Xiaomi 12S Ultra has a Leica digital camera with an enormous 1-inch sensor | Engadget

Merely six months after its earlier flagship launch, in the present day Xiaomi introduced a trio of familiar-looking smartphones to mark the start of its partnership with Leica. The new 12S Series options MIUI 13 primarily based on Android 12, and it runs on Qualcomm’s allegedly extra environment friendly Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 flagship processor, with the headlining 12S Ultra packing an enormous 1-inch, 50.3-megapixel Sony IMX989 fundamental sensor. This interprets to a beneficiant pixel dimension of 1.6um, which then doubles to three.2um by way of pixel binning for a supposedly extra spectacular shade accuracy and low gentle efficiency. And in contrast to the Sony Xperia Pro-I, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra apparently makes use of your complete portion of its 1-inch sensor.

According to CEO Lei Jun, Xiaomi took half within the Sony IMX989’s growth, and the $15 million value was additionally cut up evenly between the 2 firms. Interestingly, the sensor will not be unique to Xiaomi; Lei added that it will be made obtainable to his native rivals after the launch of the 12S Ultra, as a way to “promote the advancement of mobile imaging together.”

As for Leica’s half on the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, you get a “Leica Summicron 1:1.9-4.1 / 13-120 ASPH camera system” overlaying all three rear cameras: the aforementioned 50.3-megapixel fundamental digital camera (23mm, f/1.9), together with the 48-megapixel ultra-wide digital camera (13mm, f/2.2) and the 48-megapixel periscopic digital camera (120mm, f/4.1). Both 48-megapixel cameras use a 1/2-inch Sony IMX586 sensor. The whole round digital camera island — now with “Leica” co-branding — advantages from some coating magic to mitigate lens glare and enhance picture consistency throughout every lens. Oh, and there is a 23K gold rim right here as nicely.

In addition to some Leica filters, customers will have the ability to swap between two photographic kinds: “Leica Authentic Look” for natural-looking pictures with stronger three dimensional depth, and “Leica Vibrant Look” which provides Xiaomi’s enter on vibrancy whereas preserving authenticity, by some means. You may also toggle the watermark bar on the backside of your pictures, which can add Leica’s iconic purple brand, photograph metadata and site coordinates to the precise, together with telephone mannequin and timestamp on the left.

On the opposite facet of the telephone, there is a 32-megapixel selfie digital camera powered by an unknown RGBW sensor. Most of those cameras are able to Dolby Vision HDR video recording (as much as 4K@60fps) and playback, thus making the 12S Ultra the primary Android machine to sport these options. Some additionally make the most of the motor-based “HyperOIS” for extra steady footage. As for nonetheless pictures, your complete 12S Series helps 10-bit RAW format calibrated by Adobe Labs, with shade correction metadata embedded within the information for simpler post-production with the likes of Adobe Lightroom.

The 12S Ultra additionally occurs to hold two proprietary Xiaomi Surge chips: a Surge P1 fast-charging chipset and a Surge G1 battery administration chipset. These present help for 67W wired quick charging, 50W wi-fi quick charging and 10W reverse charging for the 4,860mAh single cell silicon oxygen anode battery. Note that some fast-charging options use a twin cell battery as a substitute to separate the present load, which is why it is a good factor that the Surge P1 can deal with an output present of as much as 16A right here, and apparently with 96.8% conversion effectivity. Like Oppo’s and ASUS’ latest handsets, the 12S Ultra provide adaptive charging as nicely, which allegedly will increase the variety of cost cycles by 25 p.c.

Keeping the telephone cool can be key to a more healthy battery, to not point out a extra steady efficiency whereas gaming. The Xiaomi 12S Ultra is provided with a “three dimensional cooling pump” which strikes cooling liquid throughout heat surfaces utilizing a capillary mechanism much like that on leaves. This apparently improves thermal conductivity considerably, in comparison with typical vapor cooling modules.

The remainder of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra is normal flagship affair. For the show, you get a 6.73-inch Samsung E5 AMOLED panel (3,200 x 1,440, 522ppi; LTPO 2.0), with a peak brightness of as much as 1,500 nits, a 1-120Hz AdaptiveSync Pro refresh fee, native 10-bit shade depth and help for P3 shade gamut. As you’ll be able to inform from the digital camera options, the display screen can deal with Dolby Vision, in addition to HDR10+, HDR10 and HLG; these will go nicely with the Harman Kardon audio system which additionally help Dolby Atmos audio. The machine is IP68-rated, that means it ought to survive unintended dives into sinks and swimming pools. You’ll additionally discover an infrared distant port on the high for controlling house home equipment.

Options embrace as much as 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM, as much as 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage — that includes Xiaomi’s self-developed FBO (File-Based Optimization) storage refresh tech, which supposedly maintains the identical learn/write efficiency for no less than 4 years (and Lei added that FBO has already been written into the next-gen UFS 4.0 storage specification). Buyers can select between a “Classic Black” and a “Verdant Green,” each wrapped in vegan leather-based. 

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The lesser Xiaomi 12S Pro shares the identical 6.73-inch show and Surge P1 quick charging-chipset because the 12S Ultra, although it helps a whopping 120W wired charging for its smaller 4,600mAh battery, however lacks 10W reverse charging. It incorporates a extra common (however apparently nonetheless dear) 1/1.28-inch, 50-megapixel Sony IMX707 fundamental sensor, which is a variant of the IMX700 beforehand discovered on Huawei’s Mate 40 Pro collection. This nonetheless gives a superb pixel dimension of 1.22um (or 2.44um after pixel binning), and it matches the decision of its ultra-wide digital camera (14mm) and telephoto digital camera (50mm) — all fine-tuned by Leica as nicely, in fact. 

As for the “basic” Xiaomi 12S, it has the identical fundamental digital camera because the 12S Pro and the identical fast-charging options because the 12S Ultra, however with a smaller 4,500mAh battery in a extra palm-friendly physique below the 6.28-inch 120Hz show. Apparently there’s nonetheless a sizeable demand for small flagship telephones, based on Lei.

The Xiaomi 12S Series is now obtainable for pre-ordering in China forward of retail launch on July sixth. The 12S Ultra is priced from from 5,999 yuan (8GB RAM, 256GB storage; round $900) to six,999 yuan (12GB RAM, 512GB storage; round $1,000). The 12S Pro is cheaper, asking for 4,699 yuan (8GB RAM, 128GB storage; round $700) to five,899 yuan (12GB RAM, 512GB storage; round $880). The 12S is probably the most inexpensive choice right here, ranging from 3,999 yuan (8GB RAM, 128GB storage; round $600) and capping at 5,199 yuan (12GB RAM, 512GB storage; round $780). We’ll hold an eye fixed out for worldwide availability later.