impression : Iconic camera brand Leica and smartphone superpower Xiaomi announced a partnership last year , and they usedMWC 2023to show off some of the first global devices to total from it .
My first thought , whenever I see a partnership like this get denote , is one of suspicion .
I ’ve seen and covered too many gimmicky firebrand tie - ups in my time to wear they ’re not being done for the right reasons , but after spending some fourth dimension with both theXiaomi 13andXiaomi 13 ProI reckon this could be one with the near results .
television camera brands teaming up with phone Creator is nothing raw , yet it has seldom buckle under unfeignedly standout results . Zeiss has partner with both Nokia and Sonyamong others on numerous social occasion with little benefit , while theHasselblad deal with OnePlus and Oppohas yet to go beyond some gimmicky modes . Before Oppo , Hasselblad helped Motorola build up a disappointing Moto Mod adherence .
The most obvious case of these partnerships leading to successful productsactuallyincludes Leica . For a number of years , the German brand name help Huawei produce some of the verybest camera phonesof the time – really progress to Huawei bed for being an industry leader in the place .
Huawei ’s metre with Leica terminate in 2022 and Xiaomi swooped in – it ’s already looking like that ’s a near decision .
Now , it ’s virtually unimaginable to actually approximate how much of an effect Leica has on the cameras on the Xiaomi 13 serial . It does n’t , for example , organise the lens system itself in its Frankfurt HQ – instead choose the term ‘ co - engineered ’ .
It also has no input on the detector used in the telephone set , yet having seen the results from retiring Huawei telephone and images shoot with the Xiaomi 13 Pro it seems like it ’s more than a coincidence that Leica - branded telephone set are becoming some of the effective photographic camera phone around .
Leica ’s input , away from helping Colorado - direct the lens system of rules , focuses a quite a little on color skill . Both the Xiaomi 13 and 13 Pro have a duo of dissipate alternative : Leica Authentic and Vibrant . Authentic reduces colour impregnation and design for true - life sentence persona , while Vibrant tally in a small more of the punch you ’d find on theiPhone 14 ProandSamsung Galaxy S23 Ultra .
These two modes are large , customize the image far more than a basic filter without get to everything wait like an Instagram post from 2014 . When paired with the 1 - inch sensor on the Xiaomi 13 Pro , the image from this earpiece are unlike anything from the mainstream rivalry . As so much information can be gather from that sensor , there ’s less trust on post - processing and as a consequence , I witness the images look like they ’re not soobviouslytaken from a phone . As much as I screw the camera on , say , thePixel 7 Pro , there ’s a very distinct way that makes it unclouded the photos are from a phone .
paradigm from Xiaomi 13 Pro , whether they ’re from the zoomed lens for portrait or the master camera , attend more neutral , more realistic and less process . Details are a fiddling soft and not as oversharpened , while color are n’t quite as intense . A mickle of this come down to personal preferences , but I tend to prefer this kind of shot which then leave behind me barren to tweak it later .
I ’m also a huge fan of how the partnership does n’t take over the phone . Instead of a brash logo on the back of the telephone , there ’s pocket-sized Leica wording on the camera badge . The tv camera app too does n’t get bogged down in gimmicky variation ; instead it offer two modality , four filters and a bully Leica shutter sound that you turn off if you wish .
It ’s still in the early stage of this partnership , but from what I have pick up so far – and recollect how good the Leica Huawei phones were – I am very optimistic this will be far from the selling whatsis it could have been .
