I’ve only had about eleven hours with the phone at the time of writing this, so this is by no means a full review. But on paper, this phone is a beast with the over-the-top hardware we’ve come to expect from the last two Xiaomi Ultra phones, and from my testing, it lives up to that odd spec sheet so far.

Xiaomi 12S Ultra: Specifications

Xiaomi 12S Ultra Build Specifications

IP68 dust and water resistance Colors: Classic Black Lush green

Dimensions & Weight

163.17 x 74.92 x 9.06mm 225 gr

Display

Samsung E5 AMOLED 6.73 inches TrueColor Dolby Vision display Resolution 3200 x 1440, 522 PPI Adaptive refresh rate 1-120 Hz Maximum brightness of 1,500 nits 360 degree ambient light sensor 10-bit native color depth 100% DCI-P3 coverage HDR10+, HDR10, HLG

SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 RAM & Storage

8 GB LPDDR5 RAM + 256 GB UFS 3.1 storage 12 GB + 256 GB 12 GB + 512 GB

Battery charging

4,860 mAh 67W wired fast charging support Support 50W wireless fast charging Support 10W reverse wireless charging Xiaomi Surge P1 charging chip Xiaomi Surge G1 Battery Management Chip

Security In-display fingerprint scanner Rear Cameras

Primary: 50.3MP IMX989, f/1.9, 8P aspherical lens, octa-PD autofocus Ultra-wide: 48MP IMX586, f/2.2, Leica Summicron 1:1.9-4.1 / 13-120 aspherical lens, dual-PD autofocus, macro mode support Telephoto: 48MP IMX586, f/4.1, 120x periscope zoom, HyperOIS

Leica Authentic Look and Leica Vibrant have a photographic style Leica Vivid, Natural, BW Natural, BW High Contrast filters

Front Camera(s) 32MP Image Sensor RGBW USB Type-C Audio Port(s)

Balanced stereo speakers Tuned by Harman Kardon Dolby Atmos certified

Connectivity

Double 5G 4G LTE WiFi 6 Bluetooth 5.2 BLE audio support Snapdragon audio support AAC/LDAC/LHDC/aptX Adaptive Multifunctional NFC

MIUI 13 software 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 to test. Xiaomi had no input into this article.

Xiaomi 12S Ultra: Pricing & Availability

First, the elephant in the room and bad news for some readers: the Xiaomi 12S Ultra is so far only scheduled for release in China, although an international launch could follow later. The Xiaomi 12S Ultra is available in three configurations:

8GB + 256GB: CNY 5,999 (~$896) 12GB + 256GB: CNY 6,499 (~$970) 12GB + 512GB: CNY 6,999 (~$1045)

Xiaomi is 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 units have gotten bigger and bigger over the years, but the Xiaomi 12S Ultra really takes the cake. I mean, look at this thing. It also protrudes quite a bit from the back, so if you lay this phone flat on a table, it’s tilted like you’re propping up a keyboard. As if that camera module isn’t impressive enough, there’s also a 24K gold ring that wraps around the module. However, despite the premium design, the phone can stand on its own thanks to its flat bottom and top. This, however, means that the Xiaomi 12S Ultra’s display loses the quad-curved design seen on 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 some other stuff. Around the front is a 6.73-inch OLED display that Xiaomi officially refers to as a “Dolby Vision TrueColor Display.” It’s an LTPO sourced from Samsung, with a resolution of 3200 x 1440 and a refresh rate that can range from 1Hz to 120Hz. It gets very bright with a maximum brightness of 1,500 nits, supports 10-bit color depth, and content looks great on it. Powering the phone is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, the all-new 4nm chip from Qualcomm that is said to bring a 10% improvement in CPU and GPU over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and, more importantly, if true, an increase of 30 % in energy efficiency. That will be needed, because the 12S Ultra actually has a smaller battery than last year’s Mi 11 Ultra, at 4,860mAh. I’ve already run some benchmarks and the new chip scores high. Especially on Geekbench, the numbers are quite a bit better than what the Galaxy S22 Ultra scored with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. 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 completed the 20-minute ‘Wild Life Extreme Stress Test’ in the 3D Mark app, something the Xiaomi 12 Pro failed to do when I tested it months ago due to overheating. So we know that the Xiaomi 12S Ultra at least has better thermals (but more importantly, a processor that doesn’t heat up as much). Elsewhere, the phone misses the symmetrical stereo speaker system seen on Xiaomi’s latest flagships, but the 12S Ultra also comes wrapped in a vegan leather finish that I really like. All the other flagships you’re used to can be found here: IP68 water and dust resistance, wireless charging (speed up to 50 W) and wired fast charging (67 W, charger included). And there are two proprietary chips inside the phone — Surge P1 and Surge G1 — that Xiaomi says will handle charging and battery management separately. Ok, let’s get back to the main selling point of this phone, the optics.

Xiaomi 12S Ultra Cameras: Big Magic Sensor

The main camera system of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra consists of three cameras, led 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-made by Sony for Xiaomi, and the optical lens covering the camera was jointly manufactured by Leica and Xiaomi. The camera also uses pixel binning technology to produce a micro pixel size of 3.2μm. Those numbers are crazy. The 48MP ultra-wide camera and the Periscope zoom camera are both 1/2-inch Sony sensors and also use binning technology to produce 12MP shots. The Periscope zoom lens still offers 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 haven’t 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 much detail, and colors remain mostly consistent with the other lenses. But really, most readers are interested in what that 1-inch primary camera can do — so let’s find out. Yes, the 1-inch sensor produces a very shallow depth of field, resulting in natural bokeh in photos and videos. And compared to the Galaxy S22 Ultra and iPhone 13 Pro Max, we can see that Xiaomi’s shot also has noticeably stronger bokeh. One concern I had with such a large sensor was that the camera would constantly blow out the lights, which Samsung and Apple flagships are prone to do from time to time (and those sensors are small compared to the 12S Ultra) . Whether it’s the Leica optical lenses or Xiaomi’s software algorithms, the images maintain a good balance. The sample set below was taken as it was getting dark (7:20pm), but not dark enough for these phones to activate night mode, and we can see the Xiaomi image clearly captures the brightest (bottom third of the shot). The 12S Ultra is also the only camera that properly exposes my computer screens, while Samsung and Apple blew them away. Note that Xiaomi’s colors are a bit more exaggerated. This is part of Leica’s new image enhancement that seems to do a similar job to what Vivo’s X flagships have been doing lately, adding a little extra contrast for extra punch. There is an option to toggle between this mode, called “Leica Vibrant” and more natural colors, “Leica Authentic”. If we proceed to proper low-light shots, such as the set below in a park at night, we can see the superiority in the Xiaomi’s shot: less noise, sharper details and better lighting all around. And here’s the kicker — the 12S Ultra didn’t need night mode for this shot, while the Apple and Samsung phones needed a two-second night mode. I will definitely be doing more testing of this camera in the coming days as I work on a full review including the current camera king, the Vivo X80 Pro, as well as portrait photography.

Xiaomi 12S Ultra: Early thoughts

There’s a lot more to the Xiaomi 12S Ultra that I haven’t covered, including video recording, Leica portrait modes, battery life (and whether the two proprietary chips help with efficiency), as well as gaming and other general phone use. However, so far, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra looks like an easy contender for phone of the year so far. And while no international release date is in the offing yet, the relatively low starting price in China of around $900 means that consumers in the West can import the device and, even after factoring in the markup, won’t be paying a ridiculous amount. In case you’re wondering — Google apps don’t ship with the phone, but they can be installed easily. Xiaomi app store has Google Play Store for download. Even for a difficult phone…