Xiaomi 13 Ultra: Is It A Camera Which Can Call?

The 小米科技 recently unveiled its Xiaomi 13 Ultra smartphone globally on 18th April 2023. Have to say, it's a powerful camera phone. Talking about the event, around half of the smartphone launch function was just revolving around the camera, camera, and more cameras. At one point it appeared like a camera launch rather than a phone launch and let me tell you, this is not 100% wrong.;). In a funny way, I would say it's a camera with some smartphone features in it. Jokes aside, since the camera is one of the highly demanding specs overall and especially in the premium smartphones category, Xiaomi has focussed a little more on photography. Xiaomi has emphasized on the Leica Camera Ltd partnership n number of times during the whole event. Partnership with Leica is multidimensional and multi layered. Xiaomi worked with Leica to develop authentic Leica imagery.

Highlights:

• Camera sensors: 4 索尼 sensors (1 IMX989 + 3 IMX858) - Top sensors from Sony. The exceptional quality Summicron lens is used. The other 3 cameras apart from the main one have the same sensors for smoother transformation while switching from one to other zooming in and out. Interestingly, most top-notch smartphones launched recently have Sony sensors be it 苹果 iPhone 14 series, 小米科技 13 series, HONOR Magic 5 series, vivo X90 Pro, etc. So, it's a win-win for Sony.

• Street photography mode: Street photography mode on Xiaomi 13 Ultra looks interesting. Fast photography experience. Extremely responsive in short span to capture street moments.
• SoC: Latest 高通 Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor used for faster performance and smoother navigation.
• Display: 6.73" OLED display sourced from TCL , Brightness-2600 nits (highest among all brands), Material-C7
• Battery: 5000 mAh, 50W wireless charging support, 100W wired charging support, USB 3.2 Gen 1
• Storage: UFS 4.0
• Liquid cooling vapour chamber: This makes the cooling 3X faster.

• Professional Equipment: Professional equipment when assembled into the phone gives the phone an impression of the camera which enhances your photography experience. Need to buy it separately for RMB 799. Xiaomi 13 Ultra case/professional camera equipment looks stunning and gives the real feel of the camera. The experience is amazing. A nanotech protective case-67mm filter adapter ring can replace this. Grape gives it the real camera feel with the shutter. Also has a zoom lever.
• Interesting Hibernation Mode: With 1% battery people can reach you. 60 min of life/12 mins of calling, at 1%. This is really cool. Kudos to Xiaomi. There is often this situation when we have less battery life and we need it for urgent things. This features tackles this use case.

The Xiaomi 13 Ultra is priced at RMB 5999 (USD 872 approx) for the 12GB+256GB variant. This is RMB 500 cheaper than the Xiaomi 12S Ultra 12GB+256GB variant. If we compare its prices with premium devices from 苹果 (iPhone 14 Pro Max for $1029 and RMB 8999) and 三星电子 (Galaxy S23 Ultra for USD 1199 and RMB 6825), it's a great deal.

Detailed pricing:

• 12GB+256GB: RMB 5,999
• 16GB+512GB: RMB 6,499
• 16GB+1TB: RMB 7,299

Analyst perspective

Xiaomi 13 Ultra is a fantastic camera device not in terms of photo quality but also in terms of photography experience. What differentiates it from other smartphones is the photography experience with professional equipment. The partnership with Leica has definitely improved the quality of which some are tangible while some are non-tangible. As of now, this device is just launched in China but soon it will be released globally. We believe it to do descent sales in China and in overseas, Western Europe will be a sweeter spot for the device.