Leica x Xiaomi Announce Their First ‘Imaging Flagship’ Smartphone Together

Photo 79647267 © Björn Wylezich | Dreamstime.com

Leica has found its next smartphone maker to click with. The German camera brand has commenced a “long-term strategic cooperation” with Xiaomi, as confirmed by the Chinese tech giant in an announcement.

Their first jointly-developed product—an “imaging flagship smartphone”—will debut this July. Xiaomi claims this model will spawn “a new era of mobile imaging.”

The phone maker describes that the duo has compatible ideas and values about mobile imaging. “Both companies are eager to continuously explore the optical performance and photographic experience in the mobile imaging era through extreme technological breakthroughs and aesthetic pursuits,” the Android phone maker elaborates.

It notes that the smartphone will sport Leica’s classic aesthetics.

Image via Xiaomi

For now, that’s all that the two brands are ready to disclose. Tech news sites anticipate that the first nuances of this Leica partnership could be introduced in the rumored Xiaomi 12 Ultra, as seen in leaks that have been circulating since last year, which detail a handset with a quad-camera configuration, a 50-megapixel IMX800 front camera, and a periscope zoom lens.

There’s also a possibility that the Leica phone will be part of a future Xiaomi 13 generation, Engadget posits. Time will tell.

Leica’s tie-in with Xiaomi comes after a string of speculations last year that purported it was ending its years-long collaboration with Huawei.

“We are convinced that the first jointly developed imaging flagship smartphone makes the pioneering progress of both companies visible,” says Matthias Harsch, CEO of Leica Camera AG. “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.”

[via Android Authority, XDA, Engadget, Xiaomi, images via various sources]