Xiaomi is finally launching its Xiaomi 12 series outside of China next week. This is their current top-of-the-line flagship smartphones powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 gen 1 chip with 5G.
The global launch event is happening on the 15th March 2022 at 8pm Malaysian time. You can catch it live on Xiaomi’s official Facebook and YouTube channels. From the teaser video, it appears that Xiaomi is only launching two models, but there’s a possibility that Xiaomi may announce the cheaper Xiaomi 12X which runs on a Snapdragon 870.
#MasterEveryScene with our 2022 dual flagship.
— Xiaomi (@Xiaomi) March 8, 2022
Don’t miss our #Xiaomi12Series global launch on March 15th, 20:00 GMT+8. pic.twitter.com/ZQJznH1plt
Hopefully, Xiaomi will also reveal the Malaysian pricing and availability details shortly after the global event. The Xiaomi 12 was launched in China towards the end of 2021 and this could be the most powerful compact Android flagship in the market.
To recap, the Xiaomi 12 gets a 6.28″ Full HD+ (2400×1080 pixels) display while the larger Xiaomi 12 Pro gets a 6.73″ Quad HD+ (3200×1400 pixels) screen. Both use OLED panels pushing a high 120Hz refresh rate as well as a 480Hz touch sampling rate. For greater durability, the Xiaomi 12 duo gets Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus for the front panel. As mentioned earlier, both phones get a Snapdragon 8 gen 1 chip which can be paired with up to 12GB LPDDR5 RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage.
In the camera department, the smaller Xiaomi 12 gets a triple-camera setup that consists of a 50MP Sony IMX766 main camera with OIS, a 13MP ultra-wide-angle camera and a 5MP macro shooter. Meanwhile, the Pro version also gets the same 50MP main camera but comes with a 50MP telephoto camera with 2x optical zoom and a 50MP ultra-wide camera. Both models get a 32MP selfie shooter that sits in a punch-hole.
Like most new flagship smartphones, don’t expect to find a 3.5mm headphone jack on the Xiaomi 12 series. Interestingly, the Xiaomi 12 Pro comes with not two, but a four-piece stereo speaker setup that consists of woofer and tweeter units tuned by Harman Kardon. The smaller Xiaomi 12 meanwhile settles for a pair of stereo speakers.
In terms of connectivity, it supports 5G, WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 and NFC. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like Xiaomi is offering IP68 dust and water resistance for the Xiaomi 12 series.
Despite its compact dimensions, the Xiaomi 12 gets a 4,500mAh battery which Xiaomi claims to be one of the densest on a smartphone. Meanwhile, the larger Xiaomi 12 Pro gets a 4,600mAh battery. The 12 supports 67W fast charging while the 12 Pro supports 120W fast charging via USB-C that can push a full charge in 18 minutes or 24 minutes in “cooler” mode. Also included as standard is support for 50W fast wireless charging as well as 10W reverse wireless charging.
In China, the Xiaomi 12 with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage is priced at CNY 3,699 (about RM2,449) while the 12 Pro with the same configuration is priced at CNY 4,699 (about RM3,111). It would be interesting to see if Xiaomi can claim the title of having the most affordable Snapdragon 8 gen 1 flagship in Malaysia since the Motorola Edge 30 Pro is now on sale with a price tag of RM2,699.
