Xiaomi and Leica to launch a co-branded phone in July

Xiaomi is undertaking a strategic partnership with Leica for the first imaging flagship smartphone jointly developed by the two companies. To be launched in July this year, it is speculated that the device in question is the Xiaomi 12 Ultra.

This announcement does not come as the first rodeo from the mobile world. The company's most well known and definitely most successful partnership so far was with Huawei, but since that company is still being affected by various US Government bans, it makes sense that Leica would want to try other things, reports GSM Arena.

According to their joint press release, "Xiaomi and Leica share the same ideas regarding mobile imaging", and they're both eager to take mobile photography to the next level. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun said: "Xiaomi focuses on creating the ultimate user experience, and has always hoped to explore the capabilities of smartphone photography to the extreme. Xiaomi and Leica agree with each other's pursuits and ideas" and their cooperation involves optical design as well as "tuning aesthetic orientations".

Leica Camera AG CEO Matthias Harsch said "it is an honour to announce the long-term strategic cooperation with Xiaomi", and discussed an "unprecedented deep cooperation process", adding that Leica and Xiaomi are "convinced that the first jointly developed imaging flagship smartphone makes the pioneering progress of both companies visible". He assures "exceptional image quality, classic Leica aesthetics", and "unrestricted creativity".

With such big collaboration announcements, it is to see what each counterpart brings to the much-speculated Xiaomi 12 Ultra.