The rumors of a collaboration between Xiaomi and Leica turn out to be true. Both companies have officially announced their partnership in a press release stating that Xiaomi’s next flagship phone will indeed feature camera lenses from the German manufacturer.
In a press release, Xiaomi and Leica stated that they “share the same ideas about mobile imaging”. As they said, “Both companies are constantly looking to explore the optical performance and photographic experience in the mobile imaging era through extreme technological breakthroughs and aesthetic pursuits.”
Leica previously had a partnership with Huawei, but perhaps due to all the sanctions against the Chinese OEM, the German camera brand decided that the Huawei P50 will be their last joint phone. It ended the collaboration and started looking for a new partner.
In their press release, Xiaomi and Leica revealed that we can officially expect the first fruits of their collaboration in July this year. Unfortunately, they have not shared the name of the smartphone, but if the rumors are true, the device in question should be the Xiaomi 12 Ultra.
What to expect from the Xiaomi 12 Ultra
In terms of cameras, we expect a 32MP front-facing camera and a rear quad-camera with a 50MP IMX800 primary snapper and periscope zoom. Since Huawei’s Leica phones can take monochrome images and have color filters in the camera app, we expect the Xiaomi 12 Ultra to have similar features. as we previously reported, the Xiaomi 12 Ultra is rumored to have a 4,900 mAh battery and support 120W fast charging. The heart of the new phone will be the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset which means it will have flagship performance and can also have up to 12GB of RAM with 256GB of storage. The Xiaomi 12 Ultra is also expected to have a 120Hz refresh rate screen.
As for the price, we suspect it won’t be cheap. When the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra launched it cost £1,199 / AU$1,799 (about $1,600), and we expect the Xiaomi 12 Ultra to be in this price range too.