MWC 2025: Realme’s Interchangeable Lens Vision Brings Mirrorless Cameras to Phones

Smartphone cameras have gotten pretty good over the years, but they still lack the clarity and detailed, rich close-up photos that DSLR cameras can produce. But at MWC 2025, Chinese smartphone maker Realme, has come out with a revolutionary device, that bridge the gap between these categories, with their new smartphone with interchangeable lens.

Interchangeable Lens for a True “Ultra” Camera Experience

If there’s one phone that took much of the limelight at MWC floors, then it has to be Realme‘s Interchangeable Lens prototype. Many expected it to be dubbed the Realme “Ultra” but this is only a concept phone at the moment. But the large camera island with an exposed sensor at the back would have justified this naming scheme. It features a 1-inch CMOS Sony IMX 989 sensor at the back, where you can mount a full-fledged camera lens.

This is possible thanks to the interchangeable lens system around the camera island. This lets you slap any old or new mirrorless camera lens from cameras like Leica M11 and Canon R6. The company demonstrated the phone with a 73mm portrait lens and a 234mm 10x telephoto lens. This lets you get a proper optical zoom free of any AI tampering in the results.

This rectangular sensor is covered by a layer of glass so it doesn’t get affected by dust and other particles. The company has even provided a primary and ultrawide camera lenses that sit on either end of the main sensor. Apart from the camera specs, Realme hasn’t revealed much detailed about the phone itself.

According to Realme, the Ultra can “push the limit of mobile imaging” and it is hard to argue with them. Provided the right lens, you will be able to take some crisp loss lossless photos with the natural bokeh effect we have come to love and appreciate from regular DSLR cameras.

A Bold Prototype That May Never Hit Store Shelves

With this kind of camera superiority, I know you can’t wait to try out the device for yourself. However, this Realme device is a prototype, at best, and might not step out of the show floors of MWC. The company has made sure of that, so you might not be able to get your hands on it any time soon. Or probably never, which is a bummer for sure.

While this isn’t the first time we have seen a phone with a 1-inch sensor, another Chinese brand called Xiaomi has been able to do it in a commercially available device back in 2022. I know not everyone carries a camera lens with them, and a typical smartphone cameras are more practical in everyday use. However, it was a promising innovation that many camera and photography enthusiasts would have jumped on.