Xiaomi has announced its 12S series that includes the Ultra which was designed in conjunction with Leica. This flagship includes the world’s largest smartphone sensor: a 50-megapixel 1-inch sensor behind a 23mm f / 1.9 Leica lens.
The Xiaomi 12S Ultra features a 6.73-inch AMOLED display that promises 1,500 nights of maximum brightness at a 2K resolution with support for the P3 color range (no specifications on actual color accuracy were provided). Behind the screen, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra is the first flagship model equipped with two patented Xiaomi Surge chips, the Xiaomi Surge P1 fast charge chip and the Xiaomi Surge G1 battery management chip, which according to the company offers great improvements in battery management and in general. User experience.
The new smartphone also supports a 67 W cable fast charge, a 50 W wireless fast charge and a 10 W reverse wireless charge. At the core of the Xiaomi Surge battery management system, there is a 4,860 mAh single-cell silicon-oxygen anode battery and a Xiaomi Surge P1 fast-charging chipset, which according to the company also supports an output current of up to 16 A with a conversion efficiency of 96 , 8%.
Not to minimize a better battery and screen size, but the real star of the show is the giant array of cameras.
A huge camera
The huge camera on the back of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra centers around a 1-inch Sony IMX989 sensor that uses a Quad-Bayer pixel array with individual 1.6 μm-sized pixels. After grouping pixels, Xiaomi says that these pixels reach 3.2 μm larger, which reduces noise, widens the dynamic range, increases the captured light and achieves better images overall in low light conditions.
The sensor was jointly developed between Sony and Xiaomi, which Engadget reports includes a 50-50 split to cover the costs of assembling it.
This is the # Xiaomi12SUltra, our flagship smartphone. # Xiaomi12SSeriesLaunch pic.twitter.com/QUDC2mmSFc
– Xiaomi (@Xiaomi) July 4, 2022
To use the full size of the 1-inch sensor, Xiaomi relied on Leica to develop what it calls “sophisticated optical lens.”
“[The 12S Ultra] uses Leica’s world-class optical design capabilities in its lens system while adhering to its strict optical quality testing standards and implements Xiaomi’s experience in component miniaturization to ensure ultra-high resolution, a ultra high light sensitivity, reduced scatter and lower flash. says the company.
The lens supposedly mitigates flame, ghosts, and chromatic aberration. In addition to the physical design of the lens, the camera has also been adjusted to reproduce Leica’s tone and aesthetics with “cutting-edge algorithms,” made in the Leica Authentic Look and Leica Vibrant Look photo profiles.
As Xiaomi explains:
- The “Leica Authentic Look” pursues a natural image for which Leica is known. By preserving the contrast of light and shadow, it adds a sense of three-dimensional depth to the photographs, with the characteristic excellence of light and shadow aesthetics proven in Leica time.
- The “Leica Vibrant Look” includes Xiaomi and Leica input. Combining Xiaomi’s experience in smartphone photography with Leica’s leading aesthetic, photographers can strive to capture the excitement of the moment, symbolizing Leica’s exploration in the space of phone photography smart.
The main camera is also the first Android device to support Dolby Vision HDR video recording and playback. In addition, it includes Xiaomi’s HyberOIS image stabilization which, according to the company, provides ultra-stable performance and continuous motion compensation during video recording.
“HyperOIS uses the gap between two frames to drive the OIS engine to its original position, giving each frame a full effective stabilization range,” the company states.
Xiaomi says the 12S Ultra is also designed to be more user-friendly with post-production photographers and captures photos in 10-bit RAW format calibrated by Adobe Labs with color-correction metadata embedded directly into files. When you use Adobe Lightroom to open photos taken in the Xiaomi 12S series, Adobe Camera RAW software will automatically optimize photos based on metadata, which Xiaomi says offers professional photographers a good starting point for post-production.
Xiaomi hinted that it would launch the historic smartphone camera last week, but the large size of the array of cameras on the back of the new 12S Ultra shows how difficult it is to fully use a large 1-inch sensor. in a smartphone design that is so slim. Sony tried something similar with its Xperia Pro-I earlier this year, but due to size limitations it was unable to use the full sensor size as Xiaomi was able to do here.
The Xiaomi 12S Ultra smartphone starts at 5,999 yuan, which is about $ 892. He and the other 12S series smartphones will be launched first in mainland China and the company has not provided any information on when to expect it in other regions.
Update: An earlier version of this story incorrectly indicated the focal length of the main camera as 13 mm. We apologize for the error.