The Xiaomi 12S Ultra was already an eye-catching smartphone with impressive camera technology. But we didn’t know there was another avenue Xiaomi was exploring with this flagship phone. The company was developing the more ambitious Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept Phone.
Introducing the Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept Phone
This concept device is almost identical to the namesake flagship that was launched. But Xiaomi explored adding a second 1-inch 50.3-megapixel sensor that occupies the middle part of the camera island. But, more impressively, it was built to work with an interchangeable Leica M lens.
This Xiaomi 12S Ultra keeps the 1-inch Sony IMX989 sensor shielded underneath a large circular sapphire glass. It’s an intriguing design choice, but it does help keep dust and larger foreign objects out. Since it’s a concept, we can’t say how this design choice will affect optical transmittance in real-world scenarios.
This new design has the 48-megapixel ultra-wide sensor moved to the side where the 48-megapixel periscopic telephoto camera once was.
How it works
As for how the interchangeable lens solution works, the protective ring around the rear camera island is unscrewed so you can put an adapter on the phone. This adapter will allow you to attach your Leica M lens of choice.
This concept immediately made me think of the old Samsung Galaxy NX and how that tried to straddle the line between a camera and a smartphone.
Xiaomi hasn’t mentioned if it will explore mass producing this concept smartphone. But if they did, it would cost a pretty penny. The 10 units made of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept Phone cost around 300,000 yuan (approx. USD 41,077), so it’s understandably not for primetime right now.
Would you want to see this on the next Xiaomi phone? Share your thoughts with us on social media! We’d also love to hear what other cool pieces of tech you’d want to see!
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