Xiaomi and Leica announce strategic partnership

It was suspected in advance that Xiaomi and Leica could enter into a partnership for smartphone cameras. The founder of Xiaomi, Lei Jun, is now making the whole thing official via Twitter.

The company will strategically partner with Leica to further advance camera technology. Leica has mostly worked with Huawei in the past, but they haven’t really been on top since the sanctions in the US.

Let’s see what really comes out of it, or whether it’s just the Leica logo on the camera in the end.

Xiaomi and Leica end the whispering and officially announce a cooperation. The first Xiaomi cell phone with a Leica camera is expected to appear in July.

Corresponding rumors have been around for a long time, now it’s official. Leica and Xiaomi are cooperating and want to develop mobile phone cameras together in the future. The first result of the partnership is expected to go on sale in July.

Both companies announced this in a joint press release. The flagship smartphone announced for July is likely to be the Xiaomi 12 Ultra. We could expect a first glimpse of this as early as June. According to rumours, the Chinese manufacturer is planning a corresponding product presentation on June 21st.

Xiaomi is now the third mobile phone manufacturer that Leica is currently working with. The company from Wetzlar has been cooperating with Huawei since 2016, and Leica also entered into a partnership with Sharp in 2021. The mobile phones from this cooperation are so far only available in Japan.

The cooperation between Xiaomi and Leica could lead to a changing of the guard for camera phones. Huawei has been the leader here for years. Xiaomi had competed with the company, especially with the Mi 11 Ultra, and with Leica’s expertise, Xiaomi could possibly knock Huawei off the throne for good.