Coinciding with the global launch of Xiaomi’s 17 Ultra (read about it right here), the company announced the deepening of its relationship with Leica. Huawei CEO Matthias Hirsch took to the stage to announce a new Letzphone, which appears to be an even deeper collaboration than the Huawei Mate 17 Ultra, which is a apart phone. Unclear? This is appropriate.
Design-wise, Leica has returned to a single tone body color, which looks more “Leica” to this camera dilettante’s eyes. And if you’re wondering if you’ve heard of the Leitzphone before, you probably have: it was a series of phones made by Sharp that launched in Japan in 2021. They all had a 1-inch camera sensor, as did Xiaomi’s first Leitzphone. It also has a mechanical, physical ring dial around the camera unit to control settings like zoom, exposure, and shutter speed.
The camera interface is also designed by Leica. It’s designed to be as intuitive as possible, with an essential mode in the camera app that strips away all those modes and labels, displaying just what you want to shoot. You can switch between a monochrome shooting mode and a more familiar punchy, contrasty Leica filter. And that’s all.
Other than that, there aren’t any major notable interface or UI changes that I could notice while trying out the Letzphone at Xiaomi’s MWC keynote. However, if you’re interested in the functionality – or the cameras – check out our hands-on coverage and sample photos of the Xiaomi 17 Ultra. there are cameras Good.
All three iterations (the regular Xiaomi 17 Ultra, the “by Leica” edition and the Leitzphone) feature a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip and a 6.9-inch 120Hz display that can reach a peak brightness of 3,500 nits. While the focus is naturally on the camera, this is a flagship device by almost any metric. It also has a 6,000mAh battery for extended holiday photo shoots.
It’s pretty much the same as the Huawei Mate 17 Ultra, except for some Huawei-colored wallpaper and design accents, just with different messaging. It’s a Huawei phone, made by Xiaomi, but does a Rose by any other name still produce great low-light photography? Perhaps the increased branding from Huawei will be enough to inspire its camera fans to make it their next smartphone.
Image by Matt Smith for Engadget
After years of collaboration (and cute little badges), this may be the first pure “Leica phone” manufactured by Xiaomi, but sold directly by both companies. It is priced at €1,999 (about $2,362), but it is not yet known whether this phone will launch in the US or not. Welcome all of you to MWC.
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