Xiaomi 12S Ultra: New camera flagship debuts with Sony IMX989 1-inch camera and Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset
Xiaomi has finally announced the successor to the Mi 11 Ultra, albeit one without the smartphone's distinctive rear-facing display. Still, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra has eye-catching specifications, including a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 that Xiaomi also uses in the Xiaomi 12S and Xiaomi 12S Pro. Incidentally, Xiaomi now sells the Xiaomi 12 Pro Dimensity too, the world's first smartphone with the Dimensity 9000+ chipset.
For reference, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra measures 163.17 x 74.97 x 9.06 mm and weighs 225 g, making it slightly smaller in most areas than the Mi 11 Ultra. However, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra is slightly thicker than the Mi 11 Ultra, which measures 164.3 x 74.6 x 8.4 mm. While the Xiaomi 12S Ultra is just over 1 mm shorter than its predecessor, it has a 0.8-inch smaller display at 6.73-inches. The 3,200 x 1,440-pixel resolution and 120 Hz refresh rate remain though, as does the LTPO 2.0 backplane.
Moreover, Xiaomi includes the Surge G1 chip and a 4,860 mAh battery that supports 67 W fast charging, well down on the peak charging wattage of the Xiaomi 12S Pro. Conversely, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra supports 50 W wireless and 10 W reverse wireless charging like the Xiaomi 12S Pro. In short, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra falls short of its predecessor in terms of charging capabilities, which offers 67 W wired and wireless charging.
Arguably, the most exciting elements of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra are its cameras. On the one hand, the device is the first to feature the Sony IMX989, a 50.3 MP sensor with a 23 mm equivalent focal length and a 1-inch sensor size. Additionally, the sensor supports 4-in-1 pixel binning to create 3.2 μm-wide pixels. On the other hand, Xiaomi has equipped the Xiaomi 12S Ultra with 48 MP telephoto and ultra-wide-angle cameras, plus a 32 MP front-facing camera. Based on Xiaomi's specification sheet, only the device's primary and telephoto cameras support OIS.
Unfortunately, Xiaomi has not announced the Xiaomi 12S Ultra globally. Instead, the smartphone is only orderable in China, where it will ship in Classic Black and Verdant Green colour options. At launch, Xiaomi will sell the Xiaomi 12S Ultra in the following memory configurations:
- 8 GB of RAM/256 GB of storage - CNY 5,999 (~US$643)
- 12 GB of RAM/256 GB of storage - CNY 6,499 (~US$702)
- 12 GB of RAM/512 GB of storage - CNY 6,999 (~US$777)
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