After Xiaomi/Leica deal, HUAWEI confirms end of Leica partnership

Xiaomi and Leica announced a long-term partnership earlier today that will see Xiaomi launch an “imaging flagship” phone in July. We wondered what this announcement meant for Leica’s long-standing deal with HUAWEI, and we now have an answer.

“We can confirm that the cooperation between our two companies ended on 31 March,” a HUAWEI representative told Android Authority in response to an emailed query.

In other words, the HUAWEI P50 series which launched globally earlier this year were the last Leica-branded HUAWEI phones. So don’t expect to see Mate 50 series phones with Leica branding later this year.

It nevertheless is the end of an era for the two brands, with HUAWEI and Leica first working together back in 2016 for the P9 series and then the Mate 9 family. The partnership saw the two companies working on general image tuning, user-selectable color modes, portraits, and more.

The partnership also coincided with HUAWEI’s sharp ascent in both the smartphone market and in terms of critical reception to its cameras. However, while the 2019 US trade ban didn’t affect HUAWEI’s ability to deliver top-notch cameras as our P50 Pro review showed, it’s severely damaged the manufacturer’s smartphone sales.