Smartphone brands partnering with camera companies is not a new thing. We have seen Huawei’s partnership with LEICA, Vivo’s partnership with ZEISS, OnePlus’ partnership with Hasselblad, etc. The latest brand to do this is Xiaomi. The company officially announced its partnership with a well-known camera manufacturer, LEICA.
Xiaomi says this partnership will offer a huge boost to Xiaomi’s imaging strategy. Moreover, Xiaomi also announced that the first product as a result of this partnership would launch in July. In other words, the first flagship by Xiaomi, with cameras developed in collaboration with LEICA, is coming in July.
Xiaomi has not officially revealed the name, but it is most likely the Xiaomi 12 Ultra since that’s the only phone the brand has not yet launched under its Xiaomi 12 series.
Here is what the respective brands said about this partnership.
Lei Jun, the CEO of Xiaomi, said –
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 and appreciate each other’s advantages and industry. This cooperation will provide a strong boost to Xiaomi’s imaging strategy. During the cooperation, from optical design to tuning aesthetic orientations, the innovative technologies, product philosophies and imaging preferences of both parties have experienced unprecedented in-depth collision and fusion.
Matthias Harsch, the CEO of LEICA Camera AG, said –
It is an honor to announce the long-term strategic cooperation with Xiaomi today. Leica and Xiaomi are both global premium brands and during this unprecedented deep cooperation process, both parties have successively worked on the goal of providing customers a new era of mobile photography. We are convinced that the first jointly developed imaging flagship smartphone makes the pioneering progress of both companies visible. 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.