Xiaomi launches its 13 Pro flagship with a 1-inch sensor at MWC

The flagship Xiaomi 13 Pro made its global debut today during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) being held in Barcelona. With this device – which launched in China in December – the company is banking on a 1-inch main sensor, Leica lenses and 120W fast charging to make it a competitor to the Samsung Galaxy series.

With Android devices nearing each other in performance and display sections, the camera has been a major differentiator in today’s flagships. Xiaomi uses a massive 1-inch 50-megapixel Sony IMX989 sensor with an f/1.9 aperture to get the best and brightest shots in all lighting conditions. A few phone makers, including Xiaomi, Vivo, and Sharp, have included this sensor in a few devices. The camera is capable of recording video in 8K resolution – 4K resolution at 60 fps if recording in Dolby Vision.

There’s also a 50-megapixel telephoto lens with a “floating lens” element, which translates to 3.2x lossless zoom. Additionally, the device has another 50-megapixel sensor in an ultra-wide avatar. The 13 Pro has a 32-megapixel front camera with a night mode and dual-frame modes (0.8x and 1x).

This whole camera package with Leica lenses is housed in a massive square housing on the back. And while we’ve seen square camera bumps in many phones, this one looks a bit different due to its size.

Besides the camera system, the Xiaomi 13 Pro’s spec sheet suits a 2023 Android flagship. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, 6.73-inch WQHD+ AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate and 1900 nits of peak brightness, Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and HLG HDR support, 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and USF 4.0 storage.

Xiaomi’s latest flagship has a 4,820mAh battery that can be charged in minutes via a proprietary 120W charger. However, these charging bricks are huge and bulky, and they’re often not easy to carry around. a backpack. The device supports 50W wireless charging with compatible charging pucks as well as 10W reverse charging if you want to quickly top up the charge on your headphones.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro will be available in Ceramic White and Ceramic Black colors with 256GB and 512GB storage variants. $). Along with the new flagship, the company also launched the Xiaomi 13, with a starting price of €999 ($1,056) and the Xiaomi 13 Lite with a starting price of €499 ($527).

Xiaomi is in a special position globally. The company has lagged behind Apple, Oppo, Vivo and Honor in the domestic market. India, where the phone maker has topped the phone shipments charts in recent years, ceded the top spot to Samsung in the last quarter. The company has also faced challenges in the South Asian country with the departure of top executives, anti-China sentiment and tax investigations by regulators. Amidst all this, Xiaomi is desperate to deliver a successful smartphone.