When it comes to Leica-branded smartphone cameras, only one name comes to mind — Huawei. But now that Huawei is just a shadow of its former self, a new contender is planning to launch a phone with Leica-branded cameras.
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is reportedly working on a smartphone with Leica-branded cameras, and XDA Senior Member kacskrz has found new strings pointing towards the partnership in the Chinese version of MIUI‘s Gallery Editor app (v0.7.5). The strings highlight new filters that you will be able to use while editing photos and videos on the upcoming smartphone. These include a few filters with the Leica brand name.
As you can see in the attached screenshots, the strings mention four filters named after the iconic German camera maker — Leica Monochrom, Leica Monochrom HC (High Contrast), Leica Natural, and Leica Vivid. These filters are not live in the current version of the MIUI Gallery Editor, but their presence confirms that Xiaomi could launch a phone with Leica-branded cameras soon.
At the moment, it isn’t clear if the upcoming Xiaomi device will include other features found on older Leica-branded phones or not. For instance, the Leica Leitz Phone 1 comes with a shooting mode called Leitz Looks, which gives photos a unique black-and-white look. The Huawei P50 Pro, on the other hand, comes with two distinct Leica-branded filters, Leica Standard and Leica Smooth, along with the Leica Vivid filter mentioned earlier.
The upcoming Xiaomi device could include these features as well, but we don’t have any evidence to support this claim at the moment. We’ll make sure to let you know as soon as we have more information.
What do you think of Xiaomi’s decision to offer Leica-branded cameras on its smartphone? Could the partnership help Xiaomi improve the camera performance of its devices? Let us know in the comments section below.
Source: MIUI Polska
Featured image: Xiaomi 12 Pro