Xiaomi, a smartphone concept with an interchangeable lens. Google’s new Pixel 7 Pro integrates a 30x zoom and boasts the ability to capture sharp details even from a distance. As for Apple, rumors have been circulating for some time that with the iPhone 15 periscope lenses could arrive, lenses that are based on a prism that reflects light on multiple internal lenses at 90 degrees compared to the camera sensor, allowing the length of the ‘lens to be much longer than a telephoto lens, which would result in a high-quality optical zoom, and rival the zoom of the Pixel 7 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S22.
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A message from Xiaomi appeared on the Chinese social network Weibo with a reference to a phone concept, indicated by the tag #Xiaomi 12SUltra concept machine #, an alleged device being worked on in the laboratories of the Chinese multinational that aims to be the first to integrate a Leica lens on the phone overcoming inherent limitations of current cameras integrated in smartphones. The idea is to blend two elements together (a phone and components normally used in mirrorless and digital SLR cameras), to obtain an imaging device that would represent a leap in the industry and could be a new trend for the industry.
For the record, Sony has in the past tried a similar approach (a lens with integrated sensor, battery and card and which used the connection to the smartphone hooked to act as a monitor) but was not successful.
Xiaomi actually boasts collaborations with Leica and has enough firepower from a marketing point of view to be able to leverage such a product. It remains to be seen whether the market would accept a solution of this type, also in consideration of the high costs and intrinsic limits that such solutions would have compared to native solutions. The hypothesis also remains that these are only and only marketing operations set up to impress potential users and demonstrate alleged ability to innovate.
