Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept: the smartphone better than a camera?
Lines get blurry
It’s been a few years now that the boundary between digital camera and smartphone sensor is shrinking. Already recently, Google and other manufacturers have begun to compensate for technical weaknesses with increasingly powerful AI assistants. We also had the chance to test the Sony Xperia Pro-I this summer: a device that plays on both counts. But Xiaomi has just struck a blow, revealing the result of a collaboration with the Leica brand, recognized for the quality of its equipment.
In its video, the Chinese brand first reveals its next flagship, the 12S Ultra. Then comes the model 12S Ultra Concept. A revealing little word, because it is a smartphone intended for a technical demonstration; it is therefore not intended for the market.
Confidential until now, this concept includes a mount to screw on the lens of a camera. Obviously, it is especially suitable for Leica equipment. In the video, a Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH (for those in the know) is set up. A hybrid has therefore been born, opening up an unprecedented field of possibilities for mobile photography.
A concept smartphone for now
The important word to remember is Concept. This version of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra is an experiment, intended to highlight the know-how of the brand as well as its partnership with Leica. The model thus has relative ergonomics and a very basic design, the goal not being to seduce a potential consumer. This one can be satisfied with the classic 12S Ultra model, only if it goes through China, however. Indeed, the marketed version is currently only reserved for this country.
If the addition of the lens will boost the performance of the smartphone for photography, the fact remains that other brakes are there before catching up with the cameras. Getting started, weight unevenly distributed, but also settings specific to the capture box, there is still a world before smartphones also come to make cameras obsolete.
However, we guess behind this video the desire for Xiaomi to test an idea to, one day, launch a model inheriting these characteristics. Hopefully, however, it won’t join the long list of failed attempts in mobile photography. Let’s have a little thought for Sony’s QX-10 and QX 100 ranges, photo lenses that can be connected via Bluetooth.
