The Xiaomi 12S Series "co-engineered with Leica" was officially launched in China today. In particular, the camera of the flagship model, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, sets a new standard in the area of smartphone photography.

Wetzlar, 4 July 2022. In May of this year, Xiaomi, one of the world’s leading smartphone companies, and Leica Camera AG publicly announced their strategic partnership in the mobile imaging segment. Now, the first products jointly developed by the two companies, the Xiaomi 12S series ‘co-engineered with Leica’, have been presented to the Chinese market.

For more than 100 years, Leica has stood for photographic excellence, best picture quality and the fine art of German precision engineering. ‘For almost a decade now, we have been successfully incorporating our know-how into camera systems in the smartphone segment, thereby repeatedly demonstrating our expertise and activities in future-oriented technology fields such as image processing, image quality tuning and computational imaging. Today, we and Xiaomi have come together to present the beginning of a new era in the world of smartphone photography. In particular the jointly developed flagship model, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, illustrates the innovative power of both companies, and will delight our customers with a camera module that offers them exceptional imaging quality, the classic Leica image look and unlimited creative freedom’, explains Matthias Harsch, CEO of Leica Camera AG.

Within the framework of the collaboration with Xiaomi, Leica contributed its expertise in the development and realisation of the camera module for the Xiaomi 12S series smartphones. Here, particular attention must be called to the flagship model, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra. A special highlight of the flagship model, and entirely new to the smartphone segment, is the choice of two different image profiles in the camera module. Consumers can select the options ‘Leica Authentic Look’ and ‘Leica Vibrant Look’. Developed especially by Leica, the ‘Authentic Look’ profile will delight Leica fans in particular and fascinate all other customers with smartphone images with the iconic ‘Leica Image Look’. In the creation of the ‘Authentic Look’ profile, Leica imaging experts attached particular importance to an aesthetically pleasing and natural-looking rendition of colours, good definition in shadows, realistic local contrasts and the excellent reproduction of finest details. In addition to this, the ‘Authentic Look’ profile features a reduced compensation of vignetting to ensure minimal darkening between the centre and the corners of the image and lend it the typical look and character of a photograph captured with a Leica Summicron lens.

The ‘Leica Vibrant Look’ profile was jointly developed by Xiaomi and Leica. Through the combination of Xiaomi’s experience in the field of smartphone photography and the visual aesthetics typical for Leica images, photographers can use this style to perfectly capture the emotions of a moment in vibrant yet realistic colour.

Featuring a 50-megapixel Sony IMX989 1-inch image sensor and a Vario-Summicron 13–120 mm f/1.9–4.1 ASPH. lens with a zoom range of 13 mm to 120 mm, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra delivers brilliant pictures in JPG, DNG and HEIF format that impress with highest quality and true-to-life detail, especially in large-format prints.  To enable consumer-friendly postprocessing, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, the Xiaomi 12S Pro and the Xiaomi 12S all support the Adobe Labs-calibrated 10-bit RAW format.

All products of the Xiaomi 12S series ‘co-engineered with Leica’ are available exclusively in China.

About Xiaomi Corporation

Xiaomi Corporation (“Xiaomi”) was founded in April 2010 and listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on July 9, 2018 (1810.HK). Xiaomi is a consumer electronics and smart manufacturing company with smartphones and smart hardware connected by an IoT platform at its core.

Embracing our vision of “Make friends with users and be the coolest company in the users’ hearts”, Xiaomi continuously pursues technological innovations, compelling user experience and operational efficiency. The company relentlessly builds amazing products with honest prices to let everyone in the world enjoy a better life through innovative technology.

Xiaomi is one of the world's leading smartphone companies. The company’s market share in terms of smartphone shipments ranked no. 3 globally in the first quarter of 2022. The company has also established the world’s leading consumer AIoT (AI+IoT) platform, with more than 478 million smart devices connected to its platform (excluding smartphones, tablets and laptops) as of March 31, 2022. Xiaomi products are available in more than 100 countries and regions around the world. In August 2021, the company made the Fortune Global 500 list for the third time, ranking 338th, up 84 places compared to 2020.

Xiaomi is a constituent of the Hang Seng Index, Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, Hang Seng TECH Index and Hang Seng China 50 Index.

Leica Camera – the partner of photography

Leica Camera AG is an international, premium manufacturer of cameras and sports optics. The legendary reputation of the Leica brand is based on a long tradition of excellent quality, German craftsmanship and German industrial design, combined with innovative technologies. An integral part of the brand's culture is the diversity of activities the company undertakes for the advancement of photography. In addition to the Leica Galleries and Leica Akademies spread around the world, there are the Leica Hall of Fame Award and, in particular, the Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA), which is considered one of the most innovative sponsorship awards existing today. Furthermore, Leica Camera AG, with its headquarters in Wetzlar, Hessen, and a second production site in Vila Nova de Famalicão, Portugal, has a worldwide network of its own national organisations and Leica Retail Stores.

Please find further information at:

Leica Camera AG
Ann-Kristin Löhr
Global PR Coordination
E-Mail: Ann-Kristin.Loehr@leica-camera.com