The Xiaomi 12S Ultra was launched earlier this year, to much fanfare. It added a 1-inch camera sensor to a device stuffed of flagship hardware. Now, Xiaomi has unveiled the 12S Ultra Concept Phone that looks the same as the aforementioned flagship, but has a second 1-inch 50.3-megapixel sensor occupying the middle of the camera island instead and is designed to work with an interchangeable Leica M lens.
Read: You can now pay with Bitcoin at Pick n Pay
Interestingly, Xiaomi has instead chosen to shield this additional 1-inch sensor — also a Sony IMX989 with 10-bit RAW support — underneath a large, circular piece of durable sapphire glass, as opposed to cutting out an opening for it as you’d find on traditional interchangeable lens cameras. It protects the sensor against dust and larger foreign objects, but it is yet to be seen how it affects the optical light pass-through.
In order to install an interchangeable lens onto this 5G concept phone, you must first unscrew the protection ring around the rear camera island, then by way of an adapter, you’ll be able to mount any Leica M lens. The full assembly with a Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH lens looks rather impressive from the side.
The company hasn’t let the market know whether they plan to bring this type of device to consumers.
This isn’t the first smartphone to tout interchangeable lenses. Motorola offered Hasselblad-certified “True Zoom” snap-on covers for its Moto Z lineup. Panasonic has also offered the CM1, which utilized a 1-inch camera sensor and integrated Leica lens.
For many, this looks very much like the natural progression for smartphones as sensor sizes increase and the limits of modern smartphone photography are reached. A brief video announcing the Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept phone show that many common camera features are included with focus peaking, histogram, and even 10-bit RAW image shooting appear to be included.
