Xiaomi 12S Ultra First Impressions: Best camera phone, but you can't buy it
Xiaomi finally showed off its new 12S Ultra smartphone in India. The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra was a good premium smartphone from the brand and saying that the new one is just a better version of it would be an understatement. The Xiaomi 12S Ultra is capable of giving stiff competition to other established phones like the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and iPhone 13 Pro. The company showcased its flagship phone in Pondicherry and I got the opportunity to experience it. I can say that the Xiaomi 12S Ultra has one of the best cameras in the market. As mobile photography technology is evolving so fast, it now feels like the need for having a proper digital camera might end soon.
Xiaomi 12S Ultra: First Impressions
The Xiaomi 12S Ultra isn’t just an upgrade over the Xiaomi 11 Ultra smartphone. It is more than that. The company has made a lot of changes, even in the design department. The new one mimics Leica’s digital cameras. It has a vegan leather back and a large circular camera module at the back, which one might give a feel of using digital cameras. Though, the camera bump is very prominent. I was fearing that the rear camera could get scratches, but a back case fixed this.
The use of vegan leather makes the device feel premium, and luxurious. I got the grey-green colour variant, but the black one looks classier. The device is a bit heavy, but it is pretty much easy to use with one hand. There is also an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. It has dual speakers that are tuned by Harman Kardon. The Xiaomi 12S Ultra also has certification for Dolby Atmos and the stereo speakers sound just great.
Since this is a flagship smartphone, Xiaomi has made sure to add all the goodies to justify premium pricing. It has a high-end E5 display that is about 6.73-inches in size. The AMOLED screen is of great quality with 2K resolution support. The LTPO tech does help save some battery too. The colours and contrast are rich. The screen is visible enough in direct sunlight. The top of the phone has a coating of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus to offer protection against damage. Overall, Xiaomi has done a good job in designing the Xiaomi 12S Ultra.
It features an under-display fingerprint scanner and it can quickly unlock the phone. The haptic feedback of the smartphone is pretty strong and feels good. Under the hood is a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset. We got the Chinese unit, so we couldn’t test the performance. But this one is a tried and tested chip, which is powering most of the flagship phones in 2022.
