Head To Head

Augustman takes two flagship smartphones, Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and Xiaomi 12 Pro, and puts them through the paces

- JONATHAN HO

SPORTING A FIRST-GENERATION Snapdragon 8 processor, Xiaomi 12 Pro, and Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra are currently the two most advanced Android smartphones on the market. Featuring 12 gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigabytes of storage, both devices approach levels of computing power almost equal to an entry-level laptop or Chromebook.

First up, despite superficial similarities, these phones are almost as different as day and night. Though both brands used similar materials, the two phones do look different, feel different in the hand, and come with different home-brewed Uls (user interfaces) that make all the difference to the user experience.

Next, they're heavy phones, with the Samsung weighing a little more, 228 grams to Xiaomi's 204 and this is a reflection of the solid build quality on both models - wrapped in matte Gorilla Glass Victus and Victus Plus on the S22 Ultra. Almost identical in lengths, Xiaomi 12 Pro is considerably narrower; the 8.9mm thin Galaxy S22 Ultra does have a much boxier design, with sharper edges and flat top, bottom and sides. The 8.6mm thin Xiaomi 12 Pro is much curvier with its screen wrapping all along the frame, which is beautiful but a little problematic for anyone with longish fingers like mine since touch sensitivity extends all the way to the edges of the Xiaomi 12 Pro.

Camera And Display