The Xiaomi 13 Ultra is here to once again set the photography benchmark in the smartphone industry. The flagship brings a number of imaging innovations and the current best possible hardware. Better yet, unlike the 12S Ultra, the 13 Ultra will launch globally.
It has a 6.73-inch 2K OLED 1-120Hz LTPO C7 display with HDR10+, Dolby Vision and, up to a whopping 2600 nits brightness. The phone is powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC.
The phone has a Loop Liquid Cool technology. This uses Vapor liquid separation design, and One-way circulation structure that promises 3x cooling improvement over traditional VCs. This also ensures equivalent thermal conductivity more than three times that of traditional VCs, and heat dissipation capacity exceeds 10W, said the company.
Camera
Let’s start with the cameras, which are the focus of this phone. Four cameras are on the back, done in collaboration with Leica and sitting under a unified glass dome that Xiaomi calls the Leica Vario-Summicron 1:1.8-3.0/12-120 ASPH lens.
The primary camera has a 50MP 1-inch IMX989 sensor and a 23mm optically-stabilized lens with a physical, two-step aperture that allows for f/1.9 opening for the shallowest depth of field (read blur or bokeh), and f/4.0 for a sharper image. The sensor bins 1.6µm pixels 4-to-1 resulting in 12.5MP images with huge 3.2µm individual pixels.
The other three cameras all use the new 50MP IMX858 sensor, which measures a respectable 1/2.51″. They are a 75mm f/1.8 OIS 3.2x mid-range zoom, a 5x 120mm camera with a new brighter f/3.0 lens, and a 12mm f/1.8 autofocusing ultrawide with 5cm macro focusing capabilities. Using in-sensor-zoom technology, the 13 Ultra also offers a 2x 46mm and 10x 240mm mode option.
The 32MP f/2.0 front camera has fixed focus and will bin pixels 4-to-1 for 8MP final shots.
The innovation doesn’t end on the physical side. Xiaomi and Leica have brought a number of impressive features to the 13 Ultra. First off, as with other Leica-branded Xiaomi cameras, there are two camera color science modes – Leica Vibrant and Leica Authentic.
Then there’s a new 50MP UltraRAW mode for the main camera, which provides 14-bit DNG files with built-in multi-frame sharpening, noise reduction, and dynamic range adjustment for additional tweaking. Adobe will provide a custom camera profile for Lightroom.
The phone supports end-to-end Dolby Vision recording and playback. It also supports up to 14-bit Ultra RAW photos, as well as 8K video and 10-bit Log.
Battery
The Xiaomi 13 Ultra packs a 5,000mAh battery with support for 90W wired turbo charging and 50W wireless turbo charging as well as reverse wireless charging, thanks to Xiaomi Surge P2 Charging Chip and Xiaomi Surge G1 Battery Management Chip.
Highlight Specifications of Xiaomi 13 Ultra
Display: 6.73-inch (3200 x 1440 pixels) Quad HD+ AMOLED 20:9 HDR10 + display, 1-120Hz refresh rate, 1920Hz PWM dimming, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection
Chipset: Octa Core Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 4nm Mobile Platform with Adreno next-gen GPU
Storage: 12GB RAM with 256GB (UFS 4.0) storage, 16GB RAM with 512GB / 1TB UFS 4.0 storage
SIM: Dual SIM (nano + nano)
Operating System: MIUI 14 based on Android 13
Rear Camera: 50MP rear camera with 1″ Sony IMX989 sensor, 23mm focal length, HyperOIS, 8P aspherical lens, LED flash, 50MP Sony IMX858 122° ultrawide angle lens, 50MP Sony IMX858 telephoto camera, 75mm equivalent focal length, OIS, 3.2x optical zoom, 50MP Sony IMX858 periscope telephoto camera, 120mm equivalent focal length, OIS, 10x optical zoom, up to 120x digital zoom, Leica Summicron optics, Dolby Vision HDR video recording, 8K video recording
Front Camera: 32MP RGBW front-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture
Sensor: In-display fingerprint sensor with heart rate monitoring, Infrared sensor
USB Type-C audio, Hi-Res audio, Dual speakers, Dolby Atmos
Dust and water-resistant (IP68)
Dimensions: 163.18×74.64×9.06mm; Weight: 227g
Network:5G, Dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 6E 802.11 ax, Bluetooth 5.3, GPS (L1 + L5), NavIC, USB Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 1, NFC
Battery: 5000mAh battery with 90W wired fast charging, 50W wireless charging, Reverse wireless charging
Pricing
The 13 Ultra will be available in Black, Olive Green, and White, starting in China from April 21 (pre-sale starts today). Prices are CNY 5,999 for the 12/256GB (€795, INR 71,500, converted), CNY 6,499 for a 16/512GB (€860, INR 77,500, converted), and CNY 7,299 for the 16GB/1TB (€970, INR 87,000, converted).