After some earlier rumors, today Xiaomi finally confirmed its “long-term strategic cooperation” with Leica, and that they’ve been co-developing a flagship smartphone ahead of its July 2022 launch. This will be the German camera firm’s latest mobile imaging collaboration after Sharp, Huawei and Panasonic.
Xiaomi hasn’t shared much else about this upcoming product, but our money’s on a “Xiaomi 13” label and Qualcomm’s brand new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor, along with some classic imaging aesthetics and filters from Leica’s side. In the press release, CEO Lei Jun added that “this cooperation will provide a strong boost to Xiaomi’s imaging strategy.”
Xiaomi isn’t the first Chinese phone maker to leverage the photography know-how from a renowned camera brand. In late 2020, Vivo followed the footsteps of Sony plus Nokia and joined forces with Zeiss. More recently, Oppo (and OnePlus) started launching handsets jointly developed with Hasselblad.