Xiaomi has unveiled a new ‘Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept’ smartphone that supports interchangeable lenses similar to a DSLR camera.
The Chinese tech giant on Wednesday released a short teaser video of the new concept version of the smartphone via its official Weibo handle, giving a glimpse of the complete design and optical details of the device.
The new Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept, which is based on the design of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra launched in July, is co-developed by Leica. This prototype model allows users to attach Leica’s professional M-series camera lenses to the smartphone’s camera.
“Xiaomi AI Image Solution combined with Leica’s understanding of optics and image quality powered this professional camera phone with capabilities of both shooting snapshots swiftly and accomplishing demanding projects.”
About Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept Phone
Unlike the vanilla Xiaomi 12S Ultra which has only a single 1-inch sensor, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept comes armed with two 1-inch 50.3-megapixel sensors.
The secondary 1-inch 50.3-megapixel sensor now occupies the middle of the camera island instead, which is designed to work with an interchangeable Leica M-series lens.
However, the mount for the lens is not directly attached to the smartphone, which means you would first need to unscrew the protection ring around the rear camera island, and then have an adaptor fitted to mount any Leica M lens.
Further, Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept also comes equipped with its own in-built 48MP ultra-wide camera that does not need external lenses and has a 48MP periscope-cum-telephoto lens.
The secondary lens can now receive light directly from the external lens for sharper and more detailed images while reducing light loss. It also allows for mounting of the lens with the help of a camera ring.
In addition, the surface of the 1-inch sensor is protected with a layer of Sapphire glass against daily wear and tears, as well as scratches especially while mounting and dismounting external sensors.
Moreover, the Concept model will be powered by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 chipset and get some new external lens-supported camera app features such as histograms, focus peaking, zebra lines, grid, and more. It also comes with the ability to shoot 10bit RAW format files.
Xiaomi hasn’t revealed any other details of the upcoming device other than the specification. It is unclear whether the Concept variant of the 12S Ultra would make it to the general public or only remain a prototype. Stay tuned for more updates!
