I’ve been using the Xiaomi 12S Ultra for a while now, and think I’ve gotten to know it deeply. The thing that impressed me the most compared to my last phone was its camera system. In this review, I test out the Xiaomi 12S Ultra in detail. So, let’s get on with this review!

Xiaomi 12S Ultra – Cameras

The camera is the biggest selling point of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, so let’s talk about the camera first. If we just look at the sensor, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra is not that much improved compared to its predecessor. The sensor of the ultra-wide camera and telephoto camera remain the same, only the main camera is replaced by Sony IMX989 with a larger sensor area, and the lens is upgraded to 8P with coating.

The 12S Ultra comes with two built-in Leica color modes, LEICA Vibrant and LEICA Authentic. Simply put, the LEICA Vibrant mode is Xiaomi’s original color mixing style with a little Leica style. On the other hand, the LEICA Authentic mode is to restore the color science on Leica cameras as much as possible. To visually show the power of this new 1-inch sensor, we turned off AI and selected LEICA Vibrant mode for shooting.

Compared to the 11 Ultra, the difference is not particularly huge in most of the daytime samples. We can clearly notice that the color brightness is lower and contrast is higher, so the colors are purer. The white balance will be more accurate and closer to the color temperature as seen by the human eye. The background bokeh, distortion control, edge and center image quality are all almost identical to the previous generation. It seems that in the daytime the new sensor and Leica do not bring much improvement in this mode. Instead, the new coating reduces more flare for the 12S Ultra. This does make a noticeable difference in photos. When it comes to night scenes, the new sensor and new algorithms make a significant difference, with a further improvement in dynamic range. Based on the shooting test we did, there is no overexposed areas in the extreme bright photos. But sometimes it’s not a good thing to have strong HDR effect, such as in these pictures, obviously the 11 Ultra is better.

You can check out all of the original camera samples from this link.

One of the biggest advantages of smartphone photography is that you can get a nice photo by pressing the shutter, and you don’t need to retouch it yourself. But most phone AI-processed photos are too …… Eye-catching. Most of the photos are good at first glance, but your eyes will get tired of the exaggerated colors in the long term. The 12S Ultra’s LEICA Authentic mode is different from them all. In the past, controlling highlights and raising exposure in dark areas was the way to take good photos, but it doesn’t do that this time. It makes the bright areas brighter where they should be, and doesn’t raise its brightness in the areas where our eyes can’t even see. There is no sharpening, and almost no noise reduction and even Vignetting is added around the photo. Saturation is intentionally reduced, and then with the exclusive watermark, there is really a Leica camera feel now.

If you use this mode to take pictures, you should never care about dynamic range or noise or any other thing, just focus on the scene in front of you, and leave the rest to the 12S Ultra, then you can get a different kind of photo. There is no need to compare it with other phones in this mode, because technically it doesn’t perform that well. But for normal people, we do not buy Leica cameras to shoot photos with the real colors, sometimes it’s just for taking pictures at that moment. However, you can’t trust this mode blindly, sometimes the photos don’t look as good as LEICA Vibrant mode. My advice is to use LEICA Vibrant mode when you need to capture your life and LEICA Authentic mode when you need to create your own photography.

The sensors in ultra-wide and telephoto are the same as the 11 Ultra, so there is basically no difference except that the color science is the same as the main camera.

About the 12S series exclusive Leica watermark, it can really make your photos more high-class. But there are more limits, first it can’t be used in night mode, the second is that it doesn’t support HEIF and RAW formats, and the third is that it can’t be added in albums. And you need to be careful to turn off the location information, or you may thus reveal your location. I am sure you have heard that other Xiaomi phones can also use this Leica watermark and filter, and we have tried it. But it seems that Xiaomi blocked the installation of this APK file, so Xiaomi users don’t have to look for ways to use Leica Watermark.

The photo experience is also a huge improvement over the 11 Ultra. the Mi 11 Ultra’s photo experience was really bad, and the shutter speed is much improved on the 12S Ultra. the 12s Ultra’s focus is also very fast, and even with these two TIMONs running around, the focus is still firmly locked on them. Of course, there are some parts of the experience that have regressed, such as the closest focusing distance is not as good as before, trying to get closer to an object to shoot has become impossible. Another example is that the dynamic range of the viewfinder has become narrower. The previews and actual photos on 11 Ultra are basically the same, but there is a big difference in those on 12S Ultra. And then there’s the Xiaomi tradition, which is inexplicable bugs every now and then, hope they can fix it in next system update.

In the video mode, there is actually nothing about Leica modes and filters. So the video recording style is basically the same as the 11 Ultra, and these three lenses all support video recording at up to 8K 24fps, and it supports Dolby Vision video recording, which is the first Android phone that can do this. While we couldn’t manage to show how powerful Dolby Vision is in the SDR video, there is no doubt that the 12S Ultra rear camera has great video recording capabilities. Unfortunately, the front camera is downgraded and it does not have 4K resolution, it doesn’t even have 60fps, it’s not as good as the 12S at this part.

Xiaomi 12S Ultra – Performance & Gaming

We could have seen the Xiaomi 12 Ultra in March, perhaps Lei Jun also felt that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 wasn’t good, so they decided to release the 12S Ultra with Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. There is no doubt that its performance is definitely stronger than the Snapdragon 888 in the 11 Ultra, so we are comparing it with another extremely powerful  Android chips: the Dimensity 9000. 8+ Gen 1 finally said goodbye to Samsung, and is made with the same TSMC 4nm process as Dimensity 9000, the frequency has increased.

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In Geekbench 5, which focuses on CPU performance, you can see that the K50 Pro with Dimensity 9000 and the 12S Ultra have similar Benchmark scores. The 12S Ultra scored much higher than the K50 Pro in 3DMark, which focuses on GPU performance. 20 minutes of CPU Throttling Test also performed well, and it seems that the cooling system did a good job this time.

Genshin has always been a nightmare for Android phones, can the 12S Ultra run Genshin smoothly this time? Let’s review the K50 Pro’s performance first. The K50 Pro gaming experience after the update was good in the first half of the game. Unfortunately, it didn’t hold up, and the fps dropped a lot in the second half. But the 12S Ultra did not disappoint us this time and performed very well. Although it is not running at full 60fps all the time, several times the frame rate drops only down to 55fps or 50fps, which just has very little impact on the gaming experience. This result is almost the same as the previous K50 standard version, which is among the two best Android phones in Genshin Impact. We have waited for so long this year, to have a phone that can take good pictures and play games smoothly.

The one we got is the green vegan leather version. Note that there is a color difference between the official renders and the actual phone, and the real color of the phone is lighter than it’s in the official picture . This phone is a little lighter and smaller than the 11 Ultra, but it’s definitely a big one. The good news is that the frame has become more rounded, but the bad news is that the camera module is bulging more. When I heard that the 12S Ultra only had a vegan leather back cover I couldn’t understand it, but when I got the phone, I understood why Xiaomi dared to do it. The new vegan leather material feels a bit like rubber and is a bit harder than normal vegan leather. It does feel more durable than the previous vegan leather, but I will still keep my opinion that if you’re going to use this phone for a long time, you have to wear a case. After all, any leather is not as hard as glass and ceramic. The sim card slot can hold dual Nano SIM cards, NFC. IP68 waterproof and IR emitter are also there, but there is no USB 3.0. You can’t believe a phone that sells for $900 is still using USB 2.0. Let’s hope we see Xiaomi using USB 3.0 before I die.

Xiaomi 12S Ultra – Display

The most boring part of the 12S Ultra is the screen. It uses the same screen as the Xiaomi 12 Pro and 12S Pro, so we won’t go into that again. Xiaomi said at the launch event that this is the best screen they’ve ever used. Well, I don’t agree with that. First of all, the color shift problem, the 11 Ultra’s E4 does not have that problem. Secondly, DC dimming, the 12S Ultra does have Anti-flicker mode in the developer mode, but the effect is really weak compared to the 11 Ultra.

This also explains why Xiaomi has hidden this mode in the Developer option instead of the Display option. The most proud part of E5 panel is high brightness and LTPO, but I was really not feeling much of it. When I use both phones outdoors, I can see the screen with no noticeable difference. After six months, we all know that LTPO actually does not do much to save power. So I personally think that the screen of Mi 11 series is the best screen Xiaomi has ever used.

A year ago, Xiaomi said that for the environment, the Mi 11 series would not sell with chargers. But now, a year later, they are selling with a charger. This 67W charger is slightly smaller than the previous generation, and the charging compatibility has been tested to be exactly the same as the previous generation. For certain policy reason, the 12S Ultra’s wireless charging power is reduced to 50w.

The location of the wireless charging coil seems to have changed, as it did with the Mi 10 Ultra, and may not apply to previous Xiaomi wireless charging docks. For example, this Xiaomi 30w charging dock in my house will not charge the 12S Ultra. 67w wired charging is not upgraded. What’s worse is that the battery has also gotten smaller. The good thing is that the new Snapdragon chip is more power efficient, and considering that the battery performance in gaming is actually good, so overall we can’t complain about it.

I turned on 5G and used it outdoors for about 8 hours with 12% remaining at last. Perhaps taking pictures is really too power draining, the result is only among the average. Anyway, for better charging and battery life are not the reasons why you should give up on your Mi 11 Ultra.

I know the review is a bit long, but I just wanted to share all I know about the Xiaomi 12S Ultra. I will continue to use this phone for the next few months. Because I bought the Mi 11 Ultra for its powerful camera in the first place, and since the 12S Ultra has a more powerful camera, I’ll be using it after all. But if you don’t care about Leica color science and don’t use your phone to play games, then all you Mi 11 Ultra owners can keep using it, it’s not worth the extra hundred dollars.

For everyone else, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra is a rare all-around flagship phone. It’s a little less amazing than last year, but as long as you can afford it, you can’t go wrong with it. If you have any questions about the 12S Ultra, you can leave them in the comments section.