Xiaomi wants to put a big smile on the faces of bugs with a new monstrous smartphone camera. On Wednesday, the Chinese company announced the Xiaomi 12 Pro, the first product to use the massive 1/1.28-inch Sony IMX707 sensor.
By comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra has a 1/1.33-inch wide rear camera sensor and a 1/2.55-inch ultra-wide rear camera sensor.
The IMX707 12 Pro sensor is an upgraded version of the Sony IMX700, according to Gizmochina, and uses 1.22µm 4-in-1 pixels. A larger camera sensor, combined with a lens aperture, can let in more light, reducing blur and artifacts. Overall, the 12 Pro’s larger camera “improves light capture capabilities by 49 percent over the previous generation,”Xiaomi said in a statement. According to The Verge, the phone’s main camera lens has an f/1.9 aperture.
Xiaomi has used larger camera sensors before – the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, announced earlier this year, has a 1/1.2-inch sensor with an f/1.95 lens. But when combined with a wider aperture, there’s no denying the 12 Pro’s main shooter.
Xiaomi 12 Pro has three 50MP rear cameras. In addition to the main camera, the other two rear cameras use the JN1 sensor. The ultra-wide camera has a 115-degree field of view, while the other is a telephoto lens for portraits.
This week, Xiaomi also announced the standard version 12. It also comes with a significant size sensor, and the main rear camera uses a 1/1.56-inch Sony IMX766. The phone also has a 13MP ultra-wide-angle camera and a 5MP telemacro camera.
Both the Xiaomi 12 Pro and the standard version use the Xiaomi night mode algorithm for low light situations. In addition, they use machine learning for “intelligent visual tracking”when the phone focuses on human eyes, shapes, and pets. According to Xiaomi, the algorithm allows the smartphone to “quickly analyze the features of a focused object even if the shape, angle, or color changes,”allowing for stable images of moving objects.
Cameras aside, phones need to compete with rival flagships. Each uses a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, which requires 30 percent more power and 25 percent more energy efficiency, and an AI engine with five times the performance.
The larger phone looks cool thanks to the 2900mm VC impregnation plate and three “big”graphite heat dissipation plates. The smaller phone uses a smaller 2600mm VC absorbent plate, a 1000mm graphite surface and white graphene around the antenna.
Both phones also use OLED panels. The Pro version has a 6.73-inch display with 3200×1440 resolution and up to 1500 nits of brightness with HDR content. The smaller WeU has a 6.28-inch screen with 2400 x 1080 resolution, up to 1100 nits of brightness, and a 120Hz refresh rate.
You’ll have to travel a long way to appreciate the big cameras on the 12 Pro and 12 as they will only be available in China. Prices range from 4699-5399 yen (about $737-847) for the 12 Pro to 3699-4399 yen (about $580-690) for the 12.