An authorized informant from Digital Chat Station claims that Xiaomi is working on a new smartphone camera similar to SLR cameras.

A Chinese company has patented a new zoom system, while the patent describes a smartphone equipped with a single main camera module. A large image sensor, variable focal length and a moving lens are also mentioned.

The current trend in the smartphone market is that the more sensors, the more impressive the camera system. But if Xiaomi uses a really high-quality image sensor and powerful optics, it could change the game.

Xiaomi is not the first smartphone manufacturer to work in this direction. Previously, Samsung introduced the Galaxy K Zoom and S4 Zoom with variable focal length cameras, which are quite heavy devices. Source