Xiaomi just unveiled its highest-end phone for this year — and its founder says this one will eventually go global.
The Xiaomi 13 Ultra, announced on Tuesday in China, is the phone maker’s answer to the Galaxy S23 Ultra. It reigns supreme as the highest-end member of the Xiaomi 13 series, building on the features of the Xiaomi 13 Pro before it.
The 13 Ultra has a 6.73-inch panel complete with high-res panel (WQHD plus), the fastest Qualcomm processor on the market (Snapdragon 8 Gen 2), a large 5,000-mAh battery with wired fast-charging (90 watts) and wireless (50 watts), and IP68 rating for dust- and water-resistance. You can choose from three “vegan” leather coatings in a choice of green, black or white.
But this device is all about the camera.
There are four 50-megapixel rear cameras, co-developed with Leica. The main one uses a 1-inch type sensor from Sony. It builds on the 13 Pro with the addition of a variable aperture to toggle between f/1.9 and f/4.0. This should give you better control of your images, especially when it comes to depth of field.
There are four 50-megapixel cameras on this camera bump.
Xiaomi isn’t the first phone company to go to market with variable aperture controls. Samsung actually beat it to the punch with Galaxy S9 series only to drop it from future generations. But the S9 also had a much smaller sensor, and therefore less maneuvrability over the amount of light that could enter.
One of those secondary sensors is an ultrawide, while the other two offer 3.2x (equivalent to 75mm focal length) and 5.2x optical zoom (equivalent to 120mm), respectively.
In China, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra will start at 5,999 yuan (approx $875) for the base version, which has 256GB storage. A timeline for its global release hasn’t been announced.
