What’s better than two? Three, if you’re Huawei. At least that’s how it looks based on some accidentally leaked marketing material. Huawei has used two camera lenses on its smartphones (to great effect) for several years, but in the near future it may add a third lens to the lineup. A feature referred to as a “Pro triple-lens Leica rear camera” is talked about in the advertising copy, with the blurb promising, “super clarity pictures and perfect light in all scenarios. Effortlessly.”
It goes on to say these three lenses will take 40-megapixel shots with a 5x hybrid zoom feature. Currently, the Mate 10 Pro has 20-megapixel and 12-megapixel camera lenses on the back, with a 2x hybrid zoom. A further ad says the camera on the unidentified smartphone will have a new sensor and new optics, which will let in 100 percent more light for excellent lowlight pictures, with no need for a tripod.
One of the posters talks about the selfie camera, which will also see a significant upgrade, assuming the ad content is real. The “Pro Selfie Camera” will apparently perform better in low light, producing sharper 24-megapixel images than previous cameras. Again, the word effortlessly is repeated, and another image explains why. It’s related to Huawei’s artificial intelligence efforts, which have already been used in the Mate 10 Pro’s camera for scene recognition. This will also be part of the new camera, should it come about, and be joined by an automatic framing tool for setting up the best possible shot.
These are bold, exciting claims, so where do they originate? The Huawei and Leica co-branded advertising apparently showed up in a digital artist’s portfolio at an agency known to work with Huawei. The four pictures were collectively published by @evleaks on Twitter. It’s not known if these are genuine mock-ups for a future campaign, or simply creative concepts and not based on real features.
If a three-lens camera is coming to a Huawei phone, what device could it be? The posters mention the Huawei PCE Series, which could be a brand-new device collection for the company, or a code name for the next major release, likely to be a follow-up to the Huawei P10. Rumors referred to that phone as the Huawei P11 at first, but the name has since evolved to become the Huawei P20. All the talk about the Huawei P20/P11 can be found in our rumor roundup here.
Update: Moved Huawei P20/P11 rumors over to a dedicated article.
