Leaked advertising material indicates Huawei P11 might have triple 40 MP rear lens and 5x Hybrid zoom

The camera setups on Huawei’s flagship-class P series and Mate series phones have been produced in partnership with Leica for a couple of years now. The P9, P10, and Mate 9 produced photos with pleasing colors, good dynamic range, and smooth sense of depth, but while they scored well in reviews they were often outclassed by competition from Apple, Google, Samsung, and LG. This changed to an extent with the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, whose f/1.6 12 MP color and f/1.6 20 MP monochrome sensor combination scored in line with the Google Pixel 2 and Apple iPhone X on DxOMark (personal preference still applies).

It looks like the P11 could step this up to the next level after a “digital artist at one of the company’s creative agencies added these ‘PCE-series’ ads to their portfolio” according to Evan Blass. The image is of four adverts that share a campaign theme of ‘I don’t take pictures, I make pictures.’

The first claims a triple-lens rear camera setup (co-engineered with Leica), with at least one of those sensors being 40 MP, and the ability to zoom up to 5x using hybrid zoom (optical plus digital). The high megapixel sensor(s) is likely to play a part in improving detail in the digital aspect of the hybrid system.

The remaining three posters talk of a 24 MP front camera, a new sensor and optics that increase light captured by 100% (compared to what?) in low-light situations, and AI assist abilities for scene recognition and auto framing.

While this isn’t confirmed to be the P11, it would be the next logical flagship-class release from the company, and this helps to fuels the assumption that the PCE series and the P series are the same. Based on previous release schedules for the P series, we would expect the P11 to arrive between February and April 2018.