OnePlus has announced the end of its collaboration with medium format camera and other photography equipment manufacturer Hasselblad. Instead, the company will focus on creating its own image processing engine, the OnePlus DetailMax Engine.
Back in 2021, OnePlus announced a partnership with Hasselblad to jointly develop cameras in smartphones, starting with the OnePlus 9 model. At the same time, the company invested $150 million in the development of image processing technologies.
The Hasselblad system has been used in all flagship and even some budget smartphones. However, there will be no more OnePlus devices with the Hasselblad logo on the camera. Instead, the smartphone manufacturer will start using its own image processing engine.
In a post on the official OnePlus forum, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau says that the company has listened to the community and understood that users want sharp and realistic images. It is with this in mind that the DetailMax Engine is being developed.
Lau says computational photography has evolved significantly in recent years, and is now no longer about creating artificial enhancements, but about capturing much more data, giving photos greater depth and realism.
"That’s why we’re building the OnePlus DetailMax Engine. Designed from the ground up to deliver the clearest and most real photos on a smartphone, it harnesses the full potential of computational imaging to present scenes as they truly are, without over-beautification or distortion. The moment you zoom in on a photo, you’ll understand why I’m confident you’ll love the results," Lau wrote.
There are no other details about the new engine yet. But OnePlus CEO hinted that he has already tested an early prototype of the DetailMax Engine. The technology is expected to appear in the upcoming OnePlus 15 flagship.