This Realme concept attaches Leica M-mount lenses to your phone for an unwieldy old-school photography experience

Despite this year's crop of best camera phones launching with some of the best periscope telephoto zoom lenses we have ever seen, it looks like some brands agree that you still can't beat classic optical lens design – with modular lens designs making a big comeback at the MWC 2025 show in Barcelona.

We have already seen Xiaomi release a concept device that magnetically attaches a lens and Micro Four Thirds camera to the back of a custom Xiaomi 15 – but now RealMe is also getting in on the action with a concept design of its own that attaches Leica M-mount lenses over a 1-inch sensor.

Unlike the adapted Xiaomi 15, the RealMe phone has been developed entirely for this concept. Where the best lenses for iPhone and Android phones are designed to simply slot on over the top of an existing lens – the sensor on the RealMe device is exposed much like a mirrorless camera (although is protected by a layer of glass). The sensor is then surrounded by a custom camera ring to mount the proprietary adapter.

To account for the flange distance on the Leica M-mount lenses this system uses, the adapter is already pretty chunky before you even attach a lens – and is almost the same size as Xiaomi's entire concept lens. After attaching a lens to the RealMe's adapter, it's safe to say that ergonomics go out the window.

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RealMe had two lenses in the booth, a 90mm ZhongYi Mitakon Speedmaster and a 28mm lens from Thypoch – a 243mm and 73mm when you take into account the 1-inch sensors 2.7x crop factor.

I mostly had hands-on with the 90mm lens, and you really have to adjust how you even think about holding a camera. The system is so front-heavy that you can forget about holding it up via the phone, instead, I found myself gripping the entire system by the lens. The concept would really benefit from a camera grip case akin to the ones Xiaomi makes for its Ultra line of phones – but then are we turning this phone back into a camera?

In its current form, the RealMe concept is not able to power autofocus and is missing the electrical contacts to provide EXIF data – which is why RealMe has opted for Leica's manual focus-only M-mount. Luckily though there is a pretty sizable range of M-mount lenses already, so you easily get a collection of different size lenses and a variety of focal lengths.

It's an interesting concept, although it is nearly identical to one we have seen before – with Xiaomi previewing a very similar idea a few years ago for the 12S Ultra – and with it consistently cropping up, I'm sure this won't be the last time we see this concept.

There is no denying the convenience of these concepts – but when incredible compact cameras with big zoom lenses and larger sensors exist as a step up from phone cameras, and if you are after the best image quality, and willing to carry around lenses, then you're probably also not going to be that bothered about carrying one of the best mirrorless cameras as well.

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