks pretty good in the sun, and the only drawback is inherent to curved panels: the curve. Curiously, Xiaomi considers these panels problematic at the level of tactile response at the edges, to the point where MIUI 13 comes with an option to ignore accidental touches.
Accidental Touches
This mode allows us to adjust the area where the screen will stop responding to avoid ghost touches by placing the fingers on the curve. The positive side is that it is a software solution to the problem. The not-so-positive side is that the manufacturer itself has had to create a solution to a problem that is fixed with a flat 2K screen.
At the colorimetry level, the panel comes by default in vivid mode, somewhat saturated. They are accompanied by another more saturated method, an “original color” mode that takes the meeting to a warmer white balance and the color towards a more neutral hue. What we like about Xiaomi is that this color mode does not wholly desaturate the board, although, to the eye of the average user, the color of the saturated method can be much more pleasant.
Xiaomi display
By default, the panel distinguishes between sRGB and P3 content, but we can force the board to display all content in either of these two gamuts. The thing does not end here, and it is that we can adjust the saturation of the panel, contrast, the different shades of RGB… Xiaomi takes screen customization seriously, and here we find more customization options than usual.
In short, the panel lives up to what is expected in a mobile of the highest range. With a lot of brightness, a lot of sharpness, and a lot of curves. This is the path that premium mobiles travel, and Xiaomi has followed in its footsteps.
Performance: try not to run out of battery
The Xiaomi 12 Pro comes with the best Qualcomm processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. It is accompanied, in the case of our unit, by 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of internal storage of the UFS 3.1 type. With these figures, the performance should shine, but it has not.
The Xiaomi 12 Pro does not have an outstanding sustained performance, and it has quite a few problems as soon as the battery starts to drop.
This phone has quite a few problems in sustained performance, and MIUI 13 reduces the terminal’s power to a minimum as soon as the battery begins to drop below 50%. Around 30 and 20%, we start to notice it slower.
Outstanding biometrics
In the biometrics section, we find a fingerprint reader and a facial recognition system. Both work outstandingly, facial recognition being high-speed. The fingerprint reader has not failed us throughout the week of use, and facial recognition works even if we have the mobile quite far from the face. From the MIUI settings, we can use the fingerprint reader to lock applications and link them to passwords and others so that it will be the protagonist in the use of the phone.
MIUI 13 with Android 12, although Android 12 has little
version of mini
The Xiaomi 12 Pro arrives with MIUI 13 and Android 12, although we are not too happy with the software section. First of all, manufacturers like Samsung and OPPO respect the automatic theme system of Material You, despite having quite deep customization layers. MIUI 13 is identical in design, whether we have Android 11 or Android 12, which is not good news if we want to enjoy the new features of the latest version of Android.
There is no trace of Material You, nor are there themes that suit the wallpaper. We still have a ROM that drinks more from iOS than from Google at the design level (although this won’t be a problem if you like the iPhone). It is not a ROM with much visible bloatware beyond apps like Facebook, Amazon, or Tiktok pre-installed by default.
The problem with MIUI 13 is that most of the bloatware is not seen, and that is that the system comes up with processes that are not necessary but that consume space and terminal resources. You can delete them if you connect your mobile to the PC and use a third-party tool, but it is not the most comfortable method for the average user.
