The new Xiaomi 12T smartphone, which costs around $500, is highly recommended if you want a phone with a lot of battery life, quick performance, and a great display with powerful dual stereo speakers. Undoubtedly, it is a trustworthy media consumption tool that offers a quality of use far above what its price might imply. Now let’s discuss the specifics!
Xiaomi 12T Colors & Design
In my opinion, Xiaomi has always done a great job creating beautiful, minimalist phones. However, in recent years, with excessively enormous, intricate, and showy camera modules that sort of stand out in an unfavorable way (in my opinion).
Starting with the Xiaomi 12T’s back, we have a really sleek-looking plastic back that feels smooth and pleasant to the touch. The rear has curved edges, a somewhat subtle Xiaomi branding on the bottom left, is technically not glossy but more frosted matte.
Being a frequent user of Xiaomi, I’m not at all surprised to see the vertical, obtrusively large camera module noted earlier. The camera module, despite its size, has a stylish appearance, with fine lines between the two smaller cameras and the flash next to them. In addition, there is a sizable main camera of 108 megapixels.
Unfortunately, the phone’s sides are also made of plastic, and to make matters worse, the top and bottom sides are glossy plastic. Despite this, I wouldn’t say that the phone feels cheap at all, even if it doesn’t have an obvious aluminum or glass body.
When it comes to the top and bottom bezels, surprise! The Xiaomi 12T boasts twin stereo speakers, just like a prior Xiaomi device I recently used (the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+)! One on either side of the phone is still rather rare and wonderful to see. This phone actually reminds me a lot of the aforementioned Redmi, even down to sharing a 120W charger…
In any case, the front of the phone has a huge 6.67-inch display that is only slightly interrupted by a rather conventional selfie camera. The display’s thin, rounded-corner bezels and seeming symmetry ensure that, if at all, the chin isn’t noticeably larger. Additionally, the phone has a screen protector already placed, which is noteworthy.
Xiaomi Display 12T
The 6.67-inch display on the Xiaomi 12T has Gorilla Glass 5, AMOLED technology, and something even the entry-level iPhone 14 lacks: a fluid 120Hz refresh rate.
This screen is tall, with a 20:9 aspect ratio, a resolution of 2712 by 1220 pixels, support for HDR10+, and, according to Xiaomi, a maximum brightness of 900 nits.
Leaving aside the technical jargon, the Xiaomi 12T’s screen is stunning and sharp, with vivid (but not overly saturated) colors and deep blacks.
On this screen, high-resolution HDR content appears as gorgeous as, if not more so than, anything on any flagship that costs two times as much.
Returning to the refresh rate issue, the phone’s default setting is dynamic refresh rate, which means that it will attempt to maintain a balance and only increase the refresh rate to 120 Hz when it deems it necessary in order to conserve power. However, if you want to conserve some battery life or achieve a steady 120Hz, you can opt to fix the refresh rate at either 60Hz or 120Hz.
12T Xiaomi Camera
The camera seems to be this phone’s primary selling point and focus, as is the case with the majority of smartphones today (no pun intended).
On the rear, there are three cameras, the biggest one being a 108MP wide-angle with OIS (optical image stabilization). Second, we have an 8MP ultra-wide angle camera (120° FOV), and third, we have a 2MP macro camera that serves little purpose. But hey, you can fool around with it whenever you want.
One of the amazing features of the Xiaomi 12T’s camera is its long exposure mode, which allows you to take six different types of fashionable images, including ones that are starry skies, moving crowds, oil paintings, neon trails, light paintings, and star trails.
It’s odd that this ostensibly important function is hidden away in the Camera app’s “More” menu and that you have to tap to download it first. If you enjoy experimenting with your smartphone camera, it only takes a few seconds.
Regardless, images captured by the Xiaomi 12T’s primary camera do seem nice (unless you zoom in). Despite what the gloomy weather makes it appear like, colors come out naturally, so there are no complaints there. While fine for social media use, image clarity is generally hit-and-miss once you start looking closely. If you zoom close, you might see a tiny degree of over-sharpening in the brighter portions of an image, but it’s hardly anything to notice or discuss. However, it is apparent that darker portions of a scene can end up seeming like a muddy mess, especially if the lighting is poor.
Zoom in on the third and fourth sample photographs below, for instance, and pay close attention to the grass. The grass looks terrible in the third image, which was shot with the wide camera, and while the grass appears better in the fourth image, which was taken with the main camera, it still looks like a jumble of muddy pixels.
To be fair, pictures will look great and clear under good lighting (like on a sunny day), but only if you don’t start zooming in and inspecting attentively.
Speaking of zooming in, you have up to a 2X optical zoom and a 10X digital zoom for images, so nothing excessive. Although digital zoom degrades image quality, it’s always wonderful to have the choice, and in this case, it works well if all you want to do is check something from a distance, like a sign.
Performance of the Xiaomi 12T
The MediaTek Dimensity 8100-Ultra CPU, which powers the Xiaomi 12T, is said to provide “near-flagship smartphone streaming and gaming experience.” Therefore, it is not the typical Snapdragon, but let me assure you that this is not a problem. As with any premium Snapdragon phone, the phone seems quick, fast, and responsive, and playing more demanding 3D games on it doesn’t really make it sweat.
For instance, the graphically demanding game Asphalt Legends plays flawlessly, loads swiftly, and thanks to the phone’s high-end screen and twin speakers, it also looks stunning and sounds amazing.
On the Xiaomi 12T, we also get welcome power user capabilities like split-screen multitasking, and that doesn’t slow it down at all, so don’t worry about the performance — it seems almost flagship-tier. And the results of the performance benchmark tests you can see below support that.
12T Xiaomi Battery
Though it appears to be tiny and light, this phone has a massive 5000mAh battery within. According to Xiaomi, we get a great battery life of up to 13.5 hours with the screen on.
The Xiaomi 12T does definitely keep up with the flagships, and in some cases even outperforms them, according to our own battery tests, which we usually conduct.
Conclusion
This phone is a terrific gaming and video-watching gadget thanks to its large, gorgeous AMOLED screen and powerful, dual stereo speakers. Additionally, it’s fantastic for anyone trying to step up their Instagram game with some inventive images thanks to all of those innovative camera options. Additionally, the extended battery life and 120W charging speed are greatly appreciated.
