The Xiaomi 12S Ultra’s 1-inch Leica Camera Is Put to The Test

Xiaomi has been at the top of its game lately. The previously released Xiaomi 12 Pro was a fantastic Android device but we knew that the Chinese smartphone manufacture was not done yet. Details about the Xiaomi 12S Ultra have been revealed and the device looks the firm’s best Android phone of yet.

First and foremost, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra is only scheduled to be released in China for now but we are hoping that it might be rolled out to other countries soon.

Design & Hardware

Smartphone camera modules have grown in size over the years, but the Xiaomi 12S Ultra takes the cake. It also protrudes quite a little from the rear, so if you place this phone flat on a table, it will rest at an angle, as if you were propping up a keyboard.

As if this camera module wasn’t already eye-catching, it’s surrounded by a 24k gold ring. Despite its top-heavy design, the phone can stand on its own due to its flat bottom and top. However, the screen of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra no longer has the quad-curved design featured on the Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra and Mi 11 Ultra.

In the front, there’s a 6.73-inch OLED display that Xiaomi calls the “Dolby Vision TrueColor Display.” It’s a Samsung LTPO with a resolution of 3200 x 1440 and a refresh rate that can range from 1Hz to 120Hz. It has a maximum brightness of 1,500 nits, supports 10-bit color depth, and displays content well.

The phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, a brand new 4nm technology from Qualcomm that reportedly provides a 10% gain in CPU and GPU over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and, more crucially, a 30% increase in energy efficiency if genuine, which means faster file sharing capabilities. This will be required since the 12S Ultra’s battery, at 4,860 mAh, is smaller than that of last year’s Mi 11 Ultra.

Aside from the symmetrical dual speaker system found in recent Xiaomi flagships, the 12S Ultra is also covered in a vegan leather finish. All of the additional signature touches you’re used to seeing may be found here: The charger is IP68 water and dust resistant, with wireless charging rates of up to 50W and wired fast charging speeds of 67W. Furthermore, the phone has two unique CPUs — Surge P1 and Surge G1 — that Xiaomi claims would handle charging and battery management independently. Okay, let’s go back to the phone’s key selling point: the optics.

Camera

The primary camera system on the Xiaomi 12S Ultra comprises of three cameras, the most important of which is a new 50MP Sony IMX989 camera with a 1-inch sensor and a Leica lens. According to Xiaomi, the 1-inch Sony IMX sensor was specially manufactured for Xiaomi, and the optical lens that covers the camera was co-engineered by Leica and Xiaomi. The camera also employs pixel binning technology to generate 3.2m micro pixels. These figures are absurd.

Both the 48MP ultra-wide camera and the Periscope zoom camera use 1/2-inch Sony sensors and employ binning technology to generate 12MP images. The Periscope zoom lens still has a 5X optical zoom range, but early testing indicates that it is much better than last year’s Mi 11 Ultra zoom lenses.

Nonetheless, the colors on the Xiaomi are a little more overdone in comparison. That’s part of the latest Leica picture fine-tuning, which seems to accomplish a similar job to Vivo’s X flagships recently by adding a touch more contrast for more kick. This setting, dubbed “Leica Vibrant,” may be switched between and more natural hues, dubbed “Leica Authentic.”

Less noise, crisper details, and greater illumination all around if we switch to true low light photos. And here’s the kicker: the 12S Ultra didn’t need night mode for this image, although Apple and Samsung’s phones did.

What We Think So Far

There’s a lot more to the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, such as video recording, Leica portrait photography settings, battery life, and if the two proprietary CPUs improve efficiency, as well as gaming and ordinary phone usage. But, so far, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra seems to be a strong candidate for phone of the year.

While there is currently no worldwide release date, the comparatively modest beginning China price of roughly $900 implies that users in the West may import the gadget. If you’re curious, Google applications do not come standard with the phone, but they are readily loaded. The Google Play Store may be downloaded via Xiaomi’s app store.