Xiaomi 12 Ultra was officially cancelled
It’s been confirmed that the Xiaomi 12 Ultra was once being developed, but was then cancelled in favour of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra.
The recent confirmation of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra has prompted the inevitable question: what happened to the Xiaomi 12 Ultra? Was it ever in line for a launch, or did Xiaomi always have the Xiaomi 12S Ultra in mind for its next super-flagship?
It turns out that the plain 12 Ultra was, at one point, in active development. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun was recently asked about the device by fans in the comments of a Weibo post, and he duly responded as follows (via IT Home and translation software):
“Xiaomi 12 Ultra is equipped with Snapdragon 8, which was originally scheduled to be released in March and April, but it was cancelled. In pursuit of a better experience: we upgraded Snapdragon 8+, Qualcomm, and Leica for several months. This experience was pretty good.”
As the comments make clear, Xiaomi was planning to launch a 12 Ultra back in March or April, following on a little later from the Xiaomi 12 and and Xiaomi 12 Pro. However, it then opted to cancel the device and shift to an even later launch with the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, which could then take advantage of the new and improved Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip.
We recently learned that the aforementioned Xiaomi 12S Pro will be unveiled at a July 4 launch event alongside two other S devices, the Xiaomi 12S and the Xiaomi 12S Pro.
All three will bear the fruits of the brand’s recent partnership with Leica, suggesting an enhanced camera set-up alongside the bolstered performance.