Great Phone With A Forgettable Design

Xiaomi was the first to launch a phone that features the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. The Xiaomi 12 Pro’s raw performance definitely shows the capabilities of this processor, especially when paired with 12GB of RAM augmented with 3GB of virtual memory. Benchmarks, however, are only part of the story, and Xiaomi’s rush to be the first may have resulted in less than ideal consequences.

The company boasts about an improved cooling solution, and your fingers will definitely attest to that. No matter how hard you drive the phone, it doesn’t get too hot to handle. Unfortunately, that might be because the Xiaomi 12 Pro has overaggressive thermal management, which means it throttles the processor sooner rather than later to keep temperatures low and the throughput more stable.

Ewdison Then/SlashGear

That translates to potential drops in frame rates in some games, particularly more intensive titles like “Genshin Impact.” It might also cause some apps or benchmarks to shut down to prevent overheating even when there’s still some wiggle room left to push the processor beyond its capacity. There is, sadly, no correct answer to this delicate dance of thermal management. Xiaomi simply chose to err on the side of caution and more consistent performance for a longer period of time instead of spiking the frequency briefly only to have it plummet quickly to cool down.

Despite its power-hungry specs, Xiaomi decided to give the 12 Pro a relatively small 4,600 mAh battery. It compensates for that with its super-fast 120W charging speed, but that only means you might have to charge it sooner rather than later. In practice, however, that doesn’t happen too frequently, as you will be able to breeze through the day without reaching for the charger. When you do need to top up, it takes less than 20 minutes to fully recharge the battery.