A real-life shot, probably taken with a Leica camera.
Leica
Meet the Leica Leitz Phone 2, a phone from the famous German camera manufacturer that is exclusive to… Japan? If smartphones are eating into the camera market, it makes sense that some camera companies would try to go the other way.
Leica is not a smartphone company, though, so the company actually building this phone is Sharp! Now the Japan exclusivity makes sense. If you have to base your branded smartphone on somebody else’s hardware, it’s hard to go wrong with using the Sharp Aquos R7, a stunningly unique Android phone that dumps a lot of the dumb phone trends other manufacturers mindlessly stick to. The R7 went out the door with Leica-branded optics, so this is apparently the other half of that deal.
Sharp is no stranger to unique smartphone designs, and the Leica and its R7 sister phone make a lot of good decisions. Instead of a bunch of questionably useful tiny rear cameras, you get one giant camera: a 1-inch Sony IMX989 sensor. That’s the biggest currently available on a smartphone. Normally the IMX989 is 50 MP, but Leica is cropping it a bit and lists a “47.2-megapixel effective pixel count.” The display is flat, a great change from the senselessly curved and distorted screens that companies typically put on flagship Android phones. The curved screen gimmick is driven by Samsung, display supplier to most of the world’s smartphones, but here the display is made by Sharp, a 6.6-inch 2730×1260 OLED with a definitely overkill 240 Hz refresh rate.
The other unique feature Sharp brings to the table is that it is seemingly the only company interested in Qualcomm’s giant 3D Sonic Max in-screen fingerprint sensor. The biggest problem with in-screen fingerprint sensors is that there’s no tactile guidance for where to stick your finger, so it’s easy to miss the sensor slightly and get a bad read. Qualcomm’s 3D Sonic Max sensor is huge, though—big enough to fit two fingers, so you won’t miss it. This sensor came out in 2019, but no one uses it because it’s expensive.
Enlarge / The screen corners don’t match the body corners, leading to this two-tone bezel look.
Leica
As for the actual Leica contributions to this phone, it has a redesigned aluminum frame with 90-degree corners and a grippy, knurled texture running down the side of the frame. The display design could be better. The 90-degree corners make the front a bit awkward, since the display is still pulled from the rounded-cornered Aquos R7, so the phone now has a screen that doesn’t match the body corners. You get rounded display corners with a matching black bezel, and then the 90-degree aluminum corners, which give the front an odd, dual-bezel look. Some phones, like the Galaxy S22 Ultra, have 90-degree corners, but they do better in the looks department thanks to matching screens.
Leica naturally paid a lot of attention to the rear camera design. The 1-inch camera sensor needs a big rear camera bump, but not as big as Leica decided to go with, and the circular camera bump now extends to cover the LED flash and the non-photography 2 MP distance-measurement sensor. To replicate the “real camera” feeling, the Leica Leitz Phone 2 has a big, magnetic camera lens cover that clips overtop of the whole rear camera bump. There’s even a black case for it, which sort of looks like it’s trying to replicate the traditional black and silver camera design, but it doesn’t seem to be textured.
Enlarge / The lens cap and black case really give off that “real camera” vibe.
Leica
Leica is not the camera manufacturer here, but it did make a “proprietary software engine” that “brings this typical ‘Leica look’ to smartphone photography.” It has three filters named after Leica lenses that try to replicate bokeh and various focal lengths. There’s a “Golden Hour widget” that presumably tells you when it’s an hour before sundown and a widget that shows images from the Leica Fotografie International Gallery.
The spec sheet is the same as the Aquos R7: a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, 12GB of RAM, 512GB of storage (that’s actually double the R7), a 5000 mAh battery, IP68 dust and water resistance, and Android 12. There’s even a headphone jack.
You’re going to pay a premium for that red dot (and the storage bump), though. The price in Japan is 225,360 yen (~$1,580), while the normal R7 is 189,360 yen, or ~$1,365.
The Xiaomi 12 Pro that came out four months ago was a very good 2022 Android flagship that got a good reception on just about every tech site, including this one. But yet, if you read my review closely, you may have noticed I came off more critical than others, and perhaps even sounded slightly disappointed. The reason is that I knew the Xiaomi 12 Pro wasn’t Xiaomi’s best offering, that there was going to be an Ultra device eventually that would be Xiaomi’s true alpha dog phone. It took a bit longer than expected, but it’s finally here: this is the Xiaomi 12S Ultra.
I’ve only had about eleven hours with the phone at the time of writing this, so this is by no means a complete review. But on paper, this phone is a beast with the overkill hardware that we have come to expect from the last two Xiaomi Ultra phones, and from my testing, it’s living up to that gaudy spec sheet so far.
Leica Authentic Look and Leica Vibrant look photographic styles
Leica Vivid, Natural, BW Natural, BW High Contrast filters
Front Camera(s)
32MP RGBW image sensor
Port(s)
USB Type-C
Audio
Symmetrical stereo speakers
Tuned by Harman Kardon
Dolby Atmos certification
Connectivity
Dual 5G
4G LTE
Wi-Fi 6
Bluetooth 5.2
BLE Audio support
Snapdragon sound support
AAC/LDAC/LHDC/aptX Adaptive
Multi-functional NFC
Software
MIUI 13 based on Android 12
Other Features
X-axis linear vibration motor
3D cooling system
About this hands-on: Xiaomi sent me a Xiaomi 12S Ultra for testing. Xiaomi had no input in this article.
Xiaomi 12S Ultra: Pricing & Availability
First, the elephant in the room and bad news to some readers: the Xiaomi 12S Ultra is so far scheduled for a China release only, although an international release could follow later. The Xiaomi 12S Ultra comes in three configurations:
8GB+256GB: CNY 5,999 (~$896)
12GB+256GB: CNY 6,499 (~$970)
12GB+512GB: CNY 6,999 (~$1045)
Xiaomi has yet to share the availability details for the device. We will update this section when more information is revealed.
Xiaomi 12s Ultra Design and Hardware: It’s like a camera with a phone attached
Smartphone camera modules have gotten larger and larger through the years, but the Xiaomi 12S Ultra really takes the cake. I mean, look at this thing. It protrudes quite a bit from the backside too, so if you’re placing this phone flat on a table, it lays at an incline as if you’re propping up a keyboard.
As if this camera module isn’t eye-grabbing enough, there’s also a 24k gold ring that wraps around the module. But yet, despite the top-heavy design, the phone can still stand on its own, thanks to its flat bottom and top.
This, however, means the Xiaomi 12S Ultra’s screen loses that quad-curved design seen in the Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra and Mi 11 Ultra (there’s no Mi branding for this year’s phone, by the way).
We’ll get back to those cameras soon, let’s look at other hardware. Around the front is a 6.73-inch OLED display that Xiaomi officially refers to as the “Dolby Vision TrueColor Display”. It’s an LTPO sourced from Samsung, with a resolution of 3200 x 1440 and refresh rate that can vary between 1Hz to 120Hz. It gets plenty bright at 1,500 maximum nits of brightness, supports 10-bit color depth, and content looks great on it.
Powering the phone is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, the brand new 4nm chip from Qualcomm that supposedly brings a 10% improvement to CPU and GPU over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and more importantly if true, a 30% increase in energy efficiency. This will be needed, because the 12S Ultra actually packs a smaller battery than last year’s Mi 11 Ultra, at 4,860 mAh.
I have run some benchmarks already, and the new chip does score high marks. On Geekbench in particular, the numbers are quite a bit better than what my Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered Galaxy S22 Ultra scored. In fact, the 12S Ultra’s Geekbench numbers come close to Apple’s A15 Bionic.
Xiaomi 12S Ultra (left); Galaxy S22 Ultra (middle); iPhone 13 Pro Max (right).
More importantly, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra successfully finished the 20-minute “Wild Life Extreme Stress Test” in the app 3D Mark, which the Xiaomi 12 Pro failed to do when I tested it months back due to overheating. So we know the Xiaomi 12S Ultra at least has better thermals (but more importantly, a processor that does not heat as much).
Elsewhere, the phone rocks the symmetrical stereo speaker system seen in the last few Xiaomi flagships, but the 12S Ultra also comes wrapped in a vegan leather finish that I absolutely love.
All the other flagship flourishes you’re accustomed to can be found here: IP68 water and dust resistance, wireless charging (up to 50W speeds) and wired fast charging (67W, the charger included with the package). And there are two proprietary chips inside the phone — Surge P1 and Surge G1 — that Xiaomi says will handle charging and battery management separately. Okay, let’s get back to the main selling point of this phone, the optics.
Xiaomi 12S Ultra Cameras: Large sensor magic
The Xiaomi 12S Ultra’s main camera system consists of three cameras, headlined by a new 50MP Sony IMX989 camera with a 1-inch sensor with a Leica lens. Xiaomi says the 1-inch Sony IMX sensor was custom built by Sony for Xiaomi, and the optical lens covering the camera was co-engineered by Leica and Xiaomi. The camera also uses pixel binning tech to produce a micro pixel size of 3.2μm. These numbers are insane.
The 48MP ultra-wide camera and Periscope zoom camera are both 1/2-inch Sony sensors as well, and they also use binning tech to produce 12MP shots. The Periscope zoom lens is still offering a 5X optical zoom range, but from early testing, it looks much improved over last year’s Mi 11 Ultra zoom lenses.
Keep in mind that I have not had enough time to really push the cameras yet, but these samples should give an early idea of how the Xiaomi 12S cameras fare. We can see from the samples that the 5x zoom lens produces very sharp images, the ultra-wide doesn’t lose too many details and colors remain mostly consistent with the other lenses.
But really, most readers are interested in what that 1-inch main camera can do — so let’s dig in. Yes, the 1-inch sensor produces a very shallow depth-of-field, resulting in natural bokeh in still photos and videos.
And when compared to the Galaxy S22 Ultra and iPhone 13 Pro Max, we can see Xiaomi’s shot has a noticeably stronger bokeh too.
One concern I had with such a large sensor was that the camera would consistently blow out lights, which Samsung and Apple flagships are prone to do from time to time (and those sensors are small compared to the 12S Ultra’s). Whether it’s the Leica optical lenses or Xiaomi’s software algorithms, images keep a good balance. The below set of samples was taken as it was starting to get dark (7:20 pm), but yet not dark enough for these phones to turn on night mode, and we can see Xiaomi’s image clearly pulls in the most light (bottom third of the shot). The 12S Ultra also is the only camera to expose my computer screens properly, while Samsung and Apple blew those out.
Notice Xiaomi’s colors are a bit more exaggerated. That’s part of the new Leica image fine-tuning that seems to do a similar job as what Vivo’s X flagships have done lately by adding a bit of extra contrast for more kick. There is an option to switch between this mode, named “Leica Vibrant,” and more natural colors, “Leica Authentic.”
If we move to proper low light shots, like the below set at a park at night, we can see the superiority in Xiaomi’s shot: less noise, sharper details, and better illuminated all around. And here’s the kicker — the 12S Ultra did not need night mode for this shot, while Apple and Samsung’s phones needed a two-second night mode.
I will definitely more this camera to more tests in the coming days as I work towards a full review, including against our current camera king, the Vivo X80 Pro, plus portrait photography.
Xiaomi 12S Ultra: Early thoughts
There’s a lot more about the Xiaomi 12S Ultra I haven’t covered, including video recording, Leica portrait shooting modes, battery life (and whether the two proprietary chips help efficiency) as well as gaming and other general phone use. But so far, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra is looking like it’s easily a contender for phone of the year so far. And while no international release date yet is a bummer, the relatively low starting China price of around $900 means consumers in the west can import the device, and even after factoring in the mark-up, won’t pay a ludicrous amount. If you’re wondering — Google apps do not ship with the phone, but they can be installed easily. Xiaomi’s own app store has the Google Play Store for download.
Even for a hard-to-please phone geek like me, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra seems to tick most of the boxes I want in a phone right. Other than the fact it doesn’t fold, I guess. But as far as glass slabs with good cameras go, this good camera does have a glass slab phone on it.
Merely six months after its previous flagship launch, today Xiaomi announced a trio of familiar-looking smartphones to mark the beginning of its partnership with Leica. The new 12S Series features MIUI 13 based on Android 12, and it runs on Qualcomm’s allegedly more efficient Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 flagship processor, with the headlining 12S Ultra packing a massive 1-inch, 50.3-megapixel Sony IMX989 main sensor. This translates to a generous pixel size of 1.6um, which then doubles to 3.2um via pixel binning for a supposedly boosted color accuracy and low light performance. And unlike the Sony Xperia Pro-I, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra apparently uses the entire portion of its 1-inch sensor.
According to CEO Lei Jun, Xiaomi took part in the Sony IMX989’s development, and the $15 million cost was also split evenly between the two companies. Interestingly, the sensor won’t be exclusive to Xiaomi; Lei added that it’ll be made available to his local competitors after the launch of the 12S Ultra, in order to “promote the advancement of mobile imaging together.”
Xiaomi 12S Ultra
Xiaomi
As for Leica’s part on the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, you get a “Leica Summicron 1:1.9-4.1 / 13-120 ASPH camera system” covering all three rear cameras: the aforementioned 50.3-megapixel main camera (23mm, f/1.9), along with the 48-megapixel ultra-wide camera (13mm, f/2.2) and the 48-megapixel periscopic camera (120mm, f/4.1). Both 48-megapixel cameras use a 1/2-inch Sony IMX586 sensor. The entire circular camera island — now with “Leica” co-branding — benefits from some coating magic to mitigate lens glare and improve image consistency across each lens. Oh, and there’s a 23K gold rim here as well.
In addition to some Leica filters, users will be able to switch between two photographic styles: “Leica Authentic Look” for natural-looking shots with stronger three dimensional depth, and “Leica Vibrant Look” which adds Xiaomi’s input on vibrancy while preserving authenticity (somehow). You can also toggle the watermark banner at the bottom of your photos, which will add Leica’s iconic red logo, photo metadata and location coordinates to the right, along with phone model and timestamp on the left.
Xiaomi
On the other side of the phone, there’s a 32-megapixel selfie camera powered by an unknown RGBW sensor. Most of these cameras are capable of Dolby Vision HDR video recording (up to 4K@60fps) and playback, thus making the 12S Ultra the first Android device to sport these features. Some also utilize the motor-based “HyperOIS” for more stable footage. As for still shots, the entire 12S Series supports 10-bit RAW format calibrated by Adobe Labs, with color correction metadata embedded in the files for easier post-production with the likes of Adobe Lightroom.
The 12S Ultra also happens to carry two proprietary Xiaomi Surge chips: a Surge P1 fast-charging chipset and a Surge G1 battery management chipset. These provide support for 67W wired fast charging, 50W wireless fast charging and 10W reverse charging for the 4,860mAh single cell silicon oxygen anode battery. Note that some fast-charging solutions use a dual cell battery instead to split the current load, which is why it’s a good thing that the Surge P1 can handle an output current of up to 16A here, and apparently with 96.8% conversion efficiency. Like Oppo’s and ASUS’ recent handsets, the 12S Ultra offer adaptive charging as well, which allegedly increases the number of charge cycles by 25 percent.
Keeping the phone cool is also key to a healthier battery, not to mention a more stable performance while gaming. The Xiaomi 12S Ultra is equipped with a “three dimensional cooling pump” which moves cooling liquid across warm surfaces using a capillary mechanism similar to that on leaves. This apparently improves thermal conductivity significantly, compared to conventional vapor cooling modules.
Xiaomi
The rest of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra is standard flagship affair. For the display, you get a 6.73-inch Samsung E5 AMOLED panel (3,200 x 1,440, 522ppi; LTPO 2.0), with a peak brightness of up to 1,500 nits, a 1-120Hz AdaptiveSync Pro refresh rate, native 10-bit color depth and support for P3 color gamut. As you can tell from the camera features, the screen can handle Dolby Vision, as well as HDR10+, HDR10 and HLG; these will go well with the Harman Kardon speakers which also support Dolby Atmos audio. The device is IP68-rated, meaning it should survive accidental dives into sinks and pools. You’ll also find an infrared remote port at the top for controlling home appliances.
Options include up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM, up to 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage — featuring Xiaomi’s self-developed FBO (File-Based Optimization) storage refresh tech, which supposedly maintains the same read/write performance for at least four years (and Lei added that FBO has already been written into the next-gen UFS 4.0 storage specification). Buyers can choose between a “Classic Black” and a “Verdant Green,” both wrapped in vegan leather.
Xiaomi 12S Pro
Xiaomi
The lesser Xiaomi 12S Pro shares the same 6.73-inch display and Surge P1 fast charging-chipset as the 12S Ultra, though it supports a whopping 120W wired charging for its smaller 4,600mAh battery, but lacks 10W reverse charging. It features a more regular (but apparently still pricey) 1/1.28-inch, 50-megapixel Sony IMX707 main sensor, which is a variant of the IMX700 previously found on Huawei’s Mate 40 Pro series. This still offers a good pixel size of 1.22um (or 2.44um after pixel binning), and it matches the resolution of its ultra-wide camera (14mm) and telephoto camera (50mm) — all fine-tuned by Leica as well, of course.
As for the “basic” Xiaomi 12S, it has the same main camera as the 12S Pro and the same fast-charging features as the 12S Ultra, but with a smaller 4,500mAh battery in a more palm-friendly body under the 6.28-inch 120Hz display. Apparently there is still a sizeable demand for small flagship phones, according to Lei.
The Xiaomi 12S Series is now available for pre-ordering in China ahead of retail launch on July 6th. The 12S Ultra is priced from from 5,999 yuan (8GB RAM, 256GB storage; around $900) to 6,999 yuan (12GB RAM, 512GB storage; around $1,000). The 12S Pro is cheaper, asking for 4,699 yuan (8GB RAM, 128GB storage; around $700) to 5,899 yuan (12GB RAM, 512GB storage; around $880). The 12S is the most affordable option here, starting from 3,999 yuan (8GB RAM, 128GB storage; around $600) and capping at 5,199 yuan (12GB RAM, 512GB storage; around $780). We’ll keep an eye out for international availability later.
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While Samsung has been the first brand to cross 100MP and 200MP barriers in the smartphone camera segment, Sony has trumped its South Korean rival by developing a 1-inch sensor. The Japanese firm will be the first to launch a 1-inch smartphone camera sensor, the IMX989.
The Sony IMX989 1-inch camera sensor will debut with the Xiaomi 12S Ultra. The device will be launched alongside the Xiaomi 12S and the Xiaomi 12S Pro on July 4, 2022. It is a 50MP camera sensor, and its native pixel size will be around 1.5µm, which should theoretically offer excellent performance in low-light conditions.
While some Sony phones already use 1-inch sensors, they are all cropped versions of sensors used in Sony’s digital cameras. The IMX989 is the first 1-inch sensor explicitly made for smartphones. Sony is also rumored to be working on a 100MP mid-range camera sensor.
Samsung’s biggest sensor is the ISOCELL GN2. It has an optical format of 1/1.12-inch and a native pixel size of 1.4µm. Despite the ISOCELL GN2 being the best ISOCELL sensor, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is rumored to use the ISOCELL HP1. It is a 200MP camera sensor with an optical format of 1/1.22-inch and 0.64μm native pixel size.
Sony’s new IMX989 camera sensor should offer much better image and video quality than Samsung’s 200MP camera sensor. However, a lot also depends on image processing algorithms. So, only time will tell if Samsung’s upcoming flagship phone can match the camera performance of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra.
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At the start of 2021, Sony introduced the $2,500 Xperia Pro. It was a phone the company made for video professionals. Now, Sony is back with a second professional-grade smartphone designed to appeal to photography enthusiasts. The headline feature of the Xperia Pro-I is a 1-inch sensor borrowed from the company’s RX100 VII point-and-shoot camera. That’s a much larger sensor than you’ll find on most phones.
To put things in perspective, the primary sensor on the Pixel 6 Pro features a pixel pitch of 1.2µm. By contrast, the main sensor on the Pro-I has 2.4µm-sized pixels, making it much better in low light. It can also shoot 12-bit RAW files and native 4K video at 120 frames per second with eye-detection auto-focus. Speaking of auto-focus, it comes with 315 points that cover 90 percent of the frame.
The Pro-I also includes one of Sony’s BIONZ X imaging processors, giving it the ability to shoot up to 20 frames per second with both auto-focus and auto-exposure enabled. The fast readout speed of the sensor allows it to avoid a rolling shutter effect, a feature Sony says helps the Pro-I stand out from other phones with 1-inch sensors like the Mi 11 Ultra. Those handsets also don’t have phase-detection autofocus like the Pro-I does.
Complimenting the 1-inch sensor is a 24mm lens made from glass that can switch between f/2.0 and f/4.0 apertures. Sony went with an aspherical design to make the optics as small as possible. Flanking the primary camera is a 16mm ultrawide camera and a 50mm telephoto camera. Sony says it chose that lens arrangement after consulting with photographers who told the company they wanted a setup that matched their collection of prime lenses.
Once you get past its camera, the Xperia Pro-I is essentially a souped-up Xperia 1 III. Internally, the phone features a Snapdragon 888 supported by 12GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage. You can add up to 1TB of additional storage with the help of a microSD card. Powering everything is a 4,500mAh battery Sony claims will allow you to use the Pro-I for a full day on a single charge. Inside the box is a 30W power adapter that can charge the phone to 50 percent in 30 minutes.
The Pro-I also features the same 6.5-inch OLED that came on the Xperia 1 III. It’s a 4K display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 21:9 aspect ratio. On the audio front, the Pro-I not only comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack, but it also includes Sony’s LDAC and DSEE technologies.
All of those capabilities come with a hefty price tag. In the US, Sony plans to sell the Xperia Pro-I for the eye-watering price of $1,800. The way the company sees it, you’re effectively getting a flagship phone and RX100 VII for less than the price of buying those devices separately. However, the Xperia Pro-I isn’t a one-to-one replacement for the RX100 VII. Sony’s point-and-camera outputs images at 20.1-megapixel, using the full readout from its sensor. The Pro-I uses a crop because taking advantage of the entire sensor would necessitate a much larger lens than would be feasible to include on a smartphone.
Pre-orders for the Xperia Pro-I open on October 28th, with general availability to follow in December.
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