Xiaomi 12S Ultra. After entering 2022, the decline in shipments caused by various factors has accelerated this process. Taken together, Xiaomi 12S Ultra is a good start for this cooperation between Leica and Xiaomi. Xiaomi 12S Ultra has taken a solid step on the road to high-end

Xiaomi 12S Ultra

In the past two years, high-end has become the main theme of the mobile phone industry. After entering 2022, the decline in shipments caused by various factors has accelerated this process. But if you want to achieve high unit prices and high profits, mobile phones need to have their own characteristics. Folding screens and imaging have naturally become the choices of various mobile phone manufacturers.

On May 23 this year, Xiaomi announced a strategic imaging cooperation with Leica . The two parties will conduct in-depth cooperation in the entire smart phone imaging link such as optics, imaging, image processing, and experience. Now this Xiaomi 12S Ultra is the second The first flagship product under the cooperation of

This time, Titanium Media App got the Xiaomi 12S Ultra before its release. What kind of imaging capabilities can this phone show? Can Xiaomi take the first step towards high-end branding with the help of Leica? Let's take a look together next.

Configuration table

Design and workmanship review

Xiaomi 12S Ultra

In terms of the overall appearance, Xiaomi 12S Ultra has chosen the mainstream design that favors a rounded style. The gray-green silicone plain leather with light golden metal frame can clearly differentiate it from mid-range models, and it is also more attractive to look at.

The lens is connected by two steps, one square and one round, which can effectively reduce the abrupt feeling caused by being higher than the back. With a body weight of 225g and a body thickness of 9.06mm, it actually feels quite heavy in the hand. In addition, Xiaomi 12S Ultra supports IP68 dustproof and waterproof, so you can rest assured when shooting in bad weather.

screen

Front of the fuselage, as a flagship product, it naturally needs to be equipped with a high-standard screen. Xiaomi 12S Ultra is equipped with a Samsung E5 AMOLED screen with 3200×1440 resolution and 120Hz high refresh rate. The peak brightness is 1500nit, and it supports 10bit color depth, P3 color space and HDR Dolby Vision display. The top of the

fuselage. The bottom and top of the

fuselage adopt a narrowed design, which makes the visual experience and grip feel lighter and thinner. It is equipped with dual Harman Kardon speaker design, which can be placed horizontally to achieve stereo playback effect. Whether you are watching dramas or playing games, you will have a better sense of immersion.

comes standard with a 67W charging head

In terms of power supply, this time Xiaomi 12S Ultra is equipped with a 4860mAh battery and Xiaomi Thermal Power battery management system, which includes Xiaomi Thermal Power G1 battery management chip and Xiaomi Thermal Power P1 smart charging chip, which can achieve 67W of wired power. charging, 50W wireless Powerful fast charging and 10W wireless reverse charging. Xiaomi claims that it can achieve 1.2 days of battery life, and the actual experience is indeed true. The reason why higher fast charging power is not used is that Xiaomi believes that 67W can better balance the relationship between body weight, thickness and battery capacity.

Image Review

Three-camera imaging system

The imaging aspect is the top priority of Xiaomi 12S Ultra. It cooperates with Leica for the first time and is equipped with a 1-inch outsole main camera, which directly attracts attention. The other two cameras of Xiaomi 12S Ultra are also well configured: the ultra-wide angle is 13mm, 1/2 inch, 48 million pixels; the telephoto is 120mm, 1/2 inch, 48 million pixels. The focal lengths of the three lenses are reasonably matched and can cover most daily scenes.

Overall, the three lenses of Xiaomi 12S Ultra have good consistency, both in color and sharpness, and there will be no abrupt feeling when switching lenses.

Main camera outdoor sample

Partial enlargement slice (900 width)

The most eye-catching among the three cameras of Xiaomi 12S Ultra is undoubtedly the main camera with a one-inch sensor equivalent to 23mm. Its resolution and sharpness can be said to be the best on mobile phones. The level of the field, on the one hand, it benefits from the CMOS sensor customized by Sony , and on the other hand, it also benefits from Leica’s optical technology.

Looking at the details in detail, even after 100% magnification, the imaging of Xiaomi 12S Ultra appears to be very solid, with no obvious traces of sharpening, , and noise reduction. The photos are highly usable, and the advantages of large negatives are very obvious.

main camera night scene sample

Another advantage of using a 1-inch outsole for the main camera is that as the amount of light enters increases, the purity of the night scene can also be significantly improved.The pictures captured by Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra have less noise, less obvious smearing, and a transparent look.

Ultra-wide-angle sample

In terms of ultra-wide-angle lens performance, Xiaomi 12S Ultra shows good quality. Although the 1/2-inch lens is not as large as the 1-inch base of the main camera, it is enough to provide a good dynamic range and the resolution of the picture is also relatively good.

Telephoto sample

In terms of telephoto performance, Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra chose a periscope lens equivalent to 120mm, with a maximum aperture of f/4.1. The actual optical performance quality is on par with the previous ultra-wide-angle lens, and is not hindered by the smaller aperture. Suffer. However, in actual experience, this lens is more suitable for telephoto use, but for daily shooting, the focal length is still a little longer, which is not as practical as focal lengths around 50mm and 80mm.

Backlight scene sample

In addition, the addition of Leica has also brought the optical quality of Xiaomi 12S Ultra to a higher level. Even in extreme scenes where the front is facing a point light source, glare and ghosting are controlled to a very small range. It will affect the overall look and feel of the photo.

Street photo sample

In terms of color, Xiaomi should be said to have obtained the "true inheritance" of Leica this time. It has certain bright characteristics of Leica, but it is not overly ostentatious. It is also very comfortable with color control and contrast adjustment. The camera has two styles, Leica Classic and Leica Vivid, as well as multiple filters to choose from, making it highly playable. The author recommends the Leica classic style paired with the Leica bright color mode, which can bring the so-called "German flavor" (the style of German cameras) to a great extent.

Master Lens Package, from left to right are 35mm black and white, 50mm rotary focus, 90mm soft focus

In addition, Xiaomi 12S Ultra also provides many interesting features, such as the "Master Lens Package" in portrait mode, including: 35mm Black and white, 50mm rotary focus, 90mm soft focus. Can provide strong entertainment. However, judging from the current experience of the evaluation prototype, the film production effect is not stable, the photo cutout algorithm is not accurate enough, and the simulated soft focus effect is also a bit too strong. After subsequent software updates, I believe there will be better performance.

In addition, as far as the author’s own experience of using Leica 35mm F1.4 and 50mm 0.95 is concerned, the imaging style of the Master Lens Pack and the performance style of these two lenses is still not very detailed, just play it for fun.

Long exposure sample

Xiaomi 12S Ultra still has room for further improvement in the long exposure function. The above is a scene of shooting urban traffic. In terms of

video, all three lenses of Xiaomi 12S Ultra support 8K video shooting, which can provide a large secondary cropping space in actual use. With an equivalent 120mm lens, it can easily capture long-distance images. In addition, Xiaomi 12S Ultra also supports 4K60P Dolby Vision HDR shooting and playback, which is the first time for Android devices.

More samples

More samples

More samples

More samples

In addition, Xiaomi 12S Ultra also provides a "Leica Master Watermark" to choose from (the sample photos above all use this watermark), which can be turned off or cropped later. Or choose a regular watermark, users can choose according to their preferences.

performance evaluation

In terms of performance and configuration, Xiaomi 12S Ultra is the first to be equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ SoC, using TSMC 4nm process, the ultra-large core frequency is increased to 3.2GHz, CPU and GPU performance are improved by 10%, and the overall power consumption is reduced by 15% , among which CPU, GPU can reduce power consumption by up to 30% in different scenarios. In terms of heat dissipation, Xiaomi 12S Ultra is equipped with leaf vein cold pump heat dissipation technology.

AnTuTu benchmark results

Judging from the actual benchmark score, Xiaomi 12S Ultra reached 1.07 million points at room temperature, which is similar to the gaming phone of the previous generation Snapdragon 8 SoC. It is a flagship level that is more in line with the positioning and expectations.

Honor of Kings game screen

Specific to the game testing process, Xiaomi 12S Ultra can achieve Honor of Kings with high image quality high frame rate (120Hz), and stable Genshin Impact at 60Hz.

The measured temperature is 40.7 degrees

However, due to the obvious thermal conductivity of the metal frame of Xiaomi 12S Ultra, the left hand will feel somewhat hot when held normally. The measured temperature is 40.7 degrees Celsius.

summary

Xiaomi 12S Ultra

Xiaomi 12S Ultra, as the first product of Xiaomi and Leica cooperation, has shown good imaging capabilities, reaching a new peak of Xiaomi mobile phone in terms of imaging style, optical quality and playability. It should be said that Xiaomi has learned the essence of Leica and accurately grasped users' preferences for images. At the same time, at the product level, Xiaomi has indeed gained a certain premium space due to the addition of Leica. Of course, there is still room for improvement in terms of product weight and fast charging power.

Taken together, Xiaomi 12S Ultra is a good start for this cooperation between Leica and Xiaomi. Xiaomi 12S Ultra has taken a solid step on the road to high-end Xiaomi mobile phones. (This article was first published by Titanium Media App. Author, photographer/Wu Honglei, editor/Zhong Yi)