Xiaomi's Camera Concept Is a Wild Blast From the Past, and I Love It

Xiaomi may have been talking a lot about the cameras on its new 15 Ultra phone at this year's Mobile World Congress, but it had another bit of mobile camera tech up its sleeves. In essence, it's a camera unit that attaches to the back of a phone, turning the phone into the screen and brains for the camera, but providing a much bigger camera sensor and professional-standard lens. The device, which Xiaomi calls the "modular optical system" is strictly a concept right now, but I was able to get hands-on with it in a meeting room backstage at MWC. The device is best thought of as a small camera lens, but it contains an image sensor and connects to the back of the phone. When it does, the phone is then able to use this camera unit as its main camera, in theory, significantly improving the quality of your images. I even managed to snap some test shots. Read more: MWC 2025: All the Phones, Wearables, Robots and AI Live From Barcelona I took a photo of my Leica Q3 43, which I've covered in ... Read full article.