At the launch of Xiaomi 12 series, Lei Jun compared the Xiaomi 12 series with the iPhone 13 series many times. Although we’ve seen a lot of brands compare with the iPhones for references, it’s actually the first time that Xiaomi developed a complete phone line against Apple. The Xiaomi 12 Pro is undoubtedly the most striking model in the series, while its rival, the iPhone 13 Pro also happens to be the most popular iPhone of the year.

So today we’ve brought them together for a camera comparison, and let’s find out why is Xiaomi so proud to take on a rival that costs nearly twice as much as it does. 

Well, let’s start with their camera setups. 

The iPhone 13 Pro is equipped with a triple-lens rear camera system, including a 26mm equivalent f/1.5 primary lens, an 13mm f/1.8 ultra-wide-angle lens, and another 77mm f/2.8 3x telephoto lens. All three cameras feature 12MP resolution. On the other hand, the Xiaomi 12 Pro seems to have a more capable camera setup on paper. It also features a similar triple-lens combination, and all three lenses feature 50MP high resolution, including its main camera, a 2x telephoto camera, and another ultra-wide lens. 

Xiaomi 12 Pro vs iPhone 13 Pro – Main Cameras

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Now let’s start with their main cameras. It’s quite surprising that the Xiaomi 12 Pro applies a more aggressive color tuning, leading to samples having a more vivid color compared to what we see in real life. While the iPhone 13 Pro is good at presenting true colors along with a good white balance that reflects the actual environment. But on the other hand, the Xiaomi 12 Pro is much easier to present brighter colors with high saturation, which at first glance, is more eye-catching. 

Under most conditions, the Xiaomi phone’s samples seem to have higher contrast, but if we look closely, they actually have a little gap over dark areas. Especially for high-contrast shooting, both of them didn’t really have good noise control for dark scenes.

Though the Xiaomi 12 Pro’s main camera supports a 50MP original resolution, it didn’t bring much benefit in terms of image clarity with sharper detail when compared to the iPhone’s samples. 

Another common detail shared by these two models is the random lens flares. When shooting towards a light source, we experienced a similar bright reflection on these two phones. To avoid that, you can adjust the camera angle when shooting or use an editing app like Snapseed to remove it. But we also heard that the latest iOS can automatically remove lens flare from photos in certain conditions. Well, obviously, it’s not available yet.

Xiaomi 12 Pro vs iPhone 13 Pro – Ultra-Wide Cameras

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As for their ultra-wide lenses, we have to say both of them have very good picture detail and the image is clear and sharp. Although we can tell that the Xiaomi model is slightly better than the iPhone 13 Pro, the difference is really hard to notice without careful comparison. 

The color preference of the two models’ wide-angle lenses is almost the same as what we found on their main cameras. The Xiaomi model’s color is still bright and high-saturated, while the iPhone’s is still more realistic. 

And both of them didn’t show much fringing, which is better than most phones’ wide-angle lenses. 

Xiaomi 12 Pro vs iPhone 13 Pro – Telephoto (2X,3X,5X)

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As for their telephoto cameras, since they didn’t feature the same optical focal length. For Xiaomi 12 Pro, it supports 2x optical zoom, while the iPhone 13 Pro offers a 3x optical zoom. So for 2x shooting, the Xiaomi model with a 50MP sensor no doubt presents a purer and sharper image with better noise control. Similarly, the iPhone model offers a better color presentation with richer detail over 3x shooting. But personally, I prefer the iPhone’s telephoto solution. Because it’s not really far behind over the 2x shooting, but meanwhile, the 3x optical zooming supports better telephotography at 3x and above. For example, if we shot at 5x zoom on both models, the iPhone 13 Pro could provide a cropped picture with less image loss and better detail as well. But on the other hand, if you do a lot of portrait shooting, I would say that the optical 2x of the Xiaomi model is an excellent option, even better than the iPhone’s 3x.  

Xiaomi 12 Pro vs iPhone 13 Pro – Night Samples

Then we moved on to night shooting. After comparing night shots, this is our conclusion: the improved night performance of the iPhone 13 Pro still doesn’t compare to the Xiaomi 12 Pro. 

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We all know that in the past few years, some Android phones have been ahead of iPhones in terms of night imaging. Although we can see that on the iPhone 13 Pro, the gap keeps narrowing, the Xiaomi 12 Pro still leading the round of night shooting. 

Even though we shot under the auto mode, these two models both could boost the imaging once the AI recognized the night scenes. Apart from the auto mode, they also provide a more aggressive night mode. To access the better night effect, you need to adjust the iPhone’s night effect to the max option, while for the Xiaomi 12 Pro, you have to shift to the night mode.

But this time, I have to admit that the Xiaomi 12 Pro’s camera also provides a more user-friendly experience for night shooting. Thanks to the optimized MIUI software, its night shooting experience has never been this fast and smooth. It only requires us to wait up to 3-second processing under extremely low light conditions. While on the right side is the sample shot on the iPhone, taking 10 seconds for processing, but as you can see, Xiaomi’s sample taking shorter processing is even brighter with sharper detail.

For the main camera, the Xiaomi 12 Pro’s night mode has a better color presentation with a purer image. While it seems that the iPhone’s sample got blurry for less noise, which resulted in a bit more loss of darkness detail. In most night scenes, the Xiaomi model’s auto mode already performed very well, and with night mode on, the photos tend to get a relatively balanced exposure, while also slightly improving image purity. 

As for their ultra-wide lenses, the gap is even wider and the iPhone’s performance is hardly satisfactory in night scenes. Its brightness could be over-exposed and the darkness could be a bit noisy.

And both of their telephoto cameras can also apply the night mode.

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When using auto mode at extremely low-light conditions, even though we zoom in to 2x on the Xiaomi 12 Pro, or 3x on the iPhone 13 Pro, the working lens would still be the main one instead of the telephoto camera. In this case, we could only have photos that cropped from the main lens, which could be blurry and noisy, no matter for the iPhone or the Xiaomi model. To have nice night zoom photos on these two phones, you need to shift to the night mode on the Xiaomi model, or adjust the night effect to the max level for the iPhone. The photos would look much better. 

So please remember to do what we suggested above if you want to shoot nice photos with their telephoto lenses. 

And no doubt the Xiaomi 12 Pro is better at 2x night shooting and the iPhone 13 Pro offers better 3x night photos since they each use a separate telephoto lens. But for the Xiaomi 12 Pro, due to the lack of OIS anti-shaking support, you may feel a bit difficult to hold the phone firmly and get a clear image. 

Xiaomi 12 Pro vs iPhone 13 Pro – Video shooting

As for video shooting, the cinematic mode on the iPhone is the most impressive feature that we’ve seen for mobile filming. And it did work pretty well with excellent subject portrait focus and blurring effect. But it’s not perfect now. Like the sample, we have shown in our video review, added at the start. It by far only supports 1080P resolution with the main lens and telephoto lens, and the edge recognition wasn’t accurate enough when shooting in complicated scenarios. While for the Xiaomi Phone, the new focusing feature, Cyber-focus, also works well and offers fast focusing in video shooting. It supports up to 4k resolution but is only available on the main lens and 2x telephoto lens. And note that the Xiaomi phone’s wide-angle lens doesn’t support focus tracking in shooting photos or videos. As for video colors, as you can see, the iPhone probably is still the best among all the smartphones. And it seems that the iPhone has slightly better stabilization when filming. 

So that’s all about the cameras on the two phones that we want to share with you. The Xiaomi 12 Pro is pretty impressive in taking photos. Especially for night shooting, the phone is much smarter than its predecessors and the whole camera software brings a really smooth and stable experience. There weren’t any crashes either, like we saw on the Xiaomi 11.

On the other hand, the iPhone 13 Pro is still one of the best mobile filming machines. For software, it has a clean and intuitive interface that allows most users to enjoy taking videos with their phones.

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This year’s Xiaomi 12 series is different from last year’s. The Xiaomi 12 has become a small screen flagship, while the Xiaomi 12 Pro is becoming more like an upgraded version of the Mi 11. The appearance also has a new change. Although Lei Jun said: we want to fully compete with the iPhone. but with the Xiaomi Civi looks similar to the Xiaomi 12 Pro can really make consumers spend more than $ 700 to buy it?

We bought the Xiaomi 12 Pro in green vegan leather, and to be honest, it looks pretty ordinary at first glance. It’s not the first time that a vegan leather back cover has been used on Xiaomi’s flagship phone.

Xiaomi 12 Pro Review: Design

It doesn’t feel any different from the Mi 11. The Xiaomi logo area has become more simple. The rectangular lens module is similar to the Xiaomi Civi, with a large circle and several small circles. But the addition of a few lines across the design gives the lens module a more orderly feel.

The new color scheme does look more refreshing, but the overall design really doesn’t have as much personality as the Mi 11. I don’t mean to say that the Xiaomi 12 Pro is ugly, it’s actually quite beautiful. It just lacks the kind of recognition that makes it easy to tell that it’s Xiaomi’s latest flagship. The Xiaomi 12 Pro has an improved frame design. Because of the more rounded frame and back curvature, plus the smaller size, it feels great to hold. NFC, IR blaster and X-axis linear motor are not missing either. Looking good, feeling good in the hand and full of features, I think the Xiaomi 12 Pro has done well enough in terms of design.

Xiaomi 12 Pro Review: Display

We all know that Mi 11 comes with a very good screen. the screen of Xiaomi 12 Pro is upgraded on top of that. Not only does it keep the 1440P resolution and 120Hz refresh rate, but it uses Samsung’s E5 material. Plus, Micro-Lens technology enables the Xiaomi 12 Pro to be more power-saving. Speaking of efficiency, Mi 12 Pro has another trick: the second generation LTPO technology.

We all know that because of ProMotion technology, the 3,000mAh iPhone 13 Pro has achieved amazing battery life. And this second-generation LTPO is similar to ProMotion, which allows the Xiaomi 12 Pro’s screen refresh rate to switch adaptively between 1 and 120Hz. For example, if I swipe the screen, I can see that it can switch to a different refresh rate with the scroll speed. On many non-Xiaomi applications, although you can’t change the refresh rate with the swipe speed, you can switch back to 10Hz when you stop. watching videos can switch to 30 or 60Hz depending on your video, and when reading e-books you can theoretically go down to as low as 1Hz.

But in fact, it seems that Xiaomi is not optimized in place, repeated tests have failed to reach 1Hz. I suggest you go to the settings to change the Auto-refresh rate to custom 120Hz. Because some APP systems will lock in 90Hz or 60Hz, such as Twitter, and open the custom 120Hz to achieve the highest refresh rate. And the screen still drops to 10Hz when it stops.

You may be confused why the first-generation LTPO like OPPO Find X3 did not feel as power-efficient as this? Because the first generation, no matter what you are doing, can only use 60Hz and 120Hz in two gears. And the second generation has six gears.

Also since the phone uses an ultra-thin fingerprint recognition module, the fingerprint recognition area is also at a very suitable location. The screen glass is also made of Corning Gorilla Victus. Although 2022 just started, I can promise that this screen should be one of the most powerful screens this year.

Xiaomi 12 Pro Review: Performance & Gaming

We should all know very well how the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is performing this year. So can Xiaomi tame this fire dragon? I must complain, this time Xiaomi has added Speed mode option in Developer options. If you want to play the game with the highest quality performance at full power, you need to turn on this option. Then turn on Performance mode, and then go to the game mode to turn on High quality.

Antutu Bench scores are close to a million, 3DMARK 9840, Geekbench 5 single-core 1154, multi-core 3535.

As much as we wanted to test the 3DMARK Stress Test, even with both Performance mode and Speed mode turned off, the Xiaomi 12 Pro was unable to complete the test in an indoor environment with a room temperature of 21 degrees Celsius. The body temperature at this point was around 52 degrees Celsius. This means that Xiaomi is not able to suppress the heat of this chip, and the temperature control is very strict.

When it comes to game testing (check our video review for detailed gaming test), the PUBG HDR Graphics Extreme frame rate can be maintained at 60fps. there is no frequency reduction and the phone is not very hot. The Brightridge case is more interesting.

The full power output was locked at 50fps after a minute and then at 40fps after 4 minutes. Xiaomi 12 Pro didn’t hold up in the second half of the test, going back and forth between 40 and 25fps. Compared to the Edge X30, which has worse heat dissipation, the performance output is actually weaker. But the temperature is not as horribly high as the Edge X30.

The average power is only 7.6w, which is lower than both the Edge x30 and Mi 11. Xiaomi’s scheduling strategy for Genshin Impact is completely different from Motorola’s. Motorola tends to use the highest frequency and wait until it overheats before lowering the frequency. 12 Pro is to keep the temperature around 45 degrees Celsius to ensure you can be at a higher frame rate for a longer time.

I personally like Xiaomi’s gaming strategy better. At least my hands will feel a lot better. All in all, I find the Xiaomi 12 Pro’s gaming performance acceptable, especially since it’s a very big improvement over last year’s Mi 11.

Xiaomi 12 Pro Review: Cameras

The Xiaomi 12 Pro no longer uses Samsung’s sensor for its main camera but moves back to Sony’s latest 50MP IMX707 sensor.

Main Camera 

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This time the 12 Pro is a change from its previous tuning style, the colors are more intense and the contrast is higher than before. And like other brands, the sharpening algorithm has been enhanced. Yes, Xiaomi has finally learned to please the user in terms of color. The photos are finally not very bland. At night, the performance is similar to Mi 11 Ultra most of the time. The main improvement is in color reproduction. If the environment is dark, Mi 11 Ultra photos will be greenish, while Xiaomi 12 Pro will not. And the Night View mode algorithm has been greatly improved. The night mode wait time has been drastically reduced and the benefit is that the photos don’t get blurry. If you zoom in on a Mi 11 Ultra photo, you’ll see that 5 seconds of night mode has caused the photo to become blurry. And turning back to auto mode will also trigger the night view algorithm. The Xiaomi 12 Pro has a wait time of about two seconds even when the night view mode is on, so the photos are very clear. Of course, because the exposure time is shorter, it’s not as bright as the Mi 11 Ultra.

Ultra-Wide Camera

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The Xiaomi 12 Pro’s Ultra-wide camera and 2x telephoto camera sensors are both 50MP JN1. Although the ultra-wide field of view is not as wide as the Mi 11 Ultra, the dynamic range is better, and the purple-fringing issue and edge image quality is improved from the hardware side. The ultra-wide-angle performs the same as the main camera most of the time as well. Auto mode performs about the same as Mi 11 Ultra at night. The difference is mainly in the algorithm of the night mode. You can see that the Xiaomi 12 Pro’s night mode is indeed a bit brighter than the auto mode, while the Mi 11 Ultra doesn’t seem to have any changes.

2X Telephoto

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The 2x telephoto lens isn’t as impressive as I thought it would be. Even if the Mi 11 Ultra uses the main camera for cropping, the image quality performance is better than the 2x optical telephoto lens of the Xiaomi 12 Pro. Highlight control, noise control are not as good as Mi 11 Ultra. But the dynamic range is still better if HDR is successfully triggered. At night, the Xiao 12 Pro performed well in auto mode, and both phones performed similarly. But once night mode is turned on, both perform poorly. The Mi 11 Ultra has a poor algorithm, while the Xiaomi 12 Pro is easily blurred due to the lack of OIS.

Xiaomi 12 Pro has done a great job of optimizing the camera experience. For example, the new Focus tracking feature, which will automatically catch the focus if someone or a dog or cat appears in front of the camera. This is good news for many users who have children and pets. There is also the optimization of the shutter delay. You can look at the shutter speed in comparison to the Mi 11 Ultra, which is not in the same level anymore. There’s also an animation when switching between lenses now, instead of jumping straight to the camera. Stability has also been improved, like in this photo. The Mi 11 Ultra took three photos that were overexposed, while the Xiaomi 12 Pro encountered no such bugs.

Overall, the Xiaomi 12 Pro has surpassed the Mi 11 Ultra in many aspects and considering the good photo experience and the price difference, the Xiaomi 12 Pro’s photosystem is already tied with the Mi 11 Ultra for first place.

The video performance is relatively similar to the photo performance with a high contrast ratio. All three lenses are capable of shooting 4k 60fps video. You can also freely switch between the three lenses when recording 4k 30fps video. You can see that the dynamic range of the Xiaomi 12 Pro is not as good as that of the Mi 11 Ultra, and the green color is too intense and not as natural as that of the Mi 11 Ultra. In general, the Xiaomi 12 Pro’s video recording level is also top-notch, and there is not much difference between it and the Mi 11 Ultra.

You may not believe it when you hear it, but the Xiaomi 12 Pro actually comes with four-unit speakers. Two low-frequency units and two high-frequency units ensure that both vocals and instruments are well separated. Unfortunately, the speakers are in an awkward position. One is on the top and one is on the bottom, so no matter how you hold the phone you will always block one. Other than that, the speaker performance is probably one of the best I’ve ever used.

Xiaomi 12 Pro Review: Charging

This time Xiaomi launched the Surge P1 chip and first time equipped on Xiaomi 12 Pro. This is a charging chip that allows the phone to do 120W charging with a single cell. Previously, 120W charging could only exist in dual-cell phones, so the battery capacity of phones with 120W charging has not been able to break through 4500mAh. The 4600mAh Xiaomi 12 Pro proves that Xiaomi is ahead of the game when it comes to charging. Wireless charging can only do 50w for some reason, you can watch our MIX 4 Review for more details. of course, Xiaomi knows that 120W chargers are expensive, so they are included in the box.

The actual charging speed is shown in the line graph. 5 minutes to 37% and 19 minutes to full. Although it will be a little slower than the dual-cell MIX4, but it is also very fast. In the battery life test, half an hour of 1080P online video and Tiktok consumed 6% and 5% of the power. The power consumption of the three games also looks very high. The first thing I want to say is that all three games are on Performance mode and Speed mode. Secondly, it is a 1440p 120Hz screen, which is really good but also very power-hungry. What’s more, perhaps you may think LTPO doesn’t save much power, but this is a test in a single scene, and the refresh rate is fixed. So the power saving effect of LTPO can not be reflected in our test. The actual use is certainly able to save more power than last year is Mi 11 series.

Finally, let’s talk about MIUI 13. Honestly, it doesn’t differ much from MIUI 12.5. Because it is mainly based on MIUI 12.5 to do the stability optimization. Yes, it has become much less buggy and laggy. All kinds of animations don’t drop frames anymore. Some widgets have been added to the desktop as well so that the desktop will not become so boring. The new feature can allow you to stream your content across Xiaomi devices. But it’s hasn’t been updated yet. The new system doesn’t really have much to show, so you can think of it as MIUI 12.8 to use it.

This year’s Xiaomi 12 Pro has become more stable. Although some areas have taken a step back, such as less 400mAh battery compared to Mi 11 Pro, smaller sensor size for the main camera, and less power for wireless charging. But its experience has improved. In this year, Xiaomi realized that paper specs do not mean a good phone experience. Only good optimization can make consumers satisfied. This is the phone that consumers want, a smooth, good-looking, and also easy to use Xiaomi flagship phone.

Well, that’s all there is to this review. We will soon make a photo comparison video between Xiaomi 12 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro. So stay tuned to that.

The post Xiaomi 12 Pro Full Review: The smoothest and most stable Xiaomi phone appeared first on Gizmochina.

The Xiaomi 12 series consisting of Xiaomi 12 and Xiaomi 12 Pro went official in China last week. Just within days from the announcement, an image showcasing a prototype of both these handsets has emerged. Let’s check out how the final product is different from when it was in the development stage.

Someone posted a picture of Xiaomi 12 series prototypes on the Xiaomi Community. The image came into the limelight when a blogger shared it on Weibo.

As you can see, although the prototypes of Xiaomi 12 and Xiaomi 12 Pro in the photo look identical to the official devices at first look, they aren’t actually. 

First and foremost, the primary camera on the prototype duo is comparatively larger than that found on the actual device. We could spot it easily as we are used to the design of the phones. Most people wouldn’t know unless they compare side by side.

Secondly, the vanilla Xiaomi 12 prototype in the picture sports a paint job that’s not available officially. According to ITHome, his color looks more like pink than the purple version sold by Xiaomi.

Finally, the rear camera island on the Xiaomi 12 prototype has a dual finish. The main camera part has a glossy metallic finish, while the auxiliary part has matte. In reality, the entire camera module has a matte finish as seen on the Xiaomi 12 Pro prototype.

We personally like how the actual Xiaomi 12 series turned out to be in terms of design though it looks generic. What are your thoughts on the design? Share with us in the comment section below.

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The post Xiaomi 12 prototype sports larger camera, different color appeared first on Gizmochina.