The heart of the camera is its 1-inch image sensor. That's physically much bigger than the sensors you'll find in other smartphones.
The larger the sensor, the more light it can capture, resulting in better overall photos. I was certainly extremely impressed with the CM1's photo skills.
As a full Android phone, you can use this camera exactly as you would any other smartphone. Snap away, edit your shots, then share them directly from the CM1.
The downside of having all that camera tech shoved inside your phone is that it's pretty chunky.
It runs Android 4.4.4 KitKat, which isn't quite the most up to date version -- that honour goes to version 5.0 Lollipop.
A physical wheel positioned around the lens allows you to quickly change settings on the camera.
Dedicated camera controls are found on the top edge.
The body is made from a combination of brushed metal and leather-effect rubber. That results in it both looking and feeling extremely luxurious.
It runs near stock Android so the interface will offer few surprises to those familiar with other phones running Google's software.
The camera settings are simple to change.
Its main functions can be found on this scrolling wheel. You can flick around it with your finger or use the physical wheel on the back of the phone.
The Leica lens has an aperture range from f/2.8 to f/11. The CM1 offers full manual control of aperture, as well as shutter speed, ISO and white balance.
There are intelligent auto modes too that select the best settings according to the scene.
The lens unit gives the phone a bit of a bulge, but I didn't struggle to get it into my jeans.
The camera shoots raw images as well as JPEGs, although annoyingly, very few Android apps can use raw files, so you'll need to process them on your computer first.