Xiaomi 12 series: Everything we know so far (Updated: Dec. 23)

Update: December 23, 2021 (03:31 PM ET): We’ve updated this Xiaomi 12 rumor hub with official leaked renders, teasers that come directly from Xiaomi, and more. Read on for the details.

Original article: It feels like the Xiaomi Mi 11 series arrived just a few weeks ago, but time moves quickly in smartphone land. Its successor, the Xiaomi 12, will soon debut with the latest flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset and a fresh feature set. But what else do we know about Xiaomi’s upcoming pinnacle line? Below, we round up everything we know about the series so far.

Our verdict: Xiaomi Mi 11 review | Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra review

Xiaomi 12 series: Name and release date

There’s no doubt that Xiaomi’s next flagship series will bear a simple numerical moniker after the company dropped the Mi prefix from its devices in August. The firm confirmed the Xiaomi 12’s title once again on December 1, when it claimed it’d be the first phone to launch with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC.

There will be two main Xiaomi flagships launched in the series: the Xiaomi 12 and Xiaomi 12 Pro. According to Xiaomi, the standard 12 will be a “small-sized” phone, while the 12 Pro will be an “all-around” flagship phone. More on this later.

Early on in the Xiaomi 12 rumor cycle, we heard that at least three devices could debut, possibly bearing the Xiaomi 12, Xiaomi 12 Pro, and Xiaomi 12 Ultra titles. There’s also no evidence that Mi 11 Lite or Mi 11i successors will also appear, but there’s concrete proof of a Xiaomi 12X in the works. This would seemingly land as a smaller, affordable option for budget-conscious buyers.

Xiaomi managed to hold back design leaks of the 12 series for a while, but that stopped being the case about a week prior to launch. The most notable design leak comes from Evan Blass on Twitter, who published three official-looking renders of what we’re assuming is the Xiaomi 12 Pro. See the tweet below.

According to the render, the Xiaomi 12 Pro will have a big 6.28-inch display. That’s certainly on the upper end of flagship devices. It looks like the Pro model, at least, will also come with some type of leather (be it real or faux) backplate. We’ve seen companies launch leather and faux-leather backplates before, so this should be nothing new.

The renders also give us a good look at the rear camera housing for the Xiaomi 12 Pro. There appear to be three cameras — one main 50MP sensor, with two others stacked below it.

Finally, the 12 Pro looks like it will launch in soft green, beige-purple, and light blue colorways (those are our names, not Xiaomi’s).

A few days prior to Blass’ leak, Xiaomi posted a pretty revealing teaser image of the two phones side by side. Now that we know the Xiaomi 12 Pro’s display size will be 6.28 inches, we can try to guess how large the Xiaomi 12 will be in comparison. See the image below.

The Xiaomi 12 series will retain its centered punch hole camera sensor on the top of the display. It’ll likely also have an in-screen fingerprint sensor, seeing as how there was no rear-facing fingerprint sensor module in Blass’ earlier leak.

Hemmerstoffer’s images line up with what we’ve seen from Blass and Xiaomi itself, so you can expect the images above to reflect the Xiaomi 12’s official design.

We do expect the Xiaomi 12 models to share some common traits. For the Xiaomi Mi 11 series, these included the display, chipset, selfie camera, and RAM type.

Notably, at least one Xiaomi 12 model could gain much faster charging. Per Digital Chat Station, the series could feature 100W support for the first time. This addition would likely debut on the Xiaomi 12 Ultra. It would be a sizeable upgrade from its predecessor’s 67W limit and even more so from the 50W offered by the vanilla Mi 11 model.

The phones’ camera hardware could see a considerable upgrade, too. In August, Digital Chat Station claimed that Xiaomi could drop the Mi 11’s 108+13+5MP camera layout. Instead, the new model could go for a trio of 50MP primary, ultra-wide, and 5x telephoto snappers. It’s unclear if this will be the same 50MP sensor used on the Mi 11 Ultra, which delivered crisp but oversaturated shots in our review.

A long-running rumor suggested that a future Xiaomi phone could sport a 200MP sensor from Samsung. Samsung’s new Isocell HP1 sensor offers new pixel-binning tech that can shoot 50MP or 12.5MP shots depending on requirement or mode. However, a more recent update suggests that Motorola is more likely to use this sensor before Xiaomi. It’s believed that Xiaomi is still testing the sensor on a phone that could launch in H2 2022.

The Xiaomi 12 Pro was spotted passing through TENAA on December 7, dropping confirmation of its charging specs (h/t 91Mobiles). According to the listing, the phone bears model number 2201122C and will support 120W charging.

There are more spec details for the rumored Xiaomi 12X, too. It’s understood to bear the model number 2112123AG, which recently passed through TENAA (h/t Digital Chat Station). According to a separate rumor from tipster Kacper Skrzypek, the phone won’t use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 but may settle for the Snapdragon 870. A 120Hz OLED screen and a 50MP primary camera are also in line to feature.

Perhaps the biggest reveal is the potential size of the Xiaomi 12X. It could measure 145.4mm long and 65.4mm wide, suggesting a more compact flagship Xiaomi phone in the offing.

We expect all Xiaomi 12 phones to gain MIUI 13, but a peek into the UI’s code suggests the Xiaomi 12X will not launch with Android 12 initially. Will other Xiaomi 12 models also launch with Android 11? That remains to be seen.

See also: The best small Android phones available

Xiaomi 12 series: Price and availability

Finally, let’s talk price. The Xiaomi 12 series will likely pack plenty of high-level specs, so expect a pricing structure to match. As a baseline, the Mi 11 started at 3,999 yuan (~$628), topping out at 6,999 yuan (~$1,099) for the top Mi 11 Ultra. We imagine Xiaomi will try to stay within these bounds with the 12 series.

You may want to budget a little more if you live in Europe, as the Mi 11 series was notably pricier in the north. The Mi 11 and Mi 11 Ultra were priced at €749 (~$847) and €1,149 (~$1,356), respectively.

Concerning availability, we expect the phones to be limited to China at first. They should then spread to Europe and India in the weeks or even months after their debuts. The Xiaomi Mi 11 series hit global markets in March 2021 after it launched in China in December 2020. Hopefully, this was just an anomaly. But there are considerable distribution challenges facing smartphone companies in 2021 that’ll likely continue into 2022.

Only the Mi 11 Ultra and Mi 11X made their way to India, tackling the very top and mid-range segments. That said, tipster Kacper Skrzypek believes Xiaomi won’t offer the 12X on the subcontinent this time around. This doesn’t rule out a rebrand, though.