Foreword: After Xiaomi 12S Pro, we will continue to bring you the review of Xiaomi 12S Ultra as soon as possible.

Foreword:

After Xiaomi 12S Pro, we will continue to bring you the review of Xiaomi 12S Ultra as soon as possible.

Let me tell you my views on this phone in a simple sentence. If the Xiaomi Mi 10 Extreme Commemorative Edition was the beginning of the ultra-high-end road of and Xiaomi , then this time the Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra is the real deal. It uses all the highest-end configurations available to establish prestige in the current mobile phone market.

Regular configuration hardware and so on, as long as you are willing to pay the corresponding amount, you can buy it. If you want something exclusive, go for customization, but some things cannot be bought with money. For example, I have a 10 square meter tailor shop. , I usually help my neighbors repair their clothes, change their trousers, etc. I wanted to be high-end and earn money from rich people, so I found Hermès, but Hermès would never pay attention to me. There is a huge difference in strength.

Hermès will find partners with corresponding strengths. This is a win-win situation. Otherwise, it will simply be one party supporting the other, and this kind of thing will not happen in the eyes of capitalists.

So when Xiaomi has achieved good sales, market share and reputation in the domestic and international markets, Leica took the initiative to come to the door. Do you want to cooperate to win-win and make some money in the high-end market?

In the past few years, domestic mobile phones have been impacting the high-end market, with more profits and improved brand tone. Xiaomi has been able to turn the digital series it started into a high-end brand without changing its name and still maintaining the same number. This is very difficult, because what you have to change is not only the phone itself, but also the public’s inherent impression of your brand. Fortunately, Xiaomi has done it.

As a brand that has only been established for more than ten years, the Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra not only achieved this, but also almost secured its position with the help of the 1-inch super large sole and Leica imaging.

The specific configuration parameters of Xiaomi 12S Ultra are as follows:

1. Performance

Xiaomi brought three mobile phones at this conference. All three are equipped with the Snapdragon 8+ processor. However, depending on the specific configuration, the three mobile phones There is still a difference in running scores.

The running score of Xiaomi 12S Ultra this time is 1101051 points, the CPU score is 256514, and the GPU score is 479387; in the storage test, the random reading speed is 1696.3MB/s, the random writing speed is 1390.7MB/s, the total The score is 62507 points; the AI ​​running score is 3119620 points.

is the one with the highest configurations among the three Snapdragon 8+ phones. Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra’s running score of around 110W is also reasonable. This means that this phone not only has a huge improvement in imaging, but also It is stable and guaranteed in daily use environment.

is the latest Snapdragon processor that has replaced TSMC's 4nm process. Official data shows that compared to the previous generation Snapdragon 8 Gen1, the overall CPU performance of Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 has improved by about 10%, and under the same performance, the CPU And GPU power consumption is reduced by 30%.

At the same time, the overall SoC has also achieved a reduction in power consumption. Compared with the overall power consumption of Snapdragon 8, it has been reduced by 15%, which can undoubtedly release higher performance. Xiaomi founder Lei Jun also said during the warm-up earlier that the name Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 is too low-key, and it is definitely not a small upgrade in terms of actual experience. This is probably what everyone wants, after all, the previous generation of Snapdragon Dragon 8 Gen1 is indeed suspected of Qualcomm being ruined, and MediaTek and several Dimensity chips are chasing after each other. Qualcomm must bring something real to the mobile phone market in the second half of the year.

2. Appearance

On the outer packaging box, Xiaomi 12S Ultra is the same as Xiaomi 12S Pro and Xiaomi 12S. The large gift box we received this time belongs to the media version and is unique, so please do not ignore it when purchasing. This is also the big gift package version.

The entire gift box is divided into two layers of drawer design. The first thing you see when you open the lid is the same sample taken with Xiaomi 12S Ultra as a tribute to the place where the first photo of Leica camera was taken. It was through this photo that Leica launched itself. With a century-old history of imaging, this time Xiaomi used the Mi 12S Ultra, a product of cooperation between the two parties, to take the same photo at the same location. Its historical significance and importance can be imagined.

Below the photo is the badge of Xiaomi’s new logo and the badge of the rear case of Xiaomi 12S Ultra. The small red dot in the lower left corner obviously represents Leica.

There is also a piece of label paper sandwiched on the box cover, which reads the original slogan of Xiaomi 12S Ultra, "The decisive moment of the new era of mobile imaging", and the signature of Lei Jun, Chairman of the Global Board of Directors of Leica Camera and Xiaomi founder.

opened the first drawer of the gift box. On the left is the packaging box of the Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra mobile phone. On the right is a protective case. The protective case looks like the shape of a camera. The feel is also made of plain leather, but I am not sure if it is. It is the same material as the silicone plain leather of Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra.

The second layer of the large gift box contains a mobile phone bag. The material is first-layer cowhide. There is a lanyard for the mobile phone bag on the right side. After installation, you can put the mobile phone into the bag and carry it like a crossbody bag. However, This crossbody bag overall looks a bit too conspicuous. If you really want to wear it with you, you still have to pay attention to safety. After all, the price of Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra is there.

Next, let’s open the packaging box of Xiaomi 12S Ultra. In addition to the phone body, the phone box is also equipped with a 67W charging head, data cable, water case and other accessories that must be included after purchasing a new phone. Ready to use.

The front screen parameters of Xiaomi 12S Ultra are consistent with Xiaomi 12S Pro. It is also a 6.73-inch Samsung E5 AMOLED slightly curved screen, supports LTPO 2.0, 3200×1440 resolution, supports P3 color gamut, 10bit color depth, 8000000:1 contrast ratio , Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, supports Dolby VISION, HDR10+, true color display, except for the Xiaomi 12S with a 6.28-inch screen, the screen parameters of the two mobile phones Xiaomi 12S Pro and Xiaomi 12S Ultra are exactly the same.

In the design of the rear lens module, Xiaomi 12S Ultra uses a large-area horizontal circular lens module. In recent years, there have been many mobile phone products with circular lenses, and in everyone's conventional impression, such a one The concept is that the larger the lens module area, the more lenses + the better the photos + the higher-end the phone. This concept is correct, because Xiaomi 12S Ultra is one of its representatives.

The Leica logo posted online is placed on the upper left side of the lens module. Everyone must have guessed this position wrong during the exposure period of the camera. The Leica logo uses white fonts instead of the representative red color. This is also a limitation of Leica, but the black and white combination also looks classic.

The entire rear lens protrudes to a relatively high degree. After all, the 1-inch bottom is a problem that cannot be solved. Xiaomi has tried its best to shorten its height.

also uses a golden metal ring around the lens. This reminds me of the Xiaomi MIX 2S that used the same golden treatment on the decorative ring of the camera, and it was 23K gold plated at that time. The bottom of the

camera module is actually not a cloud-level design, but a layer of alloy shield armor, which can provide complete dustproof and waterproof capabilities and buffer protection for the camera module. In addition, the layer of glass covering the surface of the lens module has also undergone a special process. The anti-reflective processor can greatly improve the appearance of ghosting.

In terms of body color, Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra has two colors, classic black and fir green. Needless to say, black is a classic model of the camera, deep and in line with the public’s understanding of images; fir green is my personal favorite. The new color scheme makes the entire phone look lively while maintaining a serious image, making it more suitable for young users who love photography. The back shell of

is made of environmentally friendly silicone plain leather. It also has a specially customized exquisite bull head leather texture, which makes the particles on the surface of the fuselage well-proportioned, giving it a touch that surpasses that of real leather.

silicone material is derived from natural silica ore. It has a lower surface, which can make the dirty surface of the material easier to clean. It also has UV resistance and aging resistance, providing users with excellent touch and elasticity for a long time.

The weight of the Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra is not light at 225g, but the strange thing is that the weight does not actually feel very heavy when held in the hand. Personally, I feel that first of all, the rounded processing of the whole machine makes it easier to hold. Secondly, the addition of silicone plain leather gives the hand an excellent focus when holding the mobile phone. This overall improvement is really something that the domestic mobile phone market will pay special attention to. At this time, you can Think about the iPhone 13 series, which uses right-angled frames to change its appearance, and you can understand what a mobile phone that really thinks about you should look like.

3. Game

Snapdragon 8+ SoC and a 2K ultra-high-resolution LTPO 2.0 screen from Samsung E5. This configuration reflects the actual game experience in one simple word: cool.

In the actual game experience, " Peace Elite " was played for 30 minutes, the internal screen of the game turned on 90 frame mode, the system GameSpace turned on high quality mode, and also turned on the battery's high performance mode. The power consumption of Xiaomi 12S Ultra was 11 %, the maximum temperature of the mobile phone screen is 41.0°, and the maximum temperature of the back shell is 35.8°. The temperature and power consumption are almost the same as those of Xiaomi 12S Pro. After all, the configurations of the two phones are almost identical in this regard.

For a game like "Peace Elite", what is needed is a stable frame rate . During the 30-minute game time, the frame rate chart of "Peace Elite" is as follows.

In another mobile phone performance "professional test" game " Genshin Impact ", the same 30 minutes of game time, the game quality is all turned to the highest and 60 frames, the system GameSpace also turns on the high quality mode, Xiaomi 12S Pro consumes power is 16%, the maximum temperature of the mobile phone screen is 42.8°, and the maximum temperature of the back shell is 39.3°. It is not easy to achieve this result with the power consumption and temperature control of "Genshin Impact", and in the entire game experience, In addition to the regular frame rate fluctuations when switching maps at teleport points, even clearing wild monsters on the road is very smooth at other times.

One of the most common jokes we have seen in the past few years is that Snapdragon is a Yanlong. The three fires represent its high "heat". When Xiaomi wants to build an ultra-high-end mobile phone, I am afraid it will be the first one. The determination is to successfully control this dragon.

Then we saw the leaf vein cold pump cooling technology that appeared on Xiaomi 12S Ultra. It uses bionic design . The design principle is similar to plant leaves, opening directional high-speed channels for cold liquid conduction, and the thermal conductivity is 100% higher than VC.

Xiaomi's engineers referred to the water-shedding method of plant leaf veins and designed a series of special liquid return channels inside the leaf vein cold pump. Just like a highway, the condensed liquid is continuously pumped from the cold end to the hot forging , changing the past The disordered return flow becomes orderly high-speed transportation, which can greatly improve the cold night circulation speed.

Looking at Xiaomi's pursuit of heat dissipation, I thought of an interesting joke. If the original Xiaomi mobile phone was born for fever, then the current Xiaomi mobile phone is born for heat dissipation.

4. Battery life

Regarding battery life, the battery life of the game has been given in the third item of this article. You can use it as a reference. In other daily use of mobile phones, the biggest power consumption scenario is video.

After 1 hour of movie playback, the battery consumption of Xiaomi 12S Ultra is 5%, the video brightness is adjusted to the highest, Dolby sound effect is turned on, and the test is performed in the external amplifier mode.

2 minutes of Douyin playback, the battery consumption of Xiaomi 12S Ultra is 4%, the brightness is also adjusted to the highest, and the power consumption is normal.

This time, in terms of battery life, Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra debuted the new Xiaomi Pascal G1 battery management chip, and also added the Xiaomi Pascal P1 fast charging chip. The two chips jointly realize the full-link battery management technology. Relying on these two A self-developed chip can realize millisecond-level real-time monitoring of battery safety, greatly improving the accuracy of battery life prediction, and effectively enhancing the battery life market. In other words, no matter what kind of user you are, Xiaomi 12S Ultra can It can give you a usage environment where you don’t have to worry about battery life.

When it comes to charging, Xiaomi 12S Ultra uses 67W fast charging, and the original charging head and data cable are included in the factory packaging. In the actual test, the whole machine started charging from the remaining 1% of the power, and the total consumption of charging the entire phone was The charging time is 44 minutes, and the phone can be charged to 62% in the first 20 minutes. Although the overall time is a bit slow, it is enough for situations that require quick emergency.

In addition, in AnTuTu’s charging test, the maximum power of Xiaomi 12S Ultra during charging was 51.9W.

5. Taking photos

I don’t know when the arms competition of domestic mobile phones started to come to the camera, but it makes sense if you think about it, because this is the case when most components cannot differentiate the mobile phone itself. It is the most recognizable place, and it is also the place where everyone can defeat the opponent with all their strength. Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra has two killer features this time, the 1-inch IMX989 outsole and Leica’s century-old images.

Xiaomi 12S Ultra is not the first mobile phone with a 1-inch outsole. Sharp , Sony and Leica have also launched it before. However, the size of these three brands of mobile phones in the domestic market is completely inferior to Xiaomi. Once Xiaomi really puts a 1-inch outsole into a mobile phone, it means that mobile phones with 1-inch sensors will really start to become popular, and Mr. Lei has also said that after Xiaomi 12S Ultra, IMX989 will also be released to the market. Colleagues use it.

It is not spring to stand out alone, but spring is full of flowers. Only when everyone makes progress together and adjusts IMX989 together can the image of domestic mobile phones be improved in the international market.

Xiaomi 12S Ultra has three rear lenses. The parameters of the three lenses are:

• Ultra-wide angle: 13mm f/2.2, 1/2-inch sensor (SONY IMX586), 48-megapixel Quad-Bayer color array, pixel fusion: 12 million pixels, single pixel 1.6um, Dual-PD phase focusing , supports close-range mode

• wide-angle: 23mm f/1.9 8P aspherical lens, 1-inch sensor (SONYIMX989), 50.3 million pixel Quad-Bayer color array, pixel fusion: 12.5 million pixels, single pixel 3.2um, Octa-PD phase focusing, edge-to-edge ink coating, double-sided multi-layer coating

• Telephoto: 120mm f/4.1 periscope structure, 1/2-inch sensor (SONYIMX586), 48 million Pixel Quad-Baver color array, pixel fusion: 12 million pixels, single pixel 1.6um, Dual-PD phase focusing

Xiaomi officially calls this image combination Leica Summicron 1:1.9-4.1/13-120 ASPH. Lens system , After reading a lot of complicated parameters and introductions, I think what everyone is most concerned about is the actual photo taking effect of Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra. Let’s take a look at the samples directly.

We usually use some adjectives to describe the unique color tone of a certain camera, such as Oba blue, Canon red, Nikon yellow, Pentax green, etc. This is a kind of camera imaging brought by different brands. Unique "bias" color style, if you use the Olympus camera to take pictures of the blue sky, the blue sky it presents will definitely be different from other cameras, and this blue will create memories for you Click, and the camera's tonal style appears.

What color is the Leica camera? Personally, I think it has a gloomy quality, just like you have been at work all day and you are not tired but not idle either. You feel that life is boring but not depressing. You get off work on time and are walking on the way home. Suddenly there is a light rain without warning on the road that you are so familiar with. You will not be soaked in it, but there are many rain spots on your clothes. There are traces of rain on the surrounding flowers, trees and asphalt roads. You feel like this. Not bad, there is a glimmer of hope in boring days - this feeling is the tone of Leica.

Therefore, this style is destined to make the Leica unsuitable for shooting some hot and lively scenes. It is suitable for a person to scan the streets and take pictures out of boredom. Even if what is photographed is a dog or a shadow of a tree, you will feel that these scenes The texture has been improved, and this texture is unique to Leica cameras and is the stunt for which it is famous.

With this style of image blessing, coupled with the unique greater light intake, greater dynamic range and more effective noise control capabilities brought by the 1-inch outsole, Xiaomi Mi 12S The Ultra has photos like these that look completely impossible to capture with a phone.

This is the biggest progress in the domestic mobile phone industry in pursuing image competition in so many years.

There are two Leica styles built into the mobile phone, Leica Vivid and Leica Classic. The style of the sample is also more obvious:

• Leica Vivid

• Leica Classic

The former has a dull and cold color, while the latter has a richer color. But it’s not something we often see now The high saturation and sharpening effect still has a deeper overall texture.

These two Leica styles were specially launched by Xiaomi and Leica. I personally think the reason is that Chinese people have become accustomed to the styles of various communities and short videos, which are fast and lively, unlike Leica's low saturation + cold colors. The processing of adding vignetting on all sides is completely opposite. Based on this consideration, Xiaomi has made some adjustments to the original Leica imaging style to make it more suitable for the aesthetics of the domestic market.

thinks of all possible situations and adds them all to the mobile phone. This is Xiaomi's consistent approach to building products over the years.

Xiaomi 12S Ultra supports up to 120x zoom at the telephoto end, which is the furthest focal length currently achieved on a mobile phone. Samples of different focal lengths are as follows:

.5x zoom:

x zoom:

x zoom:

0 times Zoom:

What shocked me most about the telephoto sample was the 5x focal length. It can be seen that even though the photos we uploaded have been compressed, the details of the sky and buildings can still be seen very clearly, and the veins of the clouds are also very obvious. , it was a cloudy day on the day of shooting, and the proofs in this weather were very consistent with the color tone of Leica.

Portrait:

In the portrait mode of the camera, Xiaomi 12S Ultra can choose three portrait lenses with different focal lengths, namely 5mm black and white, 50mm rotary focus, and 90mm soft focus . The portrait samples presented at different focal lengths are as follows:

except In addition to gloom, black and white is also a unique photo style of Leica cameras. Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra adds Leica’s black and white in the focal length that is most consistent with the normal viewing angle of the human eye. It should be to let more people feel the beauty of Leica cameras. Humanistic temperament.

It is actually very difficult to do well in black and white. For example, in the sample, the unique high and low saturation adjustment in black and white is a test of an imaging company's control of texture. On this basis, the subject of the portrait is The background blur has also been processed. For the 35mm focal length, it is very difficult for the two to appear in one photo and make the public think it is stylish and good-looking.

0mm soft focus is a rare imaging effect nowadays. It is equivalent to the entire picture being blurred (it is really not out of focus). It is a bit like looking through the window on a foggy day. It is famous for its high saturation and clarity nowadays. The market is very rare. Those who dare to use this kind of filter to achieve effects may be criticized in minutes without high-end endorsement. But as it happens, Leica’s qualifications are very sufficient.

In addition to the three portrait lenses, the photo filter page also has built-in four filters: Leica Vivid, Leica Natural, Leica Monochrome and Leica Monochrome HC. Different filters appear when shooting in the same environment. The texture of Leica's photos is completely different. Xiaomi's approach also allows more people to feel the charm of Leica's different colors.

• Leica Vivid

• Leica Natural

• Leica Monochrome

• Leica MonochromeHC

Night scene:

In addition to street sweeping and portraiture, Leica's night scene is still famous in the industry. After I got the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, it was the first night scene I took. A photo is this:

It’s no exaggeration to say that I was shocked at that time, using an old Internet term. I never even thought that the path I took for a walk occasionally could appear at 8:35 in the evening. Such a textured picture, street lights, sky, yellow Das Auto, if there is some rain on the ground at this time, I will even feel that I am on a street abroad. In the next hour, I I took many photos of the night scene:

. The adjectives of strong night scene, good photo taking, and low noise are really a bit thin. They can only be said to be a certain aspect of the night scene samples of Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra. The performance of these night scene samples has already been This is a picture that I have never thought of and cannot think of in all the years I have been working in this industry. I really don’t need to describe it too much. When you see these samples, a sentence will naturally come to your mind. , how can it be photographed so beautifully.

My personal daily camera used to be Sony’s black card , RX100 MarkⅢ. Its 1-inch outsole and the joy of shooting with one hand made me feel that I don’t need a big, black and thick SLR to experience the joy of photography, but No matter what, after all, it is still an additional product besides my mobile phone that I need to take out. I will worry about it being bumped and lost. This time, the Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra has images that are comparable to those taken by my black card. , and also saves me the burden of bringing an extra camera when I go out. I feel that from this point on, mobile phone imaging has truly entered the next stage, a field opened up by the 1-inch outsole of Xiaomi 12S Ultra and Leica imaging. New future.

Summary

When I first learned that Xiaomi was going to cooperate with Leica, what I thought was, "Isn't it just a few built-in filters in the system and a Leica logo on the camera?" Even when I saw the Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra real phone and was surprised by its rear lens, I still had this thought, "Isn't it that the bigger the lens, the more professional it looks?"

When I turned on the Leica watermark of the camera and casually took pictures of flowers in roadside flowerbeds on the way to dinner, the photos presented by this 6.73-inch screen gave me the biggest shock this year. I even felt that I casually photographed them. I took a picture of a wallpaper, a wallpaper that meets the requirements of iMac. Whether it is color or picture texture, I have never seen it on a product like a mobile phone.

So much so that in the following days of experience, I developed a great desire to take pictures with this phone. I wanted to see the stories in the corners and corners, and I wanted to use this lens to record those that may never be known to others. The picture I noticed, sometimes I still wonder whether it is a mobile phone or a camera. Why can mobile phones take pictures so well? Will future mobile phones be able to do this?

I used to be disgusted with the direction of domestic mobile phones to stack lenses without thinking. I always felt that this was not the way mobile phones should go. But when I saw that mobile phones can take photos with this effect, I doubted myself again. Domestic mobile phones Mobile phone imaging seems to have really found its own way, and this road was actually explored by Xiaomi and Leica.

What Xiaomi 12S Ultra brings to mobile phone imaging is not progress, but a threshold. This threshold It represents the current height of mobile phone photography. Only after reaching this threshold can it enter the second level. Products below this level are simply not qualified to compete head-on.