Xiaomi 12S Ultra Review: Image is not Progress, but a Threshold

1. Introduction

After the Xiaomi 12S Series, we bring you the Xiaomi 12S Ultra review for the first time (Originally Published on AnTuTu Benchmark). First of all, in a simple sentence to say their views on this phone, if the year’s Xiaomi 10 Supreme Commemorative Edition is the beginning of the road to the ultra-high-end Xiaomi, then this Xiaomi 12S Ultra is a realistic use of everything you can get the highest-end configuration to the current cell phone market to establish prestige.

Regular configuration hardware or something, as long as you are willing to pay the corresponding amount, you can buy, want to be exclusive, then go to engage in custom, but some things are not to spend money to buy.

For example, I have a 10 square meters tailor store, usually, helping neighbors repair clothes to change a trouser leg or something, I want to high-end a little to earn money from the rich, so I found Hermes, but Hermes is not going to take care of me.

Hermes will find the strength of the corresponding partners so that it is a win-win situation, otherwise, it is simply a party to support a party, and this kind of thing in the eyes of the capitalists will not appear.

So when Xiaomi in the domestic and international markets has good sales and market share and reputation, Leica took the initiative to find the door, do you want to win-win-win cooperation, earn some money in the high-end market?

These years, domestic cell phones are impacting the high-end market, more profits, brand tone can also be enhanced. Xiaomi can make the digital series it started into a high-end brand without changing its name and still maintaining a small jump in numbers, which is very difficult. Because you have to change not only the phone itself but also the public on your brand has long formed the inherent impression, thankfully, Xiaomi did.

As a brand established only a dozen years ago, this time the Xiaomi 12S Ultra not only did but also with the 1-inch mega bottom and the Leica image support, almost able to put the position to sit. The specific configuration parameters of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra are as follows.

2. Xiaomi 12S Ultra Specifications

Model	Xiaomi 12S Ultra
Display	6.73-inch Samsung E5 AMOLED micro-curved screen, LTPO 2.0, 3200×1440 resolution, support P3 color gamut, 10bit color depth, 1500nit peak brightness, 1000nit full-screen brightness, support Dolby VISION, HDR10+, true color display
SoC	Snapdragon 8+ Gen1, Max 3.2GHz
RAM ROM	8GB/12GB LPDDR5 6400Mbps 256GB/512GB UFS 3.1
Rear Camera	Lens System: Leica Summicron 1:1.9-4.1/13-120 ASPH Lens System Ultra Wide Angle: 13mm f/2.2 1/2-inch Sensor (SONY IMX586) 48MP Quad-Bayer Color Array Pixel Fusion: 12MP, Single Pixel 1.6um Dual-PD Phase Focus, Supports Close-Up Mode Wide angle: 23mm f/1.9 8P aspherical lens, 1-inch sensor (SONY IMX989), 50.3 megapixels Quad-Bayer Color Array Pixel Fusion: 12.5 megapixels, single pixel 3.2um Octa-PD Phase Focusing Edge-by-edge inking, double-sided multilayer coating on each side Telephoto: 120mm f/4.1 Periscope Structure 1/2-inch Sensor (SONY IMX586) 48MP Quad-Baver Color Array Pixel Fusion: 12MP, Single Pixel 1.6um Dual-PD Phase Focus
Camera Features	Xiaomi Imaging Brain Extreme Computing Pipeline, Leica Native Dual Image Quality: Leica Classic, Leica Vivid, Native Leica Filters: Leica Vivid, Leica Natural, Leica Monochrome, Leica Monochrome HC Master Lens Pack
Front Camera	32 megapixel RGBW photosensitive element, support male beauty, support constant gaze
Unlock	On-screen fingerprints, Face unlock
Battery & Charging	4860mAh high energy density silicon oxide negative battery, 67W wired, 50W wireless, 10W wireless reverse charging Xiaomi Surge G1 battery management chip, Xiaomi Surging P1 smart charging chip
OS	MIUI 13 based on Android 12
Size	163.17 × 74.92 × 9.06mm
Weight	225g
Colors	Classic Black, Verdant Green
Others	IP68 dustproof and waterproof, calfskin grain silicone leather, leaf vein cold pump cooling system, symmetrical stereo speakers, Harman Kardon, support Dolby Atmos, support Xiaomi spatial audio, X-axis linear motor

3. Performance

Xiaomi brought three phones to this conference, all three equipped with Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 processor, but based on the specific configuration of the three phones still have differences in the score.

The Xiaomi 12S Ultra AnTuTu Benchmark score is 1101051, with a CPU score of 256514 and a GPU score of 479387; in the storage test, the random read speed is 1696.3MB/s and the random write speed is 1390.7MB/s, with a total score of 62507; the AI score is 3119620.

As the highest of the three Snapdragon 8+ phones in all configurations, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra’s 110W runtime score is reasonable, which means that this phone not only has a huge improvement in imaging but also has stability in the environment of daily use.

As the latest Snapdragon processor that replaced TSMC’s 4nm process, official data shows that compared to the previous generation Snapdragon 8 Gen1, Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 has improved the overall CPU performance by about 10%, and both CPU and GPU power consumption is 30% lower with the same performance.

The overall SoC also achieves power consumption reduction, compared to the overall power consumption of Snapdragon 8 Gen1 by 15%, which can undoubtedly release higher performance.

The founder of Xiaomi, Lei Jun, said earlier when he was warming up that the name Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 was too low-profile and not a small upgrade in terms of experience, which I guess we all want, after all, the last generation of Snapdragon 8 Gen1 is indeed a bit of Qualcomm to pose a bad suspicion, and MediaTek a few Dimensity chip chase, Qualcomm must need to bring something real in the second half of the cell phone market. It’s the only way.

4. Appearance

The outer box, Xiaomi 12S Ultra, Xiaomi 12S Pro, and Xiaomi 12S are the same, AnTuTu Benchmark received a large gift box belonging to the media version, which is unique, so you do not buy in the past is also such a large gift version.

The entire gift box is divided into a drawer-type two-layer design, lift the lid to first see the Xiaomi 12S Ultra shot with the same tribute to the first Leica camera photos taken in the same place samples. The year Leica is through this photo opened their own hundred years of imaging history. This time, Xiaomi took the same photo at the same location with the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, a product of the two companies.

At the bottom of the photo is the emblem of Xiaomi’s new logo and the emblem of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra’s rear case, with a small red dot in the lower-left corner representing Leica.

The box lid also holds a label with the Xiaomi 12S Ultra’s initial tagline “The defining moment. The new era”, devolved with the signatures of Lei Jun, chairman of the global board of Leica Camera, and founder of Xiaomi.

Pull open the first drawer of the box, the left side is the Xiaomi 12S Ultra phone box, the right side is a protective case, the case looks like the shape of the camera, the feel is also made of vegetal leather, but not sure if it is the same material as the Xiaomi 12S Ultra silicone vegetal leather.

The second layer of the gift box is placed inside the small phone bag, the material is the first layer of cowhide, the right side of the phone bag lanyard, after installation of the phone into the bag can be carried out like a crossbody bag. But this crossbody bag overall looks a little too conspicuous if you want to wear it or to pay attention to safety, after all, the price of Xiaomi 12S Ultra is put there.

The next step is to open the Xiaomi 12S Ultra box. The phone box in addition to the phone itself, the factory is also equipped with a 67W charging head, data cable, clear water case, and other accessories that must be added after the purchase of a new machine, the new machine to use.

Xiaomi 12S Ultra front screen parameters and Xiaomi 12S Pro remain the same, the same 6.73-inch Samsung E5 AMOLED micro-curved screen, support LTPO 2.0, 3200 × 1440 resolution, support P3 color gamut, 10bit color depth, 8000000:1 contrast ratio, Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, support Dolby VISION, HDR10+, true color display, except for the Xiaomi 12S with a 6.28-inch screen, the Xiaomi 12S Pro and Xiaomi 12S Ultra, the two phones have the same screen parameters.

The design of the rear lens module, Xiaomi 12S Ultra uses a large horizontal circular lens module. In recent years there are many cell phone products with a circular lens, and in the conventional impression of everyone has such a concept, the larger the lens module area, the more lenses + the better photos + the more high-end cell phones, this concept is right, because Xiaomi 12S Ultra is one of the representatives.

The Leica logo is placed on the top left of the lens module, this position should be wrongly guessed by everyone during the exposure period of the machine, Leica’s logo uses a white font, not with the representative red guess should also be a limitation on the part of Leica, but the black and white match also looks classic.

The entire rear lens bulge is still high, after all, the 1-inch bottom, which is not a solution to the problem, Xiaomi has done its best in shortening its height.

The lens is also surrounded by a gold metal ring processing, which reminds the Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S also used the same gold processing on the camera’s decorative ring, and also both used 23K gold plating, a kind of design heritage.

The bottom of the camera module is not a cloud step design, but a layer of alloy shield armor, which can provide complete dust and water resistance and buffer protection for the camera module. In addition to the lens module surface covered with that layer of glass is also after a special anti-reflective processor, which can be a big bet to improve the appearance of the ghosting phenomenon.

The body color, Xiaomi 12S Ultra has two models, classic black and verdant green. Black will not need to say, the camera’s classic models, deep also in line with the public understanding of the image; verdant green is a color author personally like very much, it makes the whole phone in keeping with the serious image at the same time also has a touch of liveliness, more suitable for some young users who have a love of photography to choose.

The back case of the body is made of environmentally friendly silicone vegan leather and is also customized with a delicate small bull’s head skin texture, giving the surface of the body a staggered grain that brings a touch beyond genuine leather.

The silicone material comes from natural silicon ore and has a lower surface, which makes the surface of the material easier to clean when dirty, and also has anti-UV and anti-aging properties, bringing excellent touch and flexibility to the user for a long time.

Xiaomi 12S Ultra’s whole weight is not light, 225g, but the strange thing is that such a weight in the hands does not feel very heavy. The author personally thinks that first of all, the rounded processing of the whole machine so that it has a better grip, that is, close to the hand, followed by the addition of silicone skin so that the hand has an excellent point of force when holding the phone, such an overall improvement is the domestic cell phone market will pay special attention to.

This is where you can think about the iPhone 13 series that uses a right-angle bezel to change its appearance, and you can understand what kind of phone should be for your sake.

5. Gaming

Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 SoC and a 2K ultra-high-resolution LTPO 2.0 screen from Samsung E5, such a configuration is reflected in the actual gaming experience is simply a word: cool.

In the actual game experience, “Peace Elite” 30 minutes of game time, the game internal screen opens 90 fps mode, and the system GameSpace opens high-quality mode but also opens the battery high-performance mode. Xiaomi 12S Ultra power consumption of 11%, a phone screen maximum temperature of 41.0°, a back case maximum temperature of 35.8°, temperature and power consumption, and the Xiaomi 12S Pro is almost the same, after all, the two phones are also almost identical in this aspect of the configuration.

For a game like “Peace Elite”, what is needed is a stable frame rate, and the frame rate graph for “Peace Elite” during 30 minutes of game time is as follows:

In another performance professional test game “Genshin Impact”, the same 30 minutes of game time, the game picture quality all open to the highest and 60 fps, the system GameSpace also open high-quality mode, Xiaomi 12S Pro power consumption of 16%. The maximum temperature of the screen is 42.8° and the maximum temperature of the back case is 39.3°. It is not easy to know that the power consumption and temperature control of “Genshin Impact” can achieve such results, and the whole game experience, except for the regular frame rate fluctuations when switching maps in the teleportation point, other times even clearing the road is very smooth.

One of the most common jokes we’ve seen in the past few years is that Snapdragon is the Fire Dragon, and the three fires represent the “hotness” of its high up and down, so when Xiaomi wants to build a super-high-end phone, I’m afraid the first determination it makes is to successfully navigate this dragon.

So we saw the Xiaomi 12S Ultra on the emergence of the leaf veins cold pump cooling technology, which uses bionic design, design principles similar to plant leaves, to open the directional high-speed channel for the conduction of cold liquid, thermal conductivity than VC improved by 100%.

Xiaomi’s engineers refer to the plant leaf veins as the way of water flow. In the interior of the leaf vein cold pump design a channel of liquid reflux special channel, like a high-speed lane, the condensing liquid will be constantly pumped from the cold end to the hot forging, the previous disorderly reflux into an orderly high-speed delivery can greatly enhance the speed of cold night circulation.

Look at these pursuits of Xiaomi in terms of heat dissipation, thought of pretty interesting terrain, if the beginning of the Xiaomi cell phone is born for fever, then the current Xiaomi cell phone is born for heat dissipation.

6. Battery Life

About the battery life, the game life has been given in the third item of this article, which you can use as a reference, in other daily use of the phone, the biggest power consumption scenario in the video.

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

After 32 minutes of TikTok playback, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra’s battery consumption was 4%, with the brightness also adjusted to the highest, and the power consumption scenario was normal.

This time in terms of battery life, Xiaomi 12S Ultra debuted the new Xiaomi Surge G1 battery management chip, and at the same time joined the Xiaomi Surge P1 fast charging chip. Two chips together to achieve the battery management full link technology. Relying on these two self-developed chips can achieve real-time monitoring of battery security milliseconds, significantly improve the prediction accuracy of the range, and also effectively enhance the range. This means that no matter what kind of user you are, Xiaomi 12S Ultra can give you a user environment without feeling anxious in terms of battery life.

Charging, Xiaomi 12S Ultra is 67W fast charging and the factory packaging includes the original charging head and cable. In the actual test, the whole machine from the remaining 1% of the power to start charging, full of the whole phone for a total of 44 minutes, the first 20 minutes can be charged into the phone with 62% of the power, although the overall time is a little slow, but for the need to quickly emergencies.

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

7. Camera

I do not know when to start, domestic cell phone armament competition came to the camera, but it makes sense to think about it because this is the most recognizable place in the case most components can not pull the differentiation of the phone itself, but also where everyone can make an effort to beat the competition, Xiaomi 12S Ultra this time came up with two killer features, 1-inch IMX989 large base, and a century-old Leica’s imaging.

Xiaomi 12S Ultra is not the first 1-inch bottom phone, before Sharp, Sony, and Leica themselves have been launched, but the volume of these three brands of cell phones in the domestic market is completely inferior to Xiaomi, once Xiaomi put the 1-inch bottom into the phone, it means that the 1-inch sensor cell phones want to start popularizing, and Lei has also put out the word, after the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, IMX989 will also be released to peers to use.

A single show is not spring, a hundred flowers bloom spring garden, only together we progress, together with the IMX989 to tune-up, the image of domestic cell phones in the international market can be improved. Xiaomi 12S Ultra has three lenses on the rear, and 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 megapixels, single-pixel 1.6um, Dual-PD phase focus, support for close-up mode
• Wide-angle: 23mm f/1.9 8P aspherical lens, 1″ sensor (SONY IMX989), 50.3MP Quad-Bayer color array, pixel fusion: 12.5MP, 3.2um single pixel, Octa-PD phase focus, edge-by-edge inking, double-sided multilayer coating
• Telephoto: 120mm f/4.1 periscope structure, 1/2-inch sensor (SONY IMX586), 48-megapixel Quad-Baver color array, pixel fusion: 12-megapixel, single-pixel 1.6um, Dual-PD phase focus

Xiaomi officially called this image combination for the Leica Summicron 1:1.9-4.1/13-120 ASPH lens system, complex parameters, and the introduction to see a bunch, I think we are most concerned about the actual camera results of Xiaomi 12S Ultra and how we look directly at the sample photos.

We now usually use some adjectives to say that the unique tone of a camera, such as Oba blue, Canon red, Nikon yellow, Pentax green, etc., which is a unique “bias” color style brought by different brands in the imaging of the camera. If you use the Olympus camera to shoot the blue sky, it presents the blue sky and other cameras are certainly different, and this blue will create a memory point for you, and so the camera’s color style emerged.

What is the tone of Leica’s camera? Personally, the author thinks it’s a gloomy texture, just like when you’ve been working all day, not tired but also not idle, you feel as if life is boring but not depressed, you’re off work on time, walking home, that all-too-familiar road suddenly rained without warning, you won’t get wet, but there are many rain spots on your clothes, the surrounding flowers, and trees as well as the tarmac all have traces of rain, you feel this It feels as if it’s not bad, and there’s a glimmer of hope in a boring day that you don’t know what it is – and that feeling is the Leica tone.

So this style is destined to Leica is not suitable for shooting some hot, lively scenes, it is suitable for a person who is bored to go to the street to sweep shooting, even if the shot is a dog or a touch of shade, you will feel that the texture of these scenes have been enhanced, and this texture is unique to Leica cameras, is the masterpiece on which it is famous.

The addition of this style of image, coupled with the unique greater light intake, greater dynamic range, and more effective noise control capabilities brought about by the 1-inch outsole, gives the Xiaomi 12S Ultra the above photos that seem completely impossible to take by a phone.

This is the biggest improvement in the domestic phone industry in all the years of chasing camera competition. There are two Leica styles built into the phone, Leica Vivid and Leica Classic, and the style of the samples is more obvious:

The former has bland, cool colors, while the latter is more colorful, but not the high saturation, high sharpening effect we now commonly see and still has a deeper overall texture.

These two Leica styles are intentionally launched by Xiaomi together with Leica, the reason is that the people have been used to various community and short video styles, which are fast and lively, and Leica’s low saturation + cold tones and around the dark corners of the processing is opposite. Based on this consideration, Xiaomi on the original Leica imaging style part of the adjustment, so that it can be more adapted to the aesthetics of the domestic market.

The company has been thinking about all possible situations and adding them to the phone, which is the consistent thinking of Xiaomi over the years to create products.

The Xiaomi 12S Ultra supports up to 120x zoom at the telephoto end, which is the farthest focal length that can be reached on a phone.

The most shocking telephoto sample is the 5x focal length. You can see that even though our uploaded photos are compressed, the details of the sky and buildings can still be seen very clearly, the veins of the clouds are also very obvious, and the day of shooting is cloudy, the samples in this kind of weather are very much in line with the Leica tones.

Portraits

Xiaomi 12S Ultra in the camera’s portrait mode, you can choose three different focal lengths of a portrait lens, respectively, 35mm black and white, 50mm rotating focus, and 90mm soft focus, the different focal lengths of the portrait samples presented in the following order.

In addition to the gloom, black and white is also a photo style unique to Leica cameras. Xiaomi 12S Ultra adds Leica’s black and white to the focal lengths most in line with the conventional perspective of the human eye, which should be intended to allow more people to feel the humanistic temperament in Leica cameras.

It is not easy to do well in black and white, for example, in the sample photos, black and white can present the unique high and low saturation adjustment as a test of an imaging company’s control of texture, and on this basis, the background bokeh outside the portrait subject is also done, for the 35mm focal length, these two can appear in a photo and let the public feel compelling and good-looking, very difficult.

90mm soft focus is a rare imaging effect, equivalent to the whole picture hazy (really not out of focus), a bit like looking at the window of a foggy day, which is very rare in the current market known for high saturation and clarity, dare to use this filter to do the effect, no high-end backing may be sprayed in a minute, but as it happens, Leica’s credentials are very enough.

In addition to the three portrait lenses, the photo filter page also has a built-in Leica Vivid, Leica Natural, Leica Monochrome and Leica Monochrome HC four filters, different filters in the same environment to shoot the photo texture is completely different, Xiaomi such a practice is also to allow more people can feel the charm of different Leica colors.

Night photography

In addition to street sweeping and portraits, Leica’s night scenes are still famous in the industry, and the first photo I took at night after getting the Xiaomi 12S Ultra was this.

The first photo author took after getting the Xiaomi 12S Ultra was this: Using an old internet phrase that I was shocked at the time is not an overstatement. The author never even thought that the path he occasionally walked could present such a textured image at 8:35 pm, with streetlights, sky, yellow Das Auto, and if there was some more rain on the ground at this time, it would even feel like he was on a street somewhere abroad, and in the hour after this, he took many photos of the night scene.

Xiaomi 12S Ultra night photo sample can only be described as a certain aspect, the performance of these night samples is already so many years in the industry, it does not need to describe it too much where it is good, you see these samples, your heart will naturally emerge a sentence: How does it shoot so well.

One author’s daily camera is Sony’s black card, RX100 Mark III, its 1-inch large bottom and the joy of a handful of random shots make him feel that do not need a silly big black SLR can also experience the joy of photography, but no matter what, it is ultimately an additional product that he needs to take out with the phone. The Xiaomi 12S Ultra is comparable to the images with a black card back then, but it also saves the burden of taking an extra camera out.

8. Summary

When the author first learned that Xiaomi was going to cooperate with Leica, he thought, “It’s not going to be a few filters built into the system and a Leica logo on the camera and that’s it, right? Even when he saw the real Xiaomi 12S Ultra and was surprised by its rear lens, he still thought, “Isn’t the bigger the lens, the more professional it looks?”

When the author opened the Leica watermark on the camera and took a handful of photos of flowers on the roadside on the way to dinner, the 6.73-inch screen presented the biggest shock of the year, and the author even felt that he had made a wallpaper, a wallpaper that met the needs of the iMac, both in terms of color and picture quality, which he had never seen on a product like a cell phone.

So much so that in the subsequent days of experience, the author have a great desire to take pictures of this phone, he want to see the stories in the corners, want to use this lens to record the images that may never be noticed by people, and sometimes he still wonders whether this is a phone or a camera, why can the phone take such good pictures, and can all future phones do so?

Xiaomi 12S Ultra to the cell phone image is not progress, but a threshold, this threshold is representative of the height of the current cell phone photography, after reaching this threshold is considered to have entered the second tier, and the products under this, is simply not qualified to go head to head confrontation.

Note: This review is original publication of AnTuTu Benchmark by Wangli