6 things we want to see from Xiaomi’s 2022 flagship

The Xiaomi Mi 11 was the first announced Snapdragon 888 phone, launched in December 2020 and launched worldwide in early 2021, and wireless charging.

However, that does not mean that there is no room for improvement, because there are definitely some possibilities that Xiaomi could have done better. Here’s what we’d like to see from the Xiaomi Mi 12.

1. Water resistance

Xiaomi was pretty reluctant to make their phones fully waterproof until this year. The Mi 11 Ultra (see above) and the Mi 11 Pro, which is only available for China, both buck this trend and thus offer IP68 water resistance. Unfortunately, the standard Mi 11 doesn’t have an IP67 or IP68 rating.

However, we hope that adequate water resistance will be achieved on the standard Mi 12 in 2022, as this feature is more commonly found in the affordable flagship and mid-range segments. For example, the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE, Google Pixel 5, T-Mobile OnePlus 9, and Google Pixel 5a all offer IP67 or IP68 ratings.

2. Tele or periscope camera

One trend we’ve seen in 2020 and 2021 is for non-pro flagships to skip telephoto / periscope cameras. The Mi 11 was no exception in this regard, joining phones like the OnePlus 9, Mi 10, and Apple’s non-Pro iPhones. Instead, we’ve often seen brands use cheaper macro, monochrome, or depth sensors instead.

Related: This is how optical, digital and hybrid zoom works on your smartphone

Our own Eric Zeman criticized the zoom quality of the Mi 11 in his test, so we would be happy if a zoom-focused camera comes to the Mi 12 to improve things. In addition, a telephoto or periscope camera also enables better image quality beyond the native zoom factor. So even if Xiaomi brings a 3X telecamera, we can expect better results than 3X thanks to hybrid zoom technology.

3. Three years of operating system updates

Samsung made a splash last year when it announced that a large number of its phones and tablets would receive Android version updates for three years. These devices included all of the current flagships as well as a variety of mid-range phones.

Unfortunately, Xiaomi has not yet made such a commitment. But it’s high time the company implemented this policy, at least for its flagship phones. After all, Oppo, Vivo and OnePlus have now also announced three-year policies for their high-end phones.

At € 749, the standard Mi 11 isn’t the absolute cheapest Snapdragon 888 phone in 2021. But it’s actually cheaper than the Galaxy S21 in Europe and costs the same as the S20 FE in Europe too. At least the same price would be welcome news.

Read more: The Best Snapdragon 888 Phones to Consider

With that in mind, we would be happy if Xiaomi even offers the Mi 12 at an even cheaper price if it doesn’t bring any of the other changes on the list. Even a € 50 price cut would mean a notable discount. On the other hand, the Galaxy S20 FE shows that it is possible to offer features like a telephoto camera and water resistance at a competitive price.

5. Keep the charger in the box

When Xiaomi launched the Mi 11 in China earlier this year, it also became apparent that users could opt for a package with or without a charger. Best of all, these packages were priced the same. Fortunately, all global Mi 11 devices come with a charger.

We would like the Xiaomi Mi 12 to come with a charger in the box too, especially since Samsung and Google are going in the other direction. However, if the manufacturer dumps the included charger worldwide, we hope that it will allow people to request one for a low to free cost. After all, it is difficult to take a manufacturer’s sustainability requirements seriously when they ask for a significant amount for an adapter.

6. Larger (not more) pixels

The Mi 11 debuted with a 108 MP main camera, continuing the trend established by the Mi 10 series in early 2020. This allows many resolvable details at full resolution when taking pictures in broad daylight, but at the expense of smaller pixels (0.8 micron pixels). This means that low light performance will suffer in terms of hardware specs alone.

More photography coverage: Why the camera’s sensor size is more important than more megapixels

Xiaomi went in the other direction with the Mi 11 Ultra, however, offering a 50-megapixel Isocell GN2 main camera with a larger sensor than the M11’s 108-megapixel camera and larger 1.4-micron pixels. This makes for brighter pictures and videos in low light conditions. This also means that full resolution shots with less noise should look cleaner compared to full resolution shots from the aforementioned 108MP sensor.

In addition to better low-light capabilities, the Mi 11 Ultra’s 50-megapixel camera also offers much better autofocus compared to 108-megapixel cameras. So we would be happy if the Mi 12 got a larger primary sensor with fewer megapixels, similar to the Ultra device.

What else would you want from the Xiaomi Mi 12? Let us know via the poll below.