Xiaomi 12 Ultra may come with Leica tuned cameras.
Leica has previously worked with Huawei for its camera.
Xiaomi has benefited the most from Huawei’s dramatic slide over the previous two years. The Chinese smartphone manufacturer has emerged as the next leading company, both in China and beyond. Xiaomi was eager to fill Huawei’s vacancy in the premium and cheap flagship categories. It may now wind up teaming with Leica, the camera company that donated its expertise to Huawei and assisted it in developing some of the greatest camera smartphones of the time.
According to the well-known source Digital Station, Leica engineers may have already started collaborating with Xiaomi, and we may see this partnership for the first time on the Xiaomi 12 Ultra, which is expected to be the company’s next flagship smartphone. Xiaomi has yet to formally acknowledge or release any specifics regarding the Leica connection, but a leak implies that the camera manufacturer may offer colour-tuning as well as lenses for the Xiaomi flagship smartphone.
It is not a new thought for smartphone manufacturers to collaborate with camera companies. Many others were inspired by Huawei-success Leica’s and developed similar cooperation. OnePlus established a three-year agreement with Hasselblad this year, and Vivo’s flagship smartphones now include Zeiss-tuned cameras. Samsung is also said to be planning a similar collaboration with Olympus for its 2022 flagship series.
Xiaomi showed its intention to improve camera performance on its phones by using a bigger sensor on this year’s Mi 11 Ultra, and a partnership with Leica for the Xiaomi 12 Ultra might help the company even more.
The smartphone is said to include a triple rear camera system with a 200-megapixel primary sensor and two 50-megapixel cameras for ultrawide and periscope zoom on the back. The latter will have a 10x zoom capability. The Xiaomi 12 Ultra is also expected to be one of the first smartphones to have the yet-to-be-announced Qualcomm Snapdragon 898 SoC. The chipset is expected to be unveiled later this month.