Xiaomi's new Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra rival is impressive, but you can't buy it

Xiaomi's new Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra rival is impressive, but you can't buy it

There is a curse among the best Xiaomi phones, and that is that many of them do not go on sale globally, and the company chooses to launch them only in their country of origin. That's the case with the brand's new series, which includes a flashy-looking Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra rival.

It is the Xiaomi 12S series, composed of a standard model, Pro and Ultra; As you might guess, it's the Ultra that we consider Samsung's best camera phone rival. These are the first phones created from Xiaomi's partnership with the Leica camera brand, so you know they'll be perfect for photography.

The Xiaomi 12S Ultra comes with "only" three rear cameras, but what it lacks in snappers (compared to the Samsung) it makes up for in megapixels. There is a main camera with a 50 MP 1-inch sensor and an ultra-wide with a 48 MP camera (both have aspherical lenses) and a 48 MP telephoto lens with a focal length of 120mm.

The camera also features a new stabilization technology called HyperOIS and a new AI image processing technology.

Beyond that, the phone has a 2-inch 120K 6.73Hz display, Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset, 4860mAh battery, 67W wired charging and 50W wireless charging, and a design you can see above. The rear screen of the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra has apparently disappeared.

Analysis: a quiet year for Xiaomi

Xiaomi has confirmed that the 12S Ultra will not launch in most other parts of the world like its two siblings; in fact, it's been pretty quiet for the brand (not counting its sub-brands like Redmi and Pocophone).

We saw the Xiaomi 12 and 12 Pro earlier this year, but there was no Ultra version or even a Lite alternative. We still expect to see a Xiaomi 12T later this year, but we don't have any confirmation on that yet.

It's a shame Xiaomi isn't launching its 12S phones globally, as the Ultra in particular looks impressive, but there's still a shortage of chipsets post-Covid, and it's also possible the Ultra's amazing sounding hardware will be difficult to manufacture in large quantities. .

Hopefully, we'll see similar technology in future phones from the company, including those released outside of China; if so, we may see more phones from Xiaomi in our list of the best smartphones.