The Xiaomi 17 Ultra is even more like a Leica

A test run of China's 'Xiaomi 17 Ultra by Leica'

Leica is perhaps the most storied brand in photography. A portmanteau formed from the name of founder Ernst Leitz and the word “camera”, the first Leica popularized 35mm photography, while the legendary M system standardized the modern rangefinder in 1954 and has a hallowed reputation to this day.

Leica’s stewardship of its brand, however, has not always quite lived up to its history. The company historically outsourced most of its point-and-shoot camera design to Panasonic, slapping its iconic red dot on existing compacts and charging an unwarranted markup. Early smartphone collaborations with Huawei and Sharp were similarly surface-level.

But for the past few years, a partnership with Xiaomi has quietly been producing what regular Multicore readers will be used to hearing me say are some of the best phone cameras in the world. And for the Chinese smartphone maker’s latest flagship device, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, Leica’s branding and influence takes greater prominence than ever.

Available in China now, the 17 Ultra is sold in two variants; there’s the regular model, and another version called the “Xiaomi 17 Ultra by Leica”. I’ve been using the latter model, though the camera hardware is nearly identical across the two.

This is a beautifully designed phone, and it’s the first to carry the coveted Leica red dot. When Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 4 in 2010, which is still for my money the best-looking iPhone ever, he said “its closest kin is like a beautiful old Leica camera”. Well, the 17 Ultra really is like a Leica camera — and not just because it also kind of looks like an iPhone 4, right down to the circular volume buttons.