Xiaomi has always been trying to make a breakthrough in camera photography. With it’s partnership with Leica, will it bring photography to another level.
As one of the first to pair up with the 1″ Sony IMX 989 sensor, the Xiaomi 12s Ultra is going to be able to take even better shots at dark environments as a larger sensor can take in more light.
The super-large professional 1″ sensor featuring 3.2 m 4-in-1 Super Pixel, has one of the strongest single-frame light sensing capabilities, and wider dynamic range to capture rich and detailed color
transitions for any quick snaps.
With it’s Leica professional 8P Aspherical High Transmittance Lensit can capture incredible amounts of light with sharpness and reduce glare.
Select the tone of the photos with two different Leica photographic style – Authentic and Vibrant looks.
“Leica Authentic Look ” and “Leica Vibrant Look” closely adhere to the Leica signature look with its classic colors and unique tone.
Other than the wide angle f/1.9, 1″ SONY IMX 989 50.3 MP OIS, there is also another ultra wide angle, telephoto and a front 32 MB camera.
- Ultrawide f/2.2
1/2″ sensor using SONY IMX586 48 MP - Telephone f/4.1
1/2″ SONY IMX586 48 MP OIS - Front 32 MP RGBW image sensor
In terms of design, the Xiaomi 12s Ultra comes in a fully wrapped metal framework for protection. At it’s back, it is covered with silicon leather. This actually helps as it gives users a better grip of the phone. It is IP68 dust and water resistant.
It has a 2K 6.73″ AMOLED LTPO display with 120Hz adaptive refresh rate and supports Dolby Vision, HDR10. As for audio, it supports Sound by Harman Kardon and Dolby Atmos.
The Xiaomi 12s Ultra uses the latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Processor which is the fastest to date. It has a 8 GB / 12 GB LPDDR5 and 256/512 GB UFS 3.1.
It comes with a 4860 mAh and supports 67 W turbo charge, 50W wireless turbo charge, 10W reverse wireless charging.
Xiaomi 12s Ultra supports dual SIM 5G SA/NSA networks. You will see our speedtest in the youtube clip in the following page.
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As this phone is a China edition and it isn’t available for sale outside the mainland China market, the only way to purchase it is through online retailers. There is no announcement that there will be a global edition.
This review unit which we review came from Xiaomi. To our surprise, the package box is all in English. Perhaps, Xiaomi 12s Ultra is ready for a global launch.
Booting up the phone we are greeted in Chinese and it is not difficult to switch it to English (UK). There is no Google services but you will definitely need a Mi ID to complete the initial phase. Once that is done, you can download the Google system from the Mi Store. Once that is done, you will all the Google services running. e.g. Youtube, Gmail, Maps will work. You can now use it as per normal installing apps from Google Play.
Xiaomi 12s Ultra is powered by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Processor. This new processor is more efficient and performs better that the non plus edition. In our Oppo Find X5 Pro review which is powered by the Snapdraon 8 Gen 1, the proceossor scores 837 (single core), 3274 (multi core).
In contrast, the Xiaomi 12s Ultra scores 1287 (single core) and 3855 (multi core) which is 53% adn 17% faster that the Gen 1 processor. From the numbers provided by Geekbench, we can see that it outperform the Galaxy S21 by a margin.
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Select the tone of the photos with two different Leica photographic style – Authentic and Vibrant looks.
“Leica Authentic Look ” and “Leica Vibrant Look” closely adhere to the Leica signature look with its classic colors and unique tone.
Other than the wide angle f/1.9, 1″ SONY IMX 989 50.3 MP OIS, there is also another ultra wide angle, telephoto and a front 32 MB camera.
- Ultrawide f/2.2
1/2″ sensor using SONY IMX586 48 MP - Telephone f/4.1
1/2″ SONY IMX586 48 MP OIS - Front 32 MP RGBW image sensor
In this video, we took sample shots of in Leica Vibrant vs Authentic mode. It depends on your preference as Vibrant mode makes the picture more saturated. Authentic is generally tends to have a warmer tone. We also tested the Leica Black and white filter. The black and white look cool.
Photos are taken indoors i a food court where the lights are dim. Photos taken in wide angle, and zoom photos turns out great. Perhaps it is becuase of the 1 inch sensor, normal mode photo seems to be a bit too bright. Most of the photos turns out equally good on the Oppo Reno8 Pro.
As for HDR was compared to the Oppo Reno8 Pro. the Xiaomi 12s Ultra did a better job in contrasting the shades of the cloud.
Lastly, we took video shot side by side and compare video stabilisation and details on both handphones. Oppo Reno8 Pro was shot in 4K/60 but the Xiaomi 12s Ultra just greyed it out, allowing me to shoot in 4K/30 fps only.
The Xiaomi 12s Ultra has better stability and the lights do not flicker that much. The video is also dimmer as compared to the Oppo Reno8 Pro. As for super dark scenes which we took seperately (not inside this video), it turns out that the Xiaomi 12s Ultra that relies on the 1 inch sensor is not as capable to capture video details in the night, most parts appear dark. As for the Oppo Reno8 Pro, it is brighter and detals can be seen but the video is noisy and a bit shaky. Perhaps Xiaomi should do some ocmputiational processing needs to be worked on the videos.
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Xiaomi 12s Ultra supports dual SIM 5G SA/NSA networks. In our test, we ran the phone on Gomo 5G NSA network. The speed is decent averaging around 500 Mbps to 800 Mbps depending on location. 5G networks brings down latency, this is detrimental to applications that requires quick response time.
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The Xiaomi 12s Ultra is so far one of the fastest smartphones we reviewed here. Although it may be installed with lots of bloatware which I don’t use, that didn’t dampen the performance at all. For those who game, the 120 Hz screen paired with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 processor will surely fit your gaming requirments.
In terms of design, I particular like the silicon leather. It looks elegant and gives users a better grip of the phone. If not for the golden circular ring that encompasses the cameras at the back, I think it looks pretty much like a camera. It gives that classic look less the shutter button.
Features wise, they took away 120W quick charging and gave it a lower 4860 mAh battery. I would expected it to have that.
The 1 inch sensor is fanastic as it takes more light. It can be an issue when there are lots of light sources, photos might be slightly over exposed. The good thing is that with the 8P 8P Aspherical High Transmittance Lensit helps a lot in reducing glare.
Be creative with the Leica authentic, vibrant mode or the Leica filters for Black and White. Photo shot in black and white helps you see differently, bringing up the mood of the scene.
In the video test, the phone has good stabilisation but when it comes to super dark environments, the recording is too dark and sometimes you can’t even figure out what is shot. Perhaps Xiaomi can update the firmware with an AI night mode for video recording.
In Conclusion, this phone is suitable for most camera shots in most harsh environment as pictures are sharp and has little noise (in dark environments). If you intend to use it as a vlogging device, video footage is rock stable while filiming while walking. With 5G support, you can stream live video footage at higher resolution without worrying the quality of the video stream.
Pros :
- 1 inch sensor
- OIS
- 5G SA/NSA
- 50W wireless turbo charge, 10W reverse wireless charging.
- Dolby Atmos with Harmon Kardon quad speakers
Cons:
- 4860 mAh and supports 67 W turbo charge
- Night Video
Ratings
- Performance 10
- Design 10
- Features 10
- Usability 10
- Value for money 8
- Score : 9.6 / 10
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