Alongside a global launch for Xiaomi's 17 Ultra (read about that right here), the company announced a further deepening of its relationship with Leica.
The CEO of Leica, Mattias Harsch, took to the stage to announce a new Leitzphone, which appears to be an even deeper collaboration than 17 Ultra by Leica, which is a different phone. Confused? That's fair.
Design-wise, Leica has shifted back to a single tone body color, which looks more "Leica" to this camera dilettante's eyes. And if you’re thinking 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 and yes, as does Xiaomi’s first Leitzphone. It also gets a customizable ring to control camera settings.
The interface is also designed by Leica. with the aim of being as intuitive as possible.
The regular Xiaomi 17 Ultra and Leica edition have a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip and a 6.9-inch 120Hz display that can reach up to 3,500 nits of peak brightness. While cameras are the focus, it’s a flagship device by pretty much any metric. We’ll be taking a closer look at what’s different when we get to test it out very soon.
After years of collaborating (and cute little badges), this may be the first pure "Leica phone" manufactured by Xiaomi, but sold directly by Leica.
