Xiaomi will launch in the coming months a new very high-end smartphone, the Xiaomi 12 Ultra. It could be the company’s first camera developed jointly with Leica for the photo part.
Speculation about a partnership between Xiaomi and Leica has been circulating for several months now. While Leica has accompanied the photo part of Huawei’s high-end smartphones until now, the German manufacturer would now have turned to Xiaomi.
Indeed, the first concrete evidence of it has been discovered in the source code of MIUI’s Gallery application. Leaker @xiaomiui reports on Twitter that several character strings including the word “Leica” have been added. The first device to take advantage of it would be the Xiaomi 12 Ultra, or the Xiaomi MIX 5 which should arrive in the coming weeks in China. The recent Xiaomi 12 and 12 Pro which were launched in France unfortunately did not take advantage of it.
Xiaomi and Leica partnership unveiled by MIUI source code
These lines of code refer to the various filters and visual effects of the renowned German manufacturer of cameras and optics. We find in particular the terms “Leica Monochrom”, “Leica Monochorm HC”, “Leica Natural” or “Leica Vivid”.
Thanks to this new strategic partnership with Leica, Xiaomi’s smartphones could well take a new step in photography to shake up the competition at Samsung or Apple. Other manufacturers have also forged important partnerships with other camera manufacturers, including OnePlus with Hasselblad, or even Vivo and Zeiss.
In addition to Leica’s know-how, Xiaomi will also rely on a new next-gen main sensor from Sony. It would be the IMX800 sensor, and we already know that it would measure almost 1.1 inches. The latter should directly succeed the IMX707 that can be found in the Xiaomi 12 Pro, and promises to be even more efficient thanks to its large size. The Xiaomi 12 Ultra would then use one of the largest sensors available on the marketwhich should allow it to offer quite impressive shots day and night.
