Clearing the rumors, Xiaomi has officially announced a “long-term strategic cooperation” with Leica, the renowned German camera maker.
While this partnership’s term period and regulations aren’t known yet, Xiaomi said it would launch the first smartphone bearing a Leica lens in July this year. This could probably be the Xiaomi 12 Ultra, though the company didn’t name it specifically.
A Xiaomi Flagship With Leica Lens
One of the famous Chinese OEMs – Xiaomi, is partnering with a German camera maker called Leica to induce its imaging capabilities to the Xiaomi phones. Both companies aim to launch a Xiaomi branded phone with Leica lens in July this year.
Though they didn’t mention what phone this could be, it’s most likely the Xiaomi 12 Ultra, which is confirmed to come with Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip. More details on this phone are unknown, but we expect them to leak gradually before the official launch.
Xiaomi isn’t the first Chinese phone partnered with a foreign professional camera maker. We have seen OPPO/OnePlus teaming up with Hasselblad, Vivo with Zeiss optics, and Huawei with Leica, likely ending.
Huawei partnered with Leica back in 2016 for a 5-year exclusive deal, where the German camera maker has a history of more than 100 years and supplied premium cameras for Huawei flagships. With this ending late last year or early this year, we see Xiaomi teaming up with Leica now.
Whether this new partnership is an exclusive deal or not isn’t known, but it is said to be a long-term and strategic one. Speaking on this, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun said the collaboration between these two companies brings an;
“unprecedented in-depth collision and fusion in optical design, aesthetic orientations, image preferences and innovative technologies.”