Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept: A smartphone that is a DSLR

Xiaomi tried filling the gap between smartphones and digital cameras by launching the Xiaomi 12S Ultra and its 1 inch sensor.

Now Xiaomi offers a glimpse behind the scenes as there were actually two projects being developed concurrently, one of which became the 12S Ultra. The other is a hybrid between a smartphone and a mirrorless camera.

This concept device has a second 1 inch sensor, one that is not covered by its own lens but it is covered by sapphire glass for protection.

This device was made in collaboration with Leica. For those of you who don’t know what Leica is, it is a camera company, known for the exquisite design, exceptional build quality, superb image quality and unique shooting experience of its cameras.

This allows the user to attach Leica M mount lenses, carving a way for semi professional use. The wide variety of lenses is combined with an advanced camera app that supports focus peaking, zebra lines, a histogram and other tools that photographers have come to expect. And 10-bit RAW support, of course.

This concept phone does, however, require an adapter, which makes the device bulky. Notice that we said second 1 inch sensor – this concept can shoot photos and videos like a regular phone because it has the same main camera as Xiaomi 12S Ultra with 1 inch sensor, 23mm lens and an ultra wide camera 13mm, these can be used without any extra hardware.

In 2017, Motorola brought the ‘Moto Mods’ accessories for its Z series, which were basically based on mount on the back or snap on the back concept. Also, there have been lens accessories for smartphones by Sony that came out a decade ago but that is a flawed design because light has to pass both through the external lens and the phone’s own lens, which leads to light losses and a softer image. This Xiaomi concept is different in that an attached Leica lens sends light directly to the sensor (except for the protective glass that keeps dust and water out).

This functions more like a 1 inch mirrorless camera when the lens is attached. Unlike a typical mirrorless camera, however, this device is also blessed with the advanced calibrated photography skills enabled by the powerful Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset.

It’s not like the lens-style cameras that Sony was pushing a decade back either. Those were compete digital cameras, the phone was just the display. And it’s not like the Android-powered cameras that happened to have phone functionality. Those didn’t have removable lenses. This is something quite unique built by Xiaomi and Leica.

Xiaomi has given no indication of whether it will sell this 12S Ultra-based concept device. Maybe it won’t and maybe it shouldn’t – the upcoming Xiaomi 13 Pro is said to have a 1 inch sensor as well, maybe a special edition of that device would be more appropriate.