Realme is best known for its youth-focused smartphones, which usually offer great value for money, but when it comes to flagships, Realme is not the first brand that comes to mind. However, that might be about to change. The brand has unveiled its latest concept phone at MWC in Barcelona , and it’s extremely high-end.
At a glance, you could easily mistake it for the Xiaomi 15 Ultra , which also launched at the show. Both share a similar two-tone design, reminiscent of an old-school Leica camera, and both have massive centrally placed camera hubs with a 1-inch-type sensor.
Luke Baker
However, the way you use them is completely different. The Realme Ultra has two traditional cameras, an ultrawide and a main, while the telephoto requires external optics. The sensor is exposed under a sheet of glass, and you’ll need to attach a lens, like the kind you’d use with a DSLR, in order to use it.
Realme showed two lenses at the show, a 73mm lens (roughly 3x) that’s ideal for portraiture and 234mm (around 10x) telephoto that could be great for sports or wildlife shooting. I wasn’t able to glean much information about the lenses, but they’re made by a third party and use the Leica L-mount with a proprietary adapter to attach it to the phone. There’s no lens contacts, so they’re manual focus only.
The demo on Realme’s booth showed the performance compared to the telephoto of the iPhone 16 Pro Max set to 10x zoom, and as you might expect, the difference is night and day. The creamy natural bokeh makes the photos look like they were shot with a full-on DSLR, and the quality is exceptional. Of course, the iPhone is much easier to fit into your pocket, which is arguably more important, but much less fun.
It’s very similar to a concept that Xiaomi showed off around the time it released the 12S Ultra , which also featured interchangeable lenses and a 1-inch type sensor. Unfortunately, that phone never made it past the concept stage, and to be honest, I’d be surprised if Realme’s version got a proper launch. However, the brand hasn’t ruled it out. At the time of writing, it’s described as “not currently mass produced”.
If you’re into the interchangeable lens idea, there’s even more to get excited about, as Xiaomi has yet another concept for 2025. Its version has a sensor built into the lens module, connects with a MagSafe-style connection and wirelessly transmits the image. It’s clever stuff. As for which one is better, and whether you’ll actually be able to buy either of them, time will tell.
Author: Luke Baker, Contributor, Tech Advisor
Luke is a freelance journalist who has been working in consumer electronics for over a decade. Previously Features Editor at Pocket-lint, Luke can now be found contributing reviews and features to a variety of publications, as well as running a YouTube channel called Neon Airship in his spare time. Luke loves anything that takes pictures, whether it’s a smartphone, camera or drone, and he also gets very excited about the latest VR and AR tech.
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