It might have flown under the radar that alongside the 12S Ultra that launched last year, Xiaomi was also co-developing its $43,000 12S Ultra Concept smartphone. This handset does not have a protective lens cover, so you have to mount a separate unit onto the housing to take pictures and video. The result is an imaging monstrosity that is also running Android. To see how far Xiaomi has taken things, one YouTuber conducted the most obvious test; stacking an iPhone 14 Pro Max against it.

The Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept has a special 1-inch sensor that is exposed and is only covered by a thin sheet of sapphire glass for protection

Arun Maini, who runs the YouTube channel Mrwhosetheboss, states that there were only three units of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept made, meaning that the Chinese firm just wanted to execute a proof of concept, hence the name. A Leica M lens can be mounted on top of the sensor area, with the lens provided to Arun as a result of the latest partnership between Xiaomi and Leica.

With the lens successfully mounted, the aperture of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept is now F/1.4, compared to F/1.9 on the regular 12S Ultra. This will allow more light to pass and get captured by the sensor, resulting in more detail shown in the final processed image. Another advantage here is that by default, you get increased magnification levels, so you can snap telephoto images right off the bat. Later, you can unmount the lens and capture regular photos with the 1-inch sensor.

Next up comes the comparison with the iPhone 14 Pro Max, which is considered one of the best handsets to capture images and videos with. Before that, one interesting thing Arun pointed out was the exclusive features present in the Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept’s phone app. The first one was ‘Focus peaking,’ which highlights the areas in red on the smartphone’s viewfinder which are in complete focus.

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The second one is ‘Exposure verification,’ which Arun refers to as ‘zebra lines.’ This feature lets the user know when an object is over-exposed. Onto the comparison, and as expected, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept blows the iPhone 14 Pro Max out of the water in still imaging. Still, the YouTuber points out that this is not a fair test, and why would it be? A dedicated, massive, and impractical lens mounted on a smartphone would effortlessly beat a smartphone camera sensor.

Thanks to the dedicated lens, the 12S Ultra Concept can also achieve a natural DLSR-like result without having to resort to processing ‘fake’ information in creating a Portrait Mode result like the iPhone 14 Pro Max. Even in the video comparison, Xiaomi’s ridiculously expensive smartphone trumps the iPhone 14 Pro Max and beats it in low-light mode.

We sincerely advise our readers to take out the time and watch Arun’s video given above, as he not only recovered from a nasty allergic reaction prior to making this video but shooting it in the hallway was difficult because every time a person entered through the doors, the video had to be paused. Sometimes, we do not appreciate the effort it takes to record, edit and publish sub-10-minute videos, so give him some love and tell us in the comments what you thought about this comparison.

News Source: Mrwhosetheboss