If you like reading big numbers everywhere but on the price tag, I submit to you the Xiaomi 12T smartphone, the lite version of Xiaomi’s flagship 12T Pro. It offers you some big camera specs, a great screen and more at a price that is incredibly manageable.
The Xiaomi 12T comes with a MediaTek Dimensity 8100-Ultra Chipset with an Octa Core (4×2.85GHz Cortex A78 and 4x2GHz Cortex A55) CPU and a Mali-G610 MC6 GPU. It runs on Android 12 and MIUI 13 operating systems. It comes in 128 GB and 256 GB storage sizes, both offering 8 GB of RAM. The phone comes in Black, Silver and Blue.
The Xiaomi 12T has a 6.67” AMOLED display peaking at 900 nits with a resolution of 1220×2712 pixels (a 20:9 screen). The display is quite crisp and, while it isn’t the brightest screen I’ve had in the palm of my hand, it is more than up to the task for the average user. It also has stereo speakers outputting 24-bit/192kHz audio. The sound quality is decent for media playout, but was on the quiet side when using speakerphone on a call.
“The Xiaomi 12T smartphone sports a 5000 mAh Li-Po battery which I’ve had no issues getting through a whole day with my average use…”
The selfie camera on the 12T takes 20MP photos at f/2.2. It is a nice, wide lens and does 1080p video at 30 or 60 frames per second. The colour is accurate, and the picture quality is great. It’s the camera on the front, however, that will have your attention. The 108MP f/1.7 wide angle lens promises big detail that is good in low light. The additional cameras include an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera and a 2MP f/2.4 macro lens. The front facing camera is capable of up to 4K 30 fps or up to 240 fps at 1080p.
The pictures are overall nice, but I found that taking shots at a distance, the detail leaves something to be desired. Leaves on a tree blended together in a way that looks less like a high quality photo and more like a good quality Bob Ross painting. Still nice on the eyes, but not what you think you are getting when you hear 108 Megapixels. It is just a reminder that a large number of Megapixels does not always mean the highest quality photos.
That being said, it is perfectly usable for the average photographer, and you can still get some incredibly clean photos when you are closer up. This phone has been used to take product shots of some of my previous reviews, and they came out beautifully. The AI photo settings help determine the types of photos you are taking and reacts accordingly, changing the settings, adding background blur and more. The way that the camera lens cluster protrudes from the phone can be an annoyance to people who don’t use a case, but won’t be problematic for anyone else.
Battery life is always a sticking point with mobile phones. The Xiaomi 12T smartphone sports a 5000 mAh Li-Po battery which I’ve had no issues getting through a whole day with my average use (which is fairly heavy use, utilizing GPS, gaming and playing media). The big selling point of the phone’s battery life, though, is its 120W charger that can charge the phone to 100% in 19 minutes. For any North American people purchasing this phone, it’s important to know that you will need a plug adapter for the European plug that comes with the phone.
Additional features include a fingerprint sensor, Accelerometer, Gyro, dual SIM and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for the screen and is NFC capable (region dependent). What the Xiaomi 12T doesn’t have is an external memory slot or wireless charging, if those things are important to you.
The Xiaomi 12T smartphone comes in as low as $617.45 CAD for the 128 GB Version (I did not see a price for the 256 GB version), depending on where you shop. The overall quality is appropriate for the price point, with the display being your best value and the camera being a good value as well.
