The Xiaomi Mi 11 recently launched in Europe with the expectation that the Lite, Pro and Ultra iterations of the phone would follow shortly. In a now offline YouTube video, the Ultra was seemingly revealed and featured a very unusual camera array.
While Tech Buff PH’s original video is set to private, a mirror of the original is still available showing a massive rear-facing camera that, while it could be fake, looks pretty convincing. The model number M2102K1G corresponds to an earlier rumor about the model name “K1”, mentioned by kacskrz, a historically reliable source on Xiaomi devices. XDA Developers lists a few other reasons why this leak looks legitimate in its report here.
If the device shown in the video is real, the camera bump on the Mi 11 Ultra is substantialTech Buff PH claims that the device will have a 50-megapixel main sensor, a 48-megapixel wide-angle lens and a 48-megapixel periscope telephoto zoom lens. On one of the two phone models Tech Buff shows, the text on the camera array reads 120X Ultra Pixel AI Camera while the text on the other reads 120X, 12-120mm, 1: 1.95-4.1. It’s a bit strange that the text on the two phones is different, but that could also be attributed to the pre-production nature of the devices.
If Xiaomi stopped there, the camera array wouldn’t differ that much from what has been seen in other similar cameras, but the model shown adds a unique feature: a second small screen next to the camera lenses.
In some clips showing that screen, the full view from the front of the device is visible on that small screen, which seems quite impractical. more likely the second screen is designed to be used for selfies, allowing you to take advantage of the higher quality rear cameras instead of relying on the usually much worse front facing camera.
The odd thing is, this particular version of the phone seems to mimic exactly what’s going on on the front of the phone, and it’s unclear why this would be a desirable feature. Either this is just an update of the device’s software prototype, or it is a possible malfunction that could indicate that the claim to authenticity is false.
Be that as it may, if this leak turns out to be true, the trade-off for these camera features really does seem like a giant physical bump. Multiple images show that that bump is lifted significantly off the back of the phone and probably gets noticeably heavier with that physical jump in size.
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra was not expected to drop this month, so seeing a leak so far is a bit of a surprise, and could be an indication that more leaks are to come.
(via XDA Developers)