Xiaomi officially confirmed that it had partnered with German camera maker Leica to develop a flagship smartphone that will be launched this July 2022.
The partnership will be Leica's latest mobile imaging collaboration after its earlier works with Sharp, Huawei, and Panasonic.
The news about the partnership was announced through a press release on Monday morning in Asia.
Leica is a century-old company that is popular for its cameras and lenses. The company has been a partner of Huawei for the past five years. Leica also partnered with Japanese brand Sharp last summer for a Leica-branded phone solely for the Japanese market.
Leveraging Phone Photography Has Been a Trend Among Developers
Improving the phone's photography has been a trend among developers as Xiaomi isn't the first Chinese phone maker to leverage photography from a renowned camera brand.
In fact, in late 2020, Vivo followed the move of Sony plus Nokia and joined forces with Zeiss. They came up with the latest release, the X80 series.
More recently, Oppo and OnePlus started releasing handsets that were jointly developed with Hasselblad, including the Find X5 series and the OnePlus 10 Pro, according to Engadget.
As of writing, Xiaomi hasn't divulged information about this upcoming product, but it is expected to have Qualcomm's brand new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor and the usual classic imaging aesthetics and filters from Leica's side.
There isn't any news on the name of the new flagship either, but it may be called "Xiaomi 12 Ultra" or possibly starting a "Xiaomi 13" series.
CEO Lei Jun said in the press release that "this cooperation will provide a strong boost to Xiaomi's imaging strategy."
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Xiaomi, Leica Eager To Take Mobile Photography to the Next Level
The joint press release of Xiaomi and Leica stated that "Xiaomi and Leica share the same ideas regarding mobile imaging," and they're both eager to take mobile photography to the next level, as per GSMArena.
According to Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun: "Xiaomi focuses on creating the ultimate user experience and has always hoped to explore the capabilities of smartphone photography to the extreme. Xiaomi and Leica agree with each other's pursuits and ideas."
The two companies' cooperation focuses on optical design and "tuning aesthetic orientations."
Meanwhile, Leica Camera AG CEO Matthias Harsch said it is an honor to announce the long-term strategic cooperation with Xiaomi.
Harsch also talked about an "unprecedented deep cooperation process," adding that Leica and Xiaomi are "convinced that the first jointly developed imaging flagship smartphone makes the pioneering progress of both companies visible."
He promises "exceptional image quality, classic Leica aesthetics," and "unrestricted creativity."
Both companies did not say whether the partnership is exclusive, which means that other smartphones won't be using the Leica branding in the near future.
The Xiaomi representative declined to comment when reached. But Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun said the cooperation between the two brands brings "unprecedented in-depth collision and fusion in optical design, aesthetic orientations, image preferences and innovative technologies," as per XDA's report.
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