The 2 Best Phone Cameras in the World.

I have two phones right here so this is
the NextGen xiaomi 15 Ultra and it has
the greatest camera system that I have
ever seen on a phone okay so let’s say
we wanted to zoom into that Cathedral
over there we keep going we’re at 10x
20x go all the way to 120 times capture
oh my God that’s ridiculous then this is
the company’s even more Bonkers never
before seen or covered future phone that
let’s just say isn’t even close to
anything I’ve used before this thing is
so precious that someone has l flown all
the way from China to hand deliver the
thing so let’s find out what makes this
crazy and then what makes this even
crazier so this is how the 15 Ultra
comes
presented pretty classic xiaomi style
insert on top which has a SIM ejector a
USBC cable manuals and then a hard shell
clear case and that is it even though
this is a fullsize box there’s still no
charger probably because the phone’s
camera alone takes up half the
space and I’m butchering this
peel okay there we
go wow this looks incredible now there
is lots to like and dislike about this
phone but there’s only one thing that I
want to show you with it one thing that
I do think is an absolute Game Changer
and that is this I’m not even talking
about the cameras in general literally
this one specific T photo zoom camera
cuz here’s the thing for the entire
history of multi- camera smartphones
you’ve had a main camera your best
quality camera and then a few secondary
cameras flanking that main camera which
aren’t as high quality but this phone is
the first time that I would say that
that’s not the case this telephoto
camera is so freaking good that it has
now basically become my main camera and
that completely changes how you use a
thing so the first place that you’re
going to notice this zoom camera in
action is well when you’re zooming into
things for a very long time Samsung has
kind of set the Benchmark for longrange
Zoom photography and if we take a look
at their latest 25 Ultra they achiev
that with a five times optical zoom 50
megap camera which is great but this
special camera right here is a 4.3 times
optical zoom camera so actually a little
less than Samsung but it’s 200 mapel and
it’s not just resolution cuz as we know
resolution it’s not exactly the most
reliable spec it only takes a very quick
look at the telephoto cameras on these
two phones to see that the sensor on
xiaomi is enormous it’s over three times
the size of the one on the Samsung
that’s the spec that matters so let’s
say for example we want to zoom into
some of the intricate brick work on that
window let’s start with the Samsung
which as you’d expect looks really crisp
up until about 30 times where it does
break down but let’s keep going until
100 time zoom take the shot and that is
not bad at all considering how far away
the thing is okay so same thing on
xiaomi now as we keep zooming in the
preview does look a little bit cleaner
than it did on Samy but also not
dramatically so that is until we hit
capture cuz jez Louise at this point it
is an absolute Landslide win for xiaomi
and that’s partly because of this really
high quality high resolution zoom camera
but it is also partly because of AI
processing so when you zoom in past the
20 times mark on the xiaomi you will see
this little AI indicator pop up if
that’s yellow it means that when you
take the shot it’s going to comb through
and essentially upgrade everything using
its best estimation of what it thinks
they look like and this part of the
equation you might completely hate
because the more AI is involved in your
photography the more it begs that
everpresent question of what as a photo
but I do think that it’s quite
Tastefully integrated here it feels so
satisfying to see your blurry 120 time
zoom photo suddenly transform after
you’ve captured the results can be weird
let’s say 5% of the time but then they
are actually making the photo a lot
better 95% of the time the setting isn’t
hidden away inside some sort of clunky
image editor it’s literally one click to
turn on and off just before you capture
and also even when it’s turned off this
is still fundamentally the best zoom
camera that I’ve ever used on a phone so
it’s got a great zoom camera it takes
great Zoom photos that much is not the
slightest bit surprising the bigger
change that you notice is when you start
to use this camera for other things so
for example if you grab this and let’s
start by recording video using the
phone’s normal wide camera this is how
it will look it’s nice the phone’s got a
top-of-the-line 1-in sensor for this
wide camera but it still looks like
phone footage but now flicking over to
the phone’s telephoto camera it’s it’s a
complete Vibe change it does have that
professional camera look to it and
that’s partly the fact that telephoto
cameras just in general have more
background blur but it’s combining that
with this super siiz sensor which means
that you both get even more of that
separation because bigger sensors make
more of it but then also with basically
zero hit to the quality of the footage
like you would have on just about any
other phone in which the telephoto
camera gets pretty shafted this is like
full quality 8K plus you can film slow
motion using the same lens 4K 120 frames
per second and for a phone this is as
cinematic as it has gotten thus far and
it’s all topped off with portrait mode
because portraits of people will always
be more flattering when you take a few
steps back and use a telephoto camera
better telephoto camera equals better
portraits and remember you don’t even
need to use portrait mode to get this
effect all of these coming shots are
just simple photos taken on auto so
don’t get me wrong xiaomi has issues
that they need to work on like their
software update schedule the fact that
this phone is pretty awkward to handle
but the point is this camera ain’t one
of them you know what they need to do
next they need to give this photo camera
a really short minimum focusing distance
so that it could also become your macro
camera too that would be next level but
yeah that’s the key cool thing about the
xiaomi 15 Ultra and then there’s just
little AI tidbits like AI expand that I
would say works just as well as
Samsung’s generative image editor which
is a compliment plus AI Sky which I’ve
always thought was a cool feature and
now I guess thanks to more intelligent
processing it’s also a pretty powerful
feature I could totally see how if you
were listing your house for sale and you
wanted a sunny shot to sell it then this
is a way more reliable way of
guaranteeing it as opposed to waiting
for one so now it’s time to step up what
do you do when even that camera isn’t
enough well this is the xiaomi concept
camera system there’s only 10 to 20 of
them in the world and xiaomi has
specifically designed them to prove a
single point so you get the phone and
then you get this
lens so let’s be very clear about
something for a minute the idea of
adding a professional lens to your phone
is not a new one I mean you’ve been able
to buy phone camera lenses on Amazon for
like 15 years now not to mention even
xiaomi themselves have tried to properly
integrate a lens system onto one of
their previous concept phones but this
is the first time that I’ve ever seen
the camera attach onto the middle of the
phone there’s a reason so the issue with
what’s been done for years now is that
it doesn’t really matter how great the
lens that you make is if you’re putting
that lens on top of a phone-sized camera
sensor there’s a limit to how good it’s
going to be there’s a limit to how much
light it’s going to be able to process
there’s a limit to detail because while
the lens can absolutely direct the light
ultimately it’s the camera sensor that’s
recording that light and turning it into
the end photo so what xiaomi’s decided
is if you actually wanted to avoid all
bottl X if you actually wanted to make a
phone capable of big camera photography
then you really need to create both an
external lens and an external sensor so
this might look like it’s just a lens
but this is actually a full system
designed in-house by xiaomi that
contains both think of this like an
entire camera just without a screen and
you might have the same initial reaction
that I had to this which is which is why
would you do that look at this phone it
already has its own full set of internal
cameras here why on Earth would you
ignore all of that and stick this
entirely separate new camera on top at
that point like what is this even for
well this is where the magic happens so
the lens snaps onto place on the back of
the phone with some very strong magnets
but this isn’t just to like hold it in
place so that you can pair the two via
Bluetooth there’s actually two very tiny
little pins on this to create and this
is absolutely pivotal an instant
Hardware connection this is actually a
brand new piece of tech that xiaomi is
calling laser link they’ve developed it
specifically for this phone and the idea
is that thanks to these pins and a
couple of extra bits of engineering on
the inside you get two major perks a
that you can now power this camera
entirely just using the phone’s internal
battery which immediately means that you
don’t now have a whole extra Gadget that
you have to persistently worry about
keeping charged and B that you get nanc
level data transfer between this camera
and the image signal processor in the
phone which means they can basically
communicate in real time which means
this phone can treat this camera as if
it were baked inside of it and that is a
big deal it means that literally the
exact Split Second that you snap this
thing on you’ll see this icon pop up in
your camera app that you can use to
switch to this lens which is not normal
every concept phone that I’ve used up
until this point has had potential some
sort of cool feature that works but with
just about everything else surrounding
it being really clunky and so it’s quite
surprising just how how refined of an
experience this feels and just think
about what it means it means that all of
a sudden you are shooting using this
you’re getting all the benefits of
high-end Optics so this is a 100 megap
35 mm f1.4 lens with a 43 sensor so in
English that’s basically extreme
resolution with a sensor that is twice
the size of the biggest sensors on any
smartphone to take advantage of that
resolution and with a prole lens that’s
built similarly to the way a smartphones
lenses built just with enough space to
actually execute it properly and you can
have that all with the intelligent AI
software processing that’s been being
optimized on smartphones for like the
last 15 years plus it means that you get
smartphone features like I can still use
things like live motion photos like AI
face beautification or even portrait
mode if I wanted to add even more
background blur none of which you would
get on a normal DSLR camera you never
need to charge this camera there’s no
separate SD cards or like separate apps
that you need to install to manage the
footage that comes from it everything
that you take on it will just save
directly into your phone’s gallery for
sharing or editing the thing even has a
Precision motor inside of it for
autofocus but even without that it just
feels so crazy to be able to manually be
adjusting the focus on my lens here
feeling the subtle vibrations from the
action created by the vibration Motors
inside the phone and then just the
second I decide I’m done snapping it off
as if it was just a mini power bank or
something I took this thing out for a
day trip yesterday and it does give the
exact feeling of having a premium
compact camera you might have seen ones
like the Fuji x100s that have been
picking up in popularity using this is
very close to the feel of using
something like that and so while it is
way more clunky than just taking shots
on your phone’s internal cameras it’s
way less clunky than carrying around a
whole extra external camera and all of
the extra fiddling that comes with that
and the difference between this and a
phone camera is absolutely indisputable
like even my grandparents would have no
issue being able to see it especially as
it becomes even more pronounced at night
okay two caveats that I did pick up on
are one the battery is not great on this
and that’s because this concept is based
on a xiaomi 15 but to fit the power
delivery mechanism required to get power
from the phone’s internal battery to
this camera they’ve actually had to
shrink the size of the battery that the
phone would normally come with which is
acceptable for a concept but should
xiaomi ever come to releasing a final
product like this it’s an issue they’d
need to figure out and then two is just
the fact
this isn’t like the best lens ever as of
right now this doesn’t quite match the
image quality that you could get from
something like the Fuji but to their
credit solvable issue I imagine that
they’ve rattled This Together quite
quickly just to demo the point of what
it does but now that this whole laser
link system is built and it works then I
can’t see a reason why they couldn’t
just work with a company like Leica and
co-build an entire system of really
topend lenses that have built-in sensors
and hell you could have completely
different types of accessories like
there’s no reason you couldn’t have an 8
tbte storage drive that would snap onto
the back and be able to instantly read
and write just like internal storage
because of the physical connection from
the pins does this have main scream
potential maybe I’m not yet convinced
but I mean at the very least this is as
convinced as I ever have been by a
concept
phone and just to really drill home what
it’s like to shoot on it let’s say I was
filming a sponsor section for surf Shar
VPN using this phone versus the very
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anime that Slovakia has the biggest
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tons of exclusive kramas but that surf
shark VPN is the best way to instant
swap your location to access all of it
by the way you can probably tell these
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means you can use the internet as if you
were still home so you don’t need to
keep re authenticating your accounts
every 20 minutes and also your results
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