The announcement of Xiaomi’s collaboration with Leica this morning, as expected, provoked a heated discussion on the Web. The head of the company, Lei Jun, decided to answer a number of the most frequently mentioned questions. The topic of what impact the partnership will have on mobile photography was described by the top manager as follows: often professional photographers admire the rapidly increasing capabilities of mobile cameras, but point out the lack of artistry. Like, for example, taking a night shot, due to aggressive AI algorithms, the user gets a picture that looks more like a white night. This is probably a hint at flexible algorithm control or an advanced camera application that allows you to shoot in manual mode.

Further, the head of Xiaomi said that the degree of cooperation between Xiaomi and Leica will not be superficial: it promises deep and comprehensive work in optics, imaging, image processing and many other factors that affect images. At the same time, the partnership itself did not start today – the companies have been cooperating together for some time, and their first joint product (which, obviously, will be Xiaomi 12 Ultra), “exceeded the expectations of engineers on both sides.” At the moment, teams from Germany and Beijing are jointly putting the finishing touches on the project.

We will find out what came of it in July, but for now we can take a look at a new, but not the first live photo of Xiaomi 12 Ultra, which became the hero of a joint promo video for Xiaomi and Leica. Now we know that the front camera hole is located in the center, and the screen itself has a rounding on the side edges.

Presumably Xiaomi 12 Ultra

© Vladimir Kovalev. mobile phone

According to Xiaomi