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I spend a LOT of time trying to make my videos as concise, polished and useful as possible for you - if you would like to support me on that mission then consider subscribing to the channel - you'd make my day 😁
For my tech hot takes: http://twitter.com/Mrwhosetheboss
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NewsTranscript
00:00I have two phones right here, so this is the next-gen Xiaomi 15 Ultra and it has the greatest
00:05camera system that I have ever seen on a phone. Okay, so let's say we wanted to zoom into that
00:09cathedral over there. We keep going, we're at 10x, 20x, go all the way to 120 times,
00:15capture. Oh my god, that's ridiculous. Then this is the company's even more bonkers,
00:22never-before-seen-or-covered future phone that let's just say isn't even close to anything I've
00:27used before. This thing is so precious that someone has actually flown all the way from
00:31China to hand-deliver the thing. So let's find out what makes this crazy and then what makes
00:36this even crazier. So this is how the 15 Ultra comes presented. Pretty classic Xiaomi-style
00:44insert on top, which has a SIM ejector, a USB-C cable, manuals, and then a hard shell clear case,
00:50and that is it. Even though this is a full-size box, there's still no charger, probably because
00:55the phone's camera alone takes up half the space. And I'm butchering this peel.
01:05Okay, there we go. Wow, this looks incredible. Now, there is lots to like and dislike about
01:12this phone, but there's only one thing that I want to show you with it. One thing that I do
01:16think is an absolute game-changer, and that is this. I'm not even talking about the cameras in
01:21general. Literally, this one specific telephoto zoom camera. Because here's the thing, for the
01:26entire history of multi-camera smartphones, you've had a main camera, your best quality camera, and
01:30then a few secondary cameras flanking that main camera, which aren't as high quality. But this
01:36phone is the first time that I would say that that's not the case. This telephoto camera is
01:40so freaking good that it has now basically become my main camera, and that completely
01:46changes how you use the thing. So the first place that you're going to notice this zoom camera in
01:50action is, well, it's when you're zooming into things. For a very long time, Samsung has kind of
01:55set the benchmark for long-range zoom photography. And if we take a look at their latest S25 Ultra,
02:00they achieve that with a five times optical zoom, 50 megapixel camera, which is great. But this
02:06special camera right here is a 4.3 times optical zoom camera, so actually a little less than
02:11Samsung, but it's 200 megapixel. And it's not just resolution, because as we know, resolution,
02:16it's not exactly the most reliable spec. It only takes a very quick look at the telephoto cameras
02:20on these two phones to see that the sensor on Xiaomi's is enormous. It's over three times the
02:26size of the one on the Samsung. That's the spec that matters. So let's say, for example, we want
02:31to zoom into some of the intricate brickwork on that window. Let's start with the Samsung, which,
02:35as you'd expect, looks really crisp up until about 30 times where it does break down. But let's keep
02:39going until 100 times zoom, take the shot, and that is not bad at all, considering how far away
02:44the thing is. Okay, so same thing on Xiaomi now. As we keep zooming in, the preview does look a
02:49little bit cleaner than it did on Samy, but also not dramatically so. That is until we hit capture,
02:56because geez louise. At this point, it is an absolute landslide win for Xiaomi. And that's
03:01partly because of this really high quality, high resolution zoom camera, but it is also partly
03:06because of AI processing. So when you zoom in past the 20 times mark on the Xiaomi, you will see this
03:11little AI indicator pop up. If that's yellow, it means that when you take the shot, it's going to
03:15comb through and essentially upgrade everything using its best estimation of what it thinks they
03:20look like. And this part of the equation, you might completely hate, because the more AI is
03:25involved in your photography, the more it begs that ever present question of what actually is
03:30a photo. But I do think that it's quite tastefully integrated here. It feels so satisfying to see
03:35your blurry 120 times zoom photos suddenly transform after you've captured. The results
03:40can be weird, let's say 5% of the time, but then they are actually making the photo a lot better
03:4595% of the time. The setting isn't hidden away inside some sort of clunky image editor. It's
03:49literally one click to turn on and off just before you capture. And also even when it's turned off,
03:54this is still fundamentally the best zoom camera that I've ever used on a phone.
03:58So it's got a great zoom camera, it takes great zoom photos. That much is not the slightest bit
04:04surprising. The bigger change that you notice is when you start to use this camera for other things.
04:09So for example, if you grab this, and let's start by recording video using the phone's normal wide
04:13camera, this is how it will look. It's nice. The phone's got a top of the line one inch sensor for
04:19this wide camera, but it still looks like phone footage. But now flicking over to the phone's
04:23telephoto camera, it's a complete vibe change. It does have that professional camera look to it.
04:29And that's partly the fact that telephoto cameras just in general have more background blur, but
04:33it's combining that with this supersized sensor, which means that you both get even more of that
04:38separation because bigger sensors make more of it, but then also with basically zero hit to the
04:43quality of the footage like you would have on just about any other phone in which the telephoto
04:47camera gets pretty shafted. This is like full quality 8K. Plus you can film slow motion using
04:53the same lens, 4K 120 frames per second. And for a phone, this is as cinematic as it has gotten
05:00thus far. And it's all topped off with portrait mode. Because portraits of people will always be
05:05more flattering when you take a few steps back and use a telephoto camera. Better telephoto camera
05:09equals better portraits. And remember you don't even need to use portrait mode to get this effect.
05:14All of these coming shots are just simple photos taken on auto. So don't get me wrong. Xiaomi has
05:19issues that they need to work on like their software update schedule. The fact that this
05:23phone is pretty awkward to handle. But the point is this camera ain't one of them. You know what
05:28they need to do next? They need to give this telephoto camera a really short minimum focusing
05:32distance so that it could also become your macro camera too. That would be next level. But yeah,
05:37that's the key cool thing about the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. And then there's just little AI tidbits
05:41like AI expand that I would say works just as well as Samsung's generative image editor, which is a
05:46compliment. Plus AI sky, which I've always thought was a cool feature. And now I guess thanks to more
05:51intelligent processing, it's also a pretty powerful feature. I could totally see how if you were
05:55listing your house for sale and you wanted a sunny shot to sell it, then this is a way more reliable
06:00way of guaranteeing it as opposed to waiting for one. So now it's time to step up. What do you do
06:06when even that camera isn't enough? Well, this is the Xiaomi concept camera system. There's only 10
06:11to 20 of them in the world and Xiaomi has specifically designed them to prove a single
06:16point. So you get the phone and then you get this lens. So let's be very clear about something for
06:22a minute. The idea of adding a professional lens to your phone is not a new one. I mean, you've
06:27been able to buy phone camera lenses on Amazon for like 15 years now. Not to mention even Xiaomi
06:31themselves have tried to properly integrate a lens system onto one of their previous concept phones.
06:36But this is the first time that I've ever seen the camera attached onto the middle of the phone.
06:41There's a reason. So the issue with what's been done for years now is that it doesn't really
06:46matter how great the lens that you make is. If you're putting that lens on top of a phone-sized
06:50camera sensor, there's a limit to how good it's going to be. There's a limit to how much light
06:54it's going to be able to process. There's a limit to detail because while the lens can absolutely
06:57direct the light, ultimately it's the camera sensor that's recording that light and turning
07:02it into the end photo. So what Xiaomi's decided is if you actually wanted to avoid all bottlenecks,
07:07if you actually wanted to make a phone capable of big camera photography, then you really need
07:12to create both an external lens and an external sensor. So this might look like it's just a lens,
07:18but this is actually a full system designed in-house by Xiaomi that contains both. Think
07:23of this like an entire camera, just without a screen. And you might have the same initial reaction
07:28that I had to this, which is, why would you do that? Look at this phone. It already has its own
07:33full set of internal cameras here. Why on earth would you ignore all of that and stick this
07:38entirely separate new camera on top? At that point, like, what is this even for? Well, this is where
07:44the magic happens. So the lens snaps onto place on the back of the phone with some very strong
07:48magnets, but this isn't just to like hold it in place so that you can pair the two via Bluetooth.
07:52There's actually two very tiny little pins on this to create, and this is absolutely pivotal,
07:58an instant hardware connection. This is actually a brand new piece of tech that Xiaomi is calling
08:02LaserBink. They've developed it specifically for this phone. And the idea is that thanks to these
08:07pins and a couple of extra bits of engineering on the inside, you get two major perks. A, that you
08:12can now power this camera entirely just using the phone's internal battery, which immediately means
08:17that you don't now have a whole extra gadget that you have to persistently worry about keeping
08:21charged. And B, that you get nanosecond level data transfer between this camera and the image
08:27signal processor in the phone, which means they can basically communicate in real time, which means
08:32this phone can treat this camera as if it were baked inside of it. And that is a big deal. It
08:39means that literally the exact split second that you snap this thing on, you'll see this icon pop
08:44up in your camera app that you can use to switch to this lens, which is not normal. Every concept
08:49phone that I've used up until this point has had potential, some sort of cool feature that works,
08:54but with just about everything else surrounding it being really clunky. And so it's quite surprising
08:59just how refined of an experience this feels. And just think about what it means. It means that all
09:04of a sudden you are shooting using this. You're getting all the benefits of high end optics. So
09:09this is a 100 megapixel, 35 millimeter F1.4 lens with a four thirds sensor. So in English, that's
09:16basically extreme resolution with a sensor that is twice the size of the biggest sensors on any
09:22smartphone to take advantage of that resolution. And with a pro level lens that's built similarly
09:28to the way a smartphone's lens is built, just with enough space to actually execute it properly. And
09:33you can have that all with the intelligent AI software processing that's been being optimized
09:39on smartphones for like the last 15 years plus. It means that you get smartphone features. Like
09:44I can still use things like live motion photos, like AI face beautification, or even portrait mode
09:49if I wanted to add even more background blur, none of which you would get on a normal DSLR camera.
09:54You never need to charge this camera. There's no separate SD cards or like separate apps that you
09:58need to install to manage the footage that comes from it. Everything that you take on it will just
10:03save directly into your phone's gallery for sharing or editing. The thing even has a precision
10:09motor inside of it for autofocus. But even without that, it just feels so crazy to be able to
10:14manually be adjusting the focus on my lens here, feeling the subtle vibrations from the action
10:19created by the vibration motors inside the phone. And then just the second I decide I'm done
10:24snapping it off as if it was just a mini power bank or something. I took this thing out for a
10:28day trip yesterday. And it does give the exact feeling of having a premium compact camera. You
10:34might have seen ones like the Fuji X100s that have been picking up in popularity. Using this
10:38is very close to the feel of using something like that. And so while it is way more clunky than just
10:44taking shots on your phone's internal cameras, it's way less clunky than carrying around a whole
10:49extra external camera and all of the extra fiddling that comes with that. And the difference between
10:54this and a phone camera is absolutely indisputable. Like even my grandparents would have no issue
11:00being able to see it, especially as it becomes even more pronounced at night. Okay, two caveats
11:04that I did pick up on are one, the battery is not great on this. And that's because this concept is
11:10based on a Xiaomi 15. But to fit the power delivery mechanism required to get power from the phone's
11:15internal battery to this camera, they've actually had to shrink the size of the battery that the
11:20phone would normally come with, which is acceptable for a concept. But should Xiaomi ever come to
11:24releasing a final product like this, it's an issue they'd need to figure out. And then two is just
11:28the fact that this isn't like the best lens ever. As of right now, this doesn't quite match the image
11:34quality that you could get from something like the Fuji. But to their credit, solvable issue. I
11:39imagine that they've rattled this together quite quickly just to demo the point of what it does.
11:43But now that this whole laser link system is built and it works, then I can't see a reason why they
11:48couldn't just work with a company like Leica and co-build an entire system of really top-end lenses
11:54that have built-in sensors. And hell, you could have completely different types of accessories.
11:58Like there's no reason you couldn't have an eight terabyte storage drive that would snap onto the
12:03back and be able to instantly read and write just like internal storage because of the physical
12:08connection from the pins. Does this have mainstream potential? Maybe. I'm not yet convinced, but I mean
12:14at the very least, this is as convinced as I ever have been by a concept phone. And just to really
12:20drill home what it's like to shoot on it, let's say I was filming a sponsor section for Surfshark VPN
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