In the past two weeks, we got our hands on the Xiaomi 12S Pro and the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, which probably has the best smartphone camera of the year. While it shines, I think there’s another phone that definitely shouldn’t be overlooked, and that’s the Xiaomi 12S, which is probably one of the best compact phones of 2022.
In fact, the Xiaomi 12S is simply the Xiaomi 12 upgraded with a new SoC and main camera. They have the exact same design except for the new color variant and the LEICA logo, so I don’t want to talk about the design and other regular specs in detail today. Let’s just focus on the upgrades, and I believe that these small changes make it an excellent device.
Over the past few years, we’ve seen how most compact phones have some unacceptable drawbacks. They usually don’t use the latest SoC along with a good battery solution. We had a similarly bad experience with the Xiaomi 12, but this time, we know that Qualcomm finally broke up with Samsung, and have their most reliable partner back. Well done Qualcomm! I’ve forgotten how many times I’ve trash-talked about the relationship between Qualcomm and Samsung.
Let’s get right to the point, even in those mobile games that demand high performance, the Xiaomi 12S performs very well. It can run above 50FPS for 30-min gaming in Genshin Impact under the highest graphic settings. Here are some other games and benchmark data for your reference, and you can see that when compared to Pro and Ultra, the Xiaomi 12S doesn’t lag behind by much.
Those users who love compact phones actually don’t play a lot of games, but no one will complain about a device having top-notch performance. And more importantly, now they have got the new 8+ chipset, which has been significantly improved with better power performance and heating.
Xiaomi 12S Display
It may sound strange that this compact flagship actually has a better battery life than the Xiaomi 12S Pro, obviously, the smaller screen with lower resolution plays a decisive role in that.
It’s no surprise that the Xiaomi 12S uses the same display as the Xiaomi 12. For most people, a slightly lower resolution doesn’t make a significant difference, and the 1080P display with a maximum brightness of 1100nit and Dolby Vision support is clearly not out of date. But at the same time, another thing you should note is that it still doesn’t support Anti-Flicker mode with activating the 120Hz refresh rate.
Now let’s talk again about LEICA and the new Sony IMX sensor. We showed you a lot of photos in our Xiaomi 12S Ultra Review and I would say that while the one-inch sensor is a big surprise, this time, Xiaomi really raises an interesting question about mobile photography: does a bigger sensor on a smartphone really make a difference? I mean, a bigger sensor does come with better image quality, especially in low light, but if you have watched a lot of our phone reviews, you’ll realize that we have to look really close at the samples to find those subtle differences.
Xiaomi 12S Cameras
Coming back to the photos taken by the 12S, it is actually hard to say how much it has improved in terms of details. The addition of LEICA has brought some very peculiar changes. In many photos, we can see that it has higher contrast, which makes it look like it loses a few bright and shadow details. But when you look closer, you would find that it’s simply a trade-off in style and those details are not really lost. And it’s so stylish that even if you remove the unique LEICA watermark, you can still recognize the photos shot on the Xiaomi 12S series.
This is what I really meant to say, Xiaomi is trying to change the rules of the game, from comparing the smallest details to creating an overall style. No one will zoom in on the photos you post on social media to observe the details, right? Well except for silly tech reviewers.
A unique color style will make your photos stand out from the traditional vivid style, in the past, you needed to spend quite a bit of time on photo editing apps to get a photo like this. And please note that most users actually are not professionals when it comes to handling colors.
I think this is a good start, perhaps the photos shot on different smartphones will have a variety of unique styles like in the days when film cameras were popular, and consumers can truly figure out what camera phone is the best for themselves.
I’ve also seen some comments that Xiaomi took away their right to decide on photos because there isn’t a LEICA OFF option in camera settings, but the fact is that you can still maximize post-editing by taking RAW format photos on the Xiaomi 12s.
Furthermore, I would like to add one more point about the camera system. Although you can set the shortcut to let the camera launch from the lock screen, you have to press the shutter on the screen or the volume button again to complete a snap. And you can’t just take a continuous shot by long pressing the volume button. So can Xiaomi consider adding an extra physical shutter button on the side of the phone? Just like Sony did with their Xperia Phones?
Compared to other premium camera phones, the very important telephoto lens is missing on the Xiaomi 12S, but it also has its own strengths. I’m not talking about this 13 MP wide-angle lens, but the 5 MP macro lens, which allows you to get a lot of surprises from another perspective. Especially when you see camera phones like the 12S Ultra coming with a large sensor are not able to get close enough to shoot macro images.
This is the world you can see through the main camera, while THIS is the wonder you can only explore through the macro lens, I use the macro lens a lot for special shooting, and then I got some interesting discoveries. You can even use this macro lens to create your own documentary, although it only supports up to 1080P 30FPS video recording, but films like this can’t be captured by Xiaomi 12S Pro and the Ultra.
Well, strictly speaking, this is not a full review. But I want to express some of my thoughts about the evolution of Moblie photography with the Xiaomi 12S and if you want a buying tip, I will tell you that Xiaomi 12S is one of the best compact phones you can pick in 2022, it is perfect for those who like to capture their life with smartphone.
The good battery life allows you to charge it only once a day. On the matter of designing a compact flagship, the only thing Xiaomi needs to improve is probably waterproof support.
Finally, I want to say that I don’t know if you guys realize that compact phones are being abandoned by manufacturers, Apple has already cut their iPhone mini product line even though it brings tens of millions of sales every year, which will further discourage other manufacturers to design new compact flagship phones. This is really not good news. So I really hope Xiaomi, Samsung, and Sony will stick to their choice because there are still some people who don’t like those Pro or Plus phones with their ever-increasing weight.
You can get all three Xiaomi 12S series smartphones from Giztop. In fact, the retailer is offering $100 off on the 12S Pro right now.
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