I've seen camera kits for smartphones, and I've seen Bluetooth objective lens accessories, but the latest Huawei flagship could turn smartphone photography on its head. That's because it reportedly features a separate, external 1-inch vario camera.
Huawei Mate 90 series leak with an external camera accessory
The Huawei Mate 90 series is just around the corner. | Image by Weibo
The Huawei Mate 90 Pro Max is expected to be officially unveiled tomorrow in China, but leaks are already flying left and right. Our good old Chinese tipster Digital Chat Station posted an image of the upcoming flagship paired with a huge lens accessory.
The leaker clarifies in a Weibo post that this is not a regular lens, but a full-fledged external camera with a 1-inch sensor and variable 1x–10x magnification.
According to the information from the Weibo post, the accessory offers a continuous zoom from 24 mm all the way up to 240 mm. Measured from a 24 mm main wide camera, that equals a 1x to 10x zoom.
Digital Chat Station also shared an image pointing toward an f/2.0 to f/4.5 aperture at both ends of the zoom range, respectively.
But wait! There's a video!
This is the Huawei Mate 90 Pro Max, paired with an external camera.
It is important to emphasize that this is a true “external camera,” not a traditional external lens or telephoto attachment.
The external camera itself features an independent 1-inch sensor, with up to 10x… pic.twitter.com/FKhWFx1Xyh
The state of smartphone leaks nowadays sometimes blows my mind. If you thought the image of this crazy external camera accessory was wild, wait until you see the video. Another huge name in the leaker community just shared a video of the Huawei Mate 90 Pro Max along with the external camera accessory in action.
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Ice Universe also emphasizes that we're talking about an independent 1-inch sensor, and clarifies that the Huawei Mate 90 Pro Max's native camera does not work in tandem with this accessory.
The tipster corroborates the 24 mm-to-240 mm continuous zoom and suggests the accessory could be used with other smartphones.
What do you think about the Huawei external camera accessory?
5 Votes
Choosing an external camera over a lens kit
This thing is enormous! | Image by Weibo
First and foremost, this alleged external camera has a 1-inch sensor. Even though we've seen 1-inch camera sensor phones before, most of them don't utilize the full size of these sensors, whereas having a separate accessory with a big enough lens allows the whole sensor to be illuminated without physical constraints.
Secondly, the aforementioned big lens captures much more light and produces an image with better optical quality without the need for software shenanigans. The big sensor also allows for sensor-cropped images, which, combined with the 10x optical zoom, could result in high-magnification photos with great quality—something along the lines of 20x optical-level quality.
Last but not least, the big lens and big sensor on this external camera would allow for great low-light shots, as they potentially gather much more light than the minuscule smartphone lenses and sensors that rely on pixel binning and software magic to give us passable night shots.
Potential downsides to the Huawei Mate 90 Pro Max external camera
These camera accessories tend to be quite bulky and also very expensive. | Image by PhoneArena
The first one is size and weight, obviously. This thing looks humongous. I can't imagine a scenario where using such a setup would be comfortable, or at least more comfortable than either using just a smartphone or a full-fledged DSLR camera.
The weight distribution looks off, and the whole thing reminds me of a vario lens with an external screen slapped on.
The second problem is the price. I don't think this accessory will be cheap. Even normal camera lens kits for smartphones cost hundreds of dollars, and an external camera with a 1-inch sensor and vario lens could easily hit $499.
In fact, another prolific leaker, Smart Pikachu, suggests that this crazy accessory could cost the same as a standard flagship phone, meaning around $799–$899.
Sony did this back in the 2010s and failed
Sony's QX10 lens accessory. | Image by CNET
Some of you might remember the Sony QX10 and QX100 Bluetooth lens accessories from the early 2010s. The QX10 had an 18.2MP 1/2.3-inch sensor and 10x telephoto zoom, while the QX100 delivered a 20.2MP one-inch camera sensor and 3.6x telephoto zoom.
These two lenses launched at $250 and $500, respectively, and quickly fell into obscurity. Xiaomi showed a similar concept a couple of years ago, but it never reached commercial status.
The Huawei Mate 90 series, on the other hand, is expected to be a departure from the iPhone clones we've been seeing lately, with the design leaked by Digital Chat Station a couple of days ago.
What do you think about this crazy accessory? Would you buy one?
Read more about crazy smartphone camera accessories here:
Mariyan, a tech enthusiast with a background in Nuclear Physics and Journalism, brings a unique perspective to PhoneArena. His childhood curiosity for gadgets evolved into a professional passion for technology, leading him to the role of Editor-in-Chief at PCWorld Bulgaria before joining PhoneArena. Mariyan's interests range from mainstream Android and iPhone debates to fringe technologies like graphene batteries and nanotechnology. Off-duty, he enjoys playing his electric guitar, practicing Japanese, and revisiting his love for video games and Haruki Murakami's works.
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