Xiaomi 12T Pro long-term review

Design, handling, build quality

There are only so many ways you can design a 'full screen' looking front of a phone. This is the result of one of those ways. And it pretty much looks like all the others. Don't get us wrong - we're still fans of this almost bezelless theme. Very much so, in fact. But there's just not much left to say about it. So, in short - from the front, the Xiaomi 12T Pro looks like a smartphone, and one that's been launched recently. Because it is. And it has.

Now, if you go looking closely, you'll notice some interesting minute details. Like the fact that the bottom bezel is only imperceptibly thicker than the top one. And all four of them are incredibly slim. That tells you this is no run of the mill mid-ranger. In fact, it tells you it's a flagship device (well, as a general rule - there are exceptions, as there inevitably always are with any such rules of thumb).

The back is a similarly boring affair, at least on our very stealthy black review unit. There's glass on it, and it curves into the frame. It's also the sort of glass that's the best of both worlds. It's more matte than glossy, showing zero fingerprints in the process, but it's not so matte that the phone will practically slide out of your hand all the time. It's still slippery, but not that slippery.

The main event on the back has to be the enormous camera bump. And we don't mean enormous in length and width, although it's certainly no slouch when it comes to those measurements, but we're talking thickness here. The main sensor protrudes a lot from the rear, although the way the whole island has a two-step design is meant to slightly hide that.

This, by the way, is another indicator that we're looking at a flagship smartphone. A thick main camera means moar resolution, moar optics, moar light accumulation, moar better everything. Right? Well, hopefully, but we'll see about that in the appropriate section of this review. For now, note that the camera island is actually huge enough that the phone won't rattle on a table if you're trying to use the keyboard. If, on the other hand, you tap the top left part of the screen, it will feel like the entire device is about to roll over to the side.

The frame is plastic, and it's mostly glossy at the top and bottom, and mostly matte elsewhere. It's very thin on the sides, as the display assembly seems to sit 'on top' of the frame - the frame doesn't extend into the screen, for lack of a better way to describe this. The way it's done on the 12T Pro is reminiscent of how mid-rangers are constructed, so that's the first point that seems to contradict all the previous "this is a flagship" hints. On the other hand, this goes with the whole 'not premium' theme of using plastic for the frame.

Handling is great if you don't have small hands - as great as that of any recent device of mainstream size. The weight makes the handset feel beefy and substantial, but it's not overbearing. In fact, we always thought around 200g for this size is the perfect balance - if you have that "premium means more weight" bias you'll like it, but it's not so heavy that you need to take frequent breaks from usage in order to rest your hands. Again, unless they're small, in which case - we have a recently published long-term review of the Asus Zenfone 9 that might interest you.

Build quality is great, then again we don't remember the last time we handled a phone that didn't have great build quality, especially at such price points. So maybe this one should go without saying from now on?

Case

There's a case in the box, and it's neither the cheapest and flimsiest feeling we've ever seen in a phone's box, nor the sturdiest. It's somewhere in the middle, perhaps a little bit towards the flimsy end of the scale, but perfectly serviceable in day to day use if you don't mind paying hundreds of currency for a glass-backed phone only to then never touch it.

Don't worry, most people are in a similarly hilarious and ironic boat, this reviewer included. Oh, and let's not forget that a lot of other companies don't even go to the trouble of bundling such a basic case with their (oftentimes much more expensive) devices, so there's that.

Speakers

The Xiaomi 12T Pro's stereo speakers are not the best, nor the loudest we've ever heard, but - they are great for both sound quality (as much as you can expect from such tiny apertures) and volume for most people, most of the time. If you don't approach with unrealistic expectations, these will serve you very well. Again, they're phone speakers, so sound quality won't impress you, but it's perfectly passable.

Similarly, the top volume isn't the loudest we've heard, but it's sufficient to make you avoid bringing the phone closer to your ears, even in environments that are a little bit loud. More than that, the limitations of them being inside a phone become apparent, but you knew that already, didn't you? The point here is that these won't disappoint you at all, even if they won't blow you away either. They just perform very well, and that's it.

As usual, Xiaomi opted for a dual-slit strategy for the top speaker - sound goes out both through the earpiece and also through holes on the top of the frame. This makes media playback sound fuller (if you cover the bottom speaker with a finger you'll know what we mean), but comes at the expense of some lost privacy when on a phone call while using the earpiece, since there will be some sound bleeding out through those upward facing holes.

We've never had an actual problem in the real world with this, but maybe it's something you need to keep in mind, depending on where you go and who you talk to. Then again, you probably have a pair of TWS earbuds by now, and if you use those for calling then all of this is alleviated.

Vibration motor

This is a similar story to the speakers. It's not the best we've ever encountered, and it's very far from the worst. Let's call it an upper-midrange vibration motor or a low-end flagship one (if that even makes sense). Hopefully, this helps identify what we mean when we say that it's been very good, but - again, like the speakers - hasn't wowed us. It's just a solid part that does its job very well, and that's it.

Haptic feedback settings

Like most vibration motors these days, you can feel it more than you can hear it. That said, if it's on, say, a wooden surface, you will still hear it when the phone rings, for example - just not from another room. Xiaomi has been among the companies consistently using at least good, if not great, vibration motors for its flagships and 'flagship killers' for years now, and that's one of those things that improves the user experience in a very small way - but consistently so, every day. Note that we've maxed out the Haptic feedback level slider in Settings, but if you feel like that makes the vibrations too harsh, you can, of course, tone them down.