The secret sauce to Xiaomi’s modular phone concept is lasers!

The Android Authority team is here at MWC 2025, and we got a chance to get a brief hands-on with the Xiaomi Modular Optical System, a new concept phone that adds a big lens to what is a modified Xiaomi 15. This instantly elevates an already great camera flagship to an imaging beast, but that’s not even the most interesting part of this concept experience. While everyone will immediately be awed by the camera module, the secret sauce here is the Xiaomi LaserLink technology that we can see in action on this concept smartphone.

Jumping straight to what makes the Xiaomi Modular Optical System possible, Xiaomi’s proprietary LaserLink technology helps the module connect to the phone with ultra-fast 10Gbps optical data transfer. If you look closely, you can spot the opening for the laser right in between the two pogo pins, which supply power from the phone to the module.

This LaserLink optical communication module transmits raw data as a near-infrared laser through the lens to the phone’s image signal processor (ISP) in nanoseconds without delay or compromise in quality. The end result is that you can theoretically free up the camera system from the limitations that come with being integrated into the phone chassis, namely with the size of the sensor you can pack in, the size of the lens that you can feature, and introduce a level of modularity and hot-swappability that we see in conventional cameras.

It doesn’t end there, though. You can also continue to tap into all the brains packed into your smartphone, including computational photography and AI image processing, and theoretically be directly connected to all kinds of social media apps, etc.

When you think about it, Xiaomi’s proprietary LaserLink technology doesn’t need to be limited to camera lenses or even the smartphone, for that matter. Conceptually, I envisage a future where the high-bandwidth LaserLink optical communication module could be used to augment other gadgets. For instance, what if there was a way to modularize on-device AI processing into a tiny box that you can magnetically snap into place on IoT products to add AI when needed and remove it when not? Or what if you could use this to enable 6G connectivity on laptops and desktops in the future? The ease of use for the consumer, thanks to the magnetic snap-on and the high bandwidth data transfer with very low latency, makes all these an exciting outlook for the future.

Snapping back to the present concept before me, I find the Modular Optical System rather incredible, too. The module adds a powerful sensor-integrated lens module to the concept phone. As a demo user, there was no setup required — just snap the lens onto the phone, switch to the added camera in the stock camera app, and you’ve just enabled pro-level photography beyond what was already possible on the Xiaomi 15. It was seamless, effortless, and practically plug-and-play.

The proprietary Modular Optical System that Xiaomi is currently showing off has a 35mm, f/1.4 lens with a built-in 100MP Light Fusion X Type 4/3 sensor. Xiaomi has also reduced the height of the lens by approximately 50% compared to traditional lens designs. The system also features a built-in precision autofocus motor and a physical focus ring for fine-tuned manual control.

Since the system taps into the phone for the brains of the setup, you don’t need to worry about charging or internal storage of the lens. The Modular Optical System draws power from the phone and saves the images directly to the gallery.

Xiaomi is promising all the benefits of a better camera system, like better dynamic range, exceptional lowlight performance, and lifelike subject separation. I couldn’t test all this in our brief hands-on, but the glimpse into the future was impressive enough.

Xiaomi’s Modular Optical System is proprietary and still very much a concept, even if it is working. If and when the product becomes a reality for consumers, you can expect to purchase proprietary lenses since there doesn’t appear to be any way currently to use your existing camera lenses. You’d most likely also need a new phone with LaserLink technology. All of this is still far out in a hypothetical future, but the future does look bright.