Poor Huawei... It's not polite to kick a dying man, but business is business. A well-known leaker with the username Teme wrote in a Twitter post that Huawei and Leica's 6-year collaboration will end with the P50 series.
The collaboration between Leica and Huawei is apparently coming to an end P50 series will be last Leica Huawei phone and Leica is looking for a new manufacturer for its brand.
Honor / Xiaomi / Sharp etc https://t.co/QJJ4OdmMDT- Teme (特米)???? (@RODENT950) May 15, 2021
The first Leica-sensored Huawei phone was the P9, which also became the first known dual-camera phone in the mobile market. Huawei phones have since been very much at the forefront of camera, regular DXOMark podium finishers, and it has to be said, especially what they put down on the table in night photography is a nice achievement.
Behind the "break-up" is, of course, the US sanctions, and surprisingly, Huawei's smartphone division will sooner or later be finished.
In an official statement, Leica said that it currently has a live contract with Huawei, so it does not comment on the rumours due to confidentiality obligations.
Okay, but what does this have to do with Xiaomi? Leica is reportedly not planning to leave the smartphone market, so it is looking for a new partner. If you look at DXOMark's top list, the Mi 11 Ultra is at the top, and rumour has it that Leica's next partner will be Xiaomi.
According to information from the Italian portal Xiaomitoday, the Mi 12 could already feature Leica optics on the back. So, what does this mean? Again, taking the DXO ranking mentioned many times in this article, there are 2 Xiaomi and 3 Huawei in the top 5, the latter 3 all with Leica optics. So what this means is that, if this comes to fruition, Xiaomi could concretely devastate the mobile market in terms of cameras.
I'm curious to see what happens, and if any new information comes out, we will of course report it.
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