Xiaomi 13 Ultra in Review

The Xiaomi 13 Ultra has arrived and we’re thrilled for this one! But first, let’s unbox it. Xiaomi ships the 13 Ultra with a case, USB cable and 90W charger – a much better stocked box than rivals from Samsung and Apple.

Xiaomi 13 Ultra unboxing

We have the Olive Green 13 Ultra and it’s one of the most interesting phones out there. We like this trend of making phones stand out more – the Oppo Find X6 Pro came in orange, with a leather-like material on the back, while the Xiaomi 13 Ultra’s green is just as striking.

For what it’s worth, Xiaomi does faux leather more convincingly than Oppo and vivo – like the 12S Ultra, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra’s leather material is stickier in a good way. It helps with grip and it feels more tactile.

The Xiaomi 13 Ultra has a bigger camera module than its predecessor and it is also thicker. Xiaomi compensated for the extra girth by raising the upper part of the rear panel higher than the lower part. It’s a trick that kind of mimics the design of a retro camera.

Another big difference from last year’s Xiaomi Ultra and this year’s 13 Pro are the square sides. Like the Galaxy S23 Ultra, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra has nearly flat sides which do wonders for how the phone fits in the hand.

True to its pedigree, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra is an innovator in photography. The phone’s main camera sticks to the same 1-inch sensor of the 13 Pro and 12S Ultra, but has added a two-step aperture that opens to f/1.9 and stops at f/4.0 . This will result in images with deeper focus and great depth of field – in essence, shooting close-ups won’t result in a blurry mess. We will be sure to test this.

The rest of the cameras are equally impressive. The Xiaomi 13 Ultra uses the same 1/2.51-inch sensor for the ultra-wide, 3.2x zoom and 5x zoom cameras. This sensor isn’t as large as the 1/1.56-inch sensor Oppo uses in the Find X6 Pro’s 2.8x zoom and ultra-wide cameras, but Xiaomi makes up for it with more variety and brighter lenses. on his zooms.

The Xiaomi 13 Ultra’s mid-range zoom is a 75mm f/1.8 unit, while the 5x periscope has a brighter f/3.0 lens. All of these changes should mean big improvements in image quality.

Finally, here’s how the Xiaomi 13 Ultra compares to the 12S Ultra. The resemblance is obvious. The new Ultra is a refinement of the old formula. The new camera lens, however, is significantly larger.

The Xiaomi 12S Ultra next to the Xiaomi 13 Ultra

There’s a lot to test in the Xiaomi 13 Ultra and we’ll take our time with this one. But that’s good, Xiaomi will take time to release this phone outside of China.