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.
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.
