Leica Releases A Snapdragon 888-Powered Phone But You May Not Be Able To Buy It

Leica, the German camera manufacturer, has just released its start smartphone, the Leitz Telephone 1, which is named after the visitor's original make. The device is developed in partnership with the Japanese carrier SoftBank and volition be exclusive to the local market. And so unless y'all live in Nippon and are a SoftBank customer, y'all volition non be able to buy it.

The Leitz Phone i is the first Leica-branded smartphone. The visitor has previously collaborated with various smartphone OEMs for camera systems but it's the outset time the iconic cerise dot logo is appearing on the exterior of a device.

That said, it's not an exactly new phone. Leica's Leitz Phone 1 is, in fact, a rebadged Abrupt Aquos R6, another Nihon-sectional phone. The only difference is the phone's design, which now has more sharp corners every bit opposed to rounded ones on the R6. The back panel on the new phone is drinking glass-fabricated instead of leather. The rear camera setup likewise has a round bump over a rectangular 1, though the position of the sensors remains unchanged.

Interestingly, Leica had collaborated with Sharp to co-develop the Aquos R6'due south camera system. It's now taking the same telephone, making a couple of pocket-size pattern changes, slapping its logo, and releasing it as a new telephone. The company isn't even trying to hibernate the fact that the Leitz Phone 1 is a rebadged R6. It is proposing this telephone to those who want its hardware design and non merely its camera systems.

Leica Leitz Phone ane specifications

If y'all've checked the specifications of the Sharp Aquos R6, so you already know what Leica's Leitz Phone ane stores internally. The device features a half dozen.6-inch IGZO OLED display with a resolution of ii,730 x 1,260 pixels and a 240Hz variable refresh rate. Well, information technology's nevertheless 120Hz but with reduced motion mistiness. Under the hood is the Snapdragon 888 chipset with 12GB of RAM and 256GB UFS three.1 storage. Yeah, Leica'due south phone is offering twice the storage capacity as the Aquos R6. Both phones offer a MicroSD slot that supports cards of upwards to 1TB chapters though.

On the back of this phone is a single 20-megapixel ane-inch sensor with an f/1.ix aperture. This lens has an equivalent focal length of 19mm, which is in the ultrawide territory. For other focal lengths, you lot'll have to rely on digital zoom. The round camera bump likewise houses an LED flash and a time-of-flight sensor. Leica is offering a "Leitz Looks" style for capturing black and white photos. The front-facing camera is a 12.6-megapixel sensor.

The Leitz Phone ane runs Android 11 out of the box, with Leica's "largely monochrome" custom UI on acme, though the interface largely looks stock Android. It also keeps the in-display ultrasonic fingerprint sensor as well as the IP68 rating for protection against dust and water. There's a v,000mAh battery inside that takes near 130 minutes to refill fully. The whole package has a dimension of 74 x 162 x ix.v mm and weighs about 212 grams.

The SoftBank-exclusive Leitz Phone 1 comes in a single silver colour pick. The device will be available for pre-order from June 18th for a cost of 187,920 yen (approx. $1,700). While this phone is unlikely to ever come out of the Japanese territory, we will permit you know if things change in the future.