Review | Xiaomi 13 Ultra review: best smartphone camera on the market right now, large battery, reasonable price
- With Leica branding and an optional camera grip case that even has a shutter button, Xiaomi is holding on to its claim for ‘best smartphone camera hardware’
- The rest of the 13 Ultra’s hardware is equally high-end: a powerful battery, wireless charging, plenty of RAM and storage, and the price isn’t too high
Last year’s Xiaomi 12S Ultra had, by consensus, the best smartphone camera hardware of 2022, thanks to its relatively huge 1-inch Sony IMX989 image sensor and Leica optics.
This year, the Chinese phone maker uses the same Sony sensor and Leica glass, but adds a new variable aperture and an optional camera grip accessory that further pushes the device toward something resembling a conventional shooter more than a phone.
The rest of the package, including the display, chipset and other cameras, are all high-end too, but once again, everything feels overshadowed by that main camera.
1. Design and hardware
From the front, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra looks like dozens of other Android flagship handsets on the market, with an almost borderless 120Hz OLED display that curves on the sides. But this screen, with a maximum brightness of 2,600 nits, is currently the brightest display panel in smartphones.
Flip the phone around and the 13 Ultra stands out. It’s got a huge circular camera module that protrudes from the phone’s already slightly thick 9mm body. But the camera bump is well disguised under a leather covering that slopes down midway.
The leather back plate, interestingly, does not wrap all the way around the phone’s sides, instead leaving the left and right aluminium sides exposed.
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The components are all top notch: Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, 12GB or 16GB of the latest RAM, and UFS 4.0 storage up to 1TB. Stereo speakers, IP68 water resistance, and wireless charging are all here. A large 5,000mAh battery rounds up the premium package.
But with this phone, it really is all about the camera, so more of that later.
Xiaomi has designed a camera grip case that is sold separately for 799 yuan (about US$115), and it is not just a gimmick. The case is also crafted out of vegan leather, the grip is well designed, and includes a physical shutter button and zoom dial.
There’s even a lens cap and filter thread for filters. Having a dedicated zoom dial and shutter button allows for smoother pan and zoom videos.
2. Software and features
The phone runs Android 13 with Xiaomi’s MIUI software on top. The days of Chinese software straying far away from Google’s vision, for better or worse, are gone. Almost all third-party Android skins mostly behave similarly to stock Android.
3. Performance
The aforementioned 1-inch main camera has a physical shutter that can open and close with the tap of an on-screen button, and effectively allows the camera to jump from f/1.9 or f/4.0 aperture. The difference in aperture affects focus area and level of “bokeh” in photos.
Samsung and Huawei have offered a variable aperture before, but on much smaller image sensors, so they didn’t make much difference. With a 1-inch sensor – the same sensor used in some point-and-shoot compact cameras – the aperture size matters.
Photos snapped at f/1.9 have a more noticeable bokeh and focus drop-off for more dramatic portraits and close-up photos. Meanwhile, f/4.0 opens up the focus area and is ideal for landscape shots or group photos.
The large sensor really does make a difference in image quality, as its sheer size takes in significantly more image information than the cameras in the newest iPhone or Samsung Galaxy devices. Examine photos side-by-side and you can clearly see more organic details in Xiaomi’s images.
The other cameras are great, too. There’s an excellent portrait lens that shoots at a focal length of 75mm with a fast f/1.8 aperture for dramatic bokeh, and another Periscope zoom lens that produces 5x zoom photos (about 120mm).
The ultra-wide camera is by default the weak link here, but even that camera is more than solid.
In all, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra snaps the most natural-looking, organic and detailed photos of any smartphone right now, and the variable shutter gives the main camera a bit more range.
4. Conclusion
Priced starting at 5,999 yuan (US$870) in China, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra is a premium phone at a very attractive price. The phone will also be on sale in international markets including Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK and France, but prices are likely to be higher, particularly in the West.
Still, Xiaomi does enough things differently to set this phone apart from the pack, and with the added Leica branding and camera case, this could be an attractive collector’s item for those who are into photography.
