Xiaomi Modular Optical System concept hands-on

26 February 2025
Although still a concept, it almost felt like a finished product.

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When this thing becomes reality it will be awesome.

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    • 24 minutes ago

    Anonymous, 3 hours agoOr just carry a camera like a normal person. You make it so... moreI completely agree with you. This indeed doesn't really have much value. Actual cameras will truly produce results that are far better. I feel like this feature is being overhyped by many, and I don't see the practicality of it, especially when you consider that using a "cheap Sony, Ricoh, or Fuji that can actually be pocketed" will be much more convenient to use than this gimmicky thing that takes a while to set up and get used to.

      Anonymous, 3 hours agoOr just carry a camera like a normal person. You make it so... moreYeah, phones like this make no sense and are just for display, pretty much like tri-fold (that is actually dual) from huawewei. They just there, but do people need them, are they practical? Neah and neah. The idea behing a phone camera was to take pic fast and without to much fuzz, well this thing has no idea what it wants to be, a phone or a camera? And well none is good enough. A profesional camera? Well forget it! A phone? Ah forget it.

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        • WhyWhyWhyWhyWhyWhy
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        • 2 hours ago

        Anonymous, 3 hours agoOr just carry a camera like a normal person. You make it so... moreWhat if I told ya, that one can easily put on the magnetic lens on the Xiaomi camphone, on forehand, and _leave it on while snapping photos and vids around_? Yeah I can hear ya protesting, "just bring your dedicated camera along", but what's the difference? In both instances you're having your mind set in photographer's mode already.

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          • tomo100brt
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          • 2 hours ago

          S I R E, 11 hours agoCool. Wonder why so many people on YouTube were pretending ... moreYou forgot Sony ILCE-QX1 that had interchangeable lenses and xenon flash. So if you needed telephoto camera you mounted telephoto lens on E-mount, if you needed portret camera you mounted portret lens on E-mount, etc. Even adapter you could mount for lenses that you couldn't mount and needed that. That was a marvel of technology in that time, even today it is a marvel of technology. I still use it. Only downside of this camera is no in-body image stabilization.

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            • Anonymous
            • bas
            • 3 hours ago

            Nick, 11 hours agoI think that this is such a great idea. Because you can hav... moreOr just carry a camera like a normal person. You make it sound like it's so easy, but anyone that does actual photography knows what a pain in the bum it will be to constantly have to take the lens out of your bag, take lens cap off, and wait for it to bootup and connect.
            Think of it this way,
            >you see shot
            >you dig around your bag for your lens
            >take rear cap off
            >attach lens
            >take front cap off
            >wait for it to connect to the wireless
            >take shot...if it's still there.
            >need to put phone back in pocket since there are NO CAMERA STRAPS AND YOUR EXPENSIVE LENS IS BEING HELD ON BY MAGNETS.
            >ok, disconnect lens from wireless
            >take lens off phone
            >reattach rear and front caps
            >oops actually there's a nice composition
            >repeat from step one.
            Like most Chinese stuff being pushed out stuff like this has very little useful value, it's purely for techbros to peacock, like tri-screen phones lol. You can easily buy a cheap Sony, Ricoh, or Fuji that can actually be pocketed, resolves miles ahead of a phone processor, and, in some instances, is full frame

              senja, 3 hours agoDude, you are talking about whole remote camera, vs lenses ... moreYou think I'm against the idea while I'm only critical of the implementation. And price is nothing we can talk about yet since it's a concept but I don't think it'll be cheap enough to justify everything you're trying to defend.

              Also it can be something is poor argument when we already have universal solutions.

              You like it that's cool, I have different opinions on how it is implemented.

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                • senja
                • d@B
                • 3 hours ago

                S I R E, 10 hours agoWi-Fi has come a long way cland can do speeds over 10gigabi... moreDude, you are talking about whole remote camera, vs lenses only, which uses phone hardware... Which would be cheaper, I wonder...

                Propietary connector could be standardized, if this thing becomes popular. And it is not hard to implement in any phone.

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                  • Pedzio
                  • aqm
                  • 3 hours ago

                  Xiaomi out there saving the excitement in phone industry... Good job Xiaomi.

                    Nick Tegrataker, 8 hours ago"It wasn't a proprietary connector" It was ... moreI can see it's a different approach and if you haven't noticed, that is the thing I'm being critical of. If fast and reliable connection is what your entire argument relies on and for some reson the phones image processing is of the utmost importance, why not the USB C 3.2 Gen 2 port, it is 10 gigabit with about as low latency and low cost one can get while not leaving out wide compatibility. Why not move to USB 4.0 and have future headroom of upto 40 and maybe wven 80 gigabit.

                    I can see you wanna defend this thing but your arguments fall short of reason. There are extremely simple and widely available solutions for fast, reliable, cheap and universal means of data communications.

                    A proprietary connector is evident they want to reel in people with a Apple like intent of a closed garden.

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                      • J9A
                      • 7 hours ago

                      O, 9 hours agoIMO this is likely to go into production. Though Xiaomi de... moreI was wrong. It uses optical (laser) data transfer. Hmm. I wonder how big the receiver for that is. Hopefully tiny so it can be widely rolled out across their range.

                        S I R E, 11 hours agoCool. Wonder why so many people on YouTube were pretending ... more"It wasn't a proprietary connector"
                        It was a wi-fi/NFC connection, which would be a huge disadvantage in the modern age because the camera module wouldn't have access to a smartphone's SoC and its processing capability.

                        "no computational lie"
                        I would say that's quite an old-fashioned way of thinking, given that modern dedicated cameras rely a lot more heavily on computational processing than before.

                        "true optical zoom"
                        Yes, and out of 3 cameras with optical zoom within the QX series, only 1 of them could deliver good image quality because it had a type 1 sensor. The other two had a far smaller sensor comparable to the one used inside 10-year-old smartphones.

                        You need to understand that this is a different approach from what Sony has done 11 years ago. Sony's implementation had a wider compatibility as it could be connected to any phone and you could use it as long as it could run Sony's camera app, but lacked and would still lack the speed to process images and send them to phones quickly. Xiaomi's solution is arguably more "locked in", but it could theoretically allow you to use the camera module just like how you use their phones' built-in cameras - No separate battery or storage is needed, and the powerful image processing pipeline within the phone could be entirely reused to provide more features and better image quality.

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                          • Fahad
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                          • 8 hours ago

                          Reminds me of Sony DSC-QX100 Smartphone Attachable Lens-style Camera

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                            • Anonymous
                            • SqW
                            • 9 hours ago

                            X-Xiaomi, 19 hours agoXiaomi phones have lost their appeal with the new HyperOS a... moreWhat restrictions on bootloader unlocking are you talking about?

                            I hope that xiaomi will not go down the path of e-trash producers such as pixel, Asus , apple , Samsung , etc

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                              • 9 hours ago

                              IMO this is likely to go into production. Though Xiaomi designed (potentially made too?) lens ... not sure what the quality of that is likely to be.

                              It allows them to use cheaper native cameras, whilst selling a super premium photo experience (which they can rake in more cash with). The integration cost across half their premium phone range (including folders) would be practically nil. It's just a magnetic ring with 2 power pins. Communication and data transfer are fully wireless. Others brands are working on the same thing.

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                                • ron2000xm
                                • RNv
                                • 9 hours ago

                                Vahid Kavousi, 11 hours agoI sent this idea in full in pdf file to xiaomi & honor ... moreit must have been under developement long time ago.

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                                  • Anonymous
                                  • YP6
                                  • 10 hours ago

                                  S I R E, 10 hours agoWi-Fi has come a long way cland can do speeds over 10gigabi... moreHmm you have a point there , prolly marketing.

                                  Like maybe Xiaomi wants to make exclusive so you buy the phone as well if you need the camera..

                                  That's kind of expected , but being able to use it or support other phones would be nicer.

                                    adsubzero, 10 hours agoBecause: - Instant connection without lag. - It's in... moreWi-Fi has come a long way cland can do speeds over 10gigabit

                                    UWB technology exists to make comms faster and more seemless and it not proprietary

                                    Phone processing is a poor excuse since Qualcomm is already a widely used SoC meaning there's no reason that at least not all Qualcomm devices couldn't use the phone, the downside is you NEED a Xiaomi device to use this. I like Xiaomi phone but someone who doesn't but likes this form might miss out.

                                    And again the initial iteration limits the use to a SINGLE MODEL from just ONE MANUFACTURER.

                                    Pay some more attention, SONY did it way better with what AVAILABLE technology they had 11 LONG YEARS AGO. So this is not a blind endeavour Xiaomi had to take.

                                    They could've easily improved on it and have a vastly superior peoduct with all the modern tech.

                                      Mijing, 12 hours agoYou fraud there is no ad in ui They are using old budget Redmis, don't judge them

                                        S I R E, 11 hours agoCool. Wonder why so many people on YouTube were pretending ... moreBecause:
                                        - Instant connection without lag.
                                        - It's integrated into the phone's software giving it all the benefit of powerful processing.
                                        - It doesn't require additional power/separate charging.

                                        This could very well become the next thing.

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