Xiaomi 12 Pro vs Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max

62 out of 100
Xiaomi 12 Pro
VS
88 out of 100
Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.73-inch Xiaomi 12 Pro (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1) that was released on December 28, 2021, against the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max, which is powered by Apple A18 Pro and came out 2 years and 8 months after. 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
Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Xiaomi 12 Pro
  • Supports higher wattage charging (120W versus 30W)
  • Slow-motion recording at 1920FPS
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • 13% higher pixel density (521 vs 460 PPI)
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
  • Weighs 23 grams less
  • Has a built-in infrared port
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max
  • Waterproof body (IP68 classification)
  • Shows 107% longer battery life (35:01 vs 16:53 hours)
  • The rear camera has a 5x optical zoom
  • Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
  • Delivers 71% higher peak brightness (1790 against 1049 nits)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
  • 30% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1750K versus 1349K)
  • Compatible with Wi-Fi 7 wireless networks
  • The phone is 2 years and 8 months newer
  • The front-facing camera can record video at 4K
  • Ready for eSIM technology

Review

Evaluation of Xiaomi 12 Pro and Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max crucial features
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
DeviceFacts Score
Final comparison evaluation
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate DeviceFacts Score
📱 Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

Should I update?
No 89% Yes
Yes, this is a clear and meaningful upgrade.
Updating from Xiaomi 12 Pro to Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max is a clear step forward, and the improvements should be easy to notice.
Main improvements: performance, battery life, and gaming.

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type AMOLED OLED
Size 6.73 inches 6.9 inches
Resolution 1440 x 3200 pixels 1320 x 2868 pixels
Aspect ratio 20:9 19.5:9
PPI 521 ppi 460 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (60-120 Hz) Yes (1-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 970 nits 2000 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1500 nits 1600 nits
HDR support Yes, Dolby Vision Yes, Dolby Vision
Touch sampling rate 480 Hz -
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus -
Screen-to-body ratio 89.5% 92.3%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
Display tests
RGB color space 99.8% 99.6%
PWM 367 Hz 240 Hz
Response time 5 ms 1 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
1049 nits
1790 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 163.6 mm (6.44 inches) 163 mm (6.42 inches)
Width 74.6 mm (2.94 inches) 77.6 mm (3.06 inches)
Thickness 8.66 mm (0.34 inches) 8.25 mm (0.32 inches)
Weight 204 g (7.2 oz) 227 g (8.01 oz)
Waterproof No IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber -
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black, Blue, Green, Pink White, Black, Silver, Gold
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display No
Repairability - Average (2.83/5)
Drop resistance - Good (C) · 90 drops
Screen-to-body ratio
89.5%
92.3%

Performance

Chipset specifications of Xiaomi 12 Pro and Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Apple A18 Pro
Max clock 3000 MHz 4040 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 3 + 4) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Cortex-A510
- 3 cores at 2.5 GHz: Cortex-A710
- 1 core at 3 GHz: Cortex-X2
- 4 cores at 2.42 GHz: Sawtooth
- 2 cores at 4.05 GHz: Everest
L3 cache 6 MB -
Manufacturing Samsung TSMC
Lithography process 4 nanometers 3 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Neural Engine
GPU
Graphics Adreno 730 6 core Apple GPU
GPU shading units 1024 640
GPU clock 818 MHz 1490 MHz
FLOPS ~1675.3 GFLOPS ~2289 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Xiaomi 12 Pro and Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
968
3507
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
3605
8789
Compute Score (GPU)
3743
33340
Compute Score (GPU) 3743 33340
Single-core score 968 3507
Multi-core score 3605 8789
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
1349808
1750331
CPU 500024 508577
GPU 223043 540541
Memory 243998 191233
UX 382743 509980
Total score 1349808 1750331
Samples [6 tests] [4 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability - 74%
Graphics test - 13 FPS
Graphics score - 1718
3DMark Solar Bay
Graphics test - 28 FPS
Section 1 - 34 FPS
Section 2 - 29 FPS
Section 3 - 21 FPS
Graphics score - 7448
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability 88% -
Graphics test 14 FPS -
Graphics score 2479 -
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
Web score 8304 -
Video editing 6949 -
Photo editing 25400 -
Data manipulation 9541 -
Writing score 13100 -

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Xiaomi 12 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-09-27 (Tema)CPU Throttle86%
📘 2026-06-07 (Tema)AnTuTu 111603387
📘 2026-04-15 (Max)AnTuTu 111349808
📘 2026-04-03 (12 pro)AnTuTu 111555919
📘 2026-03-29 (thxthelow)AnTuTu 111297778
Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-09-23 -> RappzzzzAnTuTu 112043169
📘 2026-09-20 (thuanday)AnTuTu 112043169
📘 2026-09-17 (Jonibek)AnTuTu 111692383
📘 2026-07-21 (l1tsemerr)AnTuTu 111650968
📘 2026-04-27 -> hoduyhaodzso1tgBattery lifeSOT 12:58 / –

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8 GB 8 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR5X
Memory clock 3200 MHz -
Channels 2 4
Storage
Storage size 128 GB 256 GB
Storage type UFS 3.1 NVMe
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 12 (Can be upgraded to Android 15) iOS 18 (Can be upgraded to iOS 27)
ROM HyperOS 3 -
OS size 26.5 GB 18 GB
OS updates - 7 years
Security updates - 7 years

Battery

Capacity 4600 mAh 4685 mAh
Max charge power 120 W 30 W
Battery type Li-Po Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (50 W) Yes (15 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes
Bypass charging - No
Fast charging Yes (50% in 8 min) Yes (46% in 30 min)
Full charging time 0:21 hr 1:57 hr
Battery cycles - 1000 cycles
Battery life tests
Web browsing 06:40 hr 14:34 hr
Watching video 10:08 hr 22:01 hr
Gaming 04:44 hr 07:12 hr
Standby 81 hr 163 hr
General battery life
16:53 hr
35:01 hr

Main camera

Matrix 50 megapixels 48 megapixels
Image resolution 8700 x 5800 8064 x 6048
Zoom Optical, 2x Optical, 5x
Flash Dual LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 24FPS No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 120FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 120FPS
Slow motion 1920 FPS (720p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 115° 120°
Lenses 1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Telephoto: 50 MP
3) Ultrawide: 50 MP
1) Standard: 48 MP
2) Telephoto: 12 MP
3) Ultrawide: 48 MP
4) Depth
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 50 MP 48 MP
Aperture f/1.9 f/1.8
Focal length 24 mm 24 mm
Sensor Sony IMX707 Sony IMX803
Sensor size 1/1.28" (≈ 0.78 inch) 1/1.28" (≈ 0.78 inch)
Pixel size 1.22 micron 1.22 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 50 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/1.9 f/2.8
Focal length 48 mm 120 mm
Sensor Samsung JN1 Sony IMX913
Sensor size 1/2.76" (≈ 0.36 inch) 1/3.06" (≈ 0.33 inch)
Pixel size 0.64 micron 1.12 micron
Stabilization Digital Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 50 MP 48 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 14 mm 13 mm
Sensor Samsung JN1 Sony IMX972
Sensor size 1/2.76" (≈ 0.36 inch) 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch)
Pixel size 0.64 micron 0.7 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital

DxOMark main camera tests

Photo quality
136
Video quality
125
Generic main camera score
129
Bokeh 70 160
Preview 70 93
Zoom 102 130
Samples Photo samples of Xiaomi 12 Pro from DxOMark Photo samples of Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max from DxOMark

Selfie camera

Megapixels 32 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 6528 x 4896 4032 x 3024
Aperture f/2.5 f/1.9
Focal length 26 mm 23 mm
Sensor OmniVision OV32b40 Sony IMX714
Sensor size 1/3.14" (≈ 0.32 inch) 1/3.6" (≈ 0.28 inch)
Pixel size 0.7 micron 1.12 micron
Autofocus No Phase autofocus
Stabilization Digital Optical
Video resolution 1080p (Full HD) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No Yes
DxOMark front camera
Photo - 149
Video - 155

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be)
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 5.2 5.3
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 2 3.2
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, QZSS, NAVIC
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port Yes No
Network
Number of SIM* 2 -
Type of SIM card Nano eSIM
Multi SIM mode Standby -
eSIM support* No Yes
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
84.2 dB
92.6 dB

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced December 2021 September 2024
Release date December 2021 September 2024
Launch price (MSRP) $999 $1199
Successor - Xiaomi 15 Pro - Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max
SAR (head) - 1.22 W/kg
SAR (body) - 1.45 W/kg
Sensors - Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Face recognition sensor
Bundled charger Yes, 120 W Not included
Further details
Notes on iPhone 16 Pro Max:
    - The US version of the smartphone exclusively supports eSIM, while the international model features both a physical SIM slot and eSIM capability. In China, the device is available with dual physical SIM card slots only.
*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 Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
6 (85.7%)
1 (14.3%)
Total votes: 7

User opinions

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