Xiaomi and photography specialist Leica have announced a strategic partnership to develop new smartphones capable of photography.
For several years, smartphone manufacturers have liked to partner with big names in audio or photography to give them guarantees of quality on their products. We have long seen the Zeiss brand on Nokia or Hasselblad smartphones offering photo modules for Motorola and then the OnePlus 9. In this game, there is a strong partner of the smartphone which has found itself somewhat orphaned by force of circumstance, it is the German specialist Leica.
The latter was until now the privileged partner of Huawei for many years. But now, the Chinese manufacturer is losing ground and we have to find a new brand to partner with. Leica didn’t need to look very far, the new partner is still Chinese, it’s Xiaomi.
“Xiaomi and Leica share the same vision of mobile photography”
As rumored, Xiaomi and Leica therefore announced a partnership on May 23, 2022. The goal is to develop new horizons for mobile photography. In other words, working together on the photo module and image processing on Xiaomi’s next flagship.
If we understand Xiaomi’s official press release, the objective of a partnership with Leica is to seek out this unique know-how which gives photos a “ Leica look “. It shouldn’t necessarily be about completely rethinking smartphone photography, but rather getting help from Leica in calibrating cameras to match image processing and colorimetry to what’s expected. of a Leica camera.
During this cooperation, from the optical design to the tuning of the aesthetic orientations, the innovative technologies, product philosophies and imaging preferences of both parties have undergone an unprecedented deep collision and fusion.
It is with the first smartphones resulting from this partnership that we will be able to really discover if it is a question for Leica of only lending its logo and its name, or if the partnership is more concrete. It will be enough for this to compare the photo processing of the new devices with the well-known habits of Xiaomi in the matter.
See you in July
The press release does not hide it: this partnership will take shape for the first time with a “ flagship of the photo which will be unveiled in July 2022.
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