Telephoto cameras on smartphones are now as common as megapixel races. For its next leg, Xiaomi is looking to up the ante with a phone that can zoom in 120x, a step above what the current crop of smartphones offer.
Xiaomishka, the popular Russian leakster shared some details about an upcoming smartphone which it believes will be a part of the Mi CC10 series which is expected to launch later this year. Like last year, the cameras will be the key aspect of this device.
To start with, the phone is said to be capable of 120x magnification via digital zoom, which is a step ahead of what Samsung and Huawei flagships currently offer. It’s unclear whether this will be achieved with a 12x telephoto lens or some other implementation. One thing that’s certain is that it will bring a periscopic zoom camera to be able to fit so much glass in the phone’s body.
Currently, the Huawei P40 Pro Plus has the highest optical magnification on any smartphone with an 8MP f/4.4 10x camera. If that is followed on the Mi CC10, we might also see a secondary short telephoto lens to take care of the initial zoom range.
As for the primary camera, we might be looking at one of the first phones with Samsung’s second-gen 108MP camera module, likely to be the ISOCELL Bright HM2 image sensor. Last year’s Mi CC9 Pro was the first phone to sport the 108MP HM1 image sensor. The major improvements are expected to be in the focussing department.
Interestingly, the report also states that it will be powered by a Snapdragon 775 chipset, which is the first time we’re hearing of this processor. We presume it to be a more capable variant of the Snapdragon 768. It will also support 5G, as with all of Qualcomm’s high-end chipsets for 2020.
Xiaomishka even suggests that the Xiaomi Mi CC10 series will be unveiled as early as July, which means that a lot more leaks should be headed our way.
