Xiaomi 12 launch live: see the new flagship Xiaomi phone as it’s unveiled

There’s now only a few hours until the Xiaomi 12 launch event, which takes place at 3:30am PT / 6:30am ET / 11:30am GMT and 7:30pm ACT.

This is a China-only launch, and we’d expect the mobile to get unveiled for global markets in early 2022. This is exactly what happened for the Mi 11 a year ago, as that was shown off for China on December 26, and then rolled out globally in February.

Despite this launch event not being the ‘global’ one, the phone will be exactly the same. Today we expect to hear all about the new flagship mobile phone including the camera specs, screen size and resolution, charging speed, design and more - we’re expecting the Xiaomi 12 Pro to show up too, as the company has been teasing details of the launch for weeks.

We also know a new smartwatch will be launched called the Xiaomi Watch S1.

The Xiaomi 12 will likely end up as a close rival for the Samsung Galaxy S22, Oppo Find X4 and OnePlus 10 when they launch, so it’s definitely worth paying attention to whatever happens today.

If you’re keen to watch the Xiaomi 12 launch live, you can find a link to a live stream here. Bear in mind, as a Chinese launch it’s not going to be in English - but in this live blog, we’ll be bringing you all the important information you need.

There are a few hours left until the Xiaomi 12 launch, but we’ll be bringing you news and speculation ahead of the event, as well as minute-by-minute news during the launch, and our analysis afterward. So keep a tab open with this page if you care about the upcoming phone.

Welcome to our Xiaomi 12 launch live blog. There are two hours to go until the show begins, but we'll walk you through what to expect.

(Image credit: Xiaomi)

Before we get too bogged down with Xiaomi 12 information, let's briefly mention the non-smartphone devices coming today.

The Xiaomi Watch S1 has been teased, but we only know the design so far - you can see an image of it above.

The Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro - that's a device that only launched in China, but is basically identical to the Xiaomi Pad 5 we got globally but with more RAM - is getting a higher-storage-space variant with a new colored keyboard.

Some new wireless earbuds have been teased too.

Hopefully, we'll also see mention of Xiaomi's Cyberdog, a good ro-boy that was launched earlier this year and has shown up in a few launch events since.

Oh, and we can't forget MIUI 13 either.

This is the next version of MIUI, Xiaomi's Android skin, which has been anticipated some time. The company has confirmed that this will debut today too, and we'll likely see the Xiaomi 12 phones being the first devices to come with it pre-installed.

So what's new with MIUI 13? Well bug fixes hopefully, as we commonly criticize MIUI as being one of the buggiest custom user interfaces.

Beyond that, Xiaomi has detailed the new user interface to an extent. Apparently it will have a 'focus calculation' mode so it can use your location data (we think - the machine translation from Xiaomi's post means we can't be certain this is what's used) to work out what you're doing with your device and minimize unimportant processes.

Apparently the software will also better optimize storage to keep the phone working 'as new' for longer.

The machine translation on top of tech jargon means it's hard to know exactly what MIUI 13 will bring, and how it will effect the end experience, but hopefully it'll also bring smaller changes like design tweaks and new Live Wallpapers.

(Image credit: Xiaomi)

So what do we know about the standard Xiaomi 12? The following has been confirmed:

• It'll use the new top-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset
• Its screen will be 6.28 inches across
• Its front-facing camera is at the center-top of the display and has a 32MP resolution
• It'll come with MIUI 13 pre-installed
• It'll have 67W wired and 50W wireless powering
• The speakers are tuned by Harman Kardon

So what's left to know?

• The exact screen specs
• The battery size
• The rear camera resolutions and lenses
• And cool camera features Xiaomi has designed
• The actual design of the thing
• The price

(Image credit: Xiaomi)

Now onto the Xiaomi 12 Pro - and boy are we glad Xiaomi teased so many specs for its phones ahead of time, because it makes doing this live blog so much easier. We know the phone will have:

• The same design as the Mi 12, just bigger at 6.73 inches for its display
• A 2K resolution screen
• A weight of 205g
• The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset
• 120W wired charging
• A 50MP main camera
• Speakers tuned by Harmon Kardan

So we know a bit more about the Xiaomi 12 Pro.

Okay - we've covered what has already been confirmed about the Xiaomi 12, 12 Pro and other devices coming today. 

Soon, with an hour to go until the launch, we'll look at what's been rumored and what we're hoping for.

Before that though, we've got something to share: Xiaomi has finally provided the Xiaomi 12 live stream link on Weibo, and you can find it here.

(Image credit: OnLeaks)

So let's talk about some of the Xiaomi 12 leaks we've heard.

Following on from the 6.2-inch screen confirmation, several sources suggested it'll be a FHD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate. That's a lower resolution than the Xiaomi Mi 11's display, but the screen size is 0.6 inches smaller too.

The cameras are looking to be like a 50MP main snapper joined by ultra-wide and telephoto extras - though it seems curious that Xiaomi would drop the Mi 11's macro camera, since that was one of the mobile's highlights.

Battery is said to be around 4,500mAh, which sounds very likely.

The design makes the phone sound a lot like the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro, at least in the camera bump department - you can see a visual of recent renders based on leaks above.

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