The new Xiaomi 12S Series “co-engineered with Leica” is probably every professional photographer’s dream smartphone – See Quick Specs

Xiaomi officially unveils the new Xiaomi 12S Series “co-engineered with Leica”. This imaging product series is the first culmination of the Strategic Partnership in Imaging Technology between Xiaomi and Leica.

The entire series features different imaging systems jointly developed by Xiaomi and Leica, containing Leica Summicron lenses, and supports Leica imaging profiles, all of which aim to empower individual creators to express their creativity, while retaining the authentic style of Leica imagery.

Authentic Leica imagery

Xiaomi and Leica jointly create a new standard for smartphone photography. Combining Leica’s in-depth understanding of optics, image processing, image quality, and Xiaomi’s rich experience in smartphone computing photography, Xiaomi 12S Series “co-engineered with Leica” offers unprecedented smartphone image quality, colors that closely adhere to Leica’s signature look and feel.

They have co-developed sophisticated optical lenses. As the top model, Xiaomi 12S Ultra utilizes Leica’s world-class optical design capabilities in its lens system while adhering to their stringent optical quality testing standards and implementing Xiaomi’s expertise in miniaturizing components to ensure ultra-high resolution, ultra-high light sensitivity, reduced dispersion, and lower flare.

Xiaomi 12S Ultra primary camera adopts an 8P aspheric lens, in order to address common photography issues such as flare, ghosting, and chromatic aberration, the camera module of Xiaomi 12S Ultra also adds anti-glare lens coating, lens edge ink coating, cyclic olefin copolymer material, and infrared light filter with spin coating technology. Together, these features offer a clearer overall picture that is consistent across the lens.

In addition to the advanced optical design, the series also utilizes Leica imaging profiles, inheriting Leica’s century-old image aesthetic and reproducing Leica’s tone and aesthetics with the aid of cutting-edge algorithms. For the end user, this means access to two photographic styles: The “Leica Authentic Look” and “Leica Vibrant Look”, both offering you enhanced creative freedom.

The “Leica Authentic Look” pursues a natural imagery for which Leica is known. By retaining light and shadow contrast, it adds a sense of three-dimensional depth to photos, with the characteristic excellence of Leica’s time-proven light and shadow aesthetics.

The “Leica Vibrant Look” features input by both Xiaomi and Leica. Combining Xiaomi’s experience in smartphone photography with Leica’s leading aesthetic, you can strive to capture the emotion of the moment, symbolizing Leica’s exploration in the smartphone photography space.

Xiaomi 12S Series “co-engineered with Leica” brings authentic “Leica Image Look” to a smartphone.

Wide-angle camera with a Super-large 1” sensor

Xiaomi 12S Ultra is equipped with Sony’s IMX989 1″ sensor, implementing a Quad-Bayer pixel array with individual pixel sizes reaching 1.6μm. After pixel binning, this reaches 3.2μm, reducing noise, extending dynamic range, increasing light captured, and achieving overall better imagery in low-light conditions. This sets a new precedent in smartphone cameras, approaching traditional cameras in terms of hardware specifications.

Xiaomi 12S Ultra is the first Android device to support Dolby Vision HDR video recording and playback. Dolby Vision enhances your videos with vivid colors, sharper contrast ratio, and richer details, providing you with vibrant and refined image quality. Xiaomi 12S Ultra uses HyperOIS for ultra-stable performance, offering continuous compensation for movement during video recording. HyperOIS utilizes the gap between two frames to drive the OIS motor to its original position, giving each frame a full effective range of stabilization.

Xiaomi 12S and Xiaomi 12S Pro feature Sony’s IMX707 as their primary sensor, which incorporates both a large sensor size and large pixels, at 1/1.28” and 2 and 2.44μm after pixel binning. With the support of Xiaomi AI Image Solution and Xiaomi ProFocus, these sensors achieve fast startup, capture, and continuous capturing. These devices support an industry-leading 30fps ultra-fast burst mode, and exceptional low-light photography capabilities. Further, they also implement All-scene snapshot in their cameras, making it easier to capture the decisive moment.

The series has also been designed to be more photographer-friendly in post-production. The entire series supports 10-bit RAW format calibrated by Adobe Labs, with color correction metadata embedded in the files. When using Adobe Lightroom to open photos shot on Xiaomi 12S Series, Adobe Camera RAW software will automatically optimize photos based on metadata, providing you with a good starting point for post-production.

Two Xiaomi Surge chips

Xiaomi 12S Ultra “co-engineered with Leica” is the first flagship model to be equipped with two proprietary Xiaomi Surge chips, Xiaomi Surge P1 fast-charging chipset and Xiaomi Surge G1 battery management chipset, offering great improvements in battery management and overall user experience.

Xiaomi 12S Ultra supports 67W wired fast charging, 50W wireless fast charging and 10W reverse wireless charging. At the core of the Xiaomi Surge Battery Management System, is a 4,860mAh single-cell silicon-oxygen anode battery and Xiaomi Surge P1 fast-charging chipset, which also supports up to a 16A output current with 96.8% conversion efficiency.

Furthermore, Xiaomi Surge G1 battery management chipset offers a slew of battery management algorithms, embedding self-developed battery management algorithms to protect the working safety of the battery and monitor the discharge load to accurately predict the available battery life of the device. Xiaomi 12S Ultra also supports adaptive charging to prevent the battery from overcharging thereby increasing the number of charge cycles by 25%.

Xiaomi 12S Pro features Xiaomi Surge P1 fast-charging chipset, 120W wired charging, 50W wireless charging, and a 4,600mAh single-cell battery, while the Xiaomi 12S offers 67W wired charging, 50W wireless charging, and a 4,500mAh battery.

Flagship Performance and Display

As Xiaomi’s latest flagship, Xiaomi 12S Series “co-engineered with Leica” is powered by the all-new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Mobile Platform, built on the TSMC 4nm process. Compared to Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, the core area of Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is 21% smaller, with both the CPU and GPU receiving a 10% improvement in performance and a 30% improvement in energy efficiency. This not only significantly reduces the standby power consumption of Xiaomi 12S Series, but also allows for lower heat emission and power consumption under high-load computing scenarios.

Xiaomi 12S Ultra is equipped with a whole new heat dissipation system, similar to the biological mechanism leaves on a plant may use to absorb water. This three-dimensional cooling pump is ingeniously designed with a series of channels, which use a capillary network to actively pump cooling liquid condensed at the side opposite of warm areas, greatly improving efficiency and increasing the thermal conductivity of a single unit by 100%, compared with traditional VC heat dissipation systems.

Xiaomi 12S Ultra and Xiaomi 12S Pro feature a 6.73″ AMOLED color display with E5 luminescent material that deliver a professional level of detail, brightness and color performance, in addition to a peak brightness of 1500 nits, 2K resolution, P3 color gamut, and 1-120Hz AdaptiveSync Pro. Xiaomi 12S is slightly more compact at just 6.28”, and also supports P3 color gamut display, HDR10+, and 120Hz AdaptiveSync.

Xiaomi 12S Ultra Quick Specs

Design

• 163.17 x 74.92 x 9.06mm
• 225g
• IP68 dust and water resistance
• Leather-like rear
• Classic Black, Verdant Green

Imaging System

1. Leica Summicron 1:1.9-4.1 / 13-120 ASPH. camera system; Ultra-wide angle: 13mm f/2.2
   1. 1/2″ sensor (SONY’s IMX586)
   1. 48MP Quad-Bayer pixel array
   1. Pixel Binning: 12MP, 1.6µm 4-in-1 Super Pixel
   1. Dual-PD Auto-focus
   1. Supports macro mod
2. Wide angle: 23mm f/1.9 8P Aspheric Lens
   1. 1″ sensor (SONY’s IMX989)
   1. 50.3MP Quad-Bayer pixel array
   1. Pixel Binning: 12.5MP, 3.2µm 4-in-1 Super Pixel
   1. Octa-PD Auto-focus
   1. Lens edge ink coating
   1. Multi-layer ALD ultra-low reflectance coating
3. Telephoto: 120mm f/4.1 Periscope
   1. 1/2″ sensor (SONY’s IMX586)
   1. 48MP Quad-Bayer pixel array
   1. Pixel Binning: 12MP, 1.6µm 4-in-1 Super Pixel
   1. Dual-PD Auto-focus
   1. Two photographic styles: Leica Authentic Look, Leica Vibrant Look
   1. Leica filters: Leica Vivid, Leica Natural, Leica BW Natural, Leica BW High Contrast
   1. Master-lens System
   1. HyperOIS
4. Front camera: 32MP RGBW Image Sensor

Image Format

1. JPEG / HEIF
   1. 4096 x 3072 (default)
   1. 8192 x 6144 (50MP mode)
   1. 8-bit sRGB
2. DNG
   1. 4096 x 3072
   1. 10-bit Adobe RGB
   1. Adobe Camera RAW

Video Format

1. Default (H.264 / H.265)
   1. 7680 x 4320 24FPS
   1. 3840 x 2160 60FPS
   1. 3840 x 2160 30FPS
   1. 1920 x 1080 60FPS
   1. 1920 x 1080 30FPS
   1. 1280 x 720p 30FPS
2. Dolby Vision (10-bit Rec.2020 HLG H.265)
   1. 3840 x 2160 60FPS 80Mbps VBR
   1. 3840 x 2160 30FPS 80Mbps VBR
   1. 1920 x 1080 60FPS 55Mbps VBR
   1. 1920 x 1080 30FPS 35Mbps VBR
3. Slow Motion (H.264 / H.265)
   1. 1920 x 1080 480FPS
   1. 1920 x 1080 240FPS
   1. 1920 x 1080 120FPS
   1. 1280 x 720 3840FPS (95ms capture speed, supports motion detection, upscale to output 12s slow-mo video)
   1. 1280 x 720 960FPS (max. 30s capture)
   1. 1280 x 720 480FPS
   1. 1280 x 720 240FPS
   1. 1280 x 720 120FPS

Performance – Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Mobile Platform

• All-new 3D cooling system
• 8GB / 12GB LPDDR5 (6400Mbps)
• 256GB / 512GB UFS 3.1
• FBO storage refresh

Charging System – Xiaomi Surge Battery Management System

• Xiaomi Surge G1 Battery Management Chip
• Xiaomi Surge P1 Charging Chip
• 4,860mAh (typical)
• 67W wired turbo charging
• 50W wireless turbo charging
• 10W reverse wireless charging

Display – 6.73″ Dolby Vision TrueColor Display

• Samsung AMOLED LTPO, E5 material
• 3,200 x 1,440, 522ppi
• 1,500nits peak brightness, HBM 1,000nits (typ)
• 360° ambient light sensor
• 1-120Hz AdaptiveSync Pro
• Native 10-bit color depth, P3 color gamut
• Supports Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10, HLG

Audio – Symmetrical Stereo Speakers

• SOUND BY Harman Kardon
• Support Dolby Atmos
• X-axis linear motor

Connectivity

1. Dual 5G
   1. Release 16
   1. 4×4 MIMO
2. Wi-Fi 6
   1. 4K QAM
   1. 160MHz Channel
   1. 2×2 MIMO
   1. Supports 8×8 Sounding MU-MIMO
3. Bluetooth 5.2
   1. Supports AAC / LDAC / LHDC / aptX Adaptive
   1. Supports BLE Audio
   1. Supports Snapdragon Sound
   1. Multi-functional NFC

Operating System – MIUI 13 based on Android 12

Variants

• 8GB+256GB
• 12GB+256GB
• 12GB+512GB

Also announced were Xiaomi 12 Pro Dimensity Edition, Xiaomi Book Pro 16, Xiaomi Book Pro 14, Xiaomi Smart Band 7 Pro, and Xiaomi Home WiFi.