Xiaomis New Phone Has A 200MP Camera — And Its Photos Are Stunning

Phones with 48MP cameras once sounded impressive and today some of our favorite camera phones still have "only" 12MP cameras. But for the new 12T Pro, Xiaomi decided that 12, 48 or 108 megapixels wasn't the number they wanted, so they went with Samsung's 200 megapixel ISOCELL HP1 camera.

Take pictures with the 200 megapixel camera

Samsung announced the ISOCELL HP1 sensor in 2021 and the Xiaomi 12T Pro is the first phone to use it. It is also speculated that it could also be a major feature of the upcoming Galaxy S23 series of phones. So far, we've only seen large photos of a cat teasing the camera's capabilities, but what does it look like in real life?

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Before talking about the photos, you should know the size of the 200MP photos taken by the Xiaomi 12T Pro. Yes, you can record at full resolution, but by default the camera takes 12 megapixel photos using 4 by 1 pixel binning technology. Be warned though: photos in 200MP mode are terrible. We're talking 16,384 pixels by 12,288 pixels and the average is around 55MB. Press the shutter button and there will be a slight delay while the image is being processed, but it's not too different from normal camera mode. The 200-megapixel photos I took were perfectly balanced with vivid colors and good lighting, and sometimes looked better than the equivalent 12-megapixel photos taken with the phone.

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I really like the photos from the main camera, especially the HP1's large sensor, which gives great depth of field and lots of room for experimentation. The camera is also good at close-up, so this ability should not be wasted. You can see a gallery of full-resolution 200-megapixel photos taken with the phone here on Flickr; All the following images were taken with the phone in normal mode.

However, this is not good news. Portrait mode tends to blur underexposed photos, while the 8MP wide-angle lens feels laggy and produces photos that are highly saturated but lacking in detail, making them unattractive to use. The selfie camera isn't great either, and it's certainly not as effective as the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4.

© Digital Trends Main camera image taken with Xiaomi 12T Pro. © Digital Trends Main camera image taken with Xiaomi 12T Pro. © Digital Trends Main camera image taken with Xiaomi 12T Pro. © Courtesy of Digital Trends Wide-angle photo taken with Xiaomi 12T Pro. © Digital Trends Main camera image taken with Xiaomi 12T Pro. © Courtesy of Digital Trends Photo portrait taken with Xiaomi 12T Pro. © Digital Trends 2x zoom image taken with Xiaomi 12T Pro. © Driven by digital trends . Selfie taken on Xiaomi 12T Pro.

However, the ISOCELL HP1's 200-megapixel camera shows great promise. The camera's incredible brightness, depth of field and versatility make photography enjoyable, even when the resulting files are quite large. This makes the Xiaomi 12T Pro an attractive phone and only raises expectations for the Samsung Galaxy S23.

Xiaomi 12T Pro

And another Xiaomi 12T Pro? It has everything you'd expect from a high-end Xiaomi phone, the good and the bad. It's definitely a 200MP camera, and while the rest of the specs fit the bill, no one will be too surprised by its inclusion.

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The 6.67-inch AMOLED display has a 120Hz refresh rate and can be switched between 30Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz and 120Hz for power management. It also has a resolution of 2712 x 1220 pixels, a touch sample rate of 480 MHz for fast response, Dolby Vision and HDR10+ certification. At the bottom of the display is a fingerprint scanner, while at the top is a 20-megapixel selfie camera for face unlock. The fingerprint sensor is fiddly because after a brief pause, the home screen freezes for a moment before suddenly unlocking the phone.

Inside is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and a choice of 8GB or 12GB of RAM with 256GB of storage. I'm on the 8GB/256GB version and it's a real rocket and the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 continues to impress with its perfect combination of high performance and high efficiency. A 5000mAh battery powers the phone and is equipped with Xiaomi's 120W HyperCharge fast charging technology, which offers a zero to 100% charging time of 20 minutes.

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The high-capacity cell and excellent power management of the Snapdragon chip mean there's enough power for two full days of use, and even with more than four hours of viewing per day, the battery dropped below 50%. Based on Xiaomi's Android 12, MIUI 13 is a mixed bag. It's not always reliable, the notifications are very timely and annoying. They will be fine for a few days and then they will not appear again.

In addition to pre-installed apps, the menu system can confuse you and trick you into spending money. To change the wallpaper, for example, not from the Xiaomi premium store, but with the image itself, it is not necessary to press several buttons and find an almost hidden menu.

© Digital Trends by Xiaomi 12T Pro 200MP camera. © Digital Trends Xiaomi 12T Pro camera module. © Digital Trends Xiaomi 12T Pro charging port . © Digital Trends Quick settings menu on Xiaomi 12T Pro. © Provided by Digital Trends settings menu on Xiaomi 12T Pro . © Powered by Digital Trends on Xiaomi 12T Pro . © Digital Trends using the Chrome browser Xiaomi 12T Pro .

Otherwise? There's 5G and Wi-Fi 6, stereo speakers tuned by Harman Kardon, and NFC for mobile payments. The phone is 8.6mm thick and weighs 205 grams, but you don't get any water resistance and the design is average. The screen is also not very different from the Xiaomi 12 Pro that was released earlier this year, and the change from a curved screen to a flat screen is a shame. The update brings a new Snapdragon processor and a 200MP camera, as well as a bigger battery, so this change makes sense internally.

Price and availability

At the time of writing, Xiaomi has not released any pricing or availability information for the Xiaomi 12T Pro. We'll post them here when they're available, but don't expect them to be available in the US; Anyone who wants to will have to import them. The phone will likely launch in Europe and possibly the UK and will have a starting price of around $1,000, which is the same price as the Xiaomi 12 Pro.

Xiaomi 12T Pro First impressions: 200MP camera god!