Smartphone makers have long turned to the world’s best camera makers to perfect and refine their smartphone cameras. The trend has grown considerably over the past 10 years, but it dates back more than 20 years to Nokia’s partnership with Zeiss, which began with the legendary Nokia N95 in 2005.
The birth of the iPhone a couple of years later changed the trajectory of the mobile phone industry, with companies forced to focus on building a smartphone. It would take another ten years before the next big partnership began, but Huawei’s partnership with Leica bears fruit to this day.
Since that partnership began in 2016, the same year as Motorola and Hasselblad, we’ve seen many of the world’s biggest phone makers follow suit. From Vivo to Oppo, Xiaomi to Sony, and this year, even Honor, it’s become commonplace to see companies like Hasselblad, ZEISS, Leica, and more all adorn the back of smartphones.
However, is this just a marketing exercise? How much impact can camera makers have on a smartphone camera? Or is this the inevitable direction for smartphone cameras? To learn more about these partnerships – and how they manifest in the new Honor Magic 9 Pro Max – I flew to LA for a tour of ARRI’s labs to understand more.
Here’s the fascinating history of these partnerships, and why camera makers actually partner with smartphone makers.
The history of smartphone and camera maker collaborations
The Nokia N95 was the first global partnership between a smartphone maker and a camera company, and its partnership with ZEISS produced some of the most iconic smartphone cameras in history, ultimately leading to the legendary Nokia Lumia 1020.
Nokia’s ultimate demise in the face of the iPhone then led to a decade-long hiatus, until 2016, when two companies partnered with two camera makers. The irony? Both camera companies still have phone partnerships today, but neither is with the original partner from that year.
Motorola’s partnership with Hasselblad lasted one year and focused on the Hasselblad True Zoom Moto Mod for devices like the Moto Z Play. The other? Huawei and Leica, a partnership that produced some of the best smartphone cameras of that decade and helped birth the modern zoom-toting flagship smartphone camera.
Huawei’s problems with US sanctions cut the partnership short, but Leica didn’t take long to bounce back: the partnership ended on March 31, 2022, and less than two months later, Leica and Xiaomi announced a new partnership on May 23, 2022. Four years later, Xiaomi and Leica continue to release excellent, distinctive smartphones, including the special-edition Leica-branded Xiaomi 17 Ultra earlier this year.
Not to be outdone, both Oppo and Vivo have turned to camera makers. Oppo’s partnership with Hasselblad started with OnePlus in 2021 and has yielded some of the best smartphone cameras over the past two years, including the new Oppo Find X10 Pro Max, the world’s first phone with three 200MP cameras.
Meanwhile, Vivo’s partnership with Zeiss began a year earlier, in 2020, but it comes with a key difference: the two companies launched the partnership with a joint Imaging Lab that has produced some of the most powerful smartphone cameras to date.
This leads to Honor and the company announced a partnership with the 109-year-old ARRI earlier this year. The first two phones have both proven unique for different reasons, but why did Honor choose ARRI, and is this just a marketing exercise? My tour of ARRI yielded answers that may surprise you in their refreshing candor.
Who is ARRI? Should you know them?
You probably haven't heard of ARRI, but you've felt the effects of their extremely expensive, extremely precise cameras. Founded in Munich in September 1917, the company has numerous cameras that have made incredible breakthroughs, without which we likely wouldn’t have the smartphone video recording capabilities that we do today.
The biggest impact has been on filmmaking: ARRI is the filmmaker’s camera of choice for many reasons, not least because each camera is individually tested and precisely made. Every company says this, but after seeing ARRI’s labs in LA, I can attest to their precision. Don’t take my word for it; just look at the awards the company has received:
- 20 Academy Scientific and Technical Awards
- 6 Engineering Emmy Awards
- 35-40 Best Picture winners captured on ARRI cameras
The latter point is key, but it's even more pronounced over the past 20 years. Of the last 20 Best Picture winners, 17 were shot on ARRI cameras, and you’ve likely heard of many of them, including Oppenheimer, Everything Everywhere All at Once, CODA, Parasite, Argo, and Slumdog Millionaire.
With such pedigree, what prompted the move to smartphone cameras, and how does Honor fit into this?
A partnership that starts with video
A lot has changed in ARRI’s 109-year history, but the biggest threat the company likely faces is the generational divide that has coincided with the smartphone. As traditional cameras have fallen by the wayside, the latest generation of consumers likely has no brand affinity for ARRI or other traditional camera makers.
The partnership between Honor and ARRI has the makings of something special. Before this partnership kicked off, Honor had already proven its imaging chops with the Honor Magic 8 Pro last year, but the two devices released with ARRI could yield the biggest jump yet, this time in video.
The partnership with ARRI focuses purely on video, and the new Magic 9 Pro Max has an ARRI-branded camera mode reminiscent of the company’s actual cameras. The partnership focuses on color science, accuracy, and quality in video recording, but crucially, ARRI does not make any of the hardware, at least not right now.
There’s a simple reason: although ARRI cameras have gotten considerably smaller over time, they are still much larger than you can conceivably fit into a smartphone. Further, the company insists on devices meeting the ARRI quality barometer that its customers have come to expect from its cameras. Instead, it turned to the devices customers use most and, in Honor, found what may be the perfect partner.
So... why did ARRI partner with Honor?
Flying to LA to meet ARRI, I had one key question: why Honor… and why ARRI?
To find out, I spoke with Stephan Ukas-Bradley, VP of Product Innovation, who has worked at ARRI for over 20 years, and he gave a surprisingly honest, transparent answer: ARRI’s goal is to introduce customers to its moviemaking magic, no matter what device they’re using.
This shows up especially well in the first two phones in the partnership. As I discovered, the Honor Magic 9 Pro Max takes excellent photos and videos, but the first device in the partnership is the most unique: the Honor Robot Phone.
The world’s first smartphone equipped with a gimbal stabilizer, the Honor Robot Phone is a videographer’s dream… and a moviemaker’s dream, too. Both phones are videographers’ and moviemakers’ dreams, but the most interesting part is how ARRI’s color science is being used.
Both phones can shoot in LogC3, but what makes them unique is the ability to preview the effect of different LUT profiles directly in-camera, rather than waiting for post-production. Taking it further, ARRI has almost 90 different LUT profiles that can be downloaded from its website and installed on the Honor Magic 9 Pro Max, and these are the same LUT profiles used in its actual cameras.
Is this the future of moviemaking?
This also offers a unique ARRI benefit: the Magic 9 Pro Max and Robot Phone can dramatically change how you scout movie locations.
Traditionally, a filmmaker needs to hire a cameraman, several production assistants, and camera gear just to scout locations. ARRI’s best cameras can cost almost $100,000, but a smartphone can dramatically reduce these costs and complexities.
The ability to preview LUTs is the biggest unlock for moviemakers; walking around a shoot and filming on the Honor Magic 9 Pro Max with one of the LUTs – or a custom LUT – installed means you have a strong understanding of the final result while you're on site.
Beyond the current partnership, both companies see an opportunity to expand. For Honor, ARRI provides critical insight into color science, processing, and features, starting with video and possibly extending to photography. For ARRI, it lets it introduce the company to the next generation of moviemakers, especially those focused on social media content creation.
Whichever direction this partnership heads – and as history has taught us, not all partnerships last forever – one thing is clear: ARRI and Honor are a powerful partnership that has already yielded some of the most impressive video recording on a smartphone to date. I can’t wait to see what this leads to in the future. There's a strong chance that Honor and ARRI will make every best smartphone roundup if this partnership continues to bear fruit.
