Nutty Xiaomi 12 concept offers unique main camera design but with a fatal flaw

An image of an alleged Xiaomi 12 smartphone has been shared on Weibo showing a quite peculiar and idiosyncratic arrangement for the rear-facing main camera unit. While some sites have already started claiming that this is a possible first glance of the Xiaomi 12, it is clearly a fan-made concept render, and even the Chinese OEM’s PR boss has rapidly dismissed this latest effort at unveiling Xiaomi's pride and joy.

As can be seen in the image, the camera arrangement, which is headed by a 108 MP sensor in this case, is shaped like the letter “M”. Of course, some have immediately jumped onto this as standing for the first letter in “Mi”, the famous Xiaomi branding. It’s actually the sort of thing you could imagine Xiaomi doing, as there were certainly plenty that thought the first Mi 11 Ultra leaks were fake as no way would there be a secondary display on the rear…

But either the creator of the concept image is unaware of the news of Xiaomi dropping the “Mi” brand or the Xiaomi 12 pictured here was made before that decision became final, which is just as unlikely considering how much money would be involved. PR executive Wang Hua simply posted “long so I ate it”, which despite the machine translation can be taken as a firm denial of this being the real Xiaomi 12. A supposed view of the real Xiaomi 12's main camera was leaked in July, sporting a much more believable design.

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