Stuff - UK (2021-08)

14

VITALSTATS

Leitz Phone 1

£tba / leica.com

THRALL OF

THE LEITZ

First Leica lends its photo

skills to the Chinese on

Huawei phones, now it’s

jumped into bed with the

Japanese on a rebadged

Sharp. What’s occurring?

ODot stuff

When just the strap for a Leica

camera can cost £450, it’s hardly

surprising that some people look

for other ways to own something

with that famous red dot on it – and

if you find yourself in Japan any time

soon you might be tempted to pick

up a Leitz Phone 1. While some of

Huawei’s fancier phones come with

Leica-made cameras, this is the

first mobile to come bearing the

famous branding... although the

spec sheet reveals some striking

similarities to Sharp’s recent (also

Japan-only) Aquos R6.

OShot stuff

While the Sharp doesn’t have

the Leica logo, both phones come

with 20MP f/1.9 wide-angle main

cameras that use whopping 1in

sensors. That should mean the

pictures they spit out are a step

or two above what you’d get from

other blowers. On the front of the

Leitz Phone 1 you get a 12.6MP

selfie-snapper and 6.6in OLED

with 240Hz refresh rate and

under-display fingerprint sensor,

while the whole thing is powered

by a Snapdragon 888 CPU, 12GB

of RAM and a 5000mAh battery;

256GB of storage rounds off an

impressive overall package.

OHot stuff

The Leitz Phone 1 is certainly much

more of a looker than that Aquos

R6, with a chassis that combines

matt black glass and metallic silver,

plus a large circular camera module

on the back that comes with its own

proper lens-cap. That’s not ideal if

time is of the essence when you’re

trying to capture a fleeting moment,

but it certainly suits the aesthetic.

Leica has helped to develop a special

monochrome interface that runs

on top of Android 11, while you also

get a camera app that offers ‘Leitz

Looks’ – perfect for capturing those

arty Leica-style snaps.

Bad weather

can mean rad

photos, so the

Leitz Phone 1

has IP

waterproofing.