Xiaomi 12 review

Competition

As we said at the beginning of this review, the Xiaomi 12 is the company's first compact flagship since the Mi 8, which wasn't considered as compact at the time. Today, the Xiaomi 12's 6.28-inch diagonal puts in the said category. And yet, there aren't many compromises made when reducing dimensions. The device still sports a rather big 4,500 mAh battery with support for fast wired and wireless charging as well. You get three cameras on board, although no telephoto unit, the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is in charge, and Xiaomi found some space for two full-fledged stereo speakers. The display itself is no LTPO2, but it has all the bells and whistles, nonetheless. It's flagship-grade in all aspects - it's bright, runs on 120Hz, offers Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support, 10-bit color reproduction, and is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus.

Despite the rather limited compact flagship selection these days, there are still some competitive solutions priced within the €700-850 range that directly compete with the €800 Xiaomi 12. The first one to come to mind is, of course, the Samsung Galaxy S22 5G.

The South Korean giant's compact solution this year is even smaller than the Xiaomi 12 with a 6.1-inch OLED panel of comparable quality, and it comes with a tougher Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection. It also has a proper 3x telephoto camera but fails to impress with battery capacity. We are yet to assess the phone's endurance, but it won't be hard to beat the Xiaomi 12 in this regard. The latter takes the lead when it comes to charging speed, though. The Galaxy S22 5G has IP68 dust and water protection and presumably better-tuned stereo speakers. It's worth noting that, although the Galaxy S22 seems like the better solution, it's about €50 pricier than the Xiaomi 12.

It's hard to touch on the compact premium segment without mentioning the iPhone 13 mini. Asking €800 in Europe, Apple's solution is a direct rival. Yes, the Android or iOS question is a tough one to answer, but let's just assume that size and features are most important.

Samsung Galaxy S22 5G • Apple iPhone 13 mini • Sony Xperia 5 III • Realme GT2 Pro

The iPhone 13 mini's build quality, raw performance and size are unrivaled. In case you are fine with the big notch and the lack of HRR display. It's great, but it's not 120Hz. Surprisingly, battery life is worse on the iPhone 13 mini, at least according to our tests. The Xiaomi 12 charges way faster too. In short, the iPhone 13 mini has the more mature and future-proof OS on its side along with marginally better ultrawide camera performance and a more premium compact build.

Another flagship that's manageable with one hand is the Sony Xperia 5 III. Sure, it's a 2021 phone, but it's relevant enough to recommend it in the first half of 2022. You shouldn't be worried about the older Snapdragon 888 SoC as it provides more than enough horsepower to run pretty much everything on Google Play. The device has a microSD card slot, IP65/IP68 water and dust protection, great battery life, nice stereo speakers, a true 3x telephoto camera and some unique video capturing features. Sony's contender can be found within the €780-800 range, potentially undercutting the Xiaomi 12 by a small margin.

As you've noticed, there's no clear-cut winner among the Xiaomi 12 and its compact competitors. You win some, and you lose some, no matter which one you choose. But in case you are willing to increase your diagonal tolerance, we strongly recommend looking into the Realme GT2 Pro. The recently released flagship from Realme is better in almost every aspect. Behind the 6.7-inch screen, you have an LTPO2 OLED panel, exceptional ultrawide camera performance, excellent battery life, blazing-fast charging, a set of good-sounding stereo speakers and an unorthodox paper-like design on the back. The Xiaomi 12 edges out with superior main camera performance, wireless charging support and more premium chassis overall. Moreover, the GT2 Pro will save you €50, making it even tougher for the Xiaomi 12. Nonetheless, your personal preference between MIUI 13 and Realme UI 3.0 could be a deciding factor.

Verdict

When we first took the Xiaomi 12 in hand, we were really impressed. We instantly thought that this would be the compact flagship to recommend in 2022. A quick scroll through the specs sheet suggests exactly that. Bright and fast OLED, premium build, big battery, fast wired and wireless charging, dedicated stereo speakers and a triple-camera setup with a big main sensor. And then, of course, at the helm of it all - the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.

Sadly, through the course of writing this review, we found out that most of these standout features come with caveats. The big battery fails to deliver satisfactory endurance, the dedicated stereo speakers are imbalanced, and the camera setup lacks proper zoom solution, nor does it have a dedicated telephoto camera. The SD8G1 implementation seems to be troublesome, too, as sustained performance isn't on par with other rivals running the same or comparable chipset.

These drawbacks keep us from recommending the handset right away, yet they are not enough to dismiss the Xiaomi 12's strong points we truly liked. The excellent camera performance all-around, the great ergonomics, bright screen and fast wireless/wired charging are all pros that build a strong case. Sure, it's one of the few compact premium solutions, but it's far from being the only one. Other sensible options are out there, and we strongly suggest looking into those as well.

Pros

• Bright, 120Hz curved OLED.
• Excellent ergonomics, one of the few premium compact phones.
• Awesome camera performance.
• Blazing-fast wired and wireless charging, supports reverse wireless too.
• Speaker quality without Dolby Atmos is good.
• Highly customizable and mature MIUI 13 with Android 12

Cons

• Battery life is quite underwhelming.
• No ingress protection.
• No telephoto camera or good enough zoom solution.
• Poor sustained performance.
• Stereo speakers are imbalanced, Dolby Atmos makes quality even worse.