Xiaomi may rope in Leica to help improve camera performance on the Xiaomi 12

Thanks to the constant innovation around smartphone cameras, one does not need to carry a separate device for capturing images and videos, While some smartphone brands claim to offer cinematic grade photography and videography, that’s a story we will take on another day. 

The outcome of this synergy is that brands from across the two worlds collaborate a lot to help enhance each other's capabilities. The latest addition to this list is Xiaomi and Leica. Both brands are reportedly working together for the Chinese smartphone maker's upcoming flagship Xiaomi 12.

According to a Chinese tipster’s now-deleted post on Weibo, both the companies seem to have struck a deal for the Xiaomi 12 lineup that may have multiple devices including the Xiaomi 12 Pro and Xiaomi 12 Ultra.

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At this point, we have no clear indication if all the devices under the Xiaomi 12 series will get Leica optimized cameras or is it just Xiaomi 12 Ultra that's slated to benefit from the collaboration. The fact is that the tipster shared an image of an upcoming Xiaomi phone proudly showing off Leica branding on the camera island.

The Xiaomi 12 is reportedly going to rock Qualcomm’s yet to be launched flagship chipset and is get a launch in China right before the year ends. Once again, there is no specific information about a global launch, which is speculated to happen some time early next year.

Not the first but won't be the last as well

While Xiaomi executives had hinted that such a collaboration was on cards, it is least surprising to see Xiaomi getting the German photo equipment maker on board. We recently saw such associations between Sharp and Leica, Realme and Kodak, Vivo and Zeiss, while the most notable one recently has been OnePlus’s collaboration with Hasselblad.

A lot of these collaborations are just for marketing purposes, wherein the camera brand would let the smartphone maker use its name to promote the latter's device – ostensibly for a fee. But there are cases wherein lens or camera equipment makers end up working with the brand closely on various aspects – Nokia’s collaboration with Zeiss is the perfect example of such a partnership.

For a long time, Leica has been associated with Huawei, however, with the latter's future in the smartphone business appearing dodgy now, the company has partnered with other smartphone makers. Some time back it was reported that even Honor, Huawei’s offshoot that’s now a separate company, might strike a similar deal with Leica. However, we’ve not heard anything on that front.

All said and done, we will have to wait till the time we are able to get our hands on the said device to be able to test out the camera performance in the real world. Till then, stay tuned.

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