Xiaomi 12T Pro: Thoughts and opinions.
Xiaomi 12T Series: Just Gimmicks?
Lo and behold, it’s October yet again and Xiaomi has revealed another set of smartphones in a special announcement event to add to their flagship set: the Xiaomi 12T series.
Bear in mind, this is merely a first impression article based on the thoughts and opinions of a smartphone photographer, and at the time of writing, the launch event is still live streaming on YouTube. I will not be focusing much on other perks and specs of the phone, I am expressing my thoughts solely on the camera.
From the very beginning of the event, there were plenty of flashbacks of the astonishing Mi Note 10 from 2019. They mentioned the power of imaging it had with multiple camera arrays and the world’s first ever 108MP camera. So, I knew, something was up with the Xiaomi 12T series when they kept mentioning the 108MP part.
Just as I expected, Xiaomi’s Head of Product Marketing, Abi Go, unveiled the Xiaomi 12T Pro. A smartphone with a 200MP sensor. Like everyone else, I was blown away. It’s not everyday that you hear of a 200MP camera. Either way, I kept watching as she explained on about all the different specs of the phone. It has a new high-resolution display, the latest flagship chipset, even an amazing battery to go with it.
However, when they unveiled the price- I was taken aback. The Xiaomi 12T Pro, started at only €749. That’s when I got suspicious. This phone has awesome specifications, and yet it costs less than almost all current flagship devices. “They must have slacked off somewhere,” I thought. And I was right. It was the camera.
200MP: What about it?
A quick look at the GSMArena page dedicated for the Xiaomi 12T Pro will make everyone realize why the smartphone is so cheap even when it has flagship capabilities. Here, let me show you:
An impressive number huh? 200MP. But then what are those below it? An 8MP ultrawide? 2MP macro?
That’s honestly just brutally disappointing. For context, the lenses used for the ultrawide and the macro are the same exact ones from the Redmi Note 8 that was released in 2019… as a midrange phone. I mean, the 12T series is a flagship, at least pop in a better-quality lens.
It seems clear that Xiaomi is amazing at innovating new technologies. Xiaomi consistently has pushed to make their cameras better and better every single year. But it looks like the opposite this time around. Xiaomi’s main goal is to keep their products cheap and affordable, which hinders them to put in crazy hardware into their phones. This is the reason, I think, as to why Xiaomi’s new 12T Pro has a quite disappointing camera system. Don’t get me wrong, the 200MP is fantastic, and it also makes the addition of other lenses feel forced- as if they’re placed there just to make the phone look modern. Modern consumers are generally attracted to devices that have multiple cameras, as it truly is attractive. But they also want the prices to be cheap, and so companies have resorted to cramming in low-quality useless sensors just for the sake of it being there to make the device more attractive to consumers. There is simply no use of having a 2MP macro lens because the quality of the image is simply horrible.
If I needed a macro image, I might as well just use the 200MP mode and take a closeup, and then crop in tight to make it look like a macro shot. I could snap on an external lens for an ultra-wide shot so I could get good quality photos. The device can survive with just the main lens alone, and it would be totally still amazing.
What makes my point stronger is that of all the time Abi spent on stage promoting the photography capabilities of the 12T Pro, we never saw one single shot from neither the ultra-wide lens nor the macro lens.
And for the record, this is not the first time a 200MP sensor has existed within a smartphone. The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra, launched just a few weeks ago on September 8, had the 200MP sensor first. And yes, it did have a better camera array with a 50MP ultra-wide and a 12MP telephoto with 2x optical zoom.
So, Abi saying Xiaomi is “defining a new peak” is clearly a little misleading, because Xiaomi is the second company to have a smartphone with 200MP, even though they seem to be boasting around to be the first-ever.
And then there’s the 1/1.22” sensor.
This feels a little weird. Abi kept mentioning how the new rather large sensor is “mega” because it’s so big, even than most other smartphones. However, it doesn’t quite make sense to call it “mega”, considering that we have seen a 1” sensor from the same company just a few months ago!
And of course, as it has been highlighted in my first ever post, the 1/1.22” sensor may not even be that big physically.
And what happened with Leica?
Going back to the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, the company then also announced their collaboration with the century-old imaging organization, Leica. It brought in tremendous technological advancement to the camera system of the smartphones, improving them with software processing, filters, and much more. It even had a Leica theme to it, and they also added in a new Leica watermark which I must admit, I fell in love with.
But on tonight’s event, there was not a single mention of Leica when the 12T Pro was being showcased on stage. Won’t that be available on these 12T series of smartphones? If so, I would like to know why because it’s not like these phones are mid-rangers or budget phones, they are high-end flagship devices with flagship capabilities (other than the cameras). Xiaomi is proud to be working with Leica, and it feels weird that they haven’t included it in their latest flagship smartphone. It might be that the features are already baked into the software, but it feels unlikely that Xiaomi wouldn’t announce it to the public like how they did during their Xiaomi 12S Ultra launch event- and I kid you not, the fact that they were working along with Leica was shown off at every possible chance.
End of story.
It’s quite astonishing that smartphones now have the capabilities to have a 200MP sensor in them. Frankly, it’s awesome- and the only reason I do not like the 12T series is because of the limited camera modules. The 8MP lens is quite bad-looking, and the 2MP macro lens is downright useless due to how noisy and undetailed it is. If only Xiaomi released something more to the likes of the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra, it would’ve been more convenient and versatile. Versatility is why people say the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is one of the best smartphone cameras because it has many different high-definition lenses with different focal lengths that allow people to take magnificent shots whenever they need to. It’s the same reason actual photographers like zoom lenses like the 24mm-70mm lens or the 70mm-200mm lens; because they don’t need to hassle around and waste time to change lenses whenever they want to shoot something that requires a certain focal distance. Having that level of versatility really steps up the mobile photography game for those who are amateurs.
And just because 200MP exists now- it doesn’t mean that smartphones have finally taken over cameras in image quality. Most cameras these days range between 20MP to 40MP, and the images produced by those cameras are still better than a smartphone. This shows that megapixels don’t necessarily mean it’s an amazing camera.
Oh, and lastly, this is my hot take: I can bet that the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra will have a 200MP sensor too. We’ll just have to wait for February/March next year.
