Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept lets you use Leica M-series lenses with your phone

Xiaomi has showcased the Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept smartphone that features an interchangeable lens design that resembles a DSLR camera. The Chinese smartphone brand has released a video showing off the complete design and optical details of the smartphone that has been co-developed with Leica. The new Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept allows users to attach a camera lens to the smartphone’s camera. Xiaomi claims that users will be able to attach Leica’s professional M-series camera lenses to the smartphone’s camera. The Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept comes with two 1-inch sensors, instead of the ones found on the vanilla Xiaomi 12S Ultra. The new model could debut as the first handset to feature support for interchangeable lenses.

The Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept was shown off by Xiaomi in a video on Wednesday through its official Weibo handle. The new device is a joint effort between Xiaomi and Leica and allows for a Leica M-series lens module to be attached to the phone.

According to the video, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept has two 1-inch sensors. The secondary lens is installed in the center of the field of view and can directly receive light from the external lens. It is said to reduce light loss while capturing sharp images. The surface has a sapphire crystal coating to protect it from scratches and can be customized with Leica M series lenses.

The concept model is said to support focus peaking, zebra lines, histograms and other commonly used tools, and can record 10-bit RAW files. Xiaomi hasn’t revealed many other details yet, including the specs of the upcoming device. We can expect more teasers about the Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept in the coming days.

The Xiaomi 12S Ultra with Leica optics was launched earlier in July this year. It features a 6.73-inch 2K (1,440×3,200 pixels) AMOLED micro-curved display with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. The display comes with Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support, with the phone making use of second-generation LTPO technology for a power-efficient display viewing experience.

The smartphone is powered by the octa-core Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC, along with up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM. It features a triple camera setup on the back that houses a 50-megapixel 1-inch Sony IMX989 primary sensor with optical image stabilization (OIS) support. The camera setup also includes a 48-megapixel main camera sensor available under a periscope-shaped lens and a 48-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens. The rear camera setup also includes laser autofocus and is paired with an LED flash module. Furthermore, there’s a 32-megapixel selfie camera sensor on the front. Up to 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage, an in-display fingerprint sensor, a 4,860mAh battery that supports 67W wired and 50W wireless charging are some of the other key specifications of the phone.