Xiaomi is an electronics manufacturer based in China, and although it doesn't have the largest market share in the UK, Xiaomi is the second-largest manufacturer of smartphones in the world.
The Xiaomi 12T Pro is the follow-up to the 11T Pro which was released last year. The Xiaomi 11T pro offered great specs at a reasonable price and was subsequently loved by users globally for its great value.
It's a little more expensive than the previous iteration coming in at £699, which is around £100 more expensive than the 11T pro was. It does however carry 256GB of storage, double the amount the 11T Pro had.
The device has a generic Android device design, and is 163mm tall, 75.9mm wide, and has a thickness of 8.66mm. It's not that heavy, coming in at just 205g, and is easy to carry out in your pocket or bag.
The 6.67-inch AMOLED DotDisplay is crisp and clear and takes up almost the phone with very little bevel. It runs at a resolution of 2712 x 1220, and has a refresh rate of 120Hz, making it great for watching videos or playing games.
It's also protected by Gorilla Glass 5, has 4096-level brightness adjustment, and has 360-degree ambient light sensors for accurate and effective auto-brightness.
The rear camera is really where Xiaomi have plugged a lot of their time and effort, including in the way that they market the phone.
It's a 200MP wide-angle camera, alongside an 8MP ultra-wide angle camera, and a 2MP macro camera. It carries a tonne of features, including Motion tracking focus and capture, timed bursts, long exposure modes, and even a Pro mode for amateur and professional photographers.
The camera produces awesome shots with great detail in the daylight, however, I found that night shots and pictures taken in low light were fairly unassuming - there was graining and a noticeable lack of depth and detail.
It's also worth noting that, whilst the 200MP camera is impressive, the 8MP ultra-wide camera is a little average, meaning that any ultra-wide angle shots taken will lack the detail offered by the main camera.
Despite this, it still offers 50MP or 200MP Ultra-HD mode and can record video in 8k at 24fps, or 4k at 60fps, which is impressive.
The front camera is a 20MP selfie camera, which can record HD video at 60fps as well as 120fps slow motion video. It can take panoramic selfies, and features AI Beautify and timed burst, as well as an AI Portrait mode.
To be honest, I found the AI Beautify made things look strange and unnatural, but the front camera itself is great - it takes good-looking selfies in decent detail with little hassle or effort.
The device carries a 5000mAh battery which supports 120W turbocharging via a USB-c connector included in the box.
The charger is a beast, both in size and performance. It didn't come with a UK plug - I had to use an adapter - but once I had it plugged in it charged from 0 to 100% in around 20 minutes.
The battery life is also reasonably impressive, I managed to get a full week's worth of battery with minor use, and three days with moderate use.
Sadly there's no wireless charging, which is something that I would generally have expected from a phone at this price range, particularly with wireless charging becoming more and more common these days.
The system is liquid-cooled, although I still found it ran fairly hot at times, particularly when under stress or charging.
The Processor is a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and is actually pretty mighty when it comes down to it, reaching clock speeds of up to 3.2GHz. It also comes with 8GB of RAM, as well as a Qualcomm Adreno GPU.
When it came to gaming, it was actually really strong, able to run even the mightiest of games like Genshin Impact, PUBG, and Call of Duty effortlessly on high settings.
The technical benchmarks back this up, exceeding 4250 multithreaded on Geekbench 5, and topping 260fps on GFXBench.
For comparison, this blows the 11T pro, the 12 Pro, and even the Google Pixel 7 Pro out of the water, with none of the above coming even close to 4000 on Geekbench 5 multithreaded.
I actually consider this something of a saving grace for the Xiaomi 12T Pro - although I don't play a lot of games on mobile devices, I do consider them a good test of how the phone will run generally, and I can confirm that everyday usage such as browsing social media, sending emails, and watching videos on youtube, TikTok, and Netflix, the phone runs great.
The phone has Dual Sim, supports 5G, and Wi-fi 6, and runs on Bluetooth 5.2. It also has dual speakers, Dolby Atmos, and all the usual bells and whistles in terms of sensors, such as a proximity sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass.
It runs on MIUI 13, which is an adaptation of Android 12, with some inspiration notably taken from Apple. For example, swiping from the top right brings up Control Centre settings.
MIUI 13 is something that puts people off, but I actually found it really functional, and it comes with a Themes app, which has an insane amount of options to put your own stamp on it, including customisable icons. In addition, a surprising amount of things can be customised in the settings menu.
Xiaomi 12T Pro Verdict: 4/5
This phone is headlined by the amazing 200MP rear camera for good reason - it is one of the better features on the phone.
It is however a bit top-heavy with respect to the cameras, with the Ultra-wide camera being just 8MP, and the depth sensor just 2MP. There's no telephoto camera at all, and the zoom is digital only.
The 120W charging is also incredible, but the lack of wireless charging is disappointing.
The performance however is a sleeper agent, turning an otherwise questionable device into a gaming monster that destroys its competition. Frankly, I think this should be better advertised - I was really on the fence about this phone until I tested the performance.
Overall, the phone is an almost-flagship device, packing flagship performance into a reasonably priced package, but without all the bells, whistles, and build quality that you might expect.
The Xiaomi 12T Pro is available from the Xiaomi website for £699 in black, blue, or silver.
