Xiaomi reveals phone with bolted-on Leica lens

Didn’t see it mentioned in the article, but Yongnuo have two generations of shipping product like this, not just a concept phone like Xiaomi’s seems to be. The Yongnuo phones have Micro Four Thirds mount/sensor, but there are plenty of Leica-co-branded lenses in that system so it totally counts ;)

Their first model was the YN450, and the updated one is the YN455:

https://www.hkyongnuo.com/productinfo/660161.html

https://www.yongnuomall.com/product/detail/16254

That seems awesome. Not a photographer, but I do like how proper lenses do depth of field. Apple's AI blur "portrait mode" is pretty bad at times, messing up ears and make you look like a glitched N64 super mario

This is an absolutely fantastic engineering feat and design choice, allowing for it to be used without the external lens with regular built-in lenses and exposing the image sensor directly to the external lens.

Would be cool if it was pocketable with the lens off. It doesn't seem to be.