- Leica presents Leitzphone, its first phone available worldwide
- However, the United States will be left out
- The camera hardware is similar to Xiaomi’s latest flagship.
Leica makes phones, but you probably don’t know it because until now they’ve been exclusive to Japan. However, that situation has just changed with the new Leitzphone available worldwide.
There’s bad news if you’re in the US, though, because that’s the only market that will miss out on what looks like a great flagship phone, especially for photographers.
Powered by Xiaomi and wrapped in a typically premium Leica casing, the Leitzphone shares much of the same hardware as Xiaomi’s latest flagship phone, namely a triple camera unit that surpasses the iPhone and Galaxy.
The main camera is equipped with a large 1-inch 50MP sensor and LOFIC technology, for natural photo quality and less dependence on HDR and computational processing. For camera nerds, LOFIC stands for Lateral Overflow Integration Capacitor. In short, the condenser sits at the pixel level and reduces clipping, thereby increasing dynamic range. Leica has not provided me with the actual numbers.
What is unique to the Leitzphone model, apart from its sleek Leica design and UI/UX that is consistent with its actual cameras, and which is a first for phones as far as I know, is a mechanical ring around the camera unit. It’s a true design centerpiece for photographers, providing a tactile way to manually control camera settings.
By default, the control ring is set to zoom, which avoids touching the screen to switch between cameras and zoom settings. (The 200MP telephoto lens has 3x to 4x optical zoom.) However, the ring can be reassigned to functions like exposure compensation and white balance. Suitable photographer material.
The Leitzphone will also be compatible with the latest version of Xiaomi’s camera grip, which comes in a photographer’s kit and will go a long way to improving the handling of the phone for photography. Without a doubt, that was my experience with the Xiaomi 15 Ultra.
There is a version of the Leitzphone; a matte black with silver knurled trim, priced at £1,700 (around $2,000 / AU$3,400). Inside the box you’ll find a cleaning cloth, a red wrist strap, a silver lens cap, and a case (which is compatible with the mechanical ring).
My dream phone for photography?
I previously declared the Xiaomi 15 Ultra as my favorite camera phone, and while I have yet to properly test the new Leitzphone, I’m pretty sure it will win me over.
It is equipped with the latest Xiaomi technology, according to the 17 Ultra announced the same day before the MWC in Barcelona. I really felt like the larger 1-inch sensor delivered the natural photo quality I expect from a premium compact camera, rather than the overly processed look I often experience with camera phones.
Add in Leica’s gorgeous design and user interface, plus the various color profiles and bokeh features inspired by Leica cameras and lenses, and it looks like it will be my dream phone for photography.
One profile is inspired by the Leica M9, the last Leica camera to feature a CCD sensor (before CMOS became the industry standard). Images taken with CCD sensors look different.
A black and white mode is also inspired by Leica’s new Monopan 50 roll film, its first film, revealed last year.
Leica doesn’t skimp on other aspects either. The Leitzphone features a healthy 6.9-inch display with 3,500 nits brightness, 16GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, 6,000mAh battery, and a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.
Speaking of chipsets, there’s an additional security chip exclusive (for phones), designed to securely embed content credential information into images – the industry-standard way to authenticate images as real.
All in all, the Leitzphone looks like a luxury phone for photographers and, ironically, one of the most affordable ways to shoot with a Leica. I’ll report back once I’ve spent a lot of time shooting with the phone.
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