Why You Can Trust CNET Xiaomi 12 phones debut with superfast 120W charging speeds, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
The phone won't be for sale outside of China, but could charge up faster than a MacBook charger.
The Xiaomi 12 phone line will only be available in China, but include superfast charging and an advanced Qualcomm chip.
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Xiaomi's phones are often exclusive to China, but some of these phones debut powerful features worth checking out as they could bring a peek into what could be coming to international phones in 2022 and beyond. In the case of the Xiaomi 12 and Xiaomi 12 Pro phones, which made their debut Tuesday in a Xiaomi blog post, the phone line brings superfast 120W charging capability and the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset.
Like many recent phone lines that come in Pro and non-Pro models, the Xiaomi phones feature common features like the aforementioned Snapdragon chipset, faster storage that Xiaomi says can support a 6,400Mbps transfer rate, a cooling system to keep these faster specs at bay and dual speakers that support Dolby Atmos.
But among the features that separate Xiaomi 12 Pro from its sibling phone is the 120W charging that I'd like to focus on, as it's a particularly fascinating claim. By comparison one of the fastest charging phones currently available internationally is the OnePlus 9 Pro, which includes 65W charging that brings its phone from 1 percent to full in 29 minutes. To further compare, the existing Apple MacBook Pro USB-C chargers come in 67W and 96W capacities for the 14-inch MacBook Pro model that debuted this year, as well as a 140W charger that debuted with the 16-inch MacBook Pro.
The larger Xiaomi 12 Pro phone includes a 120W charging speed.
Also notable is that the Xiaomi 12 Pro pulls off this faster charging while using a single-cell 4,600mAh battery. The OnePlus 9 Pro has a 4,500mAh battery, which is a dual-cell with each cell having 2,250mAh capacity. The Xiaomi 12 doesn't have the 120W charging, but does have a 4,500mAh battery.
Both Xiaomi 12 phones have screens that support a 120Hz refresh rate, with the standard 12 featuring a 6.28-inch OLED with a 2,400x1,080 resolution. The Pro is a larger 6.73-inch 2K display, with a 3,200x1,440 resolution. Both screens support HDR10 Plus and Dolby Vision formats.
For photography, Xiaomi touts that both phones can identify human eyes, figures and pets using visual tracking in order to help stabilize and focus photos. The Xiaomi 12 uses a Sony IMX766 main camera, a 13-megapixel ultrawide angle camera and a 5-megapixel telemacro camera. The 12 Pro uses a triple camera array where each camera has a 50-megapixel lens, with its main camera being the Sony IMX707. Xiaomi says this camera setup on the 12 Pro will particularly help in low light and Night Mode.
Both phones are set for release on Dec. 31 in China, with the Xiaomi 12 starting at RMB 3,699 (roughly converting to $580, £430 and AU$800) and the 12 Pro starting at RMB 4,699 (roughly $740, £550, AU$1,020).
