Week 43 in review: Redmi Note 12 series debuts, Galaxy S22 gets One UI 5

Another week down, let's recap. The Redmi Note 12 series was the biggest story this week. It features the Redmi Note 12, the Redmi Note 12 Pro, the Redmi Note 12 Pro+, and the Redmi Note 12 Explorer.

The 12 Pro, Pro+ and Explorer all pack MediaTek Dimensity 1080 chips, while the vanilla 12 relies on a Snapdragon 4 Gen 1. All four have 6.67-inch 120Hz AMOLED displays. All four except the Explorer have 5,000mAh batteries. Charging varies between phones, the 12 supports 33W, the 12 Pro 67W, the Pro+ 120W, while the Explorer recharges its 4,300mAh battery in just 9 minutes (advertised) at 210W.

The cameras are another point of difference. The Redmi Note 12 has a 48MP wide camera and a 2MP depth sensor. The Redmi Note 12 Pro has a 50MP wide, 8MP ultrawide, and 2MP macro. The Pro+ and Explorer bump the wide camera to the Samsung ISOCELL HMX 200MP camera.

The Redmi Note 12 Explorer will go on sale in China on October 31, while the other three phones will follow on November 1.

vivo detailed the camera upgrades of the upcoming X90 series without actually revealing camera specs. Developed by vivo itself and partner Zeiss, the X90 series will focus on improving Portrait and Night photography. The Ultra-Clear Image Quality Engine is a super-resolution algorithm that uses a virtual model of the lens to recover around 35% of the information that was lost due to optical imperfections. A multi-frame mode is available to improve image quality and dynamic range even further. This is especially useful for a periscope lens.

The next system is dedicated to portrait photography and is itself divided into three parts. The first part tries to understand the scene and detects up to 103 feature points on the face and also takes into account the subject’s pose. The next two parts divide the work – one deals with the subject and applies machine-learning beauty filters, the other adjusts the background by tuning several dials (blur, tone, brightness, etc.).

There is another dedicated system, this one used for low-light photography. The maximum sensitivity has been doubled and the camera can reach ISO 102,400. The system is good enough to capture a photo of a starry night sky without a tripod or a long exposure, vivo says.

A lot of the processing is handled by a new acceleration engine, what sounds to be a successor to the V1 ISP. It was developed in-house and accelerates deep learning and computer vision tasks, it combines traditional ISP approaches with modern AI-based solutions. We can't wait for the X90 series.

Samsung seeded the One UI 5 and Android 13 update to the Galaxy S22 series. The company added a ton of new customization features, both automatic and manual, to get your phone (and watch) looking just the way you want it. There are also some practical improvements like stacked widgets to save space on your homescreen. Samsung will bring the One UI 5 update to all eligible Galaxy S and Z series devices, as well as many A series Galaxies by the end of the year.