Xiaomi 17 vs Xiaomi 12
Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.3-inch Xiaomi 17 (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5) that was released on September 25, 2025, against the Xiaomi 12, which is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and came out 3 years and 9 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.
Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Xiaomi 17
- Waterproof body (IP68 classification)
- Delivers 288% higher peak brightness (3495 against 901 nits)
- 2.6x better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (3404K versus 1322K)
- Shows 113% longer battery life (33:58 vs 15:58 hours)
- The rear camera has a 2.6x optical zoom
- Comes with 1830 mAh larger battery capacity: 6330 vs 4500 mAh
- Newer Bluetooth version (v6.0)
- Has 50% more RAM: 12GB versus 8GB
- Supports higher wattage charging (100W versus 67W)
- The phone is 3 years and 9 months newer
- Compatible with Wi-Fi 7 wireless networks
- More recent OS version: Android 16 versus 15
- 11% higher pixel density (464 vs 419 PPI)
Review
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
Value for money (Beta)
Tests and specifications
Comparison table of technical specifications and testsDisplay
| Type | AMOLED | AMOLED |
| Size | 6.3 inches | 6.28 inches |
| Resolution | 1220 x 2656 pixels | 1080 x 2400 pixels |
| Aspect ratio | 19.5:9 | 20:9 |
| PPI | 464 ppi | 419 ppi |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | 120 Hz |
| Adaptive refresh rate | Yes (1-120 Hz) | Yes (60-120 Hz) |
| Max rated brightness | 1200 nits | 500 nits |
| Max rated brightness in HDR | 3500 nits | 1100 nits |
| HDR support | Yes, Dolby Vision | Yes, HDR10+ |
| Touch sampling rate | 300 Hz | 480 Hz |
| Screen protection | Xiaomi Shield Glass | Gorilla Glass Victus |
| Screen-to-body ratio | 89.9% | 89.3% |
| Display features | - DCI-P3 - Always-On Display - DC Dimming |
- DCI-P3 - Always-On Display - DC Dimming |
| RGB color space | 102.9% | - |
| PWM | 120 Hz | - |
| Response time | 1 ms | - |
| Contrast | ∞ Infinity | - |
Peak brightness test (auto)
Design and build
| Height | 151.1 mm (5.95 inches) | 152.7 mm (6.01 inches) |
| Width | 71.8 mm (2.83 inches) | 69.9 mm (2.75 inches) |
| Thickness | 8.06 mm (0.32 inches) | 8.16 mm (0.32 inches) |
| Weight | 191 g (6.74 oz) | 180 g (6.35 oz) |
| Waterproof | IP68 | No |
| Advanced cooling | Vapor chamber | - |
| Rear material | Glass | Glass |
| Frame material | Metal | Metal |
| Colors | White, Black, Blue, Green, Pink, Purple | Black, Blue, Pink |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-display | Yes, in-display |
| Repairability | Average (2.63/5) | - |
| Drop resistance | Excellent (A) · 270 drops | - |
Screen-to-body ratio
Performance
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 |
| Max clock | 4610 MHz | 3000 MHz |
| CPU cores | 8 (2 + 6) | 8 (1 + 3 + 4) |
| Architecture | - 6 cores at 3.63 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Performance - 2 cores at 4.74 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Prime |
- 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Cortex-A510 - 3 cores at 2.5 GHz: Cortex-A710 - 1 core at 3 GHz: Cortex-X2 |
| L3 cache | 8 MB | 6 MB |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | Samsung |
| Lithography process | 3 nanometers | 4 nanometers |
| Neural processor (NPU) | Hexagon | Hexagon |
| Graphics | Adreno 840 | Adreno 730 |
| GPU shading units | 1536 | 1024 |
| GPU clock | 1300 MHz | 818 MHz |
| FLOPS | ~3993.6 GFLOPS | ~1675.3 GFLOPS |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
| Compute Score (GPU) | 27737 | 7989 |
| Single-core score | 3583 | 998 |
| Multi-core score | 10772 | 3638 |
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
| CPU | 961758 | 501164 |
| GPU | 1232901 | 224623 |
| Memory | 517802 | 208718 |
| UX | 692155 | 387671 |
| Total score | 3404616 | 1322176 |
| Samples | [9 tests] | [10 tests] |
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Stability | 78% | 92% |
| Graphics test | 17 FPS | 4 FPS |
| Graphics score | 2354 | 590 |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Graphics test | 41 FPS | - |
| Section 1 | 46 FPS | - |
| Section 2 | 41 FPS | - |
| Section 3 | 36 FPS | - |
| Graphics score | 10821 | - |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
| Stability | - | 63% |
| Graphics test | 35 FPS | 13 FPS |
| Graphics score | 5976 | 2255 |
PCMark 3.0
| Web score | 17608 | 12213 |
| Video editing | 8079 | 7422 |
| Photo editing | 37146 | 28303 |
| Data manipulation | 15067 | 10164 |
| Writing score | 25125 | 14805 |
AnTuTu 11 Ranking List (#54th place)
Recent User Tests
Xiaomi 17
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-09-30 (Hoàng Hải) | AnTuTu 12 | 3638992 |
| 📘 2026-09-28 (Nikko) | AnTuTu 11 | 3512813 |
| 📘 2026-08-18 (Ivan) | AnTuTu 11 | 3632260 |
| 📘 2026-08-16 (Wallt) | AnTuTu 11 | 3277818 |
| 📘 2026-08-16 (Missed) | AnTuTu 11 | 3722570 |
Xiaomi 12
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-10-05 (mirtasd) | AnTuTu 11 | 941860 |
| 📘 2026-09-20 (Wan) | Geekbench 6 CPU | 1653 / 4280 |
| 📘 2026-09-20 (Wan) | AnTuTu 11 | 1334925 |
| 📘 2026-09-17 (xiaomi 12) | AnTuTu 12 | 1426511 |
| 📘 2026-07-15 -> Aura_Test_King | Geekbench 6 GPU | 3761 |
Memory
| RAM size | 12 GB | 8 GB |
| Memory type | LPDDR5X | LPDDR5 |
| Memory clock | 5300 MHz | 3200 MHz |
| Channels | 4 | 4 |
| Storage size | 256 GB | 128 GB |
| Storage type | UFS 4.1 | UFS 3.1 |
| Memory card | No | No |
Software
| Operating system | Android 16 | Android 12 (Can be upgraded to Android 15) |
| ROM | HyperOS 3 | HyperOS 3 |
| OS size | 35 GB | - |
| OS updates | 6 years | - |
| Security updates | 6 years | - |
Battery
| Capacity | 6330 mAh | 4500 mAh |
| Max charge power | 100 W | 67 W |
| Battery type | Silicon-Carbon (Si/C) | Li-Po |
| Replaceable | No | No |
| Wireless charging | Yes (50 W) | Yes (50 W) |
| Reverse charging | Yes, (wireless) | Yes, (wireless) |
| Bypass charging | Yes | - |
| Fast charging | Yes (71% in 30 min) | Yes (87% in 30 min) |
| Full charging time | 0:46 hr | 0:46 hr |
| Battery cycles | 1000 cycles | - |
| Web browsing | 15:00 hr | 06:17 hr |
| Watching video | 24:44 hr | 10:46 hr |
| Gaming | 08:15 hr | 04:42 hr |
| Standby | 131 hr | 71 hr |
General battery life
Smartphones With Long Battery Life (#19th place)
Main camera
| Matrix | 50 megapixels | 50 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 8192 x 6144 | 8192 x 6144 |
| Zoom | Optical, 2.6x | Digital |
| Flash | Dual LED | Dual LED |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| 8K video recording | Up to 30FPS | Up to 24FPS |
| 4K video recording | Up to 60FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| 1080p video recording | Up to 60FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| Slow motion | 1920 FPS (720p) | 1920 FPS (720p) |
| Angle of widest lens | 102° | 123° |
| Lenses | 1) Standard: 50 MP 2) Telephoto: 50 MP 3) Ultrawide: 50 MP |
1) Standard: 50 MP 2) Ultrawide: 13 MP 3) Macro: 5 MP |
| Camera features | - Bokeh mode - Pro mode - RAW support |
- Bokeh mode - Pro mode - RAW support |
| Image resolution | 50 MP | 50 MP |
| Aperture | f/1.7 | f/1.9 |
| Focal length | 23 mm | 26 mm |
| Sensor | Omnivision 950L LightHunter | Sony IMX766 |
| Sensor size | 1/1.31" (≈ 0.76 inch) | 1/1.56" (≈ 0.64 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1.2 micron | 1 micron |
| Autofocus | Laser autofocus | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| Image resolution | 50 MP | - |
| Aperture | f/2.0 | - |
| Focal length | 60 mm | - |
| Sensor | Samsung S5KJN5 | - |
| Sensor size | 1/2.76" (≈ 0.36 inch) | - |
| Pixel size | 0.64 micron | - |
| Stabilization | Optical | - |
| Image resolution | 50 MP | 13 MP |
| Aperture | f/2.4 | f/2.4 |
| Focal length | 17 mm | 12 mm |
| Sensor | Omnivision OV50M | OmniVision OV13B10 |
| Sensor size | 1/2.76" (≈ 0.36 inch) | 1/3.06" (≈ 0.33 inch) |
| Pixel size | 0.64 micron | 1.12 micron |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
| Image resolution | - | 5 MP |
| Aperture | - | f/2.4 |
| Focal length | - | 50 mm |
| Sensor | - | Samsung S5K5E9 |
| Stabilization | - | Optical |
DxOMark main camera tests
Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
| Bokeh | - | 55 |
| Preview | - | 69 |
| Zoom | - | 72 |
| Samples | - | Photo samples of Xiaomi 12 from DxOMark |
Selfie camera
| Megapixels | 50 megapixels | 32 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 8192 x 6144 | 6528 x 4896 |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | f/2.4 |
| Focal length | 21 mm | 26 mm |
| Sensor | Omnivision OV50M | OmniVision OV32B40 |
| Sensor size | 1/2.88" (≈ 0.35 inch) | - |
| Pixel size | 0.61 micron | 0.7 micron |
| Autofocus | Phase autofocus | No |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
| Video resolution | 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) at 60 FPS |
| Depth sensor (TOF 3D) | No | No |
Connectivity
| Wi-Fi standard | Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) | Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) |
| Wi-Fi features | - Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display |
- Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display |
| Bluetooth version | 6.0 | 5.2 |
| Bluetooth features | LE | LE |
| USB type | USB Type-C | USB Type-C |
| USB version | 3.2 | 2 |
| USB features | - Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
- Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
| DisplayPort | Yes | - |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, NAVIC |
| NFC* | Yes | Yes |
| Infrared port | Yes | Yes |
| Number of SIM* | 2 | 2 |
| Type of SIM card | Nano | Nano |
| Multi SIM mode | Standby | Standby |
| eSIM support* | Yes | No |
| Hybrid slot | No | No |
| LTE Cat* | - | 20 |
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
Sound
| Speakers | Stereo | Stereo |
| Headphone audio jack | No | No |
| FM radio | No | No |
| Dolby Atmos | Yes | Yes |
Speakers test
Max loudness
Other
| Category | Flagship | Flagship |
| Announced | September 2025 | December 2021 |
| Release date | September 2025 | December 2021 |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $999 | $580 |
| Successor | - | - Xiaomi 17 |
| Sensors | - Barometer - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
- Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
| Bundled charger | Yes, 100 W | Yes, 67 W |
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.
Conclusion
After analyzing all the data, we think that the Xiaomi 17 is definitely a better buy.
Cast your vote
Total votes: 10
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