Xiaomi 17 Ultra: Leica camera watermark reveals new marketing strategy

If the hints from China are accurate, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra will launch in just a few hours. That would be unusual for a Chinese smartphone manufacturer, as they typically start promoting a new flagship phone via teasers days before the official unveiling. However, not just a possible rushed launch of the Xiaomi 17 Ultra appear to be newsworthy, since the marketing plans may also be changing. Supposedly, Xiaomi wants to put a bigger emphasis on its close collaboration with Leica.

This assumption is based on leaked watermarks, which are commonly used in China to show which camera a photo was taken with. They often also show parameters such as aperture, ISO and shutter speed, as well as the date the photo was taken. These watermarks can be optionally enabled for each photo and have been discovered by XiaomiTime in the HyperOS code, as seen in the screenshots below. What’s particularly interesting is that the Xiaomi 17 Ultra Special Edition might have different names depending on the region.

While the "Xiaomi 17 Ultra by Leica" is apparently being promoted in China, the top-end smartphone is expected to be marketed globally alongside the Xiaomi 17 Ultra as the so-called "Leitzphone powered by Xiaomi", which is a name that has already appeared in the IMEI database. At least that’s XiaomiTime’s theory based on the model numbers. Whether this will actually turn out to be true remains to be seen. The latest code leaks also point to a new 1-inch sensor from Omnivision, and leakers as well as the Xiaomi president have also shared small bits of information about new camera features.