Xiaomi Flagship With Leica-Branded Cameras Launches On July 4
Since March 2022, several rumors talked about a possible collaboration between German lens maker Leica and smartphone major Xiaomi. The rumors eventually turned out to be true when in May 2022, Xiaomi formally announced a partnership with the German marquee. At around the same time, Xiaomi indicated that the first Xiaomi smartphone bearing the Leica branding should be expected by July this year.
With July less than a week away, Xiaomi's founder and CEO Lei Jun took to Twitter and confirmed that the first of these Leica branded smartphones shall be unveiled on July 5, 2022. By the looks of it, Xiaomi intends to announce multiple devices belonging to the Xiaomi 12S series, with all of them featuring the Leica branding. However, the actual number of devices Xiaomi intends to launch on July 5 isn't clear as yet.
After so much hard work, we can finally share our latest innovation, Xiaomi smartphones co-engineered with Leica, ushering in a new era in imagery technology. Looking forward to sharing more at the #Xiaomi12SSeriesLaunch on July 4, 19:00 GMT+8! pic.twitter.com/YHe5Zvqjdb
— leijun (@leijun) June 28, 2022
All the devices Xiaomi announces on July 4 should see a wider international launch in the weeks following their official debut. Xiaomi officials have not yet revealed a list of countries where these devices are expected to go on sale.
Xiaomi 12S series: What do we know so far?
Xiaomi has remained relatively tight-lipped about the devices from the new Xiaomi 12S series. Leaks surrounding these new devices have also been hard to come by. Lei Jun's tweet includes a close-up shot of what looks like one of the camera lenses on the Xiaomi 12S, and that is pretty much all that's been officially revealed about the device so far.
Rumored specs of one of the devices from the Xiaomi 12S lineup indicate that the device will be a flagship smartphone powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 SoC. The phone will also feature up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of onboard storage. Apart from sporting a 120Hz display, the phone is also likely to feature support for 120W fast charging. At launch, devices from the Xiaomi 12S lineup will also run MIUI 12, which is based on Android 12.
If you are interested in watching the live event, set your reminder for 7 a.m. ET, on July 4, 2022. Even though broadcast in Chinese, the launch event will be translated on the fly for the international audience, confirmed Alvin Tse, a senior Xiaomi executive.