For years, Huawei and Leica have been in a strategic partnership. The Chinese smartphone manufacturer has been making use of camera lenses from Leica. This can be seen on Huawei’s flagship smartphones like the P series and the Mate series. But this partnership has come to a sudden and sad end.
Due to the relentless US sanctions on Huawei, which has in turn taken a toll on the smartphone business of the company, Leica made the tough call to jump ship. As Huawei and its fans wave goodbye to their age-long partner, the Xiaomi community welcomes Leica with open arms. As covered in the article linked here, Xiaomi is preparing to launch a smartphone with a Leica branded camera.
What does this mean for Huawei flagship devices? Well, we are expecting to see a new flagship device from Huawei, the Mate 50 series, which might launch in June. This termination of partnership means that the coming Mate device will not use a Leica branded camera. Huawei for years now has held on to the crown as the king of camera smartphones. Topping DxOMark ranking year in and year out with its top-notch camera quality. Will this Huawei and Leica break up mean that the camera ability of Huawei flagship smartphones will drop?
It is not certain that the camera ability of Huawei devices will dwindle in any way. We can be sure of this because the picture quality of camera smartphones doesn’t only depend on the type of lens it uses. The software also plays a vital role, and Huawei knows its onions in this area. Currently, Huawei’s spinoff company Honor tops DxOMark ranking as the best camera smartphone, and it doesn’t use a branded camera lens. So, Huawei will be able to still achieve high-class camera specifications with its Mate 50 series despite lacking a Leica lens.
Huawei and Leica’s break-up is a sad development, but we can still be optimistic about the Mate 50 and other Huawei flagship devices to follow. We also are looking forward to the Xiaomi 12 Ultra that’ll use a Leica lens. All of these fuel the competition in the smartphone market, hence driving innovation and development.
