Magnets make anything cooler, which is why this camera lens is so cool
Magnets make anything cooler, which is why Xiaomi’s Modular Optical System caught our eye at Mobile World Congress 2025. This is essentially a camera lens that snaps onto the back of a custom Xiaomi 15. The phone has an integrated magnet ring on the back of it, and the camera lens affixes to this magnet ring. Allowing you to instantly take better-quality photos without much hassle. No having to carry around a large camera and several lenses.
Just one lens that can easily attach to the phone you already carry in your pocket. That’s something we’d like to see more of, and it’s why we gave the Xiaomi Modular Optical System an award at Mobile World Congress this week. Think about it. You’re visiting a new city on vacation, and you want to take some cool pictures. Your phone’s normal camera might do a fine job. However, if you wanted to get some even better shots, imagine being able to snap this lens onto the back to increase the image quality.
The lens offers a 35mm equivalent focal length
Aside from attaching to the phone magnetically, which is impressive in its own right, the Modular Optical System lens offers the equivalent of a 35mm focal length. That’s far better than you’d get with any smartphone camera the way they are right now. Because of this, Xiaomi’s system could open up new opportunities for the types of photography you could do with just a phone.
This would be great for portability because the entire thing is relatively small. The lens itself, while not tiny, is small enough to fit in the pocket of a backpack. The phone itself would fit in your pants pocket. So the whole thing is very portable by camera standards. That really is the main appeal here. A camera system that not only takes better photos than your phone would normally but also is compact enough to go with you anywhere. Regardless of the bag you’ve got on you.
A concept we hope makes it to production
Although you can’t actually buy this product, it’s one we’re hoping that Xiaomi ends up making available for sale. If the photo results are good, then we could see this being something people flock to. Both because of the image quality and because of how portable it would be compared to a large digital camera.
Xiaomi also says that the lens instantly connects to the phone, thanks to two connector pins on the back of the device. And the company’s ‘Laserlink’ communication allows for data stream transfer “within nanoseconds.” So, the photos end up on your phone in the blink of an eye. Or that’s the idea anyway. All of that aside, this is a very interesting concept that we want to see more of.
