Realme’s Interchangable Lens concept phone has a 1 inch image sensor, supports Leica M mount lenses

The best camera is the one that you have with you, which is why many folks have ditched point and shoot cameras in favor of smartphones in recent years. And smartphones have become incredibly capable digital photography devices thanks to improvements in lens, sensor, and software features.

But there's still only so much you can physically do with the tiny camera systems that fit inside cameras, which is why DSLR, mirrorless, and other high-end cameras continue to exist. Now Chinese phone maker Realme has unveiled a concept phone that takes an unusual approach toward bridging the gap between smartphone cameras and professional cameras: it's a smartphone that supports interchangeable lenses, allowing you to add telephoto or other camera lenses to the back of the phone.

The appropriately-named Realme Interchangeable Lens Concept phone has large camera bump on the back of the phone with two built-in cameras: a primary camera and an ultrawide camera.

But there's also a 1-inch image sensor in the center of that camera bump… which happens to use the Leica M mount system, allowing you to attach any compatible camera lens to the back of the phone to make use of that sensor.

Realme is showcasing 73mm and 234mm camera lenses at Mobile World Congress 2025, demonstrating how the former acts as a 3X lens for taking portrait photos with depth of field, while the latter gives this smartphone the ability to snap 10X telephoto images using a optical zoom without relying on software-based computational photography.

For now the phone is just a concept device, and the prototypes on display at MWC are using a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor rather than a newer chip like the SD8 Gen 3 or Snapdragon X Elite. If and when Realme brings this technology to market, I wouldn't be surprised to see some of the specs change.

That said, I can't help but wonder if there's much of a market for a smartphone with interchangeable lenses. If you're willing to go through the trouble of carrying around big lenses and snapping them to your phone when you want to shoot photos or video, why wouldn't you also carry around a dedicated camera that's built for that purpose and may have other features that you're unlikely to find on a phone?

Then again, smartphone photography has its own advantages. Among other things, you can touch up or edit photos or videos on your device, back them up to cloud storage, or share them on social media right away without using another device.

Wanna know more about the realme Interchangeable-Lens Concept? Let's unbox it together! #realmeMWC2025 #TechDrivesStyleThrives pic.twitter.com/1RgWMhARw9

— realme Global (@realmeglobal) March 3, 2025

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