Our Xiaomi 12S Ultra video reviews are out

The Xiaomi 12S Ultra arrived with big promises and incredible features, including a 1-inch camera sensor by Sony. This camera-centric flagship was developed with Leica, and we did a dedicated camera review, which was posted yesterday.

In it we explain the advantages this new camera has over predecessors and competitors, and how it provides arguably the best still photos we’ve seen in a smartphone, ever. The ultrawide and zoom lenses also perform at least as well as last year’s Mi 11 Ultra but we expected more in the video performance.

The 12S Ultra might look like a camera but it has plenty of other things going for it - a superb OLED display, stereo speakers and IP68 rating. It is also the first phone on the market with Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, although it doesn"t mean much since Xiaomi will not sell the device abroad.

In the world of charging getting faster and faster, Xiaomi decided to stick with 67W for the 12S Ultra. The 4,860mAh battery and its charger did not top any charts, but still proved fast enough for power users; the stereo speakers are also doing a great job.

Sadly, Xiaomi 12S Ultra is just a showcase device for now. Users outside of China will have a hard time getting it and an even harder time setting it up because of the Chinese MIUI and the pre-installed apps. Also, the default keyboard is in Chinese, Netflix is capped at SD (even if your friend pays for Ultra HD), and even the menus of system apps are different.

We did have a lot of fun reviewing this phone and hopefully, we’ll see its unrivaled camera on a globally available device soon.