Here’s an Inside Look at Xiaomi 12S Ultra’s Massive Camera [Video]

Not many phones have a massive 1″ camera sensor behind its main lens. Not only are these sensors expensive, but they also take up a lot of physical space and require a lot of processing power to work properly.

However, this also makes them fascinating to see from the inside. A recently published teardown of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra gives us a good look at the phone’s inner workings including the humongous camera setup.

It shows how much bigger the main camera module is compared to one built around Samsung’s 1/1.3” ISOCELL GNV.

The image below shows how they compare.

Take a look at the sheer size of the main camera and how much space it is taking up compared to the other lenses. The 5x periscope camera and the ultrawide unit are tightly packed together to make space for it, but it still doesn’t leave much room for the motherboard and the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC. The 4,860 mAh battery needs space too.

Xiaomi overcame this hurdle by stacking two PCBs to make room for all the components. The chipset, RAM, and storage sit at the bottom of the PCB while the rest is at the top. You can also see the new vapor chamber cooling system later on in the video.

The camera module alone measures 11.06mm thick, which makes for a humongous camera bump. The new Sony IMX989 sensor needs vertical space to be covered properly and Xiaomi has done so with a complex 8P lens.

You can watch more details in the full video.