Will smartphone camera attachments ever be worth the hassle?

Realme and Xiaomi have wild ideas about the future of mobile photography

Smartphone cameras are still getting bigger and better by the year, particularly if you look at high-end phones coming out of China with huge sensors and protruding bumps to match. These phones can deliver awesome results, and I’m happy to use them in several situations where I would previously have had to rely on a dedicated camera. Just this month I used the Xiaomi 15 Ultra to shoot a Formula One event in Tokyo.

But for all the advances that have been made, the laws of physics remain undefeated, and you’re still going to get better results from a camera setup that’s able to make use of larger lenses and sensors. Phones do need to be able to fit into our pockets, after all, so there’s a limit to what can be achieved in that regard.

At Mobile World Congress this year, some concept announcements showed that companies are thinking about this reality, coming up with ideas to move mobile photography beyond the constraints of the phone. The question is whether peripheral camera products can ever really be more than a niche curiosity.

Xiaomi’s concept is called the Modular Optical System, and it involves self-contained camera modules that magnetically and wirelessly attach to your phone. While the company doesn’t have concrete plans to sell them commercially, working models do exist — I used one.