These phones take photos that really don’t look like they came from a phone

For the last few years, my favorite compact cameras haven’t been traditional cameras at all; instead, they’ve been smartphones produced by the Chinese tech giant Xiaomi . Part of that is because of the company’s work on cutting-edge mobile hardware , but a huge factor is its collaboration with legendary German camera maker Leica. In a world of overprocessed, HDR-heavy smartphone photos, Leica contributes realistic, tasteful color science to Xiaomi devices .