With the Leitz Phone 1, Leica has presented its first smartphone. In cooperation with Sharp and Softbank, the traditional German manufacturer presents the cell phone as a camera miracle. The Leitz Phone 1 still has a big catch.

Leitz Phone 1: Leica presents first cell phone

Together with Sharp and the Japanese investment company Softbank, Leica has now presented the Leitz Phone 1. The cell phone has Leica branding and places great value on good camera performance. On closer inspection, however, it becomes clear that it is only a slightly modified Sharp Aquos R6 which was only presented in May 2021.

The highlight of the Leica smartphone is clearly the camera. The German manufacturer relies on a sensor that has a size of 1 inch and images with a maximum Resolution of 20.2 MP possible. However, there are no other lenses installed. Apparently, no optical zoom was used. A typical Leica black and white mode can be found in the adapted camera app.

The highlight of the cell phone is the camera with a particularly large sensor. Image: Leica.

Just like the Sharp Aquos R6, the OLED display of the Leitz Phone 1 has one 6.6 inches diagonal with a resolution of 2,730 x 1,260 pixels. In its announcement, Leica did not reveal how things are going with the refresh rate. As with the Sharp smartphone, however, it can be assumed that adaptive frame rates between 1 and a full 240 Hertz are supported.

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Leitz Phone 1: Strong processor and battery

The cell phone’s battery has a capacity of 5,000 mAh. When it comes to the processor you have to go for the strong Snapdragon 888 decided. 12 GB are available as main memory and 256 GB as permanent memory. Android 11 is part of the game.

The Leitz Phone 1 is intended exclusively for the Japanese market and is already on sale there. The equivalent of the smartphone costs there around 1,445 euros (Source: The Verge).