Xiaomi recently launched the 12T series in South Africa to much applause and fanfare. These devices – of which there are two this time around – were first announced globally at the beginning of October.

Back then, a South African launch seemed likely given the 11T Pro appeared around the same time last year, although we couldn’t say when. Well, we can now (it’s now).

Pushing smartphone camera boundaries

Upstaging everything else about the devices is perhaps the 200MP camera sensor in the 12T Pro. While it might not be the first smartphone to do it – that would be Motorola’s Moto X30 Pro – Xiaomi’s 12T Pro is the first to do it and also be available in South Africa.

Local consumers that use their smartphone as a camera more than anything else were probably disappointed to learn Xiaomi wouldn’t bring its monstrous 12S Ultra to the country. Maybe they can forgive Xiaomi now?

Even the lesser of the two, the 12T, is no slouch in the imaging department with a 108MP sensor. That’s a very similar sensor to what’s found in Samsung’s S22 Ultra. If the companies are sharing tech like this we can’t help but wonder what Samsung will debut with its next round of flagships. Another 200MP sensor? Proper fast charging? We’ve already seen some potential spoilers.

It’s not quite alive… but it could be

We have yet to get our grubby hands on either device but just going on the spec sheet, these will undoubtedly improve on the previous T-series devices. And we aren’t just talking about the crazy camera specs.

As with last year’s T-Series, these two are essentially watered-down versions of the Chinese smartphone maker’s flagship series. They look largely the same and sport many of the same features with a few corners cut here and there to bring the price down. You miss out on wireless charging, for example.

But that isn’t to say these aren’t capable in their own right. Both the 12T and 12T Pro feature a sizeable 5,000mAh battery and Xiaomi’s face-melting 120W HyperCharge technology. Xiaomi claims this will net you 0-100% in 19 minutes. Who needs wireless charging if you only have to charge once a day for a few minutes?

The pair also share the same 6.67in AMOLED display with a respectable 1220×2712 resolution. The only difference between the two here is the 12T Pro supports Dolby Vision content.

These are not the same device with different cameras, however. The 12T Pro sports a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset. This is the same SoC that most current flagships are using so you should expect excellent performance, although we’ll only be able to confirm that in a hands-on review. The 12T non-pro comes with a Dimensity 8100-Ultra from MediaTek. This is quite a step down from Qualcomm’s previous flagship but should still be enough processing power for most folks.

The pair will be available in black or blue colourways with 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM in the 12T and 12GB in the 12T Pro. Both devices are currently available and retail for R14,000 and R17,000 respectively.