Xiaomi 12 Pro long-term review

Cameras

The Xiaomi 12 Pro has three 50 MP cameras on the back, and it's tough to know exactly what to compare this setup to. The main snapper is smaller in size than the one in the Mi 11 Pro from last year, but as we've already mentioned that phone never made it out of China. It also seems unfair to compare the 12 Pro's cameras to the ones in the Mi 11 Ultra, since on paper it would definitely lose out.

Maybe it's best we let the samples we shot during our time with the phone speak for themselves, as they say. But before we do that, we just want to mention that while we appreciate the fact that the 12 Pro isn't skimping on sensors, and has a wide, an ultrawide, and a tele, the lack of a periscope zoom option might put some people off at this price point. Then again, the periscope cameras seem to have slowly but surely ended up as a niche feature that's reserved for the Ultras and the Pro+s of the world, and Xiaomi's 12S Ultra naturally has one.

But the 12S Ultra isn't being offered outside of China, so if you want a 2022 Xiaomi with a periscope lens and you live outside of China, you're out of luck. That's a rather puzzling decision on the company's part, but one we'll have to live with nevertheless.

Anyway, let's jump right to samples. The main camera produces excellent images in daytime conditions, with good amounts of detail, great dynamic range, and a tad of sharpening and color 'pop', which seems to be the amount most people prefer these days.

Because of those factors we wouldn't call these images natural looking, but they aren't exactly artificial either. It's all about striking the right balance, and this camera mostly delivers upon that, with some near misses here and there where it leans a bit too much on sharpening. Some very fine noise can also creep in, but it's only noticeable if you go looking for it.

Daytime samples from the main camera

The ultrawide camera lacks autofocus, which is hardly excusable in this price range. Because of this, macro shots are out of the question. It also produces lower quality results than the main shooter, with still decent but definitely not as good dynamic range, and sharpness losses around the edges, while the center of an image is sometimes a tad too obviously sharp. Colors are fine but not at all matched to what the main camera produces, and if you shoot the same scene with both you will definitely notice.

Daytime samples from the ultrawide

The zoom camera doesn't really zoom that much, for a flagship smartphone in 2022 2x isn't anything to get overly excited about. Likewise the baffling omission of OIS from it, which isn't something we're used to seeing at any price point, let alone this one. Since it doesn't zoom too far you aren't likely to notice all that much, especially during daytime, and especially if your hands are very steady, but this reeks of cost cutting and we're not sure how tolerable cost cutting is as an idea when applied to flagship-level devices.

At least the images you get from it during the day are good, if not on the level of the main snapper. The colors are once again different, and they're also more saturated, while sharpness is high and contrast is excellent, as is dynamic range.

Daytime zoom samples

As usual for a long-term review we didn't shoot maximum resolution images, since that's not the default and generally not how these pixel binning cameras should be used. Our initial review of the Xiaomi 12 Pro has some 50 MP samples for you from all three sensors, which neatly showcase why it's most of the time pointless to go this route - you might get some tiny amounts of extra detail, but not a significant amount, and it comes at the expense of more noise.

At night the Xiaomi 12 Pro has an Auto night mode that engages when it feels the need to, and makes taking a picture in Auto mode ever so slightly slower. We feel like the speed penalty is worth it, however, especially as it's not that big for any of the cameras. The main sensor is especially quick at snapping these - they feel almost as fast as if you had turned the feature off. It's a similar story for the zoom lens, only the ultrawide is slower, but even there it's bearable.

All of our Auto shots below have been taken with Auto night mode enabled. The main camera manages to capture very good images at night, with excellent detail levels, not a lot of noise, pleasing (if slightly oversaturated) colors, and some decently preserved highlights too. The only thing missing is a bit more detail in the shadows, but that's neatly taken care of by the manual Night Mode.

Nighttime samples from the main camera

Compared to Auto with Auto Night Mode on, manual Night Mode isn't a night and day (excuse the cheap pun) difference, but it still produces noticeably brighter, sharper, and overall more pleasant images. If you're constantly in a hurry at night, then stick with Auto mode (perhaps with Auto Night Mode on if you can). But if you're always looking to grab the best quality shot, then we'd recommend manual Night Mode for every scene that doesn't have movement in it. It's not even that slow either, with only a couple second-ish time between shots. In fact, this is among the fastest manual Night Modes we've ever encountered.

Night Mode samples from the main camera

The ultrawide struggles at night, even with Auto Night Mode on. Its output is noticeably (and yet, unsurprisingly) darker than what the other two cameras can produce, and it all feels a little hazy sometimes. Colors are still nice, though, and dynamic range isn't very bad. Detail levels are okay. Overall this is a good ultrawide for night shots compared to most others on the market, but it's far from the best we've ever seen.

Nighttime samples from the ultrawide

Manual Night Mode does improve things here as well, but it takes the longest to capture a Night Mode shot with the ultrawide, so only you know if you have a few extra seconds for every shot. You also need to keep in mind that your hand(s) need to be steady for the entire duration of the capture. If not, then you'll end up with smudgy messes from time to time, so we can't outright recommend you always use Night Mode for the ultrawide like we did for the main camera - that one has OIS and that helps a lot.

Night Mode samples from the ultrawide

The zoom camera, however, does not, and while this may be less noticeable for Auto mode shots (including with Auto Night Mode on), it basically means that a lot of manual Night Mode images captured with the zoom lens end up being almost unusable due to hand shaking. For whatever weird reason, the phone insists on using the actual zoom lens for Night Mode shots, even if it is way more indecisive for the Auto shots, choosing to go with a crop from the main sensor a lot of times instead.

Nighttime zoom samples

Because of this, for zoom shots at night there's no optimal way of doing things. Using Auto mode might come with the quality disadvantages of cropping from the main sensor, if you're unlucky and that gets used, while going with Night Mode comes with the quality disadvantages of having to hold a long exposure zoom shot steady. The best scenario is an Auto shot from the zoom camera itself, but there's no way for you to know beforehand if this will be used or not.

Night Mode zoom samples

If you get lucky, presumably thanks to adequate lighting around, then you're presented with images that have good detail levels, visible but not overbearing noise, and colors that are as good as the ones during the day.

Selfies come out very detailed, with great colors and excellent dynamic range during the day. Portrait Mode selfies are generally good, with competent subject separation, although once in a blue moon the algorithm may spit out an error, confusing the foreground for the background and blurring it unnecessarily. It doesn't happen often enough that it's a nuisance, though.

At night things understandably take a sharp turn for the worse unless there's still adequate lighting around, although exposure of faces is still pretty good. If you don't try to capture yourself in pitch darkness, we'd say even nighttime selfies come out eminently usable, especially for a quick social media share.

Selfie samples, day and night, Portrait Mode off/on

The Xiaomi 12 Pro thus has a very competent main camera, which produces excellent images in all lighting conditions, an ultrawide that's very good during the day but struggles somewhat during the night and is stifled by the lack of autofocus for macro shots, and a zoom camera that doesn't really zoom enough, yet takes great pictures during the day and even in nighttime when it's being used - but Night Mode on it is probably best avoided most of the time.