The Xiaomi 12S Ultra offers an incredible camera with a 1-inch sensor - The Verge
Xiaomi’s 12S Ultra includes a big 1-inch-type sensor and some Leica branding, and it’s not just marketing hype — this camera is the real deal. See how it compares to the iPhone 13 Pro Max, Google Pixel 6 Pro, and Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.
The Xiaomi 12S Ultra’s camera is a remarkable achievement: it’s one of just a few smartphones ever to offer a 1-inch-type sensor. Relatively speaking, that’s a huge sensor for a phone, and bigger sensors generally lead to better image quality.
Pitting the 12S Ultra side by side against some of the current class leaders in smartphone cameras, there are clear situations where the bigger sensor makes a difference. But more than anything, it highlights just how advanced imaging systems from Apple, Google, and Samsung are, even with smaller sensors. The future of mobile imaging won’t be won with better hardware alone.
First, let’s get some housekeeping out of the way. A 1-inch-type sensor is often referred to as a 1-inch sensor to make life easier, but that does not mean the sensor literally measures one inch across or diagonally. It’s an old naming convention that has something to do with TV camera tubes. What matters here is that a 1-inch-type sensor is a lot smaller than what you’ll find in a full-frame camera but significantly bigger than the sensor in just about every other smartphone camera. It’s the same size as the sensors used by Sony’s RX100 series cameras — so putting a 1-inch sensor in a smartphone camera potentially puts it on level ground with the best traditional pocketable cameras money can buy.
There are three rear cameras: the 50-megapixel main, a 48-megapixel ultrawide, and a 48-megapixel, 5x telephoto.
And as for the other specs, the 12S Ultra’s main camera offers a 50.3-megapixel resolution with a stabilized f/1.9 lens. By default, it creates 12-megapixel images from those 50-megapixels. There’s also a stabilized 5x telephoto lens (a 120mm full frame equivalent) with a 48-megapixel sensor and a 48-megapixel ultrawide. Xiaomi says it co-engineered the camera with Leica, and the camera app offers two Leica-branded color processing profiles: Leica Vibrant and Leica Authentic. Video recording up to 8K / 24p is supported, and around front, there’s a 32-megapixel selfie camera.
Oh, and there’s a phone attached, but we won’t get into that here. It’s only sold in China, and as such, I wasn’t really able to test it as a phone.
Rating: 5