On Monday, Xiaomi officially unveiled the new Xiaomi 12S series, designed in collaboration with Leica. This outstanding imaging product series is the first culmination of Xiaomi's strategic partnership with Leica imaging technology. The entire series features various imaging systems co-developed by Xiaomi and Leica, incorporating Leica Summicron lenses and supporting Leica imaging profiles, all of which are designed to allow individual creators to express their creativity while maintaining the authentic style of Leica imaging.
Authentic Leica images, Leica imaging profiles
In the new era of mobile photography, Xiaomi and Leica have teamed up to create a new standard for smartphone photography. Combining Leica's in-depth knowledge of optics, image processing and image quality with Xiaomi's rich experience in smartphone computing photography, the Xiaomi 12S series. Developed in collaboration with Leica, it offers unprecedented smartphone image quality with colours that closely match Leica's distinctive look and feel.
To push imaging technology to new limits, Xiaomi and Leica have jointly developed sophisticated optical lenses. The Xiaomi 12S Ultra is a top-of-the-line model that leverages Leica's world-class optical design capabilities in its lens system, while adhering to stringent optical quality testing standards and realizing Xiaomi's expertise in miniaturizing components to deliver ultra-high resolution, ultra-high light sensitivity and reduced light sensitivity.
The Xiaomi 12S Ultra's primary camera uses an 8P aspherical lens to solve common photography problems such as flare, ghosting and chromatic aberration. The Xiaomi 12S Ultra's camera module also features anti-reflective lens coating, lens coating and cyclic olefin with copolymer material and infrared light filtering spin coating technology. Together, these features provide a clearer overall image that is uniform across the lens.
In addition to the advanced optical design, the Xiaomi 12S series "co-designed with Leica" also uses Leica imaging profiles, inheriting Leica's century-old image aesthetics and using state-of-the-art algorithms to reproduce Leica's tone and aesthetics. For the end-user, this means access to two shooting styles: the "Leica Authentic Look" and the "Leica Vibrant Look", both offering the photographer increased creative freedom.
- The "Leica Authentic Look" follows the natural imaging Leica is known for. It adds three-dimensional depth to photographs by preserving the contrast of light and shadow, with the distinctive excellence of Leica's time-tested light and shadow aesthetics.
- The "Leica Vibrant Look" features input from Xiaomi and Leica. Combining Xiaomi's expertise in smartphone photography with Leica's leading aesthetics, photographers can strive to capture the emotion of the moment, symbolizing Leica's exploration of smartphone photography.
"Designed in collaboration with Leica", the Xiaomi 12S series gives an authentic "Leica Image Look" to a smartphone.
Professional wide-angle camera with super large 1″ sensor
The Xiaomi 12S Ultra is equipped with a Sony IMX989 1″ sensor, which implements a Quad-Bayer pixel array, with each pixel reaching 1.6 μm. After pixel aggregation, this reaches 3.2 μm, which reduces noise, extends dynamic range, increases the amount of light captured and results in overall better imaging in low light conditions. This sets a new precedent in smartphone cameras, approaching traditional cameras in terms of hardware specifications.
The Xiaomi 12S Ultra is the first Android device to support Dolby Vision HDR video recording and playback. Dolby Vision enhances your video with vivid colours, sharper contrast and richer details, delivering vivid and refined picture quality. Xiaomi 12S Ultra uses HyperOIS for ultra-stable performance, offering continuous compensation for motion during video recording. HyperOIS takes advantage of the gap between two frames to move the OIS motor to its original position, giving each frame a full effective stabilisation range.
The primary sensor in the Xiaomi 12S and Xiaomi 12S Pro is the Sony IMX707, which features both a large sensor size and large pixels, after 1/1.28" and 2.44 μm pixel binning. With support for Xiaomi AI Image Solution and Xiaomi ProFocus, these sensors enable fast startup, capture and continuous recording. These devices support industry-leading 30 frames per second ultra-fast burst shooting and exceptional shooting capabilities in low light. They also implement all-scene snapshot in their cameras, making it easier to capture the decisive moment.
The Xiaomi 12S series, "designed in collaboration with Leica", is designed to be more photographer-friendly in post-production. The entire series supports the 10-bit RAW format calibrated by Adobe Labs, with colour correction metadata embedded in the files. When you use Adobe Lightroom to open photos taken with the Xiaomi 12S series, Adobe Camera RAW software automatically optimizes the images based on the metadata, giving professional photographers a good starting point for post-production.
One smartphone, two Xiaomi Surge chips
The Xiaomi 12S Ultra, designed in collaboration with Leica, is the first flagship model equipped with two patented Xiaomi Surge chips, the Xiaomi Surge P1 fast charging chipset and the Xiaomi Surge G1 battery management chipset, which greatly improves battery management and overall user experience.
The Xiaomi 12S Ultra supports 67W wired fast charging, 50W wireless fast charging and 10W reverse wireless charging. The core of the Xiaomi Surge Battery Management System is a 4860 mAh single-cell silicon-oxygen anode battery and Xiaomi Surge P1 fast charging chipset, which supports up to 16 A output current with 96.8% conversion efficiency. In addition, the Xiaomi Surge G1 battery management chipset offers a range of battery management algorithms, embedding proprietary battery management algorithms to protect battery operational safety and monitor discharge load to accurately predict the available battery life of the device. Xiaomi 12S Ultra also supports adaptive charging to prevent battery overcharging, increasing the number of charge cycles by 25%.
The Xiaomi 12S Pro features the Xiaomi Surge P1 fast charging chipset, 120 W wired charging, 50 W wireless charging and a 4600 mAh single-cell battery, while the Xiaomi 12S offers 67 W wired charging, 50 W wireless charging and a 4500 mAh battery.
Flagship performance, flagship display
As Xiaomi's latest flagship, the Xiaomi 12S series, designed in collaboration with Leica, is powered by the brand new Snapdragon® 8+ Gen 1 mobile platform, based on TSMC's 4nm process. Compared to Snapdragon® 8 Gen 1, the core area of Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is 21% smaller, both CPU and GPU performance is improved by 10% and power efficiency is improved by 30%. This not only significantly reduces the standby power consumption of the Xiaomi 12S Series, but also enables lower heat and power consumption in high-load computing scenarios.
The Xiaomi 12S Ultra is equipped with a completely new heat dissipation system, similar to the biological mechanism that plant leaves use to absorb water. This three-dimensional heat sink is ingeniously designed with a series of channels that actively pump the condensed coolant on the opposite side from the hot areas using a capillary network, significantly improving efficiency and increasing the thermal conductivity of a single unit by 100% compared to conventional VC heat sink systems.
The Xiaomi 12S Ultra and Xiaomi 12S Pro feature a 6.73-inch AMOLED colour display with E5 luminescent material, which provides professional detail, brightness and colour performance at 1500 nits peak brightness, 2K resolution, P3 colour gamut and 1 -120Hz AdaptiveSync Pro. The Xiaomi 12S is slightly more compact at just 6.28 inches and supports P3 colour gamut display, HDR10+ and 120Hz AdaptiveSync.
Leica camera - Partner in photography
Leica Camera AG is an international premium manufacturer of cameras and sports optics. The Leica brand's legendary reputation is based on a long tradition of high quality, German craftsmanship and industrial design, as well as innovative technologies. The company's diverse activities to promote photography are an integral part of its brand culture. Alongside the worldwide Leica Galleries and Leica Academies, there is the Leica Hall of Fame Award and in particular the Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA), one of the most innovative sponsorship awards to date. Also Leica Camera AG, headquartered in Wetzlar, Hessen, with a second production site in Vila Nova de Famalicão, Portugal.
