Earlier this year we reviewed the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, going as far as to say it had the best camera performance on a flagship phone we have encountered to date. While nothing since has come close to usurping the S22 Ultra, a new challenger has emerged in the form of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra.
This latest device from Xiaomi isn’t available in South Africa at the time of writing, but we could not pass up the opportunity to put it through its paces when the chance to review a model came around.
Added to this was our own curiosity as to what the recent partnership with German photography specialists Leica has yielded.
Having been big fans of the performance on past Huawei/Leica smartphones, we were keen to see whether the same high standards have been achieved and if the S22 Ultra can be surpassed.
Before we touch on the experience, let’s run through some of the hardware on offer. Our camera testing is focused solely on the rear camera array, which is what most people would be using to take their own images and video, not to mention leverage the Leica technology available.
On this front there are three lenses, and while that may not seem out of the norm for a flagship phone these days, the array is sporting some big numbers in terms of megapixels.
Here a 50MP 1″ sensor takes care of the primary wide-angle shooter. This is the same Sony IMX989 sensor that Xiaomi teased before the announcement of the 12S Ultra. This primary lens is supported by a 48MP ultra-wide angle and 48MP telephoto lens to round out the array.
Speaking of which, it is a sizeable and imposing unit, which juts out significantly from the rear cover of the 12S Ultra. As we mentioned during our first impressions story, this is an element that people will either dislike, or learn to live with given the superb photo and video quality on offer.
In many ways it reminds us of the Nokia Lumia 1020 that was released nearly a decade ago and featured an absurdly large camera at the time. While it was a bit of an eyesore, it still served up some of the best images that a 2013 phone could.
Once powered on and set up, the first time you jump into the camera app you are given a choice – Leica Authentic or Leica Vibrant. These are two preset photography modes tuned by the German company and as the names suggest, the former focuses on purer colour capture while the latter features more mixed tones associated with other Xiaomi flagship.
We went with Leica Authentic during the majority of our use, but you can toggle between either option fairly easily in the camera app. We think photographers will lean more towards the Authentic option as it makes for wider post-capture editing options, not to mention offering a more realistic representation of what is being shot.
In general, the colour accuracy was superb on the 12S Ultra, as it dealt with low light and bright environments excellently. We were also real fans of the nuance it was able to capture, picking up details that other phones may have lost.
Added to this is a fantastically large image size, which shows no distinct loss of detail or richness when zooming or cropping. The Pro Mode is also quite intuitive in terms of the access to controls, so playing around with the ISO, aperture and white balance is easier compared to some of the other Pro Modes we have encountered in the past.
Once you get going, you very quickly forget that this is a smartphone camera and while many manufacturers claim the quality is on par with a mirrorless or DSLR option, on the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, it is one of the rare occasions where it gets really close.
For photographers in particular then, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra will be a boon to add to their arsenal. The only factor to consider is just how much it will cost, as that performance does not come cheap given the Ultra’s 6 499 Chinese Yuan price tag.
You can check out a smattering of images snapped on the Xiaomi 12S Ultra in the gallery below.
