Xiaomi presented a concept smartphone with a removable lens Modular Optical System at the Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona. The company recalled that in pursuit of quality mobile photography, manufacturers made smartphone cameras extremely large – they cling to pockets, and a device in a case with a broken balance is not always compatible with wireless charging.
The Xiaomi Modular Optical System concept is a modified Xiaomi 15 smartphone with a modular lens that can be attached when you want to take a photo. The component has a magnetic mount – it supplies power and transmits data. Power is supplied using miniature Pogo contacts, and the proprietary LaserLink data transfer technology allows you to take photos in the standard camera application through an external lens with the same success as with the built-in camera. At the exhibition, in particular, a 35-mm Xiaomi lens with an f / 1.4 aperture and a 100-megapixel Light Fusion X Type 4/3 sensor was tested – modern phones do not yet have such lenses. The aperture is variable, which means that photos are of high quality even in low light conditions. Photos are saved in the gallery, it is possible to shoot in RAW format; autofocus in the touch interface and manual focusing using a mechanical ring on the lens are available.
Controlling the lens when shooting in Pro mode is as convenient as when working with a regular camera: you can set the focus on objects at different distances and achieve a natural bokeh effect – blurring secondary objects. With standard smartphone cameras, this effect is achieved with the help of artificial intelligence, and it fails when processing the edges of objects, especially if it is hair and glasses; however, in the Xiaomi concept, a large sensor helped solve this problem. But nothing would have happened without Xiaomi LaserLink technology – an optical communication module that looks like a small dot on the back of the phone, but allows you to achieve speeds of up to 10 Gbps. This is enough to work in conjunction with computational photography algorithms and other AI systems that are not available to traditional external lenses.
The lens is powered by the phone via two contacts; the amount of power it consumes is comparable to the needs of standard built-in cameras, Xiaomi assured. It is compact enough to fit in a bag or pocket, quickly connects and is easy to use. A photographer may need a whole kit, but regular built-in cameras on smartphones are, of course, more convenient. The data transfer without delay via LaserLink and power supply give reason to think about other accessories besides photography: chargers, external batteries, game controllers. And even, perhaps, communication with other devices of the Xiaomi ecosystem: speakers, smart home gadgets and even cars. Xiaomi 15 lacks Qi2 support, but with the new system it may not be needed.
Google, LG, Motorola and recently HMD have all put forward their proposals in the area of modular phones, but Xiaomi’s solution, although still a concept, seems promising. On the one hand, the Modular Optical System will free smartphones from bulky built-in camera units; on the other, if necessary, you can connect an external lens and get a photo comparable in quality to what a full-fledged camera does.