Leitz Phone 1
By Heinz Richter
For several years Leica has been working with Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Huawei. That cooperation apparently has come to an end. The Japanese electronics giant Sharp recently showed their model Aquos R6 with Leica-Branding and it appeared that Leica was switching to cooperate with Sharp on the mobile phone market.
But they went a considerable step further. Leica presented the first mobile phone in Japan that is sold under its own brand name. The Leitz Phone 1 shares most of the technical specifications with Sharps Aquos, but buyers are promised a "real Leica experience", partly because of the design and a modified user interface.
The outstanding feature of this phone is its one-inch, 22-megapixel sensor, the largest currently available in any mobile phone. This is coupled to a Leica Summicron 19mm f/1.9 lens.
Even though the Leitz Phone 1 is based on the Sharp Aquos R6, it has several exclusive features of its own. Memory is 256 gigabytes, twice as much as the Aquos R6. This can be expanded by up to one terabyte using a micro SD card. A 5,000 mAh battery is also installed, and the device has an IP68 certification, which promises dust and water resistance. The operating system on the Leitz Phone 1 is Android 11 with a "largely monochrome" user interface, reports "Engadget".
For now, the smartphone will only appear in Japan and it is unknown when the device will also be available in other parts of the world.
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Is this a case of if you can't beat them join them?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't go that far, after all, cell phones have not had any noticeable effect on the sale of Leica cameras. But it once again shows that Leica is looking to diversify as much as possible to assure their well being far into the future. Considering their ownership of Sinar, they offer by far the largest range of cameras, from cell phones to large format cameras. No-one else even comes close.
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