3 times camera brands failed with phones – what the Lecia Leitz 1 could learn

Leica has taken the wraps off its first phone – and every bit you can probably guess the focus of the Android device is the camera.

Available exclusively in Japan and congenital-in partnership with Sharp, the Leitz 1 mimics the manner of the legendary make'south range of highly desirable cameras.

Leica is no stranger to phones and it has partnered with Huawei on multiple occasions before, slapping its branding across many entries in the P and Mate series.

This likewise isn't the first time a large camera brand has tried to transfer its expertise to phones. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked out particularly well in the by.

Volition Leica manage to avert joining these photography heavyweights in smartphone embarrassment? Only time will tell, but history doesn't bode well.

Hydrogen One

Arguably one of the biggest smartphone failures of all time, the Hydrogen One was massively hyped by cinematography brand Cherry in the run-upwardly to release in 2018.

The much-delayed device had a 3D display and a set of pins on the back that were supposedly at that place to allow yous to connect a range of high-end photographic camera add-ons, like a viewfinder, to the phone. These never materialised.

It was wildly expensive at $1300 and conspicuously disappointed many when it somewhen saw a release.

The phone never arrived in the Great britain and we never managed to get our hands on one. In The Verge'south damning review of the Hydrogen One just about everything was criticised, from the camera operation to the poor display and bulky build.

You won't be surprised to hear a Hydrogen Two was rapidly cancelled.

Kodak Ektra

The Ektra was a 2016 phone that was supposed to accept inspiration from the Kodak Ektra camera. Equally y'all tin can probably guess, it wasn't very practiced.

Built in partnership with Bullit Grouping (the people behind the Land Rover and JCB phones), the telephone had a decent look with a faux leather back that did sort of expect like a camera.

Shame the photos captured past the Ektra were atrocious and the functioning equally bad.

Hasselblad True Zoom

Hasselblad partnered with OnePlus before this year. The OnePlus nine and 9 Pro carried some branding and a camera app inspired by the Swedish brand.

While the results weren't revolutionary, they were far from bad. So why has Hasselblad found its manner into this list?

Well, the partnership with OnePlus wasn't the start fourth dimension we've seen that proper name emblazoned on something smartphone-related.

The Hasselblad True Zoom was an add-on for the Moto Mod modular telephone system, a short-lived line of accessories for Motorola devices. The Truthful Zoom was a camera zipper that added a 12MP camera, 10x optical zoom and a concrete shutter button to compatible phones.

While it sounds like a clever idea, the consequence wasn't swell. In our Truthful Zoom review we said, "While the Hasselblad True Zoom every bit a concept is dandy, the execution isn't quite there. Equally you likely won't keep the Hasselblad True Zoom permanently fastened to your Moto Z, information technology'south non going to exist vastly more than inconvenient to carry a superior-performing compact camera around with you and you won't also be sacrificing battery life of your telephone.

How can Leica avoid joining this list?

The obvious thing about all these phones and accessories is that they weren't actually very practiced at taking pictures, unremarkably going for style over substance.

While the Leica Leitz 1 certainly has fashion, it's the substance and the skill of the camera that'll really make information technology one of the best camera phones around.