We took several shots with the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, iPhone 13 Pro Max, and Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra to bring you a comparison photo of giants. Which of these three smartphones is the best? You had one week to vote. Now let’s discover your champion.

The Xiaomi 12S Ultra caught everyone’s attention when it became official. However, enthusiasts were no doubt disappointed to learn that the phone was not intended for the French market. Without wanting to add salt to the wound, we wanted to show you a sample of the photographic quality offered by this monster that benefits from a one-inch main sensor -with a definition of 50 megapixels- and the expertise of the giant Leica.

With this in mind, Xiaomi France was able to lend us the only copy present in its cabinets for a comparison. So, we pitted the Xiaomi 12S Ultra against Apple’s iPhone 13 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra to find out which of the three is the best smartphone for photography. And we put it to your vote. It’s time to discover the results!

Photo comparison: reminder of the rules of the game.

As a reminder, we shot nine scenes with all three smartphones, Xiaomi 12S Ultra, iPhone 13 Pro Max, and Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. For each of these scenes, there are therefore, logically, three photos. We send you the shots, but without telling you which camera captured which photo. We had also deleted the metadata (Exif) of the images so as not to make it easier for you. The goal was to avoid biasing their choice.

The three photos were placed side by side in a gallery. The photo on the left corresponded to number 1, the one in the middle to number 2 and the one on the right to number 3. You can refer to the following diagram.

For each scene, a poll module was available and you could vote (1, 2 or 3) for your favorite photo. We’ll give you a week. Now we reveal the results and the winner of each exercise.

⚠ CAUTION: If you are reading this article in a browser on a smartphone, we recommend that you remove the “/amp” mention at the end of the URL, if necessary. The AMP format doesn’t always lend itself very well to displaying images in a gallery format.

Xiaomi 12S Ultra vs iPhone 13 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra: Which one takes better photos?

Classic wide angle shot

First exercise: a fairly classic wide-angle photo where the main technical difficulty undoubtedly lies in the representation of the partly cloudy sky.

• Photo 1: iPhone 13 Pro Max 🥉
• Image 2: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 🥇
• Image 3: Xiaomi 12S Ultra 🥈

Total of 6533 votes. Winner: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.

ultra wide angle photo

Make way for the next exercise, the same scene immortalized in ultra wide angle!

• Photo 1: Xiaomi 12S Ultra 🥈
• Image 2: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 🥇
• Image 3: iPhone 13 Pro Max 🥉

Total of 5697 votes. Winner: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Arch photo in x3

Let’s take a look at telephoto lenses. Remember that the Xiaomi 12S Ultra offers x5 optical magnification, so it is a digital zoom. We are at a x3 optical zoom on the iPhone 12 Pro Max and at a x3 and x10 optical zoom on the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. Here, we invite you to judge the shots at x3.

• Photo 1: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 🥇
• Image 2: iPhone 13 Pro Max 🥉
• Image 3: Xiaomi 12S Ultra 🥈

Total of 5413 votes. Winner: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Arch photo in x5

Give way to the same photo in x5, an optical zoom for Xiaomi, hybrid for Apple and Samsung.

• Photo 1: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 🥈
• Image 2: Xiaomi 12S Ultra 🥉
• Image 3: iPhone 13 Pro Max 🥇

Total of 5036 votes. Winner: iPhone 13 Pro Max.

Arch photo in x10

Was the battle removed beforehand at x10? Here are the results of their votes.

• Photo 1: iPhone 13 Pro Max 🥉
• Image 2: Xiaomi 12S Ultra 🥈
• Image 3: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 🥇

Total of 4969 votes. Winner: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Portrait mode photo

Which of these three portrait mode photos was the most successful in your opinion? Now is the time to find out.

• Photo 1: Xiaomi 12S Ultra 🥈
• Image 2: iPhone 13 Pro Max 🥉
• Image 3: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 🥇

Total of 5320 votes. Winner: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Wide angle night shot

Night falls, but the sky in the distance continues to contrast. A perfect scene to analyze the photo processing of each smartphone examined here.

• Photo 1: Xiaomi 12S Ultra 🥈
• Image 2: iPhone 13 Pro Max 🥉
• Image 3: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 🥇

Total of 5057 votes. Winner: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Ultra wide angle photo at night

Serenely leaning out the window, we take a second photo of the same scene, but this time in ultra wide angle.

• Photo 1: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 🥇
• Image 2: iPhone 13 Pro Max 🥈
• Image 3: Xiaomi 12S Ultra 🥉

Total of 4792 votes. Winner: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Additional exercise: the video

We also shot in 4K at 30 FPS with all three smartphones. Play the YouTube video below to see all three recordings side by side, then see which one came out on top.

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• Video 1: Xiaomi 12S UItra 🥇
• Video 2: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 🥉
• Video 3: iPhone 13 Pro Max 🥈

Total of 3744 votes. Winner: Xiaomi 12S Ultra.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra: big winner of the photo comparison

Of the nine situations proposed, you gave victory to the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra seven times, sometimes with a very wide advantage over the Xiaomi 12S Ultra and the iPhone 13 Pro Max. This is a trend that we have already seen in the past: the saturated tones of the South Korean giant that sublimate the image, even if it means distorting it a bit, are always on the rise. Colors favor the retina and seduce us more.

For the iPhone 13 Pro Max, the results are tough, but keep in mind that on a few occasions, Apple’s phone finished last, but a hair’s breadth behind the Xiaomi 12S Ultra. At x5 zoom it even finishes first whereas, like the S22 Ultra, it doesn’t have a dedicated telephoto lens at this level of magnification.

Finally, the 12S Ultra shows that Xiaomi still has a long way to go to make its photo processing as enjoyable as Samsung’s in France, or at least with our community. However, the victory obtained in the video exercise is promising for the Chinese manufacturer.

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