Why Xiaomi didn’t include this key feature on the awesome Leica Leitzphone
"There's always a give and take in terms of choosing what kind of features we could implement on the phone" says Xiaomi.
During Xiaomi’s launch yesterday, the company revealed an even more premium version of the Xiaomi 17 Ultra smartphone, the Leica Leitzphone.
Xiaomi decided not to include a dedicated capture button on the device – even though photography is at the core of the Xiaomi 17 Ultra and the Leica Leitzphone spin-off. And despite certain rivals making a big thing of their own dedicated buttons.
I learned it was essentially omitted due to design trade-offs, with the functionality offered via the add-on Pro Photography Kit.
“I think, to be honest, there’s always a give and take in terms of choosing what kind of features we could implement on the phone”, said TJ Walton, Xiaomi’s senior product marketing manager, in a small group session I attended after Xiaomi’s launch event at Mobile World Congress 2026.
“We feel like we’re really, really happy with the current experience the device provides,” he added. “Now, that doesn’t mean that specific feature will never happen. I think we’re always looking about exploring new ways that we can push the mobile imagery experience even further. So, we’re always thinking about these certain things.
When pressed further on this, Walton added: “What I can say is that there are a lot of things that have been thought of when we’re designing the device. I personally don’t know specifically if this specific feature was thought of, maybe Pablo does know, but there are definitely things that we’re exploring always, outside of what we already know.”
Pablo Acevedo Noda, Leica’s head of development and engineering for mobile added: “I know that there are compromises that we made, and one of those was, we have a photography kit that will replace that shutter button on the device itself. So this is the way we went for this device.
The pair wouldn’t be drawn on whether there would be a future telescope attachment for the device. “It’s not something that I can give a definite answer to,” said Walton.
“But these new creative ways of taking photos with our smartphones are something that we’re always, always thinking about. Something that we’re always testing, something that we’re always playing around with, gathering user feedback about. So, you know, there might be in the future.”
Overcoming challenges
Noda talked further on the development of the partnership between Xiaomi and Leica and what the challenges have been.
“I wasn’t there at the beginning of Leica’s smartphone adventure. I joined Leica four years ago, basically when the cooperation with Xiaomi started. I would say that one of the biggest challenges in these last four years has been introducing the different lenses. First the Summicron lens, then the Summilux lens. Now we have an aperture of 1.67 on our main camera. That has been an achievement that I am super proud of.”
What was the biggest obstacle technically? “There are so many things that I would not be able to say to pinpoint one alone, between the camera ring, between the low-fix sensor, the optical zoom on the telecamera. It’s so many things. The two new pipelines in the Essential mode, that’s doing a lot of work. I’m super proud of this one. It’s our baby right now.”
Who the Leitzphone is for
The pair also talked about the important differences between the Xiaomi 17 Ultra and the Leitzphone, which is labelled as a Leica device ‘powered by Xiaomi’.
“The Leitzphone experiences are tailored more towards professional photographers and photography enthusiasts.” Begins Walton.
“That part about photography enthusiasts is [important],” continues Noda. “The tactile experience, the haptics, those kind of things that really are searched for by professional users or by prosumers as they like to call them, the ones that really are into photography.”
Dan Grabham
Editor-in-Chief 
