Huawei just announced the end of its long-term partnership with Leica, a German company that manufactures high-end cameras and lenses.
“We can confirm that the cooperation between our two companies ended on 31 March,” a Huawei representative told Android Authority in response to an emailed query.
As such, the Huawei P50 series are the last smartphones from Huawei to have the Leica branding. This also means that the Huawei Mate 50 will no longer have a Leica-branded camera.
Huawei and Leica started working together in 2016 for the Huawei P9 series and Mate 9 series. With this partnership, Huawei was able to improve its camera quality by tenfold, improving its sales globally. However, the 2019 US trade ban on the company affected its sales big time.
According to a Huawei representative, “Huawei is grateful to its global consumers for their support and will continue to provide them with the ultimate mobile photography experiences through its continued pursuit of innovation.” This means that there is nothing to worry about the photo quality of future Huawei devices.
This news also confirms the rumor: Xiaomi will indeed partner up with Leica. The first “imaging flagship smartphone” jointly developed by the two companies will be launched in July this year, according to reports.
