Xiaomi continues to experiment with phone cameras. It showed off an under-display selfie camera earlier this year and was among the first to introduce a 108-megapixel sensor on a phone. Its Mi Mix 3 flagship even has a sliding screen to reveal a sensor on the panel behind. This time, though, the company is squeezing serious camera tech onto the small body of a smartphone. It tweeted today two concepts one is a retractable 120mm-equivalent wide aperture lens and the other a 50mm-equivalent telemacro.
In a video posted to its Twitter, Xiaomi revealed a handset with cameras on its back, and a close-up shot of the lens popping in and out of the device. The movement was fairly quick, with the lens appearing fully extended and retracted within a second. But it wasn’t so fast that it seemed to spring out like a jack-in-the-box.
Xiaomi said the concept was inspired by “traditional camera designs” and is “optimized with bigger aperture and upgraded stabilizer” for better portraits and low-light shots. It didn’t share any photo samples or other details on how soon we’d see this tech on a real product, though.
Xiaomi says it also offers a new anti-shake technology to provide a more stable picture than traditional smartphone cameras. It would be interesting to see how it compares to the VIVO X51 5G, which has a built-in gimbal on the main camera (and in my tests so far, it’s rather impressive) if Xiaomi brings this lens tech to market.
Despite the tech being in its final testing stages and ready to implement into products, there’s no news on exactly when it’ll come, although Xiaomi tends not to hang about when they’re showing off new tech. I think we could potentially see this popping up in actual devices within the next year, if not the next few months.
