- Leica unveils the Leitzphone, its first globally available phone
- However, the US will miss out
- The camera hardware is similar to Xiaomi’s latest flagship
Leica makes phones, but you probably wouldn’t know because they’ve been exclusive to Japan until now. However, that situation changed with the new, globally available Leitzphone.
There’s bad news if you’re in the US, though, because that’s the only market missing out on what looks like a fabulous flagship phone – especially for photographers.
Powered by Xiaomi and wrapped in a typically premium Leica shell, the Leitzphone shares much of the same hardware as the latest flagship Xiaomi phone – meaning an iPhone and Galaxy-beating triple camera unit.
The main camera is equipped with a large 50 MP 1-inch sensor and LOFIC technology, for natural photo quality and less dependence on HDR and computer processing. For camera geeks, LOFIC stands for Lateral Overflow Integration Capacitor. Simply put, the capacitor sits at the pixel level and reduces clipping, thus increasing the dynamic range. Leica has not given me the actual numbers.
What’s unique to the Leitzphone model—besides its slick Leica design and UI/UX consistent with its actual cameras, which is a first for phones as far as I know—is a mechanical ring around the camera unit. It’s a true design center for photographers, providing a tactile way to manually control a setting of the camera.
By default, the control ring is set to zoom, avoiding tapping the screen to switch between cameras and zoom settings. (The 200MP telephoto lens has a 3x to 4x optical zoom.) However, the ring can be reassigned to functions like exposure compensation and white balance. Proper photography stuff.
The Leitzphone will also be compatible with the latest version of Xiaomi’s camera grip, which comes in a photography kit and will go a long way in improving the phone’s handling for photography. That was certainly my experience with the Xiaomi 15 Ultra.
There is one version of the Leitzphone; a matte black with silver fluted edge, priced at £1,700 (around $2,000 / AU$3,400). Inside the box you’ll find a cleaning cloth, red wrist strap, silver lens cap plus 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 my heart.
It is equipped with the latest Xiaomi technology, which per 17 Ultra announced the same day ahead of MWC in Barcelona. I really felt that 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.
Throw in Leica’s beautiful design and UI, plus the various color profiles and bokeh characteristics inspired by Leica cameras and lenses, and it looks set to be my dream phone for photography.
A profile is inspired by the Leica M9 – the last Leica camera to have a CCD sensor (before CMOS became the industry standard). Images made with CCD sensors have a different look.
A black-and-white mode is also inspired by Leica’s new Monopan 50 film roll – its first film unveiled last year.
Leica doesn’t skimp elsewhere either. The Leitzphone has a healthy 6.9-inch screen with 3500nit brightness, 16GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, 6,000mAh battery and a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.
Speaking of chipsets, there’s a unique (for phones) extra security chip designed to securely embed content credentials into images – the industry standard method of authenticating images as genuine.
All in all, the Leitzphone feels like the luxury phone for photographers and, ironically, one of the more affordable ways to shoot with a Leica. I will report back when I have had more time to photograph with the phone.
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