Xiaomi 12T Pro hands-on tested

[Jan]

Hands-on with the Xiaomi 12T Pro

MyBroadband recently had the opportunity to play with a Xiaomi 12T Pro at the company's official South African launch event.

After debuting in Europe two months earlier, Xiaomi officially rolled out the mid-range 12T Series locally on Monday, 21 November 2022.

 

[sand_man]

Could very well be my next phone! OP 7T Pro is getting long in the tooth (still very good though, must be said)....

 

[soulie]

i hope the software is better than on the note 11 pro .

 

[TedLasso]

i hope the software is better than on the note 11 pro .

What's wrong with it? Curious

 

[soulie]

What's wrong with it? Curious

stuck on android 11 forever now .last security update was july .its a phone for a busy 17 year old .you get constantly bombarded with kak .allways on screen turns off after 10 seconds .(you can overide it but then whatsapp stops working)fingerprint reader sucks .battery life is like an iphone kak .constantly downloads funky things then you turn them off and 2 days later they are back .adverts rule supreme on this phone .even my LG of 4 years works better and has more updates .camera is ok but not stunning .lots of noise on high resolution .my wifes samsung a32 is far superior .its a medium budget phone ,i wont touch them again .irritating little thing .its phones like this that make people buy iphones and its running on some funky emui 13 .or whatever .fortunately my contract is due December so i can toss this thing .

 

[TedLasso]

I think I have a 11T pro - which is different to the 11 pro. Can never understand their naming conventions. Mines had the Snapdragon 800 series process. Cost about 12k

Best thing I did was wipe all the unessential Xiaomi crap of the phone before I used it. Have to say I haven't seen adverts anywhere. I even went as far as to delete chrome as I use duckduckgo as my browser. Well that did break something but then I just installed chrome beta from app Store and the phone has been fine - in probably better than fine.

Feels like your son's phone is comprised in some way too - and perhaps you should do a full wipe and erase the bloatware like I did and don't sign into or give permission to any left over Xiaomi apps - if you don't need it.

Follow the instructions here.

Xiaomi Bloatware List (2026) - Debloat HyperOS (Guide)

Find the list of safe-to-remove Xiaomi and MIUI bloatware. Learn how to uninstall system apps on MIUI 14 &13 via Xiaomi ADB/fastboot tools.

technastic.com

 

[soulie]

I think I have a 11T pro - which is different to the 11 pro. Can never understand their naming conventions. Mines had the Snapdragon 800 series process. Cost about 12k

Best thing I did was wipe all the unessential Xiaomi crap of the phone before I used it. Have to say I haven't seen adverts anywhere. I even went as far as to delete chrome as I use duckduckgo as my browser. Well that did break something but then I just installed chrome beta from app Store and the phone has been fine - in probably better than fine.

Feels like your son's phone is comprised in some way too - and perhaps you should do a full wipe and erase the bloatware like I did and don't sign into or give permission to any left over Xiaomi apps - if you don't need it.

Follow the instructions here.

Xiaomi Bloatware List (2026) - Debloat HyperOS (Guide)

Find the list of safe-to-remove Xiaomi and MIUI bloatware. Learn how to uninstall system apps on MIUI 14 &13 via Xiaomi ADB/fastboot tools.

technastic.com

if you dont give permissions it hounds you every opportunity it gets to give permissions .its allways updating and downloading junk like the carousel pictures .turn it off and the phone sulks and something else doesnt work .resetts just make you start from scratch again .i have watched dozens of videos on trying to block certain things and yes you can but with consequences .i think the hardware could be good with better software .and it gets damn hot when using it for a while .

 

[soulie]

I think I have a 11T pro - which is different to the 11 pro. Can never understand their naming conventions. Mines had the Snapdragon 800 series process. Cost about 12k

Best thing I did was wipe all the unessential Xiaomi crap of the phone before I used it. Have to say I haven't seen adverts anywhere. I even went as far as to delete chrome as I use duckduckgo as my browser. Well that did break something but then I just installed chrome beta from app Store and the phone has been fine - in probably better than fine.

Feels like your son's phone is comprised in some way too - and perhaps you should do a full wipe and erase the bloatware like I did and don't sign into or give permission to any left over Xiaomi apps - if you don't need it.

Follow the instructions here.

Xiaomi Bloatware List (2026) - Debloat HyperOS (Guide)

Find the list of safe-to-remove Xiaomi and MIUI bloatware. Learn how to uninstall system apps on MIUI 14 &13 via Xiaomi ADB/fastboot tools.

technastic.com

ive found miui 13 doesnt work like the previous versions .the workarounds dont work as with previous versions and most of the China bloatware cant be disabled fully .you still get reminders etc.

 

[soulie]

I think I have a 11T pro - which is different to the 11 pro. Can never understand their naming conventions. Mines had the Snapdragon 800 series process. Cost about 12k

Best thing I did was wipe all the unessential Xiaomi crap of the phone before I used it. Have to say I haven't seen adverts anywhere. I even went as far as to delete chrome as I use duckduckgo as my browser. Well that did break something but then I just installed chrome beta from app Store and the phone has been fine - in probably better than fine.

Feels like your son's phone is comprised in some way too - and perhaps you should do a full wipe and erase the bloatware like I did and don't sign into or give permission to any left over Xiaomi apps - if you don't need it.

Follow the instructions here.

Xiaomi Bloatware List (2026) - Debloat HyperOS (Guide)

Find the list of safe-to-remove Xiaomi and MIUI bloatware. Learn how to uninstall system apps on MIUI 14 &13 via Xiaomi ADB/fastboot tools.

technastic.com

mediatek helio not snapdragon on this one .i found that out after the purchase .apparently the 10 is far superior .hell anything could be better than some days with this thing

 

[soulie]

What's wrong with it? Curious

what i meant by "busy 17 yr olds phone "is ,its a kids phone .perfect for social media .its not a work phone .but then again i offered to swop it with my daughter for her samsung galaxy 73 .she told me to get lost ..

 

[Vorastra]

Not 1080x2400 or 1440x3200.

1220 x 2712

What a weird resolution.

 

[soulie]

Not 1080x2400 or 1440x3200.

1220 x 2712

What a weird resolution.

the whole phone is weird

 

[Vorastra]

stuck on android 11 forever now .last security update was july .its a phone for a busy 17 year old .you get constantly bombarded with kak .allways on screen turns off after 10 seconds .(you can overide it but then whatsapp stops working)fingerprint reader sucks .battery life is like an iphone kak .constantly downloads funky things then you turn them off and 2 days later they are back .adverts rule supreme on this phone .even my LG of 4 years works better and has more updates .camera is ok but not stunning .lots of noise on high resolution .my wifes samsung a32 is far superior .its a medium budget phone ,i wont touch them again .irritating little thing .its phones like this that make people buy iphones and its running on some funky emui 13 .or whatever .fortunately my contract is due December so i can toss this thing .

Note 9 Pro was the last good Note Xiaomi released.

 

[Suspect99]

stuck on android 11 forever now .last security update was july .its a phone for a busy 17 year old .you get constantly bombarded with kak .allways on screen turns off after 10 seconds .(you can overide it but then whatsapp stops working)fingerprint reader sucks .battery life is like an iphone kak .constantly downloads funky things then you turn them off and 2 days later they are back .adverts rule supreme on this phone .even my LG of 4 years works better and has more updates .camera is ok but not stunning .lots of noise on high resolution .my wifes samsung a32 is far superior .its a medium budget phone ,i wont touch them again .irritating little thing .its phones like this that make people buy iphones and its running on some funky emui 13 .or whatever .fortunately my contract is due December so i can toss this thing .

But the redmi notes are budget phones.

 

[TedLasso]

ive found miui 13 doesnt work like the previous versions .the workarounds dont work as with previous versions and most of the China bloatware cant be disabled fully .you still get reminders etc.

It's not been my experience after uninstalling apps as per your that link I provided. As an example, these are the only system updates my device had , you can also see that the phone on initial load had loads of apps and they have disappeared. Useless ones such as downloader , etc which need to be kept - I've kept but never give permission to the app to do anything. So it stays like that. Have downloaded and shared stuff and it works. I just use Google Files app in any case.

Of course easy for me to stay on the straight and narrow but not for a 17 year old who wants tiktok or whatever they do.

Another option:- install another OS like lineage or something - more updates and perhaps better security since most of the bloatware is never there

 

[Earthtree]

TL;DR how much does it cost?

 

[soulie]

It's not been my experience after uninstalling apps as per your that link I provided. As an example, these are the only system updates my device had , you can also see that the phone on initial load had loads of apps and they have disappeared. Useless ones such as downloader , etc which need to be kept - I've kept but never give permission to the app to do anything. So it stays like that. Have downloaded and shared stuff and it works. I just use Google Files app in any case.

Of course easy for me to stay on the straight and narrow but not for a 17 year old who wants tiktok or whatever they do.

Another option:- install another OS like lineage or something - more updates and perhaps better security since most of the bloatware is never there View attachment 1426315View attachment 1426317

thanks for the info .but no cant be bothered .either it works out the box or it gets tossed ,i really dont have the time or patience to fiddle with a phone ,by 13h00 the phone is flat ,my line of work requires a constant availability and zero chance of constantly plugging it in to charge .ps the phone isnt even 3 months old ,worst phone purchase ever ..my Galaxy A73 is on order for next week ,so im sorted .with 6 lines on contract with MTN there is a new phone on the horizon virtually every 3 months .

 

[labratza]

another question does it come with the 120W charger in the box or are they also saving the earth?

 

[kolaval]

if you dont give permissions it hounds you every opportunity it gets to give permissions .its allways updating and downloading junk like the carousel pictures .turn it off and the phone sulks and something else doesnt work .resetts just make you start from scratch again .i have watched dozens of videos on trying to block certain things and yes you can but with consequences .i think the hardware could be good with better software .and it gets damn hot when using it for a while .

just don't use the build in apps?

 

[TedLasso]

thanks for the info .but no cant be bothered .either it works out the box or it gets tossed ,i really dont have the time or patience to fiddle with a phone ,by 13h00 the phone is flat ,my line of work requires a constant availability and zero chance of constantly plugging it in to charge .ps the phone isnt even 3 months old ,worst phone purchase ever ..my Galaxy A73 is on order for next week ,so im sorted .with 6 lines on contract with MTN there is a new phone on the horizon virtually every 3 months .

Fair enough. I'm the same hence going the route to delete all the apps off this new phone before I started and it's been great so far. But then it was also rather good with my Note 10 Pro where everything just worked (while I still had all those apps but never used). Still getting 1.5 days with my phone. Used the 120W charger the first two days to see how it worked but now just use my anker multiport charger at my bedside to charge phone. I have no need to have a fully charged phone in 17 minutes <- iPhone users need this - everyone iPhone user I have seen always needs to be tethered to a charging cable recharge their phones .. don't know why they don't seem to last a full day -even these new Max/Pro phones - dude I know is charging his by the afternoon!!