Smartphone makers have partnered with camera companies for over 20 years, starting with Nokia and Zeiss on the N95 in 2005. The iPhone's arrival shifted focus, but 2016 saw Huawei partner with Leica and Motorola with Hasselblad.
Since then, Vivo teamed with Zeiss (2020), Oppo with Hasselblad (2021), and Leica moved to Xiaomi (2022) after US sanctions ended its Huawei deal. These collaborations produced flagships like the Oppo Find X10 Pro Max with three 200MP cameras.
Now Honor has partnered with ARRI, the 109-year-old cinema giant behind Alexa cameras used in most Oscar winners. I toured ARRI's LA labs to understand why — and whether it's just marketing.
ARRI executives were candid: smartphone sensors are too small for true cinema optics, so they focus on color science, image processing, and "the ARRI look" via computational photography. The Honor Magic 9 Pro Max is the first result.
Source: Android Central · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing