Like Xiaomi 12 Pro, Xiaomi 12S Pro has a good comprehensive experience, whether it is photography, performance or battery life. There are no obvious shortcomings in either aspect, and it is qualified for this price.
Of course, for flagship phones, it’s not enough to have no shortcomings. With most flagship phones on the market today, we can basically name an impressive selling point. For the previous Xiaomi, after tearing off the early cost-effective label, this aspect has always been a bit vague.
Xiaomi 12S Pro specs and features:
- 6.73″ 2K AMOLED 120Hz Screen
- Snapdragon Gen 8+ Processor
- 4600mAh Battery + 120W Fast Charge
- 50MP+50MP+50MP Rear Camera
- 32MP Front Selfie Camera.
- $729 -Check latest price on AliExpress (12S Pro), Amazon Germany (12S Pro), AliExpress (Xiaomi 12S Ultra), AliExpress (Xiaomi 12S)
01/ Photography
When it comes to the 12S series, photography performance is definitely the first selling point. And if you look at photography in depth, Leica’s blessing can’t be ignored. Unlike the extreme configuration of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, the Xiaomi 12S Pro has not made too many changes in the camera hardware. It still uses the triple-camera combination of Sony IMX707 and two Samsung JN1s. Xiaomi officials have also previously stated that the changes brought by Leica are mainly focused on the software level.
So, what is the performance of the Xiaomi 12S Pro with Leica blessing? Here I found Xiaomi 12 Pro and compared it through several sets of proofs. Before starting the test, I adjusted the camera mode of Xiaomi 12S Pro to Leica-Rich, and kept Xiaomi 12 Pro in standard mode.
First let’s look at the daytime scene. In the case of sufficient lighting, there is no significant difference in the basic image quality between the two phones. The main difference presented by the Xiaomi 12S Pro is in color and exposure strategy.
For example, in the following set of proofs, it can be clearly seen that the contrast of the Xiaomi 12S Pro proofs is significantly higher, and the overall sense is more layered. It doesn’t raise the brightness of the edge buildings like the Xiaomi 12 Pro, making the whole photo appear a little “flat”. The color of the sky part is relatively low saturation, closer to the real color.
Compared with Xiaomi 12 Pro (Left), Xiaomi 12S Pro (Right) is more layered as a whole
In this set of proofs, the higher contrast of the Xiaomi 12S Pro causes the wings on the sculpture to lose some light and dark details. However, the lower color saturation makes it look better in the sky than the Xiaomi 12 Pro.
Compared with Xiaomi 12 Pro (Left), Xiaomi 12S Pro (Right) has a better view of the sky
In terms of portraits, the Xiaomi 12S Pro’s performance is not very good. For example, in this set of proofs, the Xiaomi 12S Pro failed to distinguish the edge of the sculpture from the pillars in the background behind, resulting in the background not being properly blurred. Hope Xiaomi can further optimize the blur algorithm and fix this bug in the future.
Xiaomi 12S Pro (Right) fails to properly blur the pillars behind the sculpture compared to Xiaomi 12 Pro (Left)
In terms of night scenes, Xiaomi 12S Pro’s HDR is more powerful, which can better suppress high-light parts such as lights, and also continues the adjustment style of low color saturation during the day. It is worth mentioning that the Xiaomi 12S Pro may have a certain probability of failure to focus in some scenes in a dark light environment, but I believe this problem can be fixed with a later software update.
Xiaomi 12S Pro (Right) has more HDR than Xiaomi 12 Pro (Left)
Overall, under the same hardware, Leica’s adjustment makes the Xiaomi 12S Pro more “German-style”. The previous Xiaomi adjustment style with high color saturation and strong HDR has been changed. But for me personally, the reasons that attracted me to take photos with the Xiaomi 12S Pro are more than that.
For Xiaomi 12S Pro, Leica has been reflected in every detail from the start of shooting. On the icon, the camera of Xiaomi 12S Pro has a red dot representing Leica in the upper right corner. On first use, the camera asks the user to choose between Leica-Classic and Leica-Rich styles. After entering the shooting interface, whether it is the red color of various interface indications or the shutter sound, it shows its origin with Leica.
If the ceremonial sense of these details is not enough, Xiaomi also prepared the ultimate weapon this time – watermark. Unlike ordinary mobile phones that only indicate the identity in the corner of the picture, after the Leica custom watermark of Xiaomi 12S Pro is turned on, a blank part will be added below the picture. The left side shows the name of the phone and the shooting time, and the right side shows the lens parameters, latitude and longitude at the time of shooting, and the most important Leica logo. It is worth mentioning that after the watermark function is turned on, the proportion of the picture will also change, which will lead to changes in the viewing angle.
In addition, in recent years, various manufacturers have been very keen on shooting filters. Xiaomi 12S Pro provides four shooting filters, Leica-Natural, Leica-Rich, Leica-Monochrom, and Leica-Monochrom HC, as well as three portrait lenses of 35mm black and white, 50mm rotary focus, and 90mm soft focus.
Shot with Leica-Monochrom HC Filter
On the whole, Xiaomi 12S Pro, based on the good camera capabilities of 12 Pro, further endows the film with a distinctive style performance through Leica’s adjustment. However, considering that everyone’s preferences are different, it is hoped that Xiaomi will provide switch options in the future for users to choose from different styles.
02/ Performance: Game Test
Thanks to its close collaboration with Qualcomm, Xiaomi’s digital series flagship phones have always been the first to feature Qualcomm’s new flagship processors. This time, the Xiaomi 12S series also launched the new first-generation Snapdragon 8+ processor. But since it’s a starter, there are naturally risks. The overheating problem of the Xiaomi 11 series due to aggressive tuning can still be found online, and the Xiaomi 12 series has also turned conservative in performance tuning. So which style is the adjustment of Xiaomi 12S Pro more inclined to this time? By convention, we still use the combination of running points and games for testing.
The first is the running points. Due to 3D Mark can not be tested normally. Here I only provide AnTuTu and GeekBench results. The AnTuTu score of Xiaomi 12S Pro is 1,086,871 points, the GeekBench score is 1,313 points for single-core, and 3,258 points for multi-core. At the average level of the current Snapdragon 8+ flagship phone.
In the gaming session, I tested directly with the most heavily loaded “Genshin Impact” in mainstream games. The 30-minute test was performed directly at the setting of high quality + 60 frames. The measured average frame rate of Xiaomi 12S Pro in 30 minutes is 59.9 frames, and the overall performance is excellent.
“Genshin Impact” frame rate performance
However, for a mobile phone equipped with a flagship chip, it is not difficult to run a high frame rate in a short period of time. How to control the heat is the key. After all, with the accumulation of heat, the temperature of the mobile phone will also rise, which in turn affects the performance of the mobile phone and the user’s holding experience.
In order to test the heat of the Xiaomi 12S Pro, I measured the body temperature of the Xiaomi 12S Pro before and after the 30-minute gaming test. The result is as follows:
Before gaming test (Left), After gaming test (Right)
It can be seen that after running “Genshin Impact” for half an hour, the maximum temperature of the fuselage is 45 ℃. During the entire game process, the heat of the fuselage is at an acceptable level, and it will not affect the operation in the fierce game battle.
Overall, Xiaomi 12S Pro can provide sufficient performance thanks to the better energy consumption performance of the first-generation Snapdragon 8+ processor. It has a good balance between performance and heat dissipation.
03/ Battery Life & Charging
At the Xiaomi 12 Pro press conference, Xiaomi officially released its first self-developed chip in the battery field, the Surging P1. With the help of this chip, Xiaomi 12 Pro has achieved a single-cell 120W capability for the first time. At the Xiaomi 12S series conference, Xiaomi launched another self-developed chip in the battery field, the Surging G1.
Xiaomi 12S Pro still uses the combination of 4600mAh battery on 12 Pro and 120W fast charge supported by Surging P1. Half a year later, this set of configuration that was considered top-notch has now become mainstream.
The first is the battery life test, here I use the 5-hour battery life test model. During the test, the phone system volume and screen brightness were both set to 50%, and Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and smart refresh rate were turned on. The test content includes 45 minutes of 1080P video playback, 50 minutes of TikTok video playback, 50 minutes of QQ voice chat, 45 minutes of Weibo information flow, 30 minutes of 30fps 1080P video recording, 60 minutes of high frame mode “Honor of King” and 30 minutes of AliExpress homepage browsing.
From the results, Xiaomi 12S Pro has 44% of the remaining power after the 5-hour test, with a total power consumption of 56%, and the battery life performance is quite satisfactory. Acceptable for most high-performance, high refresh rate phones I’ve tested, but not as good as some competitors with larger batteries. If you are a heavy phone user, the Xiaomi 12S Pro may still need to be charged twice a day.
In terms of charging, Xiaomi 12S Pro uses a very classic 120W fast charge. After half a year of honing, this fast charging technology has become very mature, and it has even been distributed to the Note 11T Pro+. Let’s take a look at the charging speed directly.
Before testing, I first discharged its power to 1%, let it stand for 10 minutes, and then connected the equipped 120W charger to test. According to my measured data, in the current room temperature environment, it can charge 55% in 10 minutes, and it takes 24 minutes to fully charge, which is at the mainstream level of 100W fast charging.
Overall, the Xiaomi 12S Pro’s battery life is at an acceptable level. The 4600mAh battery can basically be used for a day, and the charging speed of 120W fast charge can be regarded as the mainstream level of mainstream 100W fast charge. For a mid-term facelift phone, this performance can already meet the needs of users. It is also hoped that Xiaomi can further iterate on the fast charging and battery technology on the next-generation flagship mobile phones to bring users a better experience.
Check the Xiaomi 12S Pro price:
- Check latest price on AliExpress (Xiaomi 12S Pro)
- Check latest price on Amazon Germany (Xiaomi 12S Pro)
- Check latest price on AliExpress (Xiaomi 12S Ultra)
- Check latest price on AliExpress (Xiaomi 12S)
