Xiaomi 12X review

Excellent triple camera, no zoom

The Xiaomi 12X has the same camera as the Xiaomi 12 and one that is quite similar to what the Xiaomi Mi 11 had to offer - a high-res primary with OIS, a regular ultrawide shooter, and a 5MP camera with a telemacro lens for high-quality close-up shots.

The main camera uses a 50MP Sony IMX766 sensor. It is 1/1.56" in size with 1.0µm and a Quad-Bayer RGGB (2x2) filter. Having such a filter means the main camera combines four adjacent pixels and the resulting photos are 50/4=12.5MP in resolution.

The sensor is paired with a 6-element 24mm lens that is stabilized and has an f/1.88 aperture.

The ultrawide camera uses a 13MP OmniVision OV13B10 sensor with 1.12µm pixels and 14mm f/2.4 lens. The focus is fixed.

The macro camera utilizes a 5MP Samsung S5K5E9 1/5" sensor with 1.12µm pixels and 50mm f/2.4 telemacro lens. Autofocus is available and it works at distances between 3cm and 9cm or so.

The selfie camera has a 32MP OmniVision OV32B40 1/3" Tetra-pixel sensor with 0.7µm pixels. It sits behind an f/2.45 lens. The focus is fixed. The default output is 32MP for some reason even if Xiaomi promises 4-in-1 binning.

The camera app is simple and familiar. First, basic operation for changing modes works with sideswipes (on the modes scroller), and you can also tap on the modes you can see to switch to those directly. Up and down swipes don't work for switching between the front and rear cameras; only the toggle next to the shutter release does that.

You can add, remove, and rearrange modes in the main rolodex by going to the More tab and navigating to the edit button, and you can access that from the settings menu as well.

The hamburger menu at the far end of the screen is where you'll find additional options and modes, including Super Macro, plus the icon to access the settings. Next to that hamburger menu, you have a flash mode switch, an HDR switch, an AI toggle, a shortcut to Google Lens, and a magic wand with beauty effects and filters.

Camera app

There's an expanded Pro mode (for all three rear cameras), where you can tweak the shooting parameters yourself, and you can use it with the main and ultra-wide cameras. You get to pick one of 4 white balance presets or dial in the light temperature with a slider, there's a manual focusing slider (with peaking as an option, which is a rare sighting), and shutter speed (1/4000s to 30s, 20s for macro) and ISO control with the range depending on which camera you're using. A tiny live histogram is available, and a toggle for zebras can be found in the hamburger menu.

Camera app

Night mode is available on all major cameras, and there's also an Auto Night mode setting in the menu, enabled by default. Another option that caught our eye was Eye-tracking focus, also turned on by default.

Various long exposure photo presets and movie-like modes for videos are available in the More tab, too.

Daylight photo quality

The main camera shoots in 12.5MP by default, and the photos are excellent. They offer plenty of resolved detail and balanced sharpness, we like how areas of random detail are rendered well as opposed to the over-sharpened messes we've seen lately. Foliage, grass, building details - everything looks good.

The white balance across all photos is spot-on, and the colors are true to life. The contrast is high but not over the top, while the dynamic range is good and realistic.

Finally, the noise has been cleaned incredibly well, and there are no traces in the photos.

Main camera, 12.5MP

There is no telephoto camera on the Xiaomi 12X, and neither is an advertisement for lossless zoom. Still, there is a dedicated 2x zoom shortcut on the viewfinder, which we expected to provide a simple digital zoom.

We were wrong, though. While it's not lossless zoom per se, the 2x digital zoom involves some stacking and processing, which often nets better photos and what simple upscales would have looked like. Not the best, as we said, but good enough to make sense using it when necessary.

Main camera 2x zoom, 12.5MP

There is a 50MP mode available on the Xiaomi 12X, but it's not among the most potent high-res modes we've encountered. While the photos are not a simple upscale from the 12.5MP default ones, they are not that proficiently processed either. The detail is rather average, while everything is as good as on the standard photos.

We tried resizing those to 12MP and found the results identical to the default Photo shooting mode's output. This means shooting in 50MP mode is rather pointless.

Main camera, 50MP

The 13MP photos from the ultrawide camera are notably good, too. The processing is competent, and it offers the maximum detail it can from such sensor and lens, plus it does an excellent job with the distortion correction. The sharpening is not excessive; on the contrary - it's nicely balanced and helps for a natural look across all images.

The ultrawide photos have high contrast, realistic dynamic range, and mostly accurate colors. The noise is incredibly low for such type of camera.

Ultrawide camera, 13MP

We shot this scene with the automatic distortion correction off. If you like this fisheye-like look, you can disable the correction from the Advanced Settings.

Default • Not corrected

The 5MP macro camera is a pleasure to work with. It supports autofocus, and its lens provides for natural-looking, sharp and colorful closeups. The photos are detailed, with accurate colors, great contrast and low on noise.

Macro camera, 5MP

The 12.5MP portrait shot with the main camera on the back are simply outstanding! The subjects are incredibly detailed with a pleasant natural look thanks to a gentle sharpening and proficient noise reduction. The colors are realistic, the contrast - high.

The bokeh is lovely, too, while the separation has been done nearly flawlessly even if there is no dedicated depth sensor on the back.

Portraits, 12.5MP

The selfie camera is supposed to save 8MP photos, but instead, you will find 32MP selfies in the Gallery. And we couldn't find an option to change that.

Anyway, the 32MP selfies are good - there is enough detail for a selfie camera, the subject is always well exposed, HDR gets involved if necessary, and the dynamic range is always good but not at the expense of loss of contrast.

The colors on all selfies are lively and accurate, noise is handled well, and, overall, we liked these selfies very much. They are pretty big, though, 10MB or more, so we would have liked them even better at 8MP and lesser file size for sure.

Selfies, 32MP

You can shoot selfie portraits, too. HDR doesn't work in Portrait mode, and the subject separation isn't as accurate as on the rear camera, but these are still some solid portraits, nonetheless. We observed likable separation and convincing bokeh, while the subjects are detailed enough, with good colors.

Portrait selfies, 32MP

Note that if light conditions aren't ideal, the selfie sharpness and detail will noticeably drop, and the chance for blurred photos rises exponentially.

Low-light photo quality

The Xiaomi 12X has Auto Night Mode, and it is enabled by default. It is the same thing that Apple does with its Night Mode - the camera app decides when and where to use Night Mode and its exposure time. You have no say in any of this in the default Photo mode when Auto Night Mode is enabled.

The main camera uses Night Mode most of the time, though if the algorithm detects enough light - it won't take a Night Mode photo. If Night Mode was triggered, it often felt somewhat faster (a second or less) than when we chose it manually.

Anyway, the Auto Night Mode photos taken with the main camera on the Xiaomi 12X are superb. They are sharp and detailed, with gentle yet potent noise reduction, wonderful colors, excellent contrast and realistic exposure.

When the Night Mode triggers, it helps keep the highlights in check.

Overall, the automatic Night Mode does a great job on the main camera, and we suggest leaving it on.

Auto NM main cam, 12.5MP

The photos taken without Night Mode are not as sharp, and they are noisier. The color saturation is still good, and their contrast is great. If you are in a hurry, or the Night Mode gets in the way, the standard Photo mode won't disappoint you. Clipped highlights are more common here as the Auto HDR does not kick often.

No NM main cam, 12.5MP

And, as we said, the Night Mode photos are great - they are fast to shoot, sharp and clean of noise. Most importantly, they are not over the top and stay true to life.

Night Mode main cam, 12.5MP

The 2x zoomed photos turned out pretty good at night. As they are taken with the main camera, everything we said for the main camera applies here, too. Well, everything but the resolved detail - it is noticeably less, but the zooming is more advanced - not exactly lossless, but not pure upscale and crop either - and it helps for good-looking 2x photos.

Auto NM 2x zoom, 12.5MP

No NM 2x zoom, 12.5MP

Night Mode 2x zoom, 12.5MP

Finally, let's talk about the ultrawide camera.

With the default Auto Night Mode option enabled, the photos you would take with the ultrawide camera, no matter the scene, use HDR instead of Night Mode. The photos are not the bright - read darker than they should have been - but they have no clipped highlights, the noise is cleaned well, and the resolved detail is good for such camera. The colors saturation is good, too.

Auto NM ultrawide, 12.5MP

If you shoot without Auto Night Mode, the Auto HDR won't trigger most of the time, and you will get the same dark photos, but noisier and with clipped highlights. Still usable, sure, but why bother?

No NM 2x zoom, 12.5MP

You can always trigger the Night Mode manually, and we suggest doing so for the ultrawide camera. It improves the exposure a lot and helps for brighter and more realistic photos. The sharpness is better, and we can see lightly more detail, the noise is low, and the color saturation is improved. Overall, this is the way to shoot with the ultrawide camera at night.

Night Mode 2x zoom, 12.5MP

And here are photos of our usual posters taken with the Xiaomi 12X. You can see how it stacks up against the competition. Feel free to browse around and pit it against other phones from our extensive database.

Xiaomi 12X against the Galaxy S22 and the Poco F3 in our Photo compare tool

Video capturing

The Xiaomi 12X offers plenty of video capturing options and various creative modes. The main camera supports 8K videos at 24fps, as well as 4K up to 60fps. The ultrawide camera maxes out at 4K at 30fps, while the macro cam can do 1080p@30fps.

There is optical stabilization available on the main camera, while electronic stabilization is always-on and available on all snappers but the macro.

Then there's the Super Steady Mode shot with the main camera - it focuses more on stabilization rather than quality, as an action camera would do. Super Steady Pro mode is also available, which uses the ultrawide camera and heavy cropping for an even more stabilized footage if needed.

The video bitrate is 100Mbps for 8K and 50Mbps for 4K, while audio is always recorded in stereo at a high 320kbps bitrate.

The first video was shot in 8K@24fps with the main camera. It has accurate colors, great contrast, adequate dynamic range, but the resolved detail is average, and the picture is soft, probably because the video looks upscaled from 4K.

The 8K field of view is wider than the 4K, as there is no electronic stabilization working when shooting in 8K - the camera relies solely on the optical one.

The 4K clips from the main camera are excellent - the resolved detail is plenty, and the sharpness is just right for a very balanced and natural-looking footage. The videos are cleared of noise, the white balance is superb, and the colors are accurate and lively. The dynamic range is commendable.

Shooting a 2x 4K video is done by crop and upscale, meaning you won't get a sharp video, but the clip still looks good when watched on a phone, PC or even TV. So, if you need a zoomed video, you should use the zoom option.

The low-light 4K videos from the main camera are sharp and with good detail and colors, clean of noise at that. The exposure and the dynamic range could have been better, but other than that - some solid night footage we have here.

The 4K clips from the ultrawide camera are good, too. The image is sharp and detailed for such type of camera, the noise is kept low, and the dynamic range is okay. The colors are a bit punchier and cooler than they needed to be, but still - these 4K ultrawide videos are among the better ones we've seen.

Finally, here is the Xiaomi 12X in our video tool so you can make your own comparisons.

Xiaomi 12X against the Galaxy S22 and the Poco F3 in our Video compare tool