It’s easiest to see in areas of shadow detail, especially in the scene below, where more leaves are visible in greenery rather than lost to shadows.
#SELFIE LIGHT FOR IPHONE 6 PRO#
Taking a look at some comparison images from the iPhone 13 Pro Max, Pixel 6 Pro, and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, I have to look closely to see where the 12S is able to capture more detail. The 12S Ultra is capable of some incredible images, but it’s not quite the promised land. A Google Pixel 6 Pro already takes impressive photos in very low light with Night Sight, but it could look even better if the system had better data to work with from a bigger sensor. Putting a big sensor together with the benefits of computational photography is kind of the promised land of smartphone imaging. The 12S Ultra is capable of some incredible images, but it’s not the promised land
#SELFIE LIGHT FOR IPHONE 6 SERIES#
It’s the same size as the sensors used by Sony’s RX100 series cameras - so putting a 1-inch sensor in a smartphone camera potentially puts it on level ground with the best traditional pocketable cameras money can buy. What matters here is that a 1-inch-type sensor is a lot smaller than what you’ll find in a full-frame camera but significantly bigger than the sensor in just about every other smartphone camera. It’s an old naming convention that has something to do with TV camera tubes. A 1-inch-type sensor is often referred to as a 1-inch sensor to make life easier, but that does not mean the sensor literally measures one inch across or diagonally. The future of mobile imaging won’t be won with better hardware alone.įirst, let’s get some housekeeping out of the way. But more than anything, it highlights just how advanced imaging systems from Apple, Google, and Samsung are, even with smaller sensors. Pitting the 12S Ultra side by side against some of the current class leaders in smartphone cameras, there are clear situations where the bigger sensor makes a difference. Relatively speaking, that’s a huge sensor for a phone, and bigger sensors generally lead to better image quality. The Xiaomi 12S Ultra’s camera is a remarkable achievement: it’s one of just a few smartphones ever to offer a 1-inch-type sensor.