When Huawei launched the P9 back in 2016, it was the first smartphone maker to partner up with a camera brand to enhance its mobile photography and over the years we’ve seen impressive results with the likes of the magnificent P30 Pro which delivered stellar results in good or low-light conditions. With the US ban on Huawei still in effect, though, the partnership has been officially shuttered with the P50 series being the last beneficiary of the deal. This isn’t the end of the camera brands’ influence in the smartphone world, though, because Xiaomi and Leica have announced a long-term deal that will see the launch of an ‘imaging flagship’ in July.
According to Xiaomi, the partnership with Leica will impact “optics, image processing, the user experience, and other smartphone imagery factors”.
“In order to achieve perfect performance, engineers in Germany and Beijing held our “Final Kick-Off Meeting”. In the following month, the joint R&D team will stop at nothing, strive for perfection, and complete the final fine-tuning.”
The news of Xiaomi and Leica’s partnership dovetails nicely with the launch of the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, which by means of extrapolation, could mean that the rumored Xiaomi 12 Ultra will be an absolute powerhouse if it’s the phone that is announced during July. It’s expected to feature a quadruple rear camera setup which will include Sony’s new IMX800 sensor as well as a periscope telephoto lens, All of which will benefit from Leica’s expertise.
CEO of Leica Camera AG, Matthias Harsch said, “We are convinced that the first jointly developed imaging flagship smartphone makes the pioneering progress of both companies visible. We will provide consumers in the field of mobile photography exceptional image quality, classic Leica aesthetics, unrestricted creativity, and will open a new era of mobile imaging,”
Xiaomi is known for its ability to pack high-end hardware into affordable phones but while the camera experience has often been adequate, it’s never been a reason to go out and buy a phone from the brand. Until now, perhaps, with the Leica partnership promising to uplift the smartphone camera experience on upcoming Xiaomi handsets, hopefully to something approaching the level we became accustomed to on Huawei phones.
